HIIII ONCE AGAIN!

THIS WEEK ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT TRADITIONS FOR THE CONGREGATION HAPPENED, SO THE WHOLE WEEK WE PRIMARILY FOCUSED ON THE PREPARATIONS

 

Monday

As for Monday we started the day by going to the swim lessons again, but this time we took Ruby with us. The kids liked her. The kids that weren’t in the water were on a hunt for baby toads and tree frogs, that was fun to watch and hear about how excited they were.

In the afternoon I spent some time at church exploring the church´s organ. I had lots of fun trying to play different songs from our slovak worship book and then learning one that we both have in common – Adeste fideles(O come, all ye faithful).

And in the evening we spent time doing our weekly trivia. It´s amazing to spend time with people even outside the church. You get to know them even better – especially at trivia, because you can see where their hidden passions are.

Tuesday 

I was overly exhausted that day, so I stayed at home mostly. But in the evening I went to watch Moana the Live Version with one of my friends. It was great. For my surprise there were only few people there, so we could sing along, which I really enjoyed!

Wednesday 

Well and now for the big stuff – in Lebanon Lutheran they have mostly Swedish origin and one of their traditions in the Smorgasbord. We came to the church early morning as we would normally do for the Food pantry, but this specific day instead of helping the volunteers with giving out food we started preparing for this huge event.

One of our lovely friends fainted two times (probably because of heat exhaustion), so most of the day I spend in the emergency room exploring “the beauty” of America´s health system. Luckily she got better throughout the time and in a few days she was fully recovered.

We ended the evening taking a walk in the forest with Poe. It was really peaceful and necessary. I can see that it’s really important to get some rest for your mind.

 

Thursday 

This is THE DAY!!! It´s happening! All day focused on one goal – prepare everything for the Smorgasbord. While kithcen was doing their magic, we were in the big hall preparing decorations. I don´t remember who´s idea it was, but we had fresh cut flower and I think that was wonderful.

Seeing how the whole community is trying to work together so they can enjoy a supper together made me stay there in awe. And I felt very honored to be a part of that. In total there came around 200 people. It was a really big event. In the moment of seeing the whole hall being full I understood why everybody was talking about it since I came to the US.

It was very lovely seeing everybody there enjoying themselves. They were looking forward to this their whole year. And mind you – these people weren’t only from the congregation, it was a huge chunk of the Whitehall community that comes to the Smorgasbord year after year.

Friday + Saturday  

After this huge lovely dinner we took the days a little lighter just to get some rest and regenerate energy for the days ahead. I spent some time writing the first blog, but besides that it was pretty peaceful. We had some comforting hot white chilli and fresh cornbread with butter. On Saturday evening we had some friends and family time to finish up the day.

 

Sunday

Sunday was a big day for the congregation. For the first time there has been an aed training and a fire drill. It was pretty good and the evacuation time was way better than everybody expected. It was interesting to see emergancy training combined with the Sunday worship service.

After church I went with two woman from the congregation to a beautiful art garden. I was invited really spontaniously at the end of the fellowship. I am really thankful that I got to join them – it had everything I needed – beautiful flowers, amazing artwork, live music, delicious homemade food and wonderful people!