In Hard Times, the Truck Stop Offers a Place to Pray

By IAN URBINA
June 18, 2008

BREEZEWOOD, Pa. — More than six million souls pass through this quarter-mile strip of all-night waffle houses and gas stations each year. The Rev. Shannon Rust hopes to save at least a few of them.

For nearly two decades, he has pulled the chapel inside his 18-wheel tractor-trailer twice a week to this bustling truck stop where the Pennsylvania Turnpike meets Interstate 70.

To most people, this place between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg is neither here nor there. It is a tank of gas, a bathroom break and a coffee refill. But to Mr. Rust, the diesel-soaked lot alongside the All-American Petro is a parish ideal for preaching to the traveling masses about life’s ultimate arrival.

“They all have auto insurance,” he said. “I’m trying to tell them about soul insurance.” the rest