Johnstown

This past Saturday, we headed to Johnstown, PA to speak at the last Sunday of the missions conference at Roxbury St. Paul's church. What a beautiful time to drive in Pennsylvania and the tree colors were brilliant and spoke so strongly to the existence of a gracious Creator. As the Bible says, all creation testifies to His existence.

On our way to Johnstown, we saw a turn-off to the Flight 93 memorial in Somerset County. We took the 10 mile detour through the beautiful Pennsylvania countryside to the temporary memorial. The temporary memorial was packed with visitors - we had not expected that. We walked down to a fenced-in area that overlooked where Flight 93 drilled into a field on that fateful September 11 day. There were flags and flowers on the fence and the crowds were very quiet, somber, and respectful of this now hallowed ground.

We learned that the US Park Service has bought 2200 acres to protect this area and a beautiful memorial monument is under construction. An American flag marked the location of the covered crater where the plane hit as passengers fought for control of the plane hijacked by terrorists. A display room presented a time-line of that fateful day and what they know of the events on this flight through the phone calls and recordings. We left very emotionally touched and proud of those who fought back, preventing and even more awful outcome. The event speaks so strongly to the evil man is capable of absent of a personal relationship with Christ - there is no end to the evil that men are capable of doing. We took no pictures, it somehow seemed disrespectful. Hallowed ground....

We had only passed through Johnstown previously and we enjoyed our time there very much. We stayed at a Comfort Inn that was hopping! There was a bus-full of a choir group from Pennsylvania and several hockey teams from a number of colleges. There were vans from the University of Charleston (SC) and other schools and there was lots of noise and activity. We were so tired, we passed out but it must of been bad because in the morning when we checked out, the staff apologized profusely and gave us an additional discount on our bill. Thank you for that! The night manager looked and talked like he had been through a very rough night and if he'd ever been a hockey fan, he clearly wasn't any longer - we gathered it was the hockey teams that had given him trouble most of the night. It even looked like he had blood on his shirt - we didn't have the nerve to ask about that! I wouldn't think you mix it up with hockey players! We felt bad for him but we managed to sleep through it all!

Sunday morning we spoke at both church services and at a breakfast between the two services. They had our name on the marque, which is always a bit un-nerving, but we felt so very welcomed and loved by this church. It was the final Sunday of a three-week missions conference and it was truly a privilege to be there. We got lots of good questions and had a delightful lunch afterwards at Eat-n-Park with two members of the missions committee; breakfast buffets are my favorite. "I just can't lose weight...it must be something I ate and ate and ate and ate....." We have got to get more discipline in this transient life we live!

Johnston is a nice town and I think one of those hidden secret kind-of-places that are so special. It is in and around a valley where a river runs and our GPS (Garmin) took us all sorts of crazy places as we negotiated the town. We left the conference feeling spiritually up-lifted and thankful for this church that truly has a heart for the Great Commission, which is the job description of the church - Go and Make Disciples. (Matt 28). We were blessed to have been there. We pray Your blessing on this precious congregation and its leadership.

Great weekend but have a mountain of paperwork I need to get busy on!

Blessings!

Dave & Ann

"The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork..." Ps 19:1

"Fo his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So, they are without excuse..." Romans 1:20