After my exhausting 12-hour trip, I finally arrived to the Cleveland Airport. My flight had been delayed twice because of the unstable weather. My last email said that pastor Eric would be waiting for me at the luggage claim, but oddly enough, there was no one even resembling a pastor. After a while, I found out that he had been wandering around the building (because of the delay), attracting suspicious looks of the security.
Anyway, we finally met and decided to celebrate my arrival to America by heading straight into a Mexican restaurant. Here I began to notice the first differences, like check-in at every restaurant. The meal was delicious, but the beer was a bit feebler than what I’m used to.
My first days consisted of meeting the people at the church and slowly getting used to the environment. We’ve already visited some people, and did a quick service with them. It’s really interesting to talk with them, mostly because they remember the times when the parish was much larger. But why is that?
The whole city used to be full of Slovaks that had fled their homes sometime in 1920s to escape the financial crisis. Naturally, they started to meet, so they wouldn’t get lost in a new country. Afterwards, they would build churches to worship, and even collect money for they fellows back in Slovakia. That’s how the first Dr. Martin Luther Church was built in 1910. It had to be moved in 1950s because of the state highway being built. And that’s how we came to today’s church at the Ridge Rd.

The Slovaks that gathered here started to merge with the English speaking environment, however. The number of people that understand Slovak has been lessening ever since. They still know about their Slovak roots, but don’t really try to maintain any rapport with their ancestors, or even relatives living in the States. Therefore, the very connection between Lutherans from Slovakia is disappearing, making the church participation lower.

I’m really enjoying the American spirit here. All the people are very welcoming and glad to have me here. I have a bunch of activities ahead, so make sure to stay tuned!