When the leaves fall, you can stand here and see for miles. Folks say it's one of the highest spots in Beaver County. First
you stay on Rt.51 till you see a school bus garage. Make a left. You look for a sign that says Cannellton. This place is not on the
map. You bounce over some railroad tracks and you're in the village. There's a general store on the left. Stay on this road. It's
steep and full of bumps. You might think that someone who lives this far out is part mountain goat. You wind your way through the
hills until you see a sign. "Fishers of Boys Training Center." This is the place.
The land doesn't look like much. It's hilly and woody. To the left of the dirt lane is a mobile home where the Allisons live. To the right a red bus and another mobile home. If it's a nice day the family's pet goat will be staked out. Ponies will be grazing, too. The boys are always tearing around, playing touch football, mowing the grass or watching the animals.
When you stop for a moment and look back as far as you can see, you'll notice the chapel. "Faith Chapel" is Jim Allison's dream. "Faith", he says, "put it there." The 40 by 60 foot chapel was built on 50 acres of woods that a New Brighton businessman leased to Jim. Three months were spent on clearing a spot. A friend loaned Jim a bulldozer. Jim had no idea how to operate it. Sometimes Jim would get really hung up, with trees crashing behind him and branches all over his lap. Then the boys would come to the rescue and saw him out. Tons of stones had to be gathered from creeks and hill sides. This was one project the boys did almost all by themselves. Faith Chapel now has a beautiful stone face.
Building a chapel takes skill, stamina, and financial needs that most lay people don't have. Jim learned this. For instance, the roof. It was September of 1973. Heavy clouds blotted the skies. Jim stood there and looked at his dream church. "Lord", he muttered, "how am I going to get a roof on this chapel?" The floor was in. The walls were up. But there was no roof or windows. Jim was headed down the dirt road when the answer came. It came like someone urging him on. He had to see his neighbor across the street. The thought hit him like a pail of ice water. "What? That man? He was one of the loudest protestors to the idea of having a farm for delinquent and unwanted boys in his neighborhood." Jim listened. He put his water bucket down and knocked at the front door. "I know who you are," the man sneered. "You're that preacher guy that's got all those trouble-maker kids up there. You think I'm going to help you…" Jim was stunned. Was he crazy standing here, asking this man for help? In a couple days, however, the man was up at the farm putting a roof on the chapel.
Then Jim had another urging. Again, it was like someone whispering to him. "Your going into town today. Take the blueprints with you." He took the blueprints along, not really knowing why. Then suddenly the reason came, there was a man in new Brighton who sold windows. He would see that man. Jim knew what it would cost to install ordinary windows. That's why he never had the courage to ask what church windows would cost. He walked in and showed the owners the blueprints. In scarcely no time at all he had his windows. At a cost more reasonable than he had ever expected. Jim borrowed the money to pay for them. When you believe, really believe in what you are doing, help always comes in many surprising, sometimes unheard of ways.
"We needed a pickup truck so badly out here. There was just no way we could afford one." This man in town heard about us. One day he drove up in a truck and handed me the keys. He said "Here, it's yours."
Another time Jim received a call from the Beaver Valley bus lines. "Interested in a bus? We've got one here. If you can get it out of here, it's yours." The bus was cleaned out and made into an emergency camper - for any family in the area that might need it overnight. Throughout the summer, the boys had a big time rolling out their sleeping bags and using it.
Each week, Jim's dream of the chapel fell into focus a little more. Last month he managed to pay off the rug in the pulpit area. Someone gave him a commercial clock. It was perfect for hanging in the lobby. Jim took off the commercial and added his own. "Jesus is the way,the truth, & the life." Jim needed a plumber. Suddenly a friend who met him at a gospel sing in Beaver volunteered to help install the sinks and toilets in the rest rooms. Someone else donated a stereo system. This goes over big with the visiting youth groups.
The boys who watched this chapel grow from a dream, see it with pride, even though it is a church. They are not church followers. Some don't even think of it as a church. "It's a half-way church." Jim explains. "We don't have services on Sundays. Only on Saturday evenings. One thing I've learned, when your trying to rehabilitate kids you can't do it with hallelujahs. There are trees to cut, roads to fix, there's discipline, a family-type life. This is rehabilitation. Kids going to church here are really not ready for the real church. At least they'll go here. Lately, young people from Cannellton have been joining the kids at Saturday evening services."
"The boys I deal with are teenagers. They come here usually with two strikes against them. They hate their parents. They hate society. And they can't do anything. Some have police records. Some are just forgotten kids with no families or friends." States Jim. There are five or six who live on the farm.
