Hi! This was my last full week in Ohio! I might post another article after I come home about my travels but this is the last one from the USA. Enjoy it!

Our week started with shopping to buy some more stuff for the homeless shelter. Then we delivered everything including the hygiene kits that we assembled on Sunday after the service. After that, we tried to do a visit but the person we tried to visit was nowhere to be found in the nursing home. This Monday was also the day of my last church council here at DML.

On Tuesday we did our usual sermon preparation in Duck Rabbit. This was my last Sunday so it was my turn to preach. This week’s gospel was a parable about a king who forgave his slave a lot of many but the slave couldn’t forgive his fellow slave so much less. Before lunch, we got to visit Ema again! She is the 108 years old woman that I told you about a few months ago. It was very nice seeing her again. We spoke Slovak together and I also did read from a Slovak Bible to her instead of the English one. At the end, we prayed the Lord’s prayer in Slovak. Just such a blessed time!

Wednesday was a pretty full day. In the morning we went to Messiah Luther School because I was giving a Chapel service sermon for the kids. I think it went really well. There were maybe around 150 kids aged between 5-13, so a very big age range. It was very nice to see them and talk to them. I also got their school t-shirt as a gift. After the chapel service, I went with the principal of the school to see the 1st-grade kids. It was so nice to talk to them and answer their questions. I enjoyed that a lot! After we came back to the office I wrote my last article for the church newsletter. After that, we went to the pastor’s house and since I was hoping to prepare potato pancakes for everyone on Sunday, we needed to try to do some. It went good. In the evening the weekly regular Bible study started. It was a first meeting this year and I was glad that I could participate and not only participate but lead the Bible study. We studied Jeremiah 18th chapter. While we were ending the Bible study I got a message from Vlad asking if I wanted to grab a beer this evening so of course I said yes. Vlad picked me up right from the church and we picked up also Cindy and went to Ice House for a beer and a good talk.

Thursday morning started with pierogi making. They make pierogi here at church every year. So I was able to help them this time. It was fun. I was filling the dough. But we needed to leave the pierogi-making with pastor Eric to go to an online meeting with Slovak Zion synod bishop Kucharek. It was a nice meeting and I talked with the bishop about how I enjoyed my stay here. When I got home I worked on a sermon for Sunday because I knew that my weekend will be busy. I finished the sermon and went on a very nice evening walk. The sunset was so nice!

On Friday I went to my last Westside market shopping with Ray. We always have a good time together! We bought some things at the market and then went for lunch to Pizza Crust for the best pizza in town! The whole afternoon I spent with pastor Eric in the church kitchen preparing the potato pancakes for Sunday. It was a lot of work!

Saturday was the big day that I was waiting on for the whole week! I went to see Niagara Falls!!! I went with Micky, his fiance Jessica, his brother Robert, and his mom Shary. We had a lot of fun but mainly we saw one of the most beautiful places that I’ve ever been to! It was absolutely amazing and I was just praising God for that beauty. The drive there was about 3.5 hours each way. We started the day at 7 AM and got back around 9 PM. It was a wonderful day and thanks a lot to Micky for inviting me to go there!

And the week ended with my last Sunday here in Brooklyn. Before the service, I sang a song with a guitar. The song is called Bless the Lord. I chose it because it is a song written on a psalm that was assigned on that Sunday. I also did the liturgy and helped with the communion but mostly I got to preach one last time for the congregation here. You can watch the last service including the sermon here: https://www.facebook.com/100064638791769/videos/6619720831474811 . After the service there was prepared a goodbye brunch for me. That was really nice! I was surprised by the cake that was prepared for me. A lot of people said many nice words to me and wished me well. I got a lot of nice cards saying the same. I am blessed because I could be a blessing to people here in Cleveland. Thanks God for that! And everybody likes my potato pancakes! I said goodbye to a lot of people. I am adding a photo of me with the youngest generation of the church. I will surely miss them. They are so sweet! After that, I went for my probably last big thing here. Cindy and Sue took me to the Cleveland Zoo! Of course, it was a great time. Who doesn’t like Zoos?

Thanks to everyone for making this experience possible for me and thanks DML for welcoming me so nicely! I learned a lot this summer! Usually, at the end, I would put a little bit from my sermon but I didn’t know what to choose so you can just go and check the sermon on Facebook! Thank you also for reading my blogs! I know that a lot of people actually read them, in the Czech Republic or here in the US, and that motivated me to keep going and keep you updated on what I am doing! Thanks for all the positive reactions to my blogs! I would appreciate your prayers for my safe travels back home. I leave on Wednesday 20th of September at 2 PM (for my friends and family in Europe – 18:00).

Stay safe and goodbye or see you soon (depends if you are in Europe or the US :D)!