Susquehanna University: Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania

Shortly after getting home from last weekend's event, it was announced that one vanload of interns would have the privilege of going to Pennsylvania and other various locales on the way there and back. I immediately went to the signup sheet, and the next day was overjoyed to find out I was going!

For the first day (Thursday) we were going to drive to Tolland Connecticut, minister at Pastor Westin's homegroup and stay in host homes for the night. It just so happens that the interns who didn't go to MetroWest last weekend went to Tolland and met Westin, as they ministered at the University of Connecticut and then at Westin's church. We were graciously welcomed and treated to dinner before doing dream interpretation and prophetic ministry at Westin's house, where homegroup was being held. Kaylene Spresny (Bay City, MI) was in my group with Brandon Crummer (Cody, WY) ministering, and she did remarkably well for her first time!

Fred, the Bassetts' gecko

Me, Brandon, my bro Luke (Calgary, AB) and Dave Carpentier (Boston, MA) were all staying with the Bassett family for the night. Luke had met Amy Bassett (the mom) and her kids the week before for the UConn outreach, and her kids had quickly grown attached to Luke. They were really excited to hear he was back! Amy quite clearly understood Luke, as they got along really well and talked at a really comfortable level. The kids have a really cool gecko named Fred, and one said of him, "When we gave him his name it was weird, but over time it became good." I love kids.

Friday morning we blessed the Bassetts' home before leaving, and had an unusual surprise on the way over to Westin's house. A turkey randomly dropped down and flew in front of the windshield, nearly getting pegged! We all woke up pretty quick after that, and were ready to get to Pennsylvania upon reuniting with the rest of the crew.

Jamie Bower (Airdrie, AB) shows up Vanna White as Dave Carpentier (Boston, MA) satisfies his sweet tooth

The main part of our trip for Friday was getting to Hershey Pennsylvania, home of the Hershey Chocolate company. My first impression of Penn was "Wow, it's green everywhere!" Take Alberta, remove the mountains, add a few hills, scatter some deciduous trees, make everything lush green and you have Pennsylvania. Once we got to Hershey, we stopped in at Chocolateworld; boy was it ever a treat! (yes, the pun sucked) There were special trolleys outside the builing, just waiting to take people to different places. Inside is a sight to behold; on the left is a "movie theatre" where one can learn more about Hershey's history. Straight ahead is the Hershey's shoppes/store, and slightly to the right is the Hershey Guided Tour. Off to the far right is the "Make your own" station, where for Friday people had the option of making their own Hershey Kisses. I went into the tour, and it was better than I had expected: we got to sit on a monorail while it took us through. I'm likely going to have nightmares with the 3 singing cows in them for days ("It's the milk-milk chocolate!") The chocolate creation process was explained in detail, with various demonstrations of Hershey machinery and video displays. After the ride I went and bought a huge sundae with Hershey fudge, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups sprinkled on, two brownies wedged in, topped with whip cream and a cherry. So much for my diet...

Our host home for Friday night was in Hershey, with the Stein family, who Streams came to visit last year on a trip to Pennsylvania. They live up the hill from a community golf course, and the view was just breath-taking! Michael Wise (Houston, TX) cooked burgers and hot dogs for dinner, and then we went wandering about the golf course. I went into the living room after dinner to fiddle with one of the Stein's guitars. Their son Norman and his friend John overheard me attempting to play, and actually taught me a few chords. I tried learning guitar about 10 years ago and gave up right away, but I think I actually want to again!

Part of the golf course

When it got dark, we lit up the fire pit and talked around it; me and Dave talked some about angels and the role that they play in our free will. During that time, Luke, Kaylene and others were out late walking on the golf course. By the time we got to bed, we'd all been on the course at some point.

It was only on Saturday morning before leaving the Steins' house that I actually noticed that the air outside smells like chocolate! Thoughts of a fairy tale environment partially existing sprang forth in my mind. After snapping out of it, I went with the others to give goodbyes before we went on our way. The Steins were truly amazing people, incredibly hospitable. They are moving to Virginia to open up a Christian-influenced coffee shop to uniquely minister to people.

We were finally going toward the main reason of our trip: Susquehanna University! The main reason for the whole trip was that Streams Academy had been hired by an entertainment company to "work" at SU during a university fair. We were officially hired as dream interpreters and spiritual readers.

An airborne Sharayah Quinn (Lindenhurst, NY)

Selinsgrove consists of either brick houses, brick buildings or older houses, some of those clearly labeled as frat/sorority houses (using various Greek letters). Selinsgrove in essence is just a college town. SU itself is rich with heritage and noticeably older; all the buildings on campus are made of brick and are bungalows (some with basements though). It was evident that the 1500ish students on campus are more interpersonal than you'd typically expect for a university. That gave SU a definite small town feel. Ken Nelson (the director of Streams Academy), Mikey Wise and Jessica Hamlet (Virginia) were the 3 doing the dream interpretation for the afternoon. The rest of us explored Selinsgrove and then had fun with the various games at the Susquehanna fair. Some of those were boxing with giant gloves, a bouncy slide and a basketball 3-pointer shooting contest with some army guys.

After finishing at Susquehanna University, we were set to go to our last major stop on the trip: the Lighthouse Church in Lindenhurst NY, home to Sharayah. It was so refreshing to see the Lighthouse again; I knew we'd get a hearty welcome from Kari (Sharayah's mom) and the rest of the Lighthouse crew. Not only that, but we got some New York style cheesecake, too - so good!

We attended the church Sunday morning, and much to our delight there were fresh New York bagels waiting! In the service Ken spoke about honoring leadership (specifically the church's pastor), as there had been some drama going on at the Lighthouse. After the message, Ken had the congregation line up around the sanctuary in a circle, so that all of us interns could give prophetic ministry to them. It was an powerful time, especially for one girl named Roseanne. Her friend had brought her to church knowing we were coming. Roseanne received multiple prophetic words of encouragement relating to her health, which caused her to break down. She revealed to us after that she was recently diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. She did not know the Lord but had felt something special when receiving the words she got. Ken talked with her for a while, and eventually Roseanne decided to accept the Lord into her life. That alone, if nothing else, totally made the trip!

Upon leaving the Lighthouse, we decided to try to get to Central Park. Unfortunately traffic was too congested, so we had to abandon that idea and head home instead. At various points during the drive, Ken drilled me on different Spanish words and phrases, which really helped me improve both my comprehension and vocabulary.

This was definitely my favorite trip of any yet; I'm likely a little biased due to the fact that it was more fun than actual ministry. That being said, we return to Salem Massachusetts this weekend to help out at a conference called "God for People Who Hate Church". I can't wait!