Jim tells the story of one boy, Dale. "His father dragged him up here at gun point. He threw him at me and said, "Take him I don't want him." Dale had almost killed himself sniffing gasoline. Several times in the months that followed Jim was ready to give up on him. He couldn't be trusted around the tool shed. Jim would catch him sniffing gasoline. Finally he had to lay out the facts: "Dale, if you ever do this again, you are through. You will have to leave. There's nothing here we can do for you." Jim doesn't know what changed Dale, but in the days that followed he noticed an up-lift in his attitude. "Look at him now. We can even let him mow the grass." "Dale is like a lot of kids", Jim says, "who feels deep down that no one loves them. They get depressed because they keep thinking about the people who rejected them, like their parents, and not the ones who love them." There are many boys that Jim cannot help. His life has even been threatened by some & he admits this.
"I could talk six months about the failures and fifteen minutes about the successes. But the fifteen minutes are what's important. You get used to seeing some kids, looking at them and saying to yourself, gee, he didn't even stay long enough to get started. Farm life teaches kids, even city kids, responsibility." That's why Jim has plenty of work to keep the boys busy. They have ponies to ride, but they also know they must feed and take care of them. Wendy, a brown and white mare is expecting a foal in the spring. The boys are responsible for keeping their rooms clean and their beds made. At supper time, everyone eats together.
For Jim Allison, at 41, life as a youth minister has been anything but easy. He is not an ordained minister. He is a Chaplain's assistant in the U.S. Army Reserves. Before getting involved with young people he worked in an Ellwood City mill. He graduated from New Brighton High School and always had an interest in sports. In 1967, he volunteered to help with youth programs at Bell Memorial Presbyterian Church.
A year later, he was hit with a devastating experience. His wife left him to marry a friend. Jim dropped out of his youth activities and traveled to Florida. He found a job at a nursery. For a while he spent some time helping the congregation of Calvary Temple Church in West Palm Beach, organizing activities for young people. It was here he received a clear word from the Lord through a pastor friend -- "to go home". He returned to his home in New Brighton, Pa.. Often the toughest place in the world to prove yourself is in your own home town. Jim Faced his share of ridicule when word spread that he was going to be a youth pastor.
In 1971, he opened a ministry at a bowling alley in New Brighton, Pa.. "I'd be busy managing this bowling alley and trying to work with the kids. They'd come over and start talking to me, but soon I saw why. While a couple of them had my attention, the others were steeling wallets from the purses of women bowlers."
Jim was able to open a "mission house" on Third Avenue near the bowling alley. The building housed the New Testament Church owned by Elim College in New York. It was a roomy old house that needed alot of repair. After two years of ministry and repairing the building, Jim met with Carleton Spencer, President of Elim College in New York, and purchased the house. Four years later, Jim decided to sell the "Mission Home" and buy all of the 50 acres out on fisher Drive in Darlington, Pa..
Constructing Faith Chapel was the beginning of the "faith-building" that was going to be needed to complete God's plan for the Fisher's of Boys. The chapel has been estimated to be worth about $70,000.00, but it only cost them $15,000.00 plus a lot of blood, sweat and tears.
"Fishers of Boys" received its charter on March 30th, 1972. It is a non- profit corporation which has a board of directors composed of ministers and businessmen in Beaver County. Jim is not paid for his work. All helpers are volunteer. Much of the help has come through friends he made speaking to gospel groups in Beaver County.
In the midst of all the street ministry, bowling alley ministry and "Mission House" ministries, Jim has remarried. His new wife, Naomi, is also deeply involved in the ministry activities. At any point in time, she can be found cleaning, cooking, singing or praying.
As Jim looks into the future, you can hear him say, " See that flat spot over there? We are going to have a dormitory for the boys. It'll be thirty feet by forty feet with bedrooms on the top floor with an open balcony; a cafeteria, library and a recreation hall. I want a nice place for these boys to live." "Do you know that there are 10 Million unwanted kids wandering around lost this year alone?"
"If we are going to be "Fishers of Men" like the Bible says, then we must first be "Fishers of Boys".
The land doesn't look like much. It's hilly and woody. To the left of the dirt lane is a mobile home where the Allisons live. To the right a red bus and another mobile home. If it's a nice day the family's pet goat will be staked out. Ponies will be grazing, too. The boys are always tearing around, playing touch football, mowing the grass or watching the animals.
