In February, Cornerstone attended Jubilee, a Christian conference held at the convention center Downtown. On day two of the conference about 17 students walked to a local pierogi restaurant for lunch. We all came in and were seated right away, but weren’t given any menus and no one took our drink orders, which was odd. We all started to get a little nervous because we had a limited time for lunch, but we decided to wait it out for a few more minutes. Time went by, and still no one came to our table. Half of the group decided to leave, and the other half decided to stay and wait it out. As we sat there waiting, we noticed that there was only one girl working the entire restaurant. They only had one girl working as a waitress and as a bartender, and two guys coming up from the downstairs kitchen bringing up food. We were so shocked that she was working all alone.
Finally we started to see two other girls taking drink orders and serving food, so we thought, “Awesome, they were able to call in for back up, and maybe things will get moving.” The one girl came over to our table to take our drinks and I noticed that she had a Jubilee lanyard on. I was so confused. Did this girl work here, happened to go to Jubilee this weekend, and then they called her in to work? I couldn’t figure it out. When she came back to our table with our drinks I asked her, “Do you work here?” and she replied, “No, but this girl is in trouble and she needed my help.” We were shocked. I couldn’t believe that this random girl just got up and started serving tables to help this poor waitress. The girl stayed for about 30 minutes, but had to go back to the conference.
One of the cooks from the kitchen came up with a tray and I could tell he was struggling to figure out where the food went. I saw the tray and thought it was our food, so I walked over and said, “Don’t worry about it, this is our food I’ll take care of it.” He replied, “Thanks so much, I’m not a waiter and I really don’t know what I’m doing.” Well it turned out that the food on the tray wasn’t our food, but it was the table’s next to ours. After I carried the food over to the right table I got to thinking, “I waitressed for three years, and I am fully capable of running food. I think I should help her.” So, I walked behind the bar and asked the waitress if she wanted some help. She immediately accepted. So there I went; I grabbed a tray and ran downstairs to start serving. I served the Cornerstone kids their food and went back to the kitchen. The Cornerstone students ate their food and then stood up and asked, “How can we help?” I just looked at them and in my head was thinking, “Okay... I guess we are doing this.” So, I told them to buss the tables. So here we are, one student serving tables the other eight bussing tables. I couldn’t believe what was happening. When I came back to our tables, I noticed that there were two $20 bills on each table. I just assumed one of us was paying with cash, but then one of the students informed me that a random lady saw us working and wanted to pay for part of our meals. We talked about it and all agreed that we couldn’t accept the money, so we decided to give the waitress the money as part of our tip.
We got everything under control, so I collected the Cornerstone students’ debit cards so I could help her ring us all out. We went to the register and she said “Thank you so much for all of your help. This is my first week. No one showed up to finish training me, and none of my managers are answering their phones. Plus, the computers are broken so I have to manually type in everyone’s credit card number.” I couldn’t believe it: everything that could go wrong went wrong, and she was all alone and brand new to waitressing! I helped her ring out all the students which meant that I saw what our students tipped the waitress. Seeing how generous these eight students were amazed me! I have never been prouder to be a part of something so wonderful. We left that restaurant with a memory that I don’t think any of us will forget. When God calls you to serve, even if that means literally serving at a random restaurant, you do it!
Habitat for Humanity Spring Break Testimony
As college students, spring break is something that is looked forward to with great anticipation. This year, our spring break looked a little bit different, as we had the opportunity to travel to Fort Lauderdale, Florida with Panther Habitat for Humanity. During our time in Florida, we partnered with the Broward County chapter of Habitat and spent four days working on a stretch of homes that would one day be a part of a 77 home Habitat community. Throughout the week, we painted the exterior of the homes, shingled three roofs, and did interior work and cleanup. At the end of the week, it was incredible to look back at the amount of work we were able to accomplish in such a short period of time and it left us with feelings of both satisfaction in how much work we had done and anticipation of the work that is still going to be done to bring this community to fruition.
One of our favorite parts about working with Habitat for Humanity is coming together with complete strangers to build homes for people we will never meet. We saw God show up every, single day, as He fostered new relationships between, not just students, but between contractors from across the country, Broward community members, and individuals who would one day own a Habitat home. It was especially humbling to work alongside these future homeowners, as they are required to work a minimum of 300 hours, and it reminded us just how blessed we are to have a roof over our heads and a place that we are able to call home.
There is a common misconception, that as college students, there isn’t much we can do to make a difference in the world. This week, we experienced that this is not the case. God has called us each to serve and to pour ourselves and our time into other people and in partnering with Habitat, we were able to do just that. Looking back over our time in Florida, we are thankful that we were able to accomplish so much in the name of Jesus Christ and grow together with a wonderful community of people. This was a special opportunity for us to serve together as a couple and we look forward to working with Habitat again in the hopes of making a difference in the community.
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Asher continues to do well at Fulton, and continues to have a love of art. We have enrolled all three boys in an art class on Tuesday nights, and he seems to love it the most. He has also found a passion for old school video games, and we recently discovered a retro arcade and took him there. Needless to say, he was in heaven.
Emily keeps herself busy working at Haiti H2O and nannying. She plans on running the Pittsburgh half marathon at the beginning of May to raise funds for Haiti H2O, and has been training regularly for it.
I hope you are well, and that God continues to reveal himself to you.
In Christ,
Andy Moore
