Hope in the Hood

I took this pic while driving down through Aliquippa the other day.  I was coming back home from spending a few hours with Ben...the 12 year old boy that I "mentor" there.  If you've not been to Aliquippa and you live in the PIttsburgh area, you owe yourself a trip through there.  It is such a depressed place in so many ways.  When the steel industry pulled out a few decades ago, it's like they pulled out the heart and soul of Aliquippa and its people.

But NO!  Take a closer look and you'll see heart, and soul.  Jesus said that the last shall be first, and in many ways that is living out as truth in Aliquippa.  I take heart in a world that is obsesses with "Happy Holidays" and other politically correct crapola that a town in the heart of our region knows where the true hope lies, and is not afraid to display it.

Merry Christmas, Aliquippa.  And may the peace and hope, which can only be found in Jesus Christ (which you apparently already know) be yours this Christmas and always....