The Nehemiah Project: A rebirth of the Mon Valley

Editor’s note: Ralph Stone has been writing about an imaginary family from Omaha, Neb., touring a futuristic, fictional Mon Valley on a summer vacation.

You might be wondering how in the world did these vacation/ tourist-oriented burgs along the banks of the midsection of the Monongahela River ever transform from the steel center, zinc producing, magical glass industries for which they were once known? The answer lies in a multitude of measures and reasons, one of which would become known as the Nehemiah Project of the Mon.

A small group of pastors, politicians and citizens began to meet in Monessen. Their hope was to involve the city and its Mayor Ron Mozer to begin a project to rebuild Monessen focusing on its glorious past as a steel producer. They decided to call it “The Nehemiah Project,” basing it on the Old Testament book of the Bible of the same name.

For those who are not familiar with this story, Nehemiah was a prophet of God who was one of the Israeli captives enslaved under Babylonian rule. Nehemiah, a servant under that rule, became saddened, even depressed over the news that the exquisite temple built under the rule of Solomon as well as the entire former Jerusalem and Israeli nation had been destroyed.

As the years passed by, that Babylonian kingdom had been overrun by the Persians. A rather sympathetic Persian king, Artaxerxes, listened to the emboldened plea his servant, Nehemiah, presented to him. The entire book can be summarized by saying that Artaxerxes agreed to permit and fund Nehemiah’s project to rebuild the temple and restore the promised land, known for its “milk and honey.”

Thus began the similar hopes of this body of men and women who wanted to see Monessen’s greatness restored. It all started as strictly a Monessen project, but in time was spread over the entire mid Mon Valley. Its membership included mayors and council members from each community; county commissioners became involved as did segments of the local populations. Their regular meetings often moved from one community to another but one of the favorite sites was found within the walls of a newly established Christian-based coffee house known as His Place.

His Place was originally a fictional program, which regularly aired on Christian television. The story’s main personality was the shop proprietor, Tim Burgan. Several decades later pastor Burgan, one of the Valley’s many fine Christian leaders of that era, decided to make his one-time pretend coffee house into a real live place where people could enjoy a cup of Joe and perhaps a bit of spiritual uplifting.

This coffee house became a center for many Christian undertakings and community events, one of which was the Nehemiah Project.

His Place, still in the Higgins’ futuristic world of