Sayre: The Blackhole of the Universe

Today I woke up to a voicemail from my brother saying, "Good morning! I've had coffee and chocolate covered espresso beans so I'm wide awake!" Or at least something to that effect. So I called him back and after a brief discussion, I decided to drive up to the blackhole of the universe to spend the day with Nick.

The drive was quite interesting because of the extreme wind gusts that I kept encountering. It was another one of those days that if I wore baggie clothes outside, I would most likely float away. Due to the wind, I had to keep a firm grip on the wheel so I didn't veer sideways, and I had to be on alert for other vehicles that were not as good at maintaining control along the highway. I stopped for gas in Gouldsboro, which might seem dull until you realize the name of the station is "On the Run." I was highly amused by this, of course.
I continued on north and soon found myself traveling along the Southern Tier Expressway. Exits off the stretch I was on led to Appalachin, which is where the FBI busted the mob years ago, and Tioga Downs. I thought it was quite sad to see the parking lot packed full of cars on a Monday. Is there seriously nothing better to do but gamble in these parts? Well I guess that's better than running a meth lab, but still, some need to find a better way to fill their days.

I finally made it to Sayre around 1pm and took a little tour of town before going to Nick's house. I ventured past the Guthrie clinic, the movie theater, and Son's of Italy lodge, along with the local bakery. Once I met up with Nick, we ventured to Elmira for lunch at Olive Garden. I was greatly amused by the names of the towns on the exit signs, such as Jerusalem Hills and Horseheads. We got to Olive Garden a little before 2pm and we had a very pleasant waitress who throughly enjoyed our humor. I ate numerous breadsticks and some ravioli for lunch, while Nick had the parmesan crusted steak. After meeting with a customer in Elmira, Nick's roommate also joined us for lunch. He was sharing a bit about his wedding plans, along with work.

After talking for about an hour, we parted ways. Nick and I headed back to Sayre, but detoured to Athens so that he could show me the parsonage connected to the church he goes to because that's where he plans on moving in May. On our drive, we went through a yellow light, which again might seem uneventful, but Nick referred to it as "squeezing the lemon" and I found this hilarious. As we got closer to the parsonage, the roads became hard-packed dirt. We came across a woman and a large bird, which prompted Nick to say, "Welcome to the country where we walk our birds." I enjoyed the tour of the parsonage and got a peek inside the church as well. We soon made our way back to Sayre and I decided to move on to my parents house for dinner. All in all, it was a very good day, and lots of fun.

God's Not Dead Tour

Yesterday I went to the Pecksville Assembly of God in Blakely, PA, with Chrissy to go see the God's Not Dead Tour concert. The bands featured during this concert included Anthem Lights, Abandon, The City Harmonic, and The Newsboys. There was also a speaker, Bob Lenz, and we learned about different organizations including Compassion International and I Am Second. We were blessed with very good seats when the usher misunderstood what our tickets said and placed us in the second row right next to the stage. It wasn't until later that I realized that we weren't in the correct section, but I viewed it as like getting bumped up to first class from economy class on an airplane.
The first two bands to play were Anthem Lights and Abandon. We determined that Anthem Lights was the Christian version of a boy band, but they were still very entertaining. Abandon was also quite good and apparently they are from Texas. I was super excited to see The City Harmonic perform. They played "It Feels Like Home," "Yours," "Mountaintop," and "Manifesto." I think "Manifesto" was my favorite of their performances because I love the piano section, along with the fact that they sing the Lord's Prayer towards the end of the song.

Following The City Harmonic, Bob Lenz spoke. He was very entertaining, especially when he joked about if they made Bambi Part 3: Bambi Kills Thumper. The point of his message was about how we all have a purpose in life, even when it seems like people don't want us or appreciate us. Also, no matter what our past circumstances, if we accept Jesus into our hearts and repent, we will be forgiven. His slogan was, "If the world says no way, we say Yahweh." This was followed by a brief 15 minute intermission before The Newsboys. During intermission, I browsed the Compassion International table, along with the merchandise from the bands performing.
We were a little late getting back to our seats, so Chrissy and I had to crawl across the row of chairs since everybody was on their feet for The Newsboys. They put on a really good show, playing both old and new songs. The lead singer joked that we should sway back in forth during one song and then said it looked like a gospel choir in a land of white people. He also spoke about growing up in D.C. the youngest of 9 to a preacher who apparently took the command "to be fruitful and multiply" very seriously (his words, not mine). They closed with the song "God's Not Dead," which was quite fitting given the name of their tour, which I don't believe should be considered a world tour, considering all of the cities visited were in the United States, except for one trip into Canada.

