“The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” –Psalm 27:1
To say that it has been a difficult year at the University of Pittsburgh would be an understatement. I was in the Dominican Republic when I first heard the news of the shooting. In fact, I got it through a text message: Shooting has occurred at Western Psych. One dead, several injured. Oakland is on lockdown. Please do not leave, until advised to do so. Share this message if safe to do so.
My first thoughts were immediately of one of my students: Andrew. Andrew was currently with me in the Dominican Republic, and worked at Western Psych (Western Pennsylvania’s largest psychiatric facility.) I knew that I had to break the news to him, and that it would not be easy. ..and it wasn’t. In fact, it wasn’t easy breaking the news to the entire group.
I have seen the recent string of college shootings on the news in the past few years, most notably the Virginia Tech massacre, but the thought that it could happen at Pitt was not even in my mind…and only a couple of blocks away! It was deeply troubling.
I wish I could say that the Western Psych shooting was the end of Pitt’s troubles, but it was not. In the week following (and lasting until graduation), there were over one-hundred (yes, one-hundred) bomb threats to almost every building on Pitt’s campus. The bomb threats started as graffitied threats scribbled on a bathroom wall, and then escalated to dozens of threatening e-mails.
The threats caused panic, and fear on Pitt’s campus. Students could not attend class, or couldn’t sleep because of evacuations at 2:00am. Many students left for home for the semester, and soon to be freshmen took their name out for enrollment. Many class finals became optional, online, or take home. Fear had struck, exactly as the terrorizing threatener had planned. But there is one thing that panic, and fear, always point to: a need for a savior. During the midst of uncertainty, we must rely on the on thing that is certain: Jesus Christ.
During those trying weeks, Cornerstone students really stepped up, being a light to the Pitt and Pittsburgh community. A few of our students started a network of unused beds and couches to sleep on, in case they were evacuated from their dorm. All the evacuated students would have to do was go to one of these safe havens to find shelter. A prayer visage was held. Our students handed out free cookies and hot dogs to students. It is these reasons that I thank God every day for where I am, and who he put me with.
Why We Do What We Do
Meet Danny “Haircuts” Churchill, a now sophomore Psychology major at the University of Pittsburgh. I really got to know Danny during this past year, and especially on the Dominican Republic spring break trip. Here is his testimony of the trip:God gives us a great deal of talents and helps us to use them, even if we may be afraid or uncomfortable. That’s one of the most important things I learned from my trip to the Dominican Republic. I had some of the craziest, God-filled experiences there. Before going to the DR, I had been on mission trips before. On these trips, the things I was most used to doing was labor, such as building walls or hauling dirt or digging holes. Our mission trip did not have any of that. I was going to be doing something completely different. The main idea of our trip was to “be comfortable with being uncomfortable”. With that idea in mind, I was in for a whole new experience.
We arrived there and each day when we went to villages, I felt I was learning something new about the world God created. I learned just how much energy little kids can have. They will keep on going whether you can or not. Another thing I learned was that there is so much beauty in everything in God’s world. Everywhere we traveled, all of it was beautiful. It’s a beauty that I seemed to have taken for granted before. As I was having all these experiences, I was also learning a great deal about myself. In doing evangelism with everyone on the evangelism team, I was able to see my friends communicate the amazing word of God to many people who needed it. It was amazing to see the effect that their words had on the people that heard them. I was a bit anxious to step up and speak to some of the people, though. I figured I would stand off to the side and doing little things and not be the person that would share the words that they believed God put on their heart. However, I needed to learn to “be comfortable with being uncomfortable”. I worked up the courage and one day I was able to speak words that God gave me to a woman who wanted Christ in her life. As she came to Christ soon after she heard me speak, I really felt his presence. I felt I had the courage and the strength to continue doing what I had just done. It was a feeling that I had never had before. From that point on, I knew that God would give me the words that I needed to say whenever I felt I needed to communicate His word to someone there. Through eliminating the fear that I carried, I had learned to utilize a talent God had given me to do His work.
Though I had had this amazing experience and had overcome a fear that I had, I continued to struggle with something. How am I, being a young college student, qualified to even begin to tell anyone what it takes to be a Christian, to help them come to Christ? What makes me special enough to do that? As I thought more about it on our way back home, I realized the answer was simple. God gave us all talents. It does not matter who you are, if you let him into your heart, he will use the talents he gave you. He can have you evangelize people even if you feel inadequate for the job or he can have you reach out to children even if you think you cannot. While this is just one of the many things I learned about myself on this trip, I felt it was the most important lesson I could take from it. I do not think it is possible to adequately describe my experience in words. Rather than describe it, I attempt to live it every day. The Dominican Republic trip was the most rewarding experience I ever had. It showed me talents I did not know I had and really taught me how to use them to glorify God. I was successful because I became comfortable with being uncomfortable.
You may have seen from the chart that our monthly giving remained at $3200, 91% of where we need to be. It is because of all of you that I am here and will get to where I need to be., I have been raising this support so I can minister to students like Danny, and see how God has worked in his life during his freshman year at Pitt. Working with College students, and seeing God transform them, is a true blessing and I thank God every day for this opportunity. If you would like to help this ministry, we are always looking for new supporters. If God leads you to do so, we would love for you to be a part of this ministry through gift and/or prayer. This will help to make up the difference from what I currently make and from my goal. We trust for you and for us that God will provide. He always has, and He always will. Remember that any gift is a good gift. We thank you, and may God bless you richly because you have given to advance His kingdom! Please be in prayer that God will continue to build our support team and that we would be faithful in doing our part.Moore News
A lot has happened since I last wrote a newsletter. In fact, it has been a long time since I wrote a newsletter. I started to write this newