Three of our group left early to begin the day with the crew that operates Sowers Harvest Cafe. We joined them when the cafe opened at 8:00, and enjoyed tasty coffees and breakfast foods.

Leaving the cafe volunteers behind, the rest of us headed to the HUB on Penn State campus. We prayed for divine appointments and courage, and scattered for the rest of the morning, in search of people who were willing to engage in conversations with us. If we chose, we could ask them questions to survey students’ spiritual interest. LifeQuest will use data to connect with those who want further contact.

At noon, we joined the LifeQuest team in a room on campus where they serve lunch every Tuesday to international students and scholars. We had a very enjoyable time talking with the various people from many different countries.

Back at the hill, Ernest finished his presentation about LifeQuest, and then we broke into small groups to split wood, clean, stuff newsletter envelopes, and prepare supper. After a delicious meal of stew, salad, garlic bread, and dessert, we headed to Sowers for an evening of socializing and singing.

At first, we visited and/or played games with guests, then at 7:00, more guests joined us and we reconfigured the room to accommodate a hymn singing. This was the first event of its kind at Sowers and the organizers were unsure what to expect, but the room filled up and the singing was glorious!

 

After breakfast at our separate places, we gathered at the base to meet Ernest and Truman Eby, who introduced us to the organization they work with: LifeQuest. They seek to befriend and support international students and their families. Truman introduced us to surveys that our group will conduct in the next days on Penn State campus, in effort to engage in conversations with people and introduce them to LifeQuest.

Everyone had a chance to practice asking and answering survey questions, then we drove ten minutes to campus. We divided into smaller groups to find lunch, then reconvened for Truman to lead us on a tour of the very large, beautiful Penn State University campus.

 

Back at the hill, Bryant met us to tell us about Sowers Harvest Cafe, and the way it provides meaningful connection with local people. Some of our group will shadow their team the next few days.

For an hour, we divided into groups to help with various practical jobs around the place we’re staying. People helped spit wood, cleaned windows, stuffed envelopes, and went grocery shopping.

All Nations kindly provided a delicious meal of Indian takeout. We enjoyed eating with Ernest and Cathy Eby and William and his young family from China.

 

After the meal, William told us about growing up in China and his zigzag search for meaning in life. He finds believing in and following Jesus the best rational answer to life’s questions as well as the best way to peace. We were glad to hear his story!

We gathered at 10:30 for prayer and brief review of goals for this trip. After packing our lunches and loading the two vans, we headed for State College.

We enjoyed eating our packed lunches in Franklin’s scenic park.

By 3:15, we arrived at “The Hill” which is the headquarters of All Nations Bible Translators and our base for these days. Bryant Martin directed us to our accommodations in various buildings on the hill and we settled in.

Followers of Jesus welcomed us warmly to a fellowship meal at 4:30. They meet in the afternoon and evening every Sunday at the local Quaker meeting house. After the meal, we attended their service. The church ended the evening with a special prayer of benediction for Shawn and Amy Miller’s young family, who are headed to Bangladesh for  the next five years.

Back at the hill, we dispersed for the night before very late.

Today’s mission was unambiguous. We would head home. Monica and Val kindly prepared packed breakfasts in brown paper bags and coffee to go, so we each grabbed one of these. Ryan and Jaran pulled the vehicles to the far side of Corona Avenue from the Ministry Training Center. We said “goodbye” and “thank you” to Monica, Nathan, Trennis, and Trenton. We loaded our luggage and ourselves into the vehicles. We drove away from The Big Apple at 8:30 AM. 

Six or seven hours later, we arrived at El Toro Family Restaurant in Cranberry, and, after feasting and thirty-five additional miles had elapsed, we arrived at Faith Builders Educational Programs. 

It is impossible that any of us will be quite the same after the last ten days. We are deeply grateful for good connections with each other and the people who guided our time in State College and New York City and for the privilege to see places and ways that God’s people are doing his work.

We offer many thanks for your prayers and interest in our trip.  

This concludes the 2024 Faith Builders Training Institute ministry apprenticing trip blog.  

After a delicious breakfast, we moved to the first floor of the Center, and Trennis led us in a time of worship and prayer. 

We then set off by subway for the South Asian Community Center, SACC for short. SACC is near Jackson Heights, an area of Queens where many people from South Asia and South America live. It is a Christian organization that is seeking to serve the people of Jackson Heights by offering services such as English classes, citizenship classes, and computer classes. 

During our time with the ministry, we rotated helping indoors with teaching, operating the registration table and speaking on the sidewalk with interested people, and prayer walking along nearby streets. During the English class, we helped students follow along and complete assignments in their workbooks. During the computer class, we helped students set up Gmail accounts so that, in future classes, they could log into a website that offers typing lessons. 

Our afternoon and evening involved wrapping up our time in New York City. In Central Park, we parted ways to spend time reflecting and then reconvened to debrief and share about how the apprenticing trip has shaped us. 

Pizza was on the menu for supper. Manhattan has a lovely pizzeria called Made in New York Pizza. We gathered around tables outdoors and dined on sumptuous fare as we sipped beverages with raw cane sugar. 

Our hearts are full of gratitude for the wonderful people who facilitated our time in New York City and State College, so, after we returned to the Center, we wrote thank you cards for them. 

Most days at the Center begin with a time of worship. One of the Center’s staff takes us through a time of singing and reflection on a passage of scripture. Today was no different. We sang a few songs, meditated on God’s gift to us, and then prayed. 

