The mission of the day was simple: return to Guys Mills. Monica and Valerie made one final meal of Gold Rush Casserole for us. We placed our luggage at the front entrance, watched our drivers skillfully position the vans in front of the Ministry Training Center, despite a tight space full of heavy traffic, thanked the Center’s staff for all they did, piled into the vans, and drove away. Many of us love the city and felt hints of sadness as the skyline faded into the distance.

Yesterday Ben and Ryan competed in an arm wrestling match for dibs on driving the big van. Ben won rights to the little van, and Ryan won rights to the big van. Both men skillfully navigated through the heavy morning traffic of the city and onto the open roads of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Nevin’s family lives half way between New York City and Guys Mills, so they invited us to their home for lunch. We were thankful for their hospitality and relished Nevin’s mother Regina’s delicious white chicken chili, apple pecan salad, garlic, pumpkin roll, and coffee that his brother Wesley skillfully brewed. The weather was pleasant, so we dined on their back lawn on the bank of a slowly flowing creek.

The mountains of Pennsylvania are still decorated with the remaining unfallen and browning leaves of yellow, orange, and red. The beauty was a balm to our travel-weary souls.

After arriving in Meadville, we stopped by Compadres Mexican Restaurant and dined on fajitas, tacos, chimichangas, and enchiladas. Our colleagues in the teacher apprenticing program concluded their apprenticing term this evening. As we entered the Institute at 8:00, they heartily greeted us and welcomed us home.

God has been good to us for the past ten days. He has given us safety as we traveled and an opportunity for many good things such as hard work, stretching experiences, and much learning.

After a delicious breakfast of quiche, we set off for the South Asian Community Center, SACC for short. The South Asian Community Center is near Jackson Heights, an area of Queens where many people from South Asia and South America live.

Camille, one of the leaders and a teacher at SACC, welcomed us to a classroom and oriented us to the neighborhood and SACC. SACC is a Christian organization that is seeking to serve the people of Jackson Heights by offering services such as English classes, immigration help, and citizenship classes. We would be involved today by helping in the TESOL classroom, staffing an information table, and prayer walking.

Classes for men and women are separate, so we began with the ladies staying inside to help teach the women’s TESOL class, and the men going outside to staff the table and pray while walking along the sidewalks. However, after the women’s was completed, we learned that the men who would normally be at the men’s TESOL class had gone to a wedding, so the men from our group were unable to teach.

After packing up the table, we parted ways in small groups to find lunch in the nearby restaurants and food trucks.

Back at the Center, we absorbed a time of teaching called “Go, Make Disciples” in which we were guided through brainstorming and discussing ways that we can be involved in outreach and ministry in our home communities. The time was full of practical tips and advice. When the teaching was done, Nathan led a time of singing.

Monica made us a Bengali supper of rice, beef curry, lentils, and sweet vermicelli noodles. In Bengali fashion, we ate with our fingers and sat cross-legged on mats on the floor. The food was absolutely delicious, and we immensely enjoyed our final supper at the Center.

Our day ended with an extended time of debriefing and reflection on the trip. We acknowledged that many from the ministries in State College and the staff at Ministry Training Center gave much to us, making our trip a success, so we all wrote notes to these brothers and sisters, thanking them for their good work, teaching, and contagious passion.

Most days at the Center begin with a time of worship. Nathan or another leader takes us through a time of singing and reflection on a passage of scripture. Today was no different. We sang seven or eight songs and meditated on the holiness of God as depicted in Isaiah 6. We were eager to continue singing, so when we had a few spare minutes during an intermission, several of our group used their voices, a guitar, a ukulele, and a piano to use to make music.

Most of the morning was given to times of teaching. Two brothers who are friends of the Center and who are actively working in ministry in Brooklyn came to offer teaching. They gave a sobering talk about the ways that many Christians have oppressed people of certain ethnicities. They offered another class about the ways some in New York City experience marginalization today.

After lunch, they gave a final class about prayer walking. Following this class, we traveled to Brooklyn. The brothers 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 regrouped, we took a subway and a bus to Little Istanbul Restaurant, a small establishment with delicious gyros, baklava, soups, and coffee.

The train ride home was a long, slow process. Part way through, the train broke down, so we spent some time sitting motionless. Though our eventual return to the Center was very late, Monica kindly greeted us with a luscious snack of nachos, a good end to a good day.

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 savory scones and greek yoghurt that Monica and Valerie made for us.

Our leader announced that we would, in groups of three, go visiting various churches in the area. Each church has 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 Chinese church, some went to an Indonesia church, and some went to Korean and Taiwanese churches.

Jaran, Sara, and Hannah went to The Reformed Church of Newtown which lies on the corner of Corona Avenue and Broadway. They entered the front door and were quickly warmly welcomed by several members who were standing in the foyer. The entire service was held in Chinese (a language spoken by nobody on our team), but as the service moved from songs, to prayer, to a sermon, the gentleman who sat on the pew in front of them showed them which songs in the hymnal were being sung, which psalm was being recited, and which text from the Bible the preacher based his sermon on. After the service, many approached to offer their welcome and to invite them to stay for tea and coffee.

