Hey there again!

This time I decided to write in a different, less diary-like style. So not everything you will read about will be in a chronological order. I’ll try not to forget anything important!

I had an opportunity to preach. Twice. Last week’s lessons were mostly about shepherding, so I did my best to remind the congregations that each one of us is a shepherd for the people around us, but we are still sheep who need God, the Good Shepherd. What really surprised me was that in the information bulletin at Our Savior in Hinckley, one of the churches I’ve preached at, were “all members of the congregation” listed as ministers. People here really believe that and I was glad to see that lots of them actually live by that.

As Dr. Martin Luther said (or written, I’m not sure, not that it matters), God doesn’t need our help, but our neighbor does. Cleveland has a big homeless population, so one of the project of Lutheran churches in the city is a shelter for those people.

Not like most shelters, where people come only to sleep, but they actually house people there. They have separate sections for drug addicts, recovering addicts, veterans, those working but not making enough to live by themselves and so on. I really appreciate this kind of ministry and I’m grateful to God for everyone engaged in it. I visited this shelter with pastor Eric and we helped to serve a lunch, in a few days I will be going back with more young people from the church.

Speaking of young, last week I finally got an opportunity to hang out with people my age! At the church I met the Karkosiaks (John, Andy and Katie), they first took me downtown to show me the city and have some coffee. Then I had more opportunities to spend time with them, I even met their cousin Brad and their friends Sviat and Marissa. Then I met the pastor’s daughter Leah who moved in with him and joins us for lunches. She obviously got her father’s sense of humor, so working with the pastor is now even more fun. All of those people are wonderful, I hope we’ll hand out some more while I’m here.

Aside of that, I had another visit to the Amish country with pastor and the Napiers. It was a long, but a good day. We did a tour of a typical Amish houses, farms and so on, we even seen a cheese factory from the inside. Probably the best part of the cheese tour were the samples. I didn’t count them, but we had many samples of different cheeses, most of which were great.

Speaking of food, today was a Ohio State Fair day! Ken and Kim took me for a trip down to Columbus, the capital of Ohio. Now this was a really American thing. No, I don’t mean the deep-fried buckeyes and oreos (ok, I mean those too), but I finally got an opportunity to see the parade and a marching band with my own eyes. It was just like in movies, only better.

Other than that, I did some office work, mostly preparing stuff for the next week’s Vacation Bible School. I’m really looking forward to that, I hope that God will bless us with a high attendance!

Needless to say, I am very grateful for all of that. For all the people I’m meeting here and for all they are doing for me. And, most importantly, to God for leading me here and providing me with all of these amazing experiences.

See you next week!