The remainder of our morning involved teaching. A brother from Brooklyn came to speak about the complicity that Christians at various points in history have had in oppressing an ethnic group. 

When the class and a prayer ended, we put packed lunches into our backpacks and traveled to Brooklyn. Nathan marked out maps and sent us in pairs to walk on the sidewalks, praying to God for the people around us. We were encouraged to take opportunities to communicate with people cross-culturally. Several of the groups were able to have meaningful interactions with people they encountered. 

After we returned to the Center and had feasted, we received a class about counterfeit Christianities in which Seth, the teacher, encouraged us to spend much time in the Bible and to thereby be able to identify and to productively communicate with adherents of heretical organizations. 

We then journaled, informally sang, snacked, and went to bed. 

After a long and busy week, we were thankful for a day to sleep a bit longer than normal. We gathered for breakfast at 8:30. We sipped coffee and ate the delicious food that Monica and Val made for us. 

We would, in small groups, go visiting various churches in the area. These churches have members with family backgrounds in countries other than the United States, and their services are conducted in languages other than English. Some went to a Fujianese church, some went to an Indonesia church, and some went to a Spanish church. 

The churches welcomed us with warmth, hospitality, invitations to return, and, for some, a meal. 

After dining, we went to Flushing which, according to some, is regarded as New York City’s “other China Town.” We exited the train station, parted ways, and wound our ways through crowded streets and an open-air market to find coffee shops and other public places where we could complete a guided observation activity that invited us to see the sea of people as individuals made in God’s image. 

After we returned to the Center for supper, Jesse split us into two teams: anthropologists and people of an unknown culture. Jesse gave the anthropologists the challenging task of learning how to effectively communicate with a new culture. This activity abounded with perplexed looks and much laughter. It reminded us to suspend judgement and to communicate with curiosity and graciousness when in relationships with people of a culture that we don’t understand. 

Here is an overview of our first full day in New York City. 

• Breakfast: At 7:30, Monica and Val had a breakfast of sausage, pancakes, and fruit prepared for us. 

• Silence: After breakfast, each spent time in prayer, meditation, and silence. 

• Worship: Nathan led us through one hour of singing and collective prayer. 

• Refugee and Poverty Activities: The Center’s staff and interns orchestrated displacement and poverty simulators that placed us into the stories of families who were in the process of being displaced from their homes by conflict and affected by poverty. 

• Randall’s Island: We spoke with and gave hats, gloves, and literature to people at a migrant encampment on Randall’s Island. 

• Homeless Ministry: We packed lunches and traveled to Manhattan where Greg and Alex, are two men who routinely minister to people in Manhattan without homes, guided us through portions of the city where we could give the lunches to those who would benefit. 

Here are a few pictures from our day. 

This morning we awoke to bid farewell to State College and Penn State and to meet New York City. On our departure, we had breakfast at Sowers Harvest Café one last time. Over the food and coffee, Bryant spoke to us about Alan Kreider’s The Patient Ferment of the Early Church, a book that has captured his attention. He then sent us off with a prayer.

On the four-hour drive, we passed through beautiful mountains painted with colors of yellow, red, and orange fall leaves. Ryan dexterously navigated the big van into the city and brought the crew to the Ministry Training Center safely.  

We arrived at 3:00 PM at the Ministry Training Center in Elmhurst, New York. This will be our base for the remainder of our trip. 

The Center’s staff and interns graciously welcomed us, showed us to our rooms, oriented us to the week, and sent us out on our first assignment, a scavenger hunt. 

The scavenger hunt included a list of things to do, such as: 

• Ask someone what country they were born in. 

• Find out the average price of eels or turtles to eat. 

• Find a Hindu or Buddhist temple and pray for light against the darkness. 

• Buy an empanada and bubble tea. 

Since the Center is located in a region of the city that has many first-generation immigrants, many languages, many cultures, and numerous religions, the scavenger hunt allowed us to become acquainted with this area of the city, its people, and its cultures. 

Some scavenging groups initiated conversation by giving away flowers. Others found less mediated entries into conversation. Others prayed while they walked. All found good food. 

After the activity, we returned to the Center, shared stories of our experiences, completed journaling assignments, shared a snack, and went to bed in America’s most populous city. 

Our final full day in State College found Keri and Korina at Sowers Harvest Café bright and early. 

After we had one last sumptuous breakfast feast at the Café, we set out on foot to find students on Penn State’s campus to talk to. Though the morning was cold, we had numerous meaningful interactions with Penn State’s people. 

At noon, each began to discontinue speaking with students and found silence, solitude, and time with God. Some found locations on the campus for this. Others made their way into The Arboretum at Penn State, an area adjacent to campus with natural lands and botanic gardens. 

We ended solitude with a stroll together through the natural lands and a time circled in the botanic gardens to speak about our highs, lows, and buffalos with each other. 

Our final stop of the day was at Café Alina, a place with fabulous food and gracious staff. We dined upon kabobs, samosa, tikka, mango lassi, and many other good things. 

When the meal ended, we returned to Headquarters and began to think about our departure to New York City. Staff at the Ministry Training Center asked us to watch a video about God’s call upon Christians to be a blessing to others and asked us to complete a series of structured meditations pertaining to our mission. 

Tomorrow, we’re headed off to New York.