It was June 6, 1944, and little did the American people know, but the D-Day invasion was already underway in France. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, speaking on his radio program called the "Fireside Chat," led the nation in prayer a prayer uttered by a man who obviously knew God. It is my prayer that the same tremendous encouragement will give courage to the Ukrainian people all over the world today.
It was June 6, 1944, and little did the American people know, but the D-Day invasion was already underway in France. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, speaking on his radio program called the "Fireside Chat," led the nation in prayer a prayer uttered by a man who obviously knew God. It is my prayer that the same tremendous encouragement will give courage to the Ukrainian people all over the world today.
The Star-Gazette reported some bad news.
It was Friday the 13th, June 1930. Rush hour traffic was heavy downtown when a roar echoed through the streets at 4:55 p.m.
A wooden walkway on Main Street between the Gorton Coy building and Iszard’s department store collapsed into a 15-foot hole. The crashing walkway took with it 24 pedestrians.
A child died instantly: Maria Smolka, age 11, of Elmira Heights. Other people suffered broken legs, arms, skulls, collarbones, fractured ribs, and many lacerations, abrasions, contusions, concussions, sprains, shock and lots of blood. Screaming and suffering followed the catastrophe. An estimated 200 were in the near vicinity.
In 1934, a young John Bedzyk heard about a Wesleyan Camp meeting in Chambers, New York. Here s what he did, according to a newspaper article:
“At twelve years of age, he and a large group of Ukrainian children piled into and onto a 1926 Essex. John rode straddling a headlight. They were hungry for God. Every one of this group of young people was saved that day” (Herald Examiner, April 1991).
And so began a life in ministry that included being the longtime pastor of one of Elmira s most prominent churches.
John Bedzyk was the son of Michael and Anna Bedzyk. Michael, a Ukrainian immigrant, had come from Zahutyn province in Poland around 1910 at age 16. In 1914, he took a job at the former Eclipse Machine Co. in Elmira Heights, where he met and married Anna Moskal. They settled in the Ukrainian community.