{"id":664,"date":"2018-07-06T07:10:09","date_gmt":"2018-07-06T12:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/slovakzionsynod.org\/sip\/?p=664"},"modified":"2018-07-15T16:06:34","modified_gmt":"2018-07-15T21:06:34","slug":"the-ways-of-god-are-inscrutable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/slovakzionsynod.org\/sip\/?p=664","title":{"rendered":"The Ways of God are Inscrutable"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello everybody!<\/p>\n

Since this is my first blog, let me shortly introduce myself. My name is Ivan Klinko, I\u2019m 22 years old (next month 23!) and I study Lutheran theology at the Evangelical Lutheran Theological Faculty in Bratislava, Slovakia. I was born and grew up in the little town Kys\u00e1\u010d (Serbia), which is located less than 10 miles from Novi Sad, the Vojvodina\u2019s capital (Vojvodina is the northern province of Serbia). I have two brothers and one sister (I am the third). From the age of ten I began to play organ during services in our Lutheran Church in Kys\u00e1\u010d. In the past, I played in theatrical and folklore ensembles, occasionally I wrote articles in newspapers, and I was one of the moderators of religious shows at Kys\u00e1\u010d Radio station. I like to spend my free time in a quiet place, best on my own, and most of all when I go on some trip I can enjoy it more when I’m on my own because I know how to organize my time and I’m not bound to anyone … I like to explore new things. If you want to know more about me feel free to ask.<\/p>\n

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I am very glad to be able to take participation in this summer program in the United States thanks to the Slovak Zion Synod and the people who support this program! I am especially grateful because thanks to this program I have an opportunity to get to know and experience something new, maybe a bit different from the Slovak one. Thank you so much for that! My new (hosting) church during next three months will be the Lebanon Lutheran Church in Whitehall, Michigan<\/a> \u2013 I am glad to be the 20th intern in this congregation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I’d like to start with a question: Where or how did I encounter God this week? The answer is very simple. I met Him on June 30th<\/sup> at the airport in Newark, NJ. Everything started with a long line at passport control, moving from one terminal to another, another check-in and finally moving to the gate that was indicated on my ticket. I lost a lot of time. I had maximum of 30 minutes to pass from passport control to my gate. Upon arriving there, I found out that I\u2019m the only person there \u2026 \u201cMaybe plane to Grand Rapids is not ready yet\u201d. It was 4:30 pm and I was still alone so I started to be nervous (departing was 4:35 pm!) and I realized that they probably changed the gate \u2013 which is what happened. I\u00a0went to gate A20 \u2013 two planes were there: one to Saint Louis and the other one to Grand Rapids … but I\u00a0realized this after a\u00a0while. There are two screens and on one of them it was written something like the end of boarding<\/em>. \u201cOh God, help me Jesus! What am I\u00a0going to do now?\u201d \u2013 I\u00a0said. I\u00a0came to an airline company worker and he told me to sit and wait 10\/15 minutes. I\u00a0thought, \u201cwill 10 or 15 minutes help me, when the plane departs in front of my eyes?\u201d …<\/p>\n

I listened to that worker words and went to take a seat \u2026 Just then I realized there were these two screens which had two different flights showing. We had a 35minute delay, that have just saved me at that moment. See how good and merciful God is. In the Bratislava Seminary, almost all of our seminarians knew me because of quote I\u2019ve use in one situation (maybe sometimes I will write about it) from Romans 11:33 \u201cGod’s ways are inscrutable\u201d. God is indeed wonderful. God full of love and grace. A loving Father who knows what his children need when they are \u201cin trouble\u201d \u2013 He will give His hand to help.<\/p>\n

Such a \u201cway\u201d took me to the Grand Rapids Airport where the Parks family was waiting for me. I am living with them this first week. They are truly amazing couple and I appreciate the fact that they take care of me and that they have accepted me in their house. During the week, we went on a few “road trips” – I had my first American burger, steak and first ice cream this year. With Irene we were couple of times at Lake Michigan and it was indeed wonderful experience. On Monday (7\/2), I met up with the pastor of my host congregation, with The Rev. Douglas Ogden and his children at Duck Lake. An experience that I’ll certainly not forget is the Independence Day parade – I am very glad that I was able to go there as a participant, not just as an observer!<\/p>\n

The first week in America was wonderful! We’ll see what the ways of God will be in these upcoming weeks and months of my stay in this lovely congregation.<\/p>\n

See you later!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello everybody! Since this is my first blog, let me shortly introduce myself. My name is Ivan Klinko, I\u2019m 22 years old (next month 23!) and I study Lutheran theology at the Evangelical Lutheran Theological Faculty in Bratislava, Slovakia. I was born and grew up in the little town Kys\u00e1\u010d (Serbia), which is located less […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[11,13,12],"class_list":["post-664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-americantime","tag-lebanon-lutheran-church","tag-mi","tag-whitehall","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/slovakzionsynod.org\/sip\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/slovakzionsynod.org\/sip\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/slovakzionsynod.org\/sip\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/slovakzionsynod.org\/sip\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/slovakzionsynod.org\/sip\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=664"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/slovakzionsynod.org\/sip\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":672,"href":"http:\/\/slovakzionsynod.org\/sip\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664\/revisions\/672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/slovakzionsynod.org\/sip\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/slovakzionsynod.org\/sip\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/slovakzionsynod.org\/sip\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}