Hello!

So, this is the last time. I’m already home, so my experience in the United States is over. However, memories don’t go away that easily. Hopefully they will never vanish. My last week was amazing and sad at the same time, so I’ll do my best to describe it to you!

At the first service in Sunday, I had an opportunity to sing Shine Jesus Shine with pastor Dave playing the guitar. We had an “official” good-bye, although I still had a few days left. Then in the evening we had the art event at the church, titled As you like it (after a Shakespeare’s play). We hosted a few artists and could hear both music and spoken word, both covers and originals. It was amazing and I hope it will continue!

After the event I went to hang out with Cory and a few of his friends, we had a “geek party”, which means playng an escape room style game on the computer. I didn’t play anything for the long time, so I enjoyed it quite a bit!

The next day we had a youth gathering at the church, which was my last one. On Tuesday we had a lightbulb changing day at the church, then we did the evening service where I said a few more good-byes, including to the pastor and his family.

On Wednesday in the morning, I left. Bruce and Beth drove me all the way to the DML. They have relatives near Cleveland, so they planned a visit and offered to drive me. It was great staying with them, it felt like spending time with grandparents. I’m very grateful to them for everything. The time at the Holy Trinity was amazing, too! I’m grateful for every experience, every trip, every person I met there. I don’t know how to thank everybody enough.

After arriving to the DML, we met with pastor Eric and I said good-byes with Bruce and Beth. We went shopping with pastor and then in the evening they did a farewell party for me. I got to meet some people from the church for one more time, which I’m very grateful for. Especially for meeting the host families again! Then Kim and Ken took me to dinner and went home, since I was staying with them for the night.

The next day we had a lunch with pastor Eric and he drove me to the airport. The flight was fine, but I couldn’t sleep even with the sleeping pills I used. So I watched the Deadpool 2 and read the Lord of the Rings, which I decided to re-read after a long time. My mom and brother picked me up after landing in Vienna, then I went to the seminary in Bratislava to leave the suitcase at the dorm and only after that we went home.

So, after meeting with my family, I’m on the way to the seminary now, writing this last blog. As I already said, I’m so grateful to all the people who made this happen that I can’t even describe it. Both Doctor Martin Luther church in Brooklyn, Ohio and the Holy Trinity church in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania are congregations full of amazing people and they were a huge blessing for me. I’m grateful to the Slovak Zion Synod for making this happen, too. And most importantly, I’m grateful to God for everything. Because without his help and blessing, none of this could be possible.

I’m not very good with good-byes, so I’ll just say that it was nice writing about my experiences and the blessings I received, hope you enjoyed to read about them!

God be with you!