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Washington County prayer breakfast kicks off Holy Week

By Eleanor Bailey almanac Sports Editor ebailey@thealmanac.Net 6 min read
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Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac

Andrew DiDonato drives home a point during his speaking engagement at the 25th anniversary Washington County Prayer Breakfast.

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Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac

Bryan Koch was one of two featured speakers at the 25th anniversary Washington County Prayer Breakfast held at the Double Tree Hotel in Meadow Lands.

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Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac

Andrew DiDonato talks with Doug Watson of South Fayette at the 25th anniversary Washington County Prayer Breakfast.

During the holiest week on the Christian calendar, it was fitting that the Men of Honor Ministries (MOHM) held its annual Washington County Prayer Breakfast. And, for its 25th anniversary celebration, it was even more apt the group called up two of its most popular speakers to once again deliver their powerful messages of salvation for Easter.

Grove City head football coach Andrew DiDonato and Teen Challenge consultant Rev. Bryan Koch highlighted the April 1 event attended by 450 guests in the ballroom of the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh in Meadow Lands.

MOHM spiritual adviser and former Pentagon chaplain Col. Robert Boidock delivered the welcome, and the Rev. Doug Boyd, chaplain for the Pitt Panthers football team and Shady Side Hospital, provided the opening prayer.

MOHM founder Paul Powers recognized around a dozen men who attended the first Washington County Prayer Breakfast, and former Grove City football player Noah Peternal introduced the speakers.

A Bridgeville native, DiDonato excelled in football, basketball and baseball at South Fayette High School. At Grove City College, he remains the school’s record holder in career passing yards (7,509), pass completions (750), and touchdown passes (49). He also holds the Wolverines’ season records in each of those three categories.

He coached at the University of Buffalo and Peters Township High School. He also helped his alma mater win back-to-back WPIAL and PIAA championships in football in 2013-14 before becoming the coach at Grove City.

DiDonato, like Peternel, pinpointed an event that turned his life around. It was his senior year in high school when he attended his first prayer breakfast and was inspired by the words of Pat Williams.

A basketball Hall-of-Famer, Williams co-founded the NBA’s Orlando Magic. The former general manager of the Philadelphia 76ers, is one of America’s top motivational and inspirational corporate speakers.

“When I heard Pat speak, that day changed my life,” DiDonato said.

“I read this book every day,” he said holding up a black leather and worn Bible, “and every single book I can read on leadership.”

DiDonato cited Williams, Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, Walt Disney, Billy Graham and John Wooden as well as the Green Bay Packers, who beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 31-25, in Super Bowl XLV on Feb. 6, 2011, and the Crimson Tide of Alabama, who won the NCAA college football championship that same year.

“The one thing they all talked about was vision,” DiDonato said. “There is power in vision but it has to be clear and concise. So when you are asked why you are here, you should be able to answer in a clear and concise manner.”

He noted how wonderful what Christians are celebrating this month and what better example of vision there was of Jesus sweating blood in the garden and taking the sins of the world on His shoulders. On Good Friday, he said, the focus is on the final seven words of Christ. “It is finished,” he said. “A vision keeps you focused. A vision keeps you fueled. A vision helps you finish,” he stressed.

Koch’s life as a baseball player didn’t last, and his existence was almost snuffed out by a drunken driver.

One day after his high school graduation, he was drafted by the Chicago White Sox. Since the age of 8 he had that concise vision about which DiDonato spoke. “I thought playing baseball was it but there came a change-up to the vision of my life.”

Koch was hit by a 90 mile-an-hour fastball and lost vision in his left eye, ending his career.

On an ice cream run on his motorcycle with his wife, he was hit head-on by a car. He missed his wife’s funeral because he was in a coma. Both his hips and his pelvis were crushed and his left leg was amputated.

He noted that the Bible says the rain falls on the just and the unjust. “We live in a fallen world,” he said. “What do we do when our theology does not match our reality? You talk about having an interruption to the vision God had in your life. I didn’t get off work early. God had a plan, a clear, concise plan for me. There was still more for me to do.”

Koch said he wanted to be better, not bitter, and he, too, had a story to tell. It involved three parts: orientation that God is good; disorientation, moments in life when something happens that shakes belief and one thinks God is good but not for me; and then comes reorientation.

“Life threw me a curve ball and I didn’t foul it off. I totally missed, but I prayed and was reminded of how good God is. In the midst of my questions, I had a playbook from heaven.”

During Koch’s rehab, he related how God opened a door for him. It eventually led to his ministry of speaking to and encouraging veterans and amputees.

Three hospital rooms away from Koch lay Rocky Colavito. The Hall of Fame outfielder for the Cleveland Indians had his right leg amputated below the knee due to complications from Type 2 diabetes.

“It was like when I got called up to the big leagues to replace Carlton Fisk when he got hurt and I needed to go down to the bullpen and catch. I remember seeing Tony La Russa, Greg Lozinski and Lamar Hoyt, but I had a clear vision of who the greatest person is and that’s Jesus Christ.

“I was shaking and nervous,” he added of that long walk to the bullpen as well as to Colavito’s room. “He was suffering and hurting, but the only way I was able to stand up for the first time in 51 days and talk to him was because I knew God personally.

“We are all leaning on something. Right now for me, it’s the lecture and the cane,” he continued.

Some rely on money, health and career but Koch encouraged the crowd to listen to the words of God and lean on Jesus Christ. “He is the only thing that will make it and last.”

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