Hello there!

It’s me again. I’m sure that you couldn’t wait for my next blog! Just kidding. This one won’t be nearly as long as the first one, at least I’ll try. I promise.

First I’ll tell you about a few things I forgot to mention a week ago. We have a lots of deer in Slovakia, but what we do not have is “urban deer”. Yes, deer living in the city. Those majestic creatures hang out all the time at the church and from time to time you can see them munching on the flowers in the church garden. There’s also a good number of squirrels, day won’t go without me seeing at least ten of them. And of course, groundhogs. Yes, those fat fluffy things living in the mountains, standing on their rear legs and whistling when you see them. Here, they too live in the city. A couple of them live at the church, they have a hole right below the window of pastor’s office. I guess that the trend of moving into the cities applies for a wildlife, too.

Now on to my week. I guess I don’t need to mention that the Sunday started with a worship service at the church. What I should mention is what followed – my welcome party! People from the church even got me a cake and we had a big lunch at the church. When I think about it, the church accepted me so well that I don’ t even feel like being in an unfamiliar environment. They treat me like a family. I’m grateful to God for these people! Not only for what they are doing for me, but even for other people in the neighborhood. Indeed, the Lord himself is at work here.

Plot twist: after my welcome party, we did a memorial service. That’s technically a funeral without the burial part. Now guess what followed the memorial service. If your bet was on another lunch, you won. Congratulations!

In the Sunday evening I packed my suitcase and moved to the Hammonds. I get along very well with Randy and Peggy, staying with them feels like a week-long visit at my grandparents. We talked a bit in the evening and had a beer at the bar table Randy made himself. Then came the Monday. Brew day with Skip! In the morning we drove a couple miles south to Brunswick to get supplies and ingredients at the homebrew shop. We got malts, hops, yeast, a few more things to upgrade Skip’s brewing setup and hurried back. By the way, the homebrew shop is owned by a Lutheran pastor at Brunswick! Without much problems we brewed a small batch of dark IPA, my own recipe. It should be ready to drink by the time I’ll be leaving, so I wonder how it works out this time.

The other days went pretty well, I won’t bore you with details. We had a few visits at the hospital, nursing homes and at one family from the church, a wedding rehearsal and we are still getting ready for the Vacation Bible School. What I must mention is that on Wednesday, I went with Garth to see a professional beer brewery, taste something from their selection and then a few other people from the church joined us for lunch. After the lunch Jerry and Vlasta took me to the nearby coffee shop and then home. I got a bag of coffee there! Then on Thursday, I got to see a baseball game. Peggy and Randy’s grandson had a high school league game, so they took me with them to show me a bit o an American culture.

Today (Saturday) in the morning Randy took me to the golf course. I’ve never been to one, so it was quite an experience. From the start I was just hitting dirt, but then I somehow got the hang of it and we finished a 9-hole course in less than three hours. I still have much to learn, but it seems that I finally found a sport fit for me. After that Peggy took me for a drive through downtown Cleveland. It’s a small city, but looks wonderful! I tried to look to the other side of Lake Erie, but nope, I couldn’t see Canada.

Right now I’m sitting at the pastor’s office and finishing this blog. There was a wedding at the church that ended a few minutes ago, so I took a break in writing. but obviously I’m back. Now I’m going back to Hammonds to go out for a dinner with them, pastor’s already waiting for me. So see you next week. Be blessed!