When you stop for a moment and look back as far as you can see, you'll notice the chapel. "Faith Chapel" is Jim Allison's dream. "Faith", he says, "put it there." The 40 by 60 foot chapel was built on 50 acres of woods that a New Brighton businessman leased to Jim. Three months were spent on clearing a spot. A friend loaned Jim a bulldozer. Jim had no idea how to operate it. Sometimes Jim would get really hung up, with trees crashing behind him and branches all over his lap. Then the boys would come to the rescue and saw him out. Tons of stones had to be gathered from creeks and hill sides. This was one project the boys did almost all by themselves. Faith Chapel now has a beautiful stone face.
Building a chapel takes skill, stamina, and financial needs that most lay people don't have. Jim learned this. For instance, the roof. It was September of 1973. Heavy clouds blotted the skies. Jim stood there and looked at his dream church. "Lord", he muttered, "how am I going to get a roof on this chapel?" The floor was in. The walls were up. But there was no roof or windows. Jim was headed down the dirt road when the answer came. It came like someone urging him on. He had to see his neighbor across the street. The thought hit him like a pail of ice water. "What? That man? He was one of the loudest protestors to the idea of having a farm for delinquent and unwanted boys in his neighborhood." Jim listened. He put his water bucket down and knocked at the front door. "I know who you are," the man sneered. "You're that preacher guy that's got all those trouble-maker kids up there. You think I'm going to help you…" Jim was stunned. Was he crazy standing here, asking this man for help? In a couple days, however, the man was up at the farm putting a roof on the chapel.
Then Jim had another urging. Again, it was like someone whispering to him. "Your going into town today. Take the blueprints with you." He took the blueprints along, not really knowing why. Then suddenly the reason came, there was a man in new Brighton who sold windows. He would see that man. Jim knew what it would cost to install ordinary windows. That's why he never had the courage to ask what church windows would cost. He walked in and showed the owners the blueprints. In scarcely no time at all he had his windows. At a cost more reasonable than he had ever expected. Jim borrowed the money to pay for them. When you believe, really believe in what you are doing, help always comes in many surprising, sometimes unheard of ways.
"We needed a pickup truck so badly out here. There was just no way we could afford one." This man in town heard about us. One day he drove up in a truck and handed me the keys. He said "Here, it's yours."
Another time Jim received a call from the Beaver Valley bus lines. "Interested in a bus? We've got one here. If you can get it out of here, it's yours." The bus was cleaned out and made into an emergency camper - for any family in the area that might need it overnight. Throughout the summer, the boys had a big time rolling out their sleeping bags and using it.
Each week, Jim's dream of the chapel fell into focus a little more. Last month he managed to pay off the rug in the pulpit area. Someone gave him a commercial clock. It was perfect for hanging in the lobby. Jim took off the commercial and added his own. "Jesus is the way,the truth, & the life." Jim needed a plumber. Suddenly a friend who met him at a gospel sing in Beaver volunteered to help install the sinks and toilets in the rest rooms. Someone else donated a stereo system. This goes over big with the visiting youth groups.
The boys who watched this chapel grow from a dream, see it with pride, even though it is a church. They are not church followers. Some don't even think of it as a church. "It's a half-way church." Jim explains. "We don't have services on Sundays. Only on Saturday evenings. One thing I've learned, when your trying to rehabilitate kids you can't do it with hallelujahs. There are trees to cut, roads to fix, there's discipline, a family-type life. This is rehabilitation. Kids going to church here are really not ready for the real church. At least they'll go here. Lately, young people from Cannellton have been joining the kids at Saturday evening services."
"The boys I deal with are teenagers. They come here usually with two strikes against them. They hate their parents. They hate society. And they can't do anything. Some have police records. Some are just forgotten kids with no families or friends." States Jim. There are five or six who live on the farm.
Jim tells the story of one boy, Dale. "His father dragged him up here at gun point. He threw him at me and said, "Take him I don't want him." Dale had almost killed himself sniffing gasoline. Several times in the months that followed Jim was ready to give up on him. He couldn't be trusted around the tool shed. Jim would catch him sniffing gasoline. Finally he had to lay out the facts: "Dale, if you ever do this again, you are through. You will have to leave. There's nothing here we can do for you." Jim doesn't know what changed Dale, but in the days that followed he noticed an up-lift in his attitude. "Look at him now. We can even let him mow the grass." "Dale is like a lot of kids", Jim says, "who feels deep down that no one loves them. They get depressed because they keep thinking about the people who rejected them, like their parents, and not the ones who love them." There are many boys that Jim cannot help. His life has even been threatened by some & he admits this.
