Rochester Elder Receives Surprise Honor

When he walked into the Hoselton car dealership with his son David, Bill Pihl, an elder at the Rochester, N.Y., RPC, thought he was there to look at a car. To his surprise, he was given one instead!

Each month Hoselton is giving away a car to someone who has gone the “Extra Mile.” One month the winner was an outstanding firefighter. Another month it was an outstanding high school senior. In July, it was an outstanding armed forces member. This is where Bill Pihl comes in—Chaplain Bill Pihl.

Unbeknownst to him, Bill’s son had written a short essay to enter him in the contest. On the night they were to announce the winner, David took his dad to the dealership to look at a car. Once they got there, Bill said it looked like they were filming a commercial, so he didn’t want to go anywhere near the crowd. But his son walked right over. Bill still had no idea the crowd had something to do with him, until they started listing the accomplishments of the winner—which matched his life.

“It was quite a surprise—to put it mildly,” Chaplain Pihl said.

Bill has been in the military for 35 years. He was on active duty in the Air Force for eight years and has been in the reserves ever since. He currently serves as the deputy division chaplain for the 98th division of the Army Reserves.

He spent three weeks in August and September in Fort Bliss, Tex., counseling soldiers from his division who had just come back from Iraq. While he hasn’t been to Iraq himself, Bill knows he could be called up at any time.

“If they need me, I’m ready to go.” He said that time could come next year, because there is a shortage of chaplains.

Bill served the Rochester RPC as stated supply from 1985 to 1990. He and his wife, Beverly, have three children: David, 23, Emily, 17, and Christi, 15.

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Grace (State College, Pa.) RPC

David Hanson, pastor

Pastor David W. Hanson was installed by the Presbytery of the Alleghenies as pastor of Grace (State College, Pa.) RPC on July 15.

The pulpit had been declared vacant on July 4, 2004, on the departure of Pastor Gordon Keddie. The ensuing months had been a time of perseverance, patience, and prayer for the session, the search committee, and the congregation. Now is the time for rejoicing and thanksgiving.

Several members of the Presbytery of the Alleghenies joined in the services, including Pastors Bruce Backensto, Martin Blocki, and Harry Metzger, and Rev. Ralph Joseph and Rev. Doug Comin. Elder Dean McHenry performed the roll call, which established a quorum. The sermon preached by Pastor Metzger was titled, “A World-Changer,” and was based on 2 Chronicles 4:1-7.

“This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes” (Ps. 118:23).

—Jean W. Sherman, correspondent

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Rose Point (New Castle, Pa.) RPC

Bob Schmidtberger, pastor

The WMF meets monthly and held two thankoffering services. The speakers were Jan Buchanan from Senegal and the congregation’s own Jennifer Reed and Drew McKelvy, who served with mission teams in Mexico and Arizona.

On Jan. 1, we hosted the Presbytery of the Alleghenies first New Year’s Day Psalm Sing. The sanctuary was well filled. Other special events were a New Year’s Eve party, a game night, an Irish night, a Cinco de Mayo dinner, a 95th birthday celebration for Bill Rhodes, a picnic to honor Susan Burger’s graduation from Grove City College, a picnic at the home of John Mitchell to welcome Rev. Ralph Joseph, and a Sabbath school picnic at the Curran home. The Schmidtbergers were honored at a 25th anniversary open house hosted by their children.

The congregation is privileged to have a number of college students from Grove City and Slippery Rock worship here each week. They then enjoy dinner and fellowship with the Schmidtbergers. The church is sponsoring a Bible study for these students at Grove City College on Monday evenings led by Rut Etheridge, a student at the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

The Summer Sizzling Fun program was continued this year for the young people of the church and friends and neighbors. After a time of praise and study, the young people enjoyed miniature golf, bowling, or game nights at the parsonage.

The McKelvy family attended the presbytery conference at Laurelville before Rosann left to work as a nanny in Kansas. Saundra Schmidtberger attended the Theological Foundations for Youth program at the seminary. Robbie Schmidtberger serves as a counselor at the Great Lakes-Gulf Presbytery winter conference and at Laurelville. Amy Bessell was presented with a Bible from the church upon her graduation from high school. Marja Hanninen was accepted into the aerospace engineering program at Penn State.

The congregation was saddened by the deaths of Nancy Stevenson and William Rhodes.

The congregation appreciates a monthly newsletter edited by Dawn McKelvy and thanks Ken Jackson for keeping the church web site—www.christalone.us—updated. Pray that the Rose Point congregation might continue to witness to its neighbors.

—Lillian Kennedy, correspondent

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Southside (Indianapolis, Ind.) RPC

Gordon Keddie, pastor

The congregation is increasing its interest in Australia. In June, the congregation had to say farewell to Josh, Sarah, and Eleni McEwen as they moved to Josh’s home country of Australia, where they will be part of the Geelong RPC. The congregation will sorely miss their serious commitment to the Word, sense of fun, and devoted interest in others. Josh’s summer youth program became a series of memorable events. “The Flying Calamari Brothers” at the 2004 RP International Conference was one example of Josh’s wackiness, and his leading of the high school youth there demonstrated his ability to communicate God’s Word.

Ed and Nancy Blackwood and four of their six children are working on obtaining visas to serve the Australian congregation at McKinnon. The congregation expects much coming and going between the two continents and an increase of fellowship and love.

—Jane Keddie, correspondent