After we had been at Penn State for a year, I wanted to arrange some trips for international students, to get to know them and to bless them with special experiences. A natural possibility was a weekend trip to see famous Niagara Falls.

 

At a family reunion that summer I talked with my cousin, Larry, who was the Pastor of a church in nearby Buffalo, and we made tentative plans for people from his church to host a group from Penn State. As the Fall Semester began, I met lots of students who were interested in this trip. But when I called my cousin’s church to finalize our plans, I learned that Larry had recently moved to be Pastor of a church elsewhere, and the church would not be able to partner with me in arranging for hosts. As I already had a large group of students registered for this trip, in desperation I asked if they knew another church which might host. They suggested a church, but had no idea if they would be willing and able to do it. I prayed, and then called the contact person at this new church.  Amazingly, though they only knew me from that call, they agreed to host all of our group. Thus, began a wonderful relationship with that church which involved them hosting us every Fall for 15 years.

 

But the hosts from that church were getting older and having health problems. So one year we made our plans, but I found out the week before the trip that they did not have nearly enough hosts for our group. I encouraged them to keep recruiting hosts and I would pray. Just as I hung up the phone, my phone rang. It was a call from my brother Bob. When he asked me how I was doing and what was happening, I told him. He suggested I contact the former Pastor of his church, who was now the Pastor of a church in the Niagara Falls area!  I called him, and he was glad to have families from his church host our group. Again, that new church connection would continue for about 15 more years.

 

Adding to these Fall trips, I would also take students each Memorial Day weekend in May to a Christian conference in Buffalo which included sight-seeing at Niagara Falls, for a total of more than 60 trips to Niagara Falls for PSU international students!