John Wega, US Christian Commission, Gettysburg

WOW! If I could use one word to describe our guest speaker, John Wega, it would be PASSION! Passion for God, passion for Christ, passion for Civil War history(particularly that of the heroes of faith that were part of the US Christian Commission) and passion for the visitors who come to Gettysburg to know Jesus as Lord and Savior.

John, through 7 years of research in an attempt to answer the questions "What type of ministry took place during the Civil War, in the midst of 600,000 lives lost to eternity?" and "Whose side was God on?", has unearthed the history and stories of the US Christian Commission and its heroes of faith who went into the battlefields and hospitals with "Bibles, bandages and the love of Christ" in an effort to alleviate the physical and spiritual suffering of both Union and Confederate soldiers, lead them to salvation, and bring them encouragement in the midst of this war.

John, after reading story after story of these heroes of faith, realized that this was lost Christian history that needed to be told. He re-founded the US Christian Commission, now getting ready to celebrate its fourth year, to impact the 3 million + visitors that come to Gettysburg with the historical accuracy of these stories and the salvation message. His passsion for God, for Christ, for this portion of history, for the "river of people" that flow through Gettysburg, and the message of Jesus Christ, makes all of these things come alive and is the only one of its kind in the whole country. The USCC's accurate portrayal of these events serves as an amazingly effective evangelistic tool to the tourists in Gettysburg. John IS a Civil War chaplain in the year 2009. He, his wife, and the people that aide them, do this through their museum, chapel services, living history demonstrations, faith based tours of Gettysburg, prayer and ministy nights at the museum, and with bottled water handed out with an invitation to come for chapel services.

As mentioned previously, he ministers primarily to the tourists, which somewhat narrows his efforts at bringing the Gospel message. However, he does this very effectively and reaches a lot of people, hopefully inspiring many of them to become "heroes of the faith". Because the USCC operates with little help, it is difficult for them to expand as they envision. With God's continued favor, prayer, John's passion, and increased, wider-ranging publicity of the USCC, I have no doubt that Gettysburg will once again become the "altar of the nation" as people are drawn to God and the principles on which our nation were founded.