Dig In

This past weekend, 100 students from campuses all across Pennsylvania met here at Susquehanna University for the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship "Dig In" conference, 24 hours of worship, scripture study, and socializing.

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship is not (contrary to popular belief) some sort of Christian athletes club. It's an international organization, started in Great Britain (where "varsity" is a common abbreviation for "university"), that is dedicated to creating communities of Christians on college campuses. Susquehanna's chapter currently has about 45 active members.

At the conference freshmen, sophomores and juniors from Bucknell, Penn State, Lehigh, Bloomsburg, Alvernia, Albright, and SU did an in-depth study of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. Seniors like myself spent the conference talking about what it looks like to have faith after college in concrete terms.

After studying a few of Jesus' parables, we talked about how our faith can play active role in our jobs, careers, budgets, housing situations, and romantic relationships. We discussed the problems many twenty-somethings run into when they try to find a church and how we can actively seek out Christian community wherever we end up.

It was busy 24 hours, but I still found some time to connect with some old friends from Lehigh that I've gotten to know through other IV conferences. Susquehanna and Bucknell students opened up their rooms so students from the more distant schools would have a place to crash for the night.

At Susquehanna, a bunch of us ended up in a basement in one of the West Village buildings, spread out in front of the big screen TV, and we talked through all of The Italian Job. InterVarsity conferences are the only place where I've seen such vibrant community spring up so quickly among complete strangers.

The Bloomsburg Fair

It's like a fair, only bigger.

When Holly talked me and Rob into to making the 45-minute drive up to Bloomsburg, I was expecting a handful of rides and maybe two dozen food stands, but I was wrong.  With over 400,000 visitors, 1,200 concession stands, and big-name music acts, the Bloomsburg Fair is one of the biggest fairs in Pennsylvania.  They were offering ten-dollar helicopter rides by the entrance as we walked in.

The fair draws in big acts (which this year included Jeff Dunham, REO Speedwagon, and Lady Antebellum), but it also features some off-the-wall entertainment: an Elvis impersonator, a "Dock Dogs" dog-jumping competition, Cinderella-style carriage rides, and a lawn mower race.

And there's the standard fair stuff: bright-colored rides, farm animals and food.  We pet some sheep, stumbled into a 4H auction, tried (and failed) to win Holly a goldfish, oggled at the giant prize-winning pumpkins, and wandered through the concession stands trying to decide what we wanted.  Funnel cake?  Candy apple?  Apple dumpling?  Frozen banana?  I went for a waffle cone full of Chocolate Pretzel Crunch ice cream from the Penn State Creamery booth.