Jason David brings rebuilt voice, message of hope back to Mifflintown
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MIFFLINTOWN -- Jason David made his living with his voice.
Then doctors told him he might lose it.
Stage 4 tongue cancer threatened David's life and the voice he used to sing and preach. Surgeons eventually removed about 80% of his tongue and reconstructed it with tissue from his arm.
The diagnosis left him wondering what his life would look like, even if he survived.
"I remember realizing that cancer wasn't just threatening my life; it was threatening everything I thought my life was supposed to be," David said. "I'm a singer. I'm a speaker. I'm a pastor. My entire life and calling revolved around my voice, and suddenly I was facing stage 4 tongue cancer and the possibility that even if I survived, I might never speak or sing again."
Years later, David is doing both.
The national touring speaker and recording artist will return to River Church of Juniata County, 105 CJEMS Lane, Mifflintown, at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 18 for his "No Turning Back Tour." The free event will include music by I Am Untitled and combine preaching with comedy and a visual stage production.
It won't be David's first time at River Church. He appeared there in 2024 and 2025.
"At this point, River Church feels less like another stop on a tour and more like coming back to see friends," he said. "There are churches you visit where you immediately sense that the people genuinely care about their community and about each other, and River is one of those places."
David said the congregation has welcomed him and his wife, Alyson, like family.
His return to Mifflintown comes years after a recovery in which speaking itself became difficult.
His treatment included a tracheostomy, multiple surgeries, and a long recovery. David underwent 35 rounds of radiation, lost about 80 pounds during treatment, and couldn't speak for six months. He went nine months without being able to taste food.
Recovery meant relearning basic functions.
He had to relearn how to speak, swallow and eat. Singing brought another challenge.
"There wasn't some magical morning where everything suddenly worked," David said. "It was repetition, frustration, therapy, experimentation, and refusing to stop trying."
His voice wasn't the same as it had been before cancer. Eventually, David stopped expecting it to be.
"I had to discover what my new voice could do instead of spending the rest of my life mourning the voice I lost," he said.
Progress came slowly. First came sounds and understandable words. Then sentences. Eventually, he tried singing again.
What changed was David's idea of what needed to return.
"At some point I realized I didn't need my old voice back in order to have something worth saying," he said. "That changed everything for me."
"These Walls," a song David wrote before his diagnosis, took on a different meaning after cancer. Most of the song had been written before his diagnosis, with part completed afterward.
The song later reached the top 10 on the iTunes gospel chart and found listeners outside the United States through translations into several languages.
David said cancer changed the way he understood his own lyrics. "These Walls" became a song about survival and the belief that a difficult period doesn't have to define what comes next.
His current tour carries a similar idea in its name.
"No Turning Back" also describes a life that didn't become easier once the cancer was treated.
"Cancer changed me. Survival changed me," David said. "And some of what came after cancer was honestly harder than cancer itself. I went through depression, PTSD, and some incredibly dark seasons."
For David, the title doesn't mean the struggle disappeared. It means he kept moving forward.
"I can't change what happened to me," he said. "But I can decide what I do with what happened to me. There's no turning back."
The Mifflintown program reflects David's interests as a preacher and performer.
David said people shouldn't arrive expecting a traditional church sermon or a conventional concert.
"There's live music, storytelling, comedy, audience interaction, video, and a full visual production," he said. "My goal is to make you laugh really hard, maybe cry a little, sing with us and ultimately leave believing something different about your own life."
David hopes the message lasts longer than the production.
He knows people will hear about cancer. They'll hear about losing most of his tongue and learning to speak again.
He doesn't want that to be the point.
"I don't want them walking away thinking, 'Wow, Jason survived something incredible,'" David said. "I want them thinking, 'Maybe I can survive what I'm facing too.'"
For someone else, he said, the struggle may have nothing to do with cancer. It may be grief, depression, or another hardship that seems impossible to get past.
David knows something about believing a future has disappeared.
He also knows what it sounds like when a voice returns.
"Your worst chapter doesn't get to write the ending," he said. "There is still more to your story."