"I could talk six months about the failures and fifteen minutes about the successes. But the fifteen minutes are what's important. You get used to seeing some kids, looking at them and saying to yourself, gee, he didn't even stay long enough to get started. Farm life teaches kids, even city kids, responsibility." That's why Jim has plenty of work to keep the boys busy. They have ponies to ride, but they also know they must feed and take care of them. Wendy, a brown and white mare is expecting a foal in the spring. The boys are responsible for keeping their rooms clean and their beds made. At supper time, everyone eats together.
For Jim Allison, at 41, life as a youth minister has been anything but easy. He is not an ordained minister. He is a Chaplain's assistant in the U.S. Army Reserves. Before getting involved with young people he worked in an Ellwood City mill. He graduated from New Brighton High School and always had an interest in sports. In 1967, he volunteered to help with youth programs at Bell Memorial Presbyterian Church.
A year later, he was hit with a devastating experience. His wife left him to marry a friend. Jim dropped out of his youth activities and traveled to Florida. He found a job at a nursery. For a while he spent some time helping the congregation of Calvary Temple Church in West Palm Beach, organizing activities for young people. It was here he received a clear word from the Lord through a pastor friend -- "to go home". He returned to his home in New Brighton, Pa.. Often the toughest place in the world to prove yourself is in your own home town. Jim Faced his share of ridicule when word spread that he was going to be a youth pastor.
In 1971, he opened a ministry at a bowling alley in New Brighton, Pa.. "I'd be busy managing this bowling alley and trying to work with the kids. They'd come over and start talking to me, but soon I saw why. While a couple of them had my attention, the others were steeling wallets from the purses of women bowlers."
Jim was able to open a "mission house" on Third Avenue near the bowling alley. The building housed the New Testament Church owned by Elim College in New York. It was a roomy old house that needed alot of repair. After two years of ministry and repairing the building, Jim met with Carleton Spencer, President of Elim College in New York, and purchased the house. Four years later, Jim decided to sell the "Mission Home" and buy all of the 50 acres out on fisher Drive in Darlington, Pa..
Constructing Faith Chapel was the beginning of the "faith-building" that was going to be needed to complete God's plan for the Fisher's of Boys. The chapel has been estimated to be worth about $70,000.00, but it only cost them $15,000.00 plus a lot of blood, sweat and tears.
"Fishers of Boys" received its charter on March 30th, 1972. It is a non- profit corporation which has a board of directors composed of ministers and businessmen in Beaver County. Jim is not paid for his work. All helpers are volunteer. Much of the help has come through friends he made speaking to gospel groups in Beaver County.
In the midst of all the street ministry, bowling alley ministry and "Mission House" ministries, Jim has remarried. His new wife, Naomi, is also deeply involved in the ministry activities. At any point in time, she can be found cleaning, cooking, singing or praying.
As Jim looks into the future, you can hear him say, " See that flat spot over there? We are going to have a dormitory for the boys. It'll be thirty feet by forty feet with bedrooms on the top floor with an open balcony; a cafeteria, library and a recreation hall. I want a nice place for these boys to live." "Do you know that there are 10 Million unwanted kids wandering around lost this year alone?"
"If we are going to be "Fishers of Men" like the Bible says, then we must first be "Fishers of Boys".
These pictures are from the article
From Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Take Rt.60 N. to the Chippewa exit, at the stop sign turn Lt. onto Rt.51 N. go 7 miles to Oakdale Rd.. Turn Lt. onto Oakdale Rd. Go to the end of the road, you'll come to a T in the road. This is Ridge Rd. turn Rt. on Ridge Rd.. Go about a 1/2 a mile to Fisher Drive, turn Rt. on Fisher Drive. You are there.
From Youngstown, Ohio: Take Rt.11 S. to the first Columbiana exit, at the stop sign turn Lt.onto Rt.46 S. to the red light. Turn Lt. onto Rt.14 E. go to the Pa. state line. There Rt.14 E. turns into Rt.51 S.. Take Rt.51 S. for 3.5 miles. to Wolfe's Hardware (landmark) the road just past Wolfe's is Oakdale Rd.. Turn Rt. onto Oakdale Rd.. Go to the end of Oakdale Rd. you'll come to a T in the Rd.. This is Ridge Rd.. Turn Rt. onto Ridge Rd., Go about a 1/2 of a mile to fisher Drive. Turn Rt. on Fisher Drive. You Are there.
