I am very grateful that I can be in this congregation. Really. I am very glad to be in a community where I do not feel like a guest but as one of them. After two months, we finally finished all the summer programs and the relaxing period has its main role. Maybe that’s why they moved me to North Muskegon to be as far as possible from the church, haha. The first week with the Crouch family was great. First two days we enjoyed the company of their little grandson Tobias – Tobias is the first boy, where I was able to be one of the clergy-participant during the baptism.If you are a “true member” of family with whom you’re staying with, you will get the result from their pet. Although I didn’t watch all parts of the Lord of the Rings, and I don’t even have a plan in near future to do that, Gandalf – Gandy (dog), that’s counted as a family member, accepted me as one of the members of this house and so he is always happy when I come back home. Until now, almost all families had cats that mostly ran from me. Gandy is a great dog. It is not right to say this, because it may sound unpleasant, but for this first time I feel really at home.

Today’s blog will be short – literally. This week the pastor was outside the city so we didn‘t have any special plans. We had (such as every week) the Food Pantry on Wednesday. Since I had a “week-off”, I tried to enjoy as much as possible acompanied with Court and Cheri. They have three daughters and one of them is a pastor – I mentioned her in my second blog. As she moved from Minnesota to Michigan, we went to visit her to Midland, MI on Friday. Megan showed us two churches where she now works as a pastor. One is a bit smaller than the Lebanon Lutheran Church, the other one is a huge one – it is similar (the size) like my church in Kysáč. Just when we were in the Trinity Lutheran Church, an organist came to pick something … and so, why don’t use this situation?! We went to take a look to the organ. I had the chance to play to my host family and the organist one song from our Slovak hymnal and one song which we will sing during my last Sunday here in Lebanon Lutheran – it is the Slovak song which wrote Mária Roy. Fortunately, I have a translation of this song into English, so I will not torture them to sing it in Slovak .. but I have couple more weeks – maybe I’ll change my mind, haha.

On Saturday, I met with pastor Doug at about 9pm during the “night kayaking”. As we didn’t have time to talk about my Sunday sermon – we did it then. So, I had a unique opportunity that everyone does not have. Whenever there is talk about the sermon it is usually in a room where is a table. Even Dr. Martin Luther wrote “Table Talk”. I had a “Water Talk” – we were talking about my sermon in the kayak’s in the Muskegon Lake. And it was good … and especially: unforgettable.

On Sunday I preached on both services. We had the last reading for this summer, which has the word “bread” in it. What was interesting and what I consider to be a success for me is the fact that after the service I went to the copier to copy the sermon, because someone wanted it! I didn’t experience it in Slovakia with Slovak sermon, so I can only say one thing: WOW! During these services I led for the first time the prayers – which I prepared by myself. When the second service ended, and when I went to the office to take off my “uniform”, I saw that there were a lot of people around the table – is it again Luther’s Table Talk? I thought that there was something tasty on the tables and that’s why everyone was there. Slovaks have one good joke:  they pushed themselves as Lutherans to the heaven. But … I went there too. They were there because there was a birthday cake (and other goodies, haha). This week (tomorrow, 8/28) I have birthday and so they made me a “after-church-party”. I must say that this is (even though it was unofficial) my first birthday party. Earlier I didn’t celebrate my birthdays and I do not insist that I have to treat this as a special day. My earlier birthday parties always took place only within my family members, or I went out with few friends for a drink or a pizza and that’s it – nothing special. This time, for the first time, someone was singing a song, and for the first time I blew the candles. I am very grateful that I can be in this congregation and that they’ve accepted me as one of their own. Really. I am grateful that I can be part of this wonderful community!

After, when we came home there was another surprise waiting for me. Mrs. Crouch has prepared a soup – similar as my mom always prepares for a Sunday lunch. I told them that I only need to hear the sound of the Kysáč church’s bell on noon, and it will feel like I am home, haha. Today (8/27), I made a „baklava“ with Mrs. Crouch. Like last time, we were trying to make it according to the recipe, but some ingredients were customized – so it was Mrs. Crouch and Ivan’s „baklava“. It looks good so far, but as it has to stay still for several hours, I cannot tell you whether it is good or not.

Oh … this is incredible. I lied to you. At the beginning I wrote that I would be very short … I will never write it again because if I do that would be new New York’s Time Bestseller.

Hasta la vista.