{"id":682,"date":"2018-07-15T15:56:09","date_gmt":"2018-07-15T20:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/slovakzionsynod.org\/sip\/?p=682"},"modified":"2018-07-15T15:59:00","modified_gmt":"2018-07-15T20:59:00","slug":"short-update-of-michigans-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/slovakzionsynod.org\/sip\/?p=682","title":{"rendered":"Short update of Michigan\u2019s week"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week was quite busy so I\u00a0didn\u2019t realize the fact that I am here for two weeks already. I already realize that it will be very hard for me to leave this congregation. On Friday (7\/6), I was invited with pastor Doug\u2019s family to visit Shon Cook\u2019s family to have dinner with them and then we watched the Boat Parade on Duck Lake \u2013 this was the 5th<\/sup> annual boat parade and it ended up with party just few houses nearby. On Saturday (7\/7), pastor Doug took me to the Summer Arts Festival<\/em> on Blue Lake. This festival has a long tradition. It was very nice over there and I appreciate it that pastor took me to this place. Sunday 8th<\/sup> was my very first chance to take an active part during the service.<\/p>\n

Since my Name-day back in Slovakia (and in Serbia) is on July 8th<\/sup>, this day was also associated with this. Parks\u2019 family prepared a Welcome party<\/em> for me and Mrs. Irene made a delicious cake for me \u2013 yummy! Thanks! Party attendants were their family friends and almost all families that I will be living with during this summer. \u2013 I had great \u00a0time and I thank them for that! This day was a bit different than previous days, because I moved to another family, to the Keller\u2019s family. Again, like last time, it\u2019s a very nice family and I\u2019m glad to be with them! This family has two cats – I’ve only seen one. I hope that by the end of next week I will see the other one too, haha.<\/p>\n

During this week, I was with pastor Doug on several home visits, which for me means a lot. One, for example, was with an older man \u2013 Mike, a long-time service visitor, but who, due to the “unstable” health condition can no longer go to the church. \u2013 pastor tries to visit him regularly. The next visit we had this week was a premarital counseling and also meeting with The Rev. Megan Crouch for baptismal counseling. Megan was pastor of St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church in Grand Rapids, MN. She is now moving to Michigan and will be pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church and St. Timothy Lutheran Church in Midland, MI. During this week I also had a church-tour<\/em> and meet up with people who work there. This church is not just the place where people meet each other but the church where people live! Church is also home for Boy Scout Troop 1048<\/em> \u2013 on Wednesday (7\/11) pastor Doug and I went to visit this troop at Owasippe Scout Reservation.<\/p>\n

Since this church has its history which is connected with Swedish-speaking people, we had this dinner called (in Swedish) Sm\u00f6rg\u00e5sbord<\/em> which was on Thursday (7\/12). In Serbia this form of dinner is simply called the Swedish table-dinner<\/em>. What was different in this dinner from those I know was that, that here it was traditional Swedish food. At the beginning of this dinner pastor Doug \u00a0had a welcoming word and I held the lead prayer.. \u00a0A lot of people attended \u00a0to this event and it was a really blessed time spent.<\/p>\n

It is very interesting and amazing how this little town Whitehall has such amazing festivals during the summer. Last week I was with pastor Doug at the Summer Arts Festival on Blue Lake. This Friday, thanks to Shone Cook that gave me an entrance ticket \u2013 how lovely from her! \u2013 Kathy, Josh, Drew (Josh\u2019s friend) and I went to the play \u201cMom\u2019s Gift\u201d<\/em>, which was first play of this year Summer Theatre Festival<\/em>. The destiny of Kat in this play touched me … and it made me cry – oh, how sensitive I am sometimes \u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Yesterday, on July 14th<\/sup>, I was with the Keller\u2019s family on wedding of their friends in Muskegon at St. Gregory\u2019s Episcopal Church. \u2013 let us break the differences. \ud83d\ude0a It was very wonderful and blessed time for me to be invited to this ceremony. It was something new for me, maybe a bit unusual but after all I really appreciate it. We had such an awesome time! Thanks to Keller\u2019s family and this lovely couple.<\/p>\n

Today we had a beautiful sacrament in Lebanon Lutheran \u2013 baptism. Together with pastor Doug and me there was also pastor Megan Crouch \u2013 the family member of the little Tobias. It was nice to be on such an event when a child is initiated into the Christian faith and to the Church.<\/p>\n

Next Sunday I will preach for the first time in english! Wish me good luck.<\/p>\n

Until next time, bye.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week was quite busy so I\u00a0didn\u2019t realize the fact that I am here for two weeks already. I already realize that it will be very hard for me to leave this congregation. On Friday (7\/6), I was invited with pastor Doug\u2019s family to visit Shon Cook\u2019s family to have dinner with them and then […]<\/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":[],"class_list":["post-682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-americantime","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\/682","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=682"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/slovakzionsynod.org\/sip\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":688,"href":"http:\/\/slovakzionsynod.org\/sip\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682\/revisions\/688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/slovakzionsynod.org\/sip\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/slovakzionsynod.org\/sip\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/slovakzionsynod.org\/sip\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}