Extreme fire dangers that prompted the closing of the Coronado National Forest have shut down the Arizona Church of Christ Bible Camp on Mount Graham, church leaders say. However, Christian teens are not giving up on the possibility of a Bible camp experience this summer, said Jessica Knapp, youth minister of the Mountain Avenue Church of Christ in Tucson, Ariz.

Until a clear, crisp Saturday morning erupted in gunfire outside a Safeway supermarket in Tucson, Ariz., few had heard of the Mountain Avenue Church of Christ. Desert terrain and mountain ranges surround the city of 550,000 where the 120-member congregation meets in a red-brick building shaded by palm trees. A familiar face only to his friends, relatives and church family, 76-year-old Dorwan Stoddard served Jesus in obscurity — taking charge of maintaining the 50-year-old church building and leading the benevolence ministry with his wife, Mavy. “He was a hero to his church family,” pulpit minister Mike Nowak said. But in an instant, he became a hero to millions and propelled the Mountain Avenue church into the national spotlight.

Rep. Brett Guthrie, a Church of Christ member who represents Kentucky’s 2nd District, paid tribute to Dorwan Stoddard — his brother in Christ — in remarks on the House floor. Guthrie called Mike Nowak, pulpit minister of the Mountain Avenue Church of Christ in Tucson, Ariz., before praising Stoddard for his bravery and commitment to God’s Word. “Throughout his life, he aspired to do good,” Guthrie said of Stoddard, who died in the Jan. 8 mass shooting outside an Arizona supermarket.

Mountain Avenue Church of Christ member Mavanell “Mavy” Stoddard suffered gunshot wounds to her legs and lost her husband, Dorwan, in the Jan. 8 assassination attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. She didn’t, however, lose her spunk or spiritual strength. “I will survive,” the 75-year-old grieving widow said Sunday, seated in a wheelchair as she took the microphone at her husband’s memorial service. “We will not let that gunman take our hopes.”

Dorwan Stoddard knew that eternal life was his. Three days before he died in the assassination attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the 76-year-old church member studied the Bible with Ed Biggers, his friend and brother in Christ. “We were studying 1 John,” said Biggers, a Mountain Avenue church elder. “As we ended our discussion, I read 1 John 5:13 and asked, ‘Do you know that you have eternal life?’ He said, ‘Sure, I do.’ That was the last conversation we had.”

Dorwan Stoddard gave his life for his wife’s, President Barack Obama said tonight. At a memorial service that drew thousands of mourners, Obama paid tribute to the Arizona church member and five other people killed during Saturday’s assassination attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was critically wounded. Stoddard’s “final act of selflessness was to dive on top of his wife, sacrificing his life for hers,” the president said.

Leaders of the Mountain Avenue Church of Christ in Tucson, Ariz., say church members Dorwan and Mavy Stoddard went to the Safeway supermarket near their home Saturday morning to see Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was hosting a “Congress on Your Corner” event for voters. The Stoddards — described as “the lifeblood” of the 120-member congregation — were among the shooting victims when a gunman opened fire outside the store.