Hello there!

No, I didn’t forget to write the blog again this week. How surprising. But the pastor had to remind me, because with all those things to do I’d surely forget. But here I am, writing about all the stuff again.

I hope that you had a great week, because I did. What I find interesting is that all the calendars here start the week on Sunday and end on Saturday. Not like our Monday to Sunday weeks. Is it just a coincidence that my blog starts with Sunday and ends with Saturday, too? Nope, I won’t tell yet. To keep the tension (and to keep you reading) I will mention it somewhere in this entry. Maybe I’ll forget, but probably not. If I do, please remind me in the comment!

So Sunday. What happens on Sunday in the Lutheran churches? I will give you three options.

1. People show up at the church
2. The worship service takes place
3. The bishop visits

Ok, you’re probably right, it’s options 1&2. But the last Sunday at DML (Doctor Martin Luther) all three were correct! Before the service, bishop Kucharek came with her son Josh. After the service they showed a presentation about the activities of Slovak Zion Synod, mainly about their work in the Eastern Europe. After the service we talked for a bit. It was nice talking to them again. Then, after getting back to the Hammond house, we had a lunch and after a few hours we left to Slyman’s (that’s a restaurant) to try a corned beef, which seems to be a big thing here in the Cleveland area. The sandwich was so huge that I didn’t know how am I supposed to take a bite of it, but finally I somehow found a way.

In Monday morning I found out that I will preach the next Sunday. I knew I will preach while I am here, but I somehow got lost in time. So I carefully read the lessons and commentaries to think about them for the rest of the week. One of the lessons is the notoriously known Psalm 23, but there is one thing I never noticed in it. The Hebrew wersion consist of 55 words with almost no repetitions. However, the word יַהְוֶה, which we translate as “Lord”, has its place at the start and in the end of the psalm. Moreover, the author directly addresses God in the middle of the Psalm. This is a beautiful reminder that the Lord should be at the beginning, in the middle and in the end of everything we do. And so he was that Monday. Pastor took me again to the Redeemer Crisis Center, where we were helping at the food pantry. This time not serving food, but cleaning and stocking supplies. It was so hot down there that I amost melted, but it was worth it. Then I packed my things and moved for a few days to Jim and Lisa. They are new to the DML church, but they still wanted to have me at least for a few days. I got an enormous room there, with my own bathroom! I met Lisa’s parents, too, they came for dinner. We had lasagna, which was exactly what I was craving for.

Tuesday was a ZOO day with Kim and Ken! I felt like a little kid again, I don’t even remember when I was at the ZOO for the last time. This one in Cleveland is pretty huge, but we still went to see it all. They even got a tiny artificial rainforest! Going through the whole ZOO was like a small hike, but it was worth it.

Wednesday was mostly at-the-office day, but I had time to think about the sermon and practice a hymn for the next (next next) Sunday. Then pastor took me to an extraordinary visit, we were going to see Elsie. Elsie has been exactly 100 just a few weeks ago and she has an amazing sense of humor. Then I again had a dinner with Jim, Lisa and her parents, this time it was “Sloppy Joe”, an American classic- ground meat with tomato sauce, served in burger buns. I was moving the next day, so we said good-byes before going to bed, as I didn’t know if we will meet the next day.

The next day pastor took me for another visit to an assisted living home, however at the desk we found out that the lady we were going to visit is in a scenic bus ride through the country with other residents. So we spent some time at the office and then we went to see the pinnacle of American culture, at least according to the stereotypes. Walmart! But it was too soon for any distinctive Wal-martians to appear, so we just got the paper folders we needed and headed back. I packed my suitcases, again said good-bye to Jim (Lisa wasn’t home yet) and went with the pastor to the book discussion. We discussed the Skeleton in God’s Closet, a book written by Lutheran history professor Paul Maier. It is the first book of the trilogy and I liked it so much that I actually got the remaining two books, from which I already read one. Discussion was mostly about importance of resurrection for Christianity, because that’s the main topic of the book. I won’t tell you anything more about it, I don’t want to spoil it for you if you decide to read it. After the book discussion pastor dropped me off at Hammonds again, just for the weekend. By the way, back to my calendar. Yes, it’s just a coincidence. I almost forgot to write a blog entry the first week, I remembered it on Saturday evening and I didn’t want to write on Sunday, so here I stand (or sit).

Friday was quite an exciting day. Ray and Cindy took me to Medina, a nearby city where Garth lives. He’s a Vietnam War veteran and to this day he serves as the honor guard on the military funerals, so he gave me a tour of the military cemetery. It was huge and the headstones were perfectly lined up, just like in the movies. Then we even got to see an actual funeral, which was, too, like in the movies. After that and the lunch Ray went home and Cindy took me to buy some vegetables from the Amish. It was interesting seeing people who don’t use electricity in the 21st century, even despite the rain we had an opportunity to see two families riding down the road in horse carriages. In the evening, before going to sleep, I finished the sermon.

Now today. Right in the morning I packed my suitcase again and I ended up in the church kitchen, moving an old, broken convection stove out and one brand new in. Fortunately there was quite a lot of us, because the ovens were too big to fit through the door, so we had to use a window. This took us coulpe of hours, but with God’s help we finally managed. Pastor then quickly checked out my sermon, we went to have a lunch and then he dropped me off at Kim and Ken, where I am now typing this. But I have to go soon, we’re going out for a dinner.

This was a nice, blessed week. Hope the next one will be, too! Thank you for your patience and God bless you!