Hi, you’re still reading this?

Good for you. This was an interesting week. In a way sad, though. My six weeks at the DML (Dr. Martin Luther church) had passed. Not only it means that I am halfway through my stay here, but last Sunday was my last Sunday there, as I’m interning at two congregations this summer (I’m sure you remember that). So I had an opportunity to preach again at the service and then came the farewell moment with most of the congregation. I still had a few days left, but not another Sunday.

I had an amazing time there and I can’t even describe how grateful I am to everybody who participated in having me there. I’m very grateful to pastor Eric, host families (Randy and Peggy, Jim and Lisa, Ken and Kim), everybody who spent time with me or supported me and most of all to God, who is behind all of this. May he bless the DML again and again!

I still did some stuff there for the next few days. We had a big dinner with Kim, Ken, their relatives and pastor’s family on Sunday. Kim’s mom gave me her buckeye recipe, I can’t wait to try it! I visited the homeless shelter with a group of young people to serve a meal on Monday, wrote a newsletter article and packed my bags. On Tuesday evening we said a long goodbye with Kim and Ken, as they were leaving for work early in the morning and I was leaving much later.

I had a lunch with pastor Eric, Sam and Leah and then the time of the exchange came. Pastor Eric drove me halfway to Pittsburgh, where pastor Dave and Cory (deacon at the Holy Trinity church where I am now) picked me up. After a short drive through the neighborhood we met Bruce and Beth, a couple from the congregation, at a restaurant for a dinner, then they took me to their house. I’m staying with them for my whole time here! They are very nice people, I’m grateful to them for having me over.

So far we did a service for the elderly people at the nursing home, visited a prayer service at one of the local churches (all three local churches together lead a prayer services for the community) where I met a lots of very nice people and I managed to fix pastor’s broken coffee machine that, as he says, every repairman in Pittsburgh refused to touch. So now the congregation can have coffee after the service without using the plastic pods!

Today Bruce and Beth took me on two tours of the city. Yes, two. One to the Mount Washington, a place with a great view of downtown Pittsburgh and the other directly to the city center. It’s smaller than Cleveland, I think that even a bit smaller than Bratislava, but it’s really beautiful.

Although I miss the DML and all the people there, I’m excited to be here. I can’t wait for tomorrow, as the service here is quite different (I attended both contemporary and traditional, but that was six weeks ago and I was still tired from the flight, so I don’t remember that much) and after the service I’ll get to meet more of the congregation.

You’ll here more from me the next week. God bless you!