After the concert, we browsed the tables for another brief couple of minutes. I bought a small The City Harmonic poster so that I could have the band sign it and Chrissy also got my picture with the band. All in all it was a good night of music that we followed up with a trip to Perkins for some french toast before going home. If you'd like to see some of the concert, click the link for God's Not Dead Tour.

Spruce Lake Retreat

This past weekend I went with my young adult Bible study group to the Spruce Lake Retreat Center in Canadensis, PA. It was a great weekend all around, with much fun had by all.
We arrived at Spruce Lake around 9:45pm on Friday and unloaded the vans in order to get situated in our cabin. Once we were all settled, we played a couple rounds of Loaded Questions in order to get acquainted with one another. During this time, we also ate some soft pretzels as a late night snack before dispersing for bed.
The next morning we had breakfast burritos made by Wes, Roshelle, and Karl, which were delicious. Breakfast was then followed by worship in music and then a teaching on 1 Corinthians 1:30 by Jim. The teaching focused on how we need to have our lives centered on Christ and that we are given new life through Him. Also, we can never gain righteousness on our own, only through Jesus. We then had about 15 minutes of prayer before Jim's second teaching, which focused upon sanctification. He taught that sanctification is two-fold: first we are sanctified (set apart) when we first believe, and then God continually sanctifies us throughout the course of our lives. This is because of the indwelling sin that we have in us. It's dead, but still present. We are no longer slaves to sin, but that desire in our nature still exists and is only dampened through God's sanctifying of our souls. We cannot and should not try to reform ourselves, for this is God's job. It involves the painful death of our sins in order to enjoy the joy of God. If we refuse to let go of our idols, our joy will be limited.

Following Jim's teaching, we enjoyed some relaxation outside on the swings that were built around the fire pit. Some people read, others chatted, and a couple played guitar. We then enjoyed chili for lunch before tackling the hike, aka Powerstroke 5000. The view was fantastic once we reached the top, and the weather was gorgeous. Soon we all headed back down to the cabin for some round-robin ping pong, followed by some head to head games to 7. Schulte crushed us all by winning almost 20 games in a row before dinner. Dinner consisted of angel hair pasta and a meat sauce that Heather made using the recipe of an Italian woman from Staten Island.

Following dinner, we watched a documentary entitled Catfish. This was about the influence of social media and how some can use it to deceive others. A man from NYC had developed a close bond with this family in Michigan, but he soon discovered that the majority of it was a scam set up by a woman who was just desperate for attention. Our discussion afterwards confronted whether or not this was real and also made us question how we interact with others using social media. It definitely makes you question how honest people are being, but even in person, people can lie to you. We all enjoyed some icecream during our discussion, followed by a jam session that included vocals, guitar, a drum, along with an assortment of household items such as a cheese grater, pots and pans, wooden spoons, a cooler, and a pink lemonade container. I then went outside to enjoy the campfire for a while before coming back inside to take notes on an audio book while others either read or played Scrabble. There was a bit of a dispute over whether "gorer" was a word before I decided to get some sleep.
This morning for breakfast we had bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches on bagels. After breakfast, Mark taught on the importance of having our identity in Christ and how when that is our focus, our actions are more likely to mirror Jesus. We must always remember that we are already children of God and then we will slowly have His ways manifest in us and flow out on a daily basis.
I chose to relax outside and listen to more of my book and take notes. I was definitely noticing some contradictions between the author and Scripture and between the author's own comments, which makes me leery. Heather was engrossed by The Hunger Games, while others played Perudo. I got in on the action for one round before going to relax on a swing while watching our chicken lunch roast over the fire. Lunch of chicken burritos soon followed before it was time for us to start packing up all of our belongings. We took one last group photo before everybody departed in the vans and I drove myself back to Stroudsburg.