The Rev. David McGee is living his faith by helping people not only as a clergyman, but also as a Christian.

Pastor of the First Assembly of God Church, located at 12th and Somerset streets in Windber, he comforted the dying and their families for many years as a volunteer at Windber Hospice.

He also has consoled and befriended many people throughout the community who have lost a loved one.

He and his wife, Ronda, also support every spaghetti dinner or car wash held to raise money for a good cause.

In recent months, the community has repaid his kindness and closed about his family upon learning that a member of his family was ill.

The McGees’ daughter-in-law, Jennifer, is undergoing treatment for an aggressive form of breast cancer.

Jennifer and the McGees’ son, David, had been doing missionary work in El Salvador for the past seven years. Jennifer learned last fall that she had cancer and returned to her home state of Missouri with David and their two children

– Jonny, 4, and Ema, 2 – to be with family members and undergo medical treatment.

McGee said his daughter-in-law has health insurance, but because of the extent of her illness, the bills are large.

The residents of Windber and the surrounding area are rallying to help her, he said.

McGee said the first round of support started when his wife’s beautician at JC Penney at The Galleria mall, Theresa Dobrota, and a fellow beautician, Chris Miller, organized a basket party in December.

Zoey Horvath and fellow firefighters at the Scalp Level-Paint Volunteer Fire Company joined the effort and donated the use of the hall and helped to prepare for the event.

People from Windber and surrounding areas donated more than 100 baskets, with the event raising more than $6,000, he said.

“That’s the way this area is,” McGee said about how people look out for each other. “It was just phenomenal. It is a very special community.”

The staff at Windber Medical Center, where McGee, as an endorsed chaplain, is director of pastoral care and an assistant to the social workers at Windber Hospice, raised money.

Churches of all denominations also raised money to help.

Staff, faculty and students in the Windber Area School District, where Ronda McGee is a teacher, raised thousands of dollars through various ways.

“I was humbled by what the school district did,” Ronda McGee said. “It was very touching.”

Rev. McGee, who grew up on a dairy farm outside Indiana, became a pastor in 1972 and immediately went into missionary work for several years in Maine. In the late 1970s, he started a church in Kittanning, Armstrong County. He stayed there for six years before moving to Windber to lead the First Assembly of God.

“I feel it’s a great opportunity to give life, direction and hope to people,” he said about being a pastor. “Church should be a celebration of our relationship with God, with one another and a place of personal growth.”

Friend Mike Smith said McGee is a genuinely caring person.

He said he had been an acquaintance of McGee because both their wives taught school together.

Smith said when his late wife, Ann, became ill and after she died, he really got to know McGee because McGee “adopted” him.

“He adopted me and spent an inordinate amount of time with me, helping me to learn to grow from this horrible situation,” Smith said. “He is the best listener that I’ve ever been around. And when he talks, the dots all connect.”

Smith said McGee has made himself available like that to many other people who are in mourning.

“Our community is so fortunate to have Rev. Dave McGee,” he said. “He is a special man who has touched an amazing number of people and continues doing so every year.”

Smith, president of the Laurel Auto Group, Johnstown, said his business hosts a charity golf tournament each year to fight gynecological cancers, with McGee always supporting it and speaking at the event.

He said McGee also has been invited to speak at training sessions he holds for his employees. McGee is great at helping others with managing their time and improving organization skills, he said.

The associate pastor at McGee’s church, the Rev. Brad Price, said that McGee is a sincere man.

“He truly cares and always takes the time for people,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who you are or what the scenario is.”

“He doesn’t allow moments of busyness to interfere with his ministry, not only for his flock but for the community at large.”

James McDonald, who lives near McGee’s church, said McGee has devoted many years to helping others.

McGee has been a great help at the hospital and Windber Hospice, he said.

He credits McGee’s soothing personality as helping him to reverse heart disease through the former Dr. Dean Ornish Program at Windber Medical Center.

Dave Klementik, a friend of McGee and a Somerset County judge, said it’s obvious from the outpouring of support for McGee’s daughter-in-law that people touched by McGee are reciprocating.

McGee has an incredible desire to help people, he said.

”He is so solid in his faith that he gives you the confidence that you know that he can deal with people’s problems,” Klementik said.

Frankie Bock, volunteer coordinator for Windber Hospice, said McGee has a gift of helping broken families find reconcilation, forgiveness and peace.

“Whether persons who call on him are from his church, Windber Medical Center, Windber Hospice, or the community at large, he will be there at a moment’s notice to do what he can,” she said.

The McGees also have a daughter, Rachel. Rachel and her husband, Richard Dorsey, who live in Mechanicsburg, Cumberland County, have a daughter, Maddy, 8, and a 6-month-old son, Jackson.