August 2, 2008

Grace Abounding from Pittsburgh

I just arrived home after a five hour drive from Pittsburgh. It was a grace-filled weekend. I was extremely blessed to see how the King of kings continues to uphold the saints there and keep them witnessing for the sake of His name. A few guys seem to have gone under genuine conversions, though time will be the test. If it is of God, then they will continue in His grace. The brothers there are definitely growing in their love for the truth and for one another, and that is very encouraging to see.

Here are some miniature snapshots I took from my little cheepie keychain camera I bought at CVS downtown (the thing is a little larger than my thumb!):


This morning we met to pray in the park and the fire men (and woman) were making a rainbow in the river.







PPG - one of the many buildings downtown where I used to sell coffee.








I guess this would have been on Smithfield Street.







Smithfield and Forbes, across the street from McDonalds (where all the 'Riff, Raff' meet).








"God's grace is free... the Post Gazette is a dollar!" That's our Newspaper friend's stand on the corner.





Same corner... yesterday I saw an ATM robber get jumped by the police right behind me here. It looked like the undercover cops set the guy up. I noticed two large men scuffling about ten feet behind me, the XL man grabbed the robber and held him firmly in a headlock. A very big uniformed cop ran across the street and pulled out his cuffs, then the skinny young lady who appeared to be the one being robbed snapped the cuffs around the guy's wrists and they hauled him off to the county jail. We were praying for them as it was happening. People were staring at me amazed and asking, "What just happened?" I replied, "What are you gonna' say when you stand before the judge?..." and just smiled... They were walking away with the same amazed look on their faces. :)








I crossed this bridge on foot every day for a year and a half.














I'm praying for all the precious souls in this city. Oh, that God would save some today!

































The clouds on my trip home were pretty impressive. This is in the middle of Pennsylvania.




















I was thinking, "Jesus could come back at any moment." He is coming... and Romans chapter eight playing in the car was like water to my thirsty soul.

4 comments:

Stephanie said...

Hi Penn,
Glad that your weekend went well. I was praying for your witness there. Those are beautiful pictures. Have you ever been up the Duquesne Incline in Pittsburgh?

Penn Tomassetti said...

Stephanie,
Thank you so much for the prayers. It was a very eventful weekend. I am so thankful for all the gracious laborers there. I have been up the incline before, some of those photos were taken at the top of the mountain. The incline is very slow and costs 75 cents, so I put the petal to the metal in my car and slowly made it to the top of that hill :)

Moon said...

sounds like it was a wonderful trip! although the robber story was pretty scary! I've never seen anyone being caught by the police here, wouldn't want to either over here police officers are little more violent than that...
well just wanted to say hi and welcome back!
God bless ya!

Penn Tomassetti said...

Thanks Rita!
I'm sorry to hear about the police where you live. These guys weren't really being violent, they were just tackling a pretty large man (so I changed the wording a little). I often pray for the police, sometimes they are unnecessarily harsh or violent and at other times they are the victims (as in Philly where they are sometimes murdered). I will pray for them in the DR also.