When the groups returned to the Center, we spent time sharing our experiences, most of which were overwhelmingly positive. We can learn much from the hospitality and warmth that the churches we visited extend to the strangers in their midst.

Much of the remainder of the day was allocated for rest. However, we did take a few minutes to visit a nearby Hindu temple. It’s inside was filled with idols and other Hindu iconography. Once we returned to the center, we reflected on what we saw and prayed against idolatry and for the salvation of those to attend the temple for prayer and worship.

At 6:45 AM, we journeyed to the lower level of the Center. Jesse met us and introduced us to a refugee simulator. We placed ourselves into the story of families who were in the process of being displaced from their homes by conflict and violence. The simulation was complete with sound effects, adjusted lighting, and tokens to trade personal property in exchange for food and a safe passage across a river.

After we completed the activity, Jesse gave us a presentation that explained the reality of millions of people across the globe who who are unable to to live in their homes. The trues stories of families who are affected by displacement affected us deeply, and the activity helped us to better appreciate the tragedy of unwanted displacement and to respond with sober empathy.

From the refugee simulation, we moved into a chronic poverty simulator. We were divided into four teams. Each team worked together to make paper bags out of sheets of paper and flour glue which would be sold in exchange for currency that kept rent, food, and medical bills paid. Some groups were able to do well. Other groups succumbed to events beyond their control and were driven into deep, inescapable debt. This activity helped us to better visualize some of the difficult environmental factors that make escaping chromic poverty difficult for many people.

We spent time in prayer and then began to pack lunches to share with homeless people. Each parcel contained a sandwich, a cookie, a bag of chips, and a bottle of water.

Many people without homes live in New York City. We set out in groups of three with lunches in hand, seeking these people along the streets, in parks, and in subway stations to pray with and to bless with food.

After returning to the Center and dining on pizza, we had our last event for the day: an activity to illustrate certain factors in cross-cultural communication. We split into two teams: anthropologists and people of an unknown culture. The anthropologists were given the challenging task of learning how to effectively communicate with a new culture. This activity abounded with perplexed looks and much laughter and reminded us to suspend judgement and communicate with curiosity and graciousness when engaging with people of a culture that we don’t understand.

Our day began at 7:00 AM when Monica announced that the baked oatmeal and coffee was ready. We gathered into the Center’s second floor and quietly absorbed the good food and drink. After breakfast, we moved to the first floor where Nathan led a time of reflection, prayer and Worship. After this, Joel took over and gave two classes. The first was “Tools for Evangelism” and the second was “Introduction to Islam.” The first class provided helpful tips for helping others to  understand their need for the Gospel and effectively communicating it to them. The second class walked us through the basic beliefs of Islam, it’s similarities with Christianity, and its stark differences. This second class served as helpful preparation for our next activity: visiting a mosque.

The path to the mosque involved both walking on the sidewalk, a subway ride, and a picnic in the park that was along our route.

With lunch in our bellies, we approached the mosque. Friendly staff welcomed us at the door and showed the women to the balcony and the men to the back of the main auditorium. The service involved a series of recited prayers and a sermon from the imam. The imam spoke about judgement day, the questions God might ask, and recommendations for pious living.

After the service ended, the imam gave us his time to respond to our questions about Islam.

Central Park is near the Mosque, so we walked there, scattered across the park, and spent time in solo prayer and journaling.

About the time we were becoming hungry, we gathered back together at the exit to the park and set out for Staten Island. Our journey took us on a ferry and past the Statue of Liberty.

As the city fell behind us, we saw its skyline with buildings reflecting the remaining rays of sunlight set against a deep pink sunset.

On Staten Island, we broke into two groups: one for ordering takeout Yemeni food and the other for ordering pizza. The two groups joined each other on a board walk by the Bay to dine in view of the golden, gleaming cityscape.

After our long return journey, we spent time together reflecting on the events of the day, especially what we observed and heard at the mosque. The long, good day ended with prayer and journaling.

The first part of our day had the same schedule as yesterday. We traveled to Sowers Harvest Café for a delicious breakfast before going to Penn State’s campus.

However, instead of Shelly and Abigail, Hannah and Carita took a turn at volunteering in the café.

We walked from Sowers Harvest to the HUB. Shawn and Ernest met us there, and we set up the display table for Happy Valley Christian Community. Like yesterday, some stayed to talk with students who stopped by the table, and others scattered to various parts of the campus to administer surveys , talk with people, and help them get connected to programs and services the organization offers.

Those who administered surveys enjoyed opportunities to talk with people of widely varying religious and cultural backgrounds.

During our last evening in State College, we had an early debrief meeting in which we reflected on things we have been learning about cross-cultural communication and visited Café Alina. We appreciated the hospitality of the restaurant’s proprietors and thoroughly enjoyed the Pakistani food and drinks.

Tomorrow we anticipate traveling to New York City.