Hey there,

it’s me again! I’m sure that you sit impatiently in front of the screen waiting for me to upload the next part, since it’s close to the midnight. Don’t worry, I’ll make it on time and you’ll soon find out why it took me so long. Actually, this won’t be a long one.

But let me start from the beginning. I hope it’s obvious that the Sunday started with the service. This week I didn’t preach or read the lessons, but I got an opportunity to sing a solo, Shine, Jesus, Shine. I’m sure you know that one. After the service the Mohlers, a family from the church, took me to the Slovak picnic, a long established event for the Slovak community (and others) in Cleveland. It was fun, I got to meet a few new people.

But to the important part. Do you know what week was this? Vacation Bible School week! Most of my work on the last days consisted of preparations for this event. In between preparations I did a few visits with pastor, but most of the time we focused on the VBS. We did stuff as shopping, decorating (Thank God for Leah, the pastor’s daughter, I can’t imagine me and pastor dealing with the decorations alone), preparing the program, handing out more invitations and so on. The worst oart was learning all the kids songs with those dances, some of them are still playing in my head. The worst ones, of course. But kids love them, so we couldn’t really leave them out.

Then the D-Day came. The attendance wasn’t nearly as big as we wished it to be, but this was the first VBS this church was doing, so we still did good. We got a few families which aren’t part of the church (yet), so I’m glad we could serve as God’s instrument to reach out to them. I had an opportunity to teach the mission class and help with the songs. Pastor took Apostle Paul’s foolishness for Christ very literally, with all those dancing and moving. To be honest, I liked it. Pastors don’t have to always act serious. By the way, the VBS started on Wednesday and finished on Friday. On the closing day we had a big grill party and guess on whom the kids got to throw water balloons? Of course, the pastor and the intern! And you know what? I’d do that again.

Now about today (Saturday). Finally I could sleep in! After the lunch Kim and Ken took me to a local chocolate maker’s shop, where I got, besides other things, buckeyes. That reminds me that I really need to get a good recipe for them. Then, after a few hours we went out for the dinner and to add to my experience of American culture. Baseball! Thanks to watching some games on TV with the pastor, Randy and Ken I was already familiar with the rules. This time it was Cleveland Indians against Los Angeles Angels. Of course, Indians did win. Ken and Kim got me a Cleveland Indians t-shirt and a ball as a souvenir, which I am really grateful for. But the show didn’t stop with Indians winning the game. Shortly after, a big firework show started at the field. I mean really big. I never seen such a big fireworks, not even on the Independence Day. The best part was that the fireworks were accompanied by a playlist of music videos and they went completely with the rhythm!

That reminded me of the song I did sing the previous Sunday. Shine, Jesus, shine. That show was really bright and beautiful, but not nearly as much as Jesus shining in our lives. Particularly in mine, now through the experiences he’s providing me with during my stay here in the United States.

We just arrived back home (yes, I’ve been writing this on the way from the gane), so I’m going to check out tomorrow’s lessons and get some sleep.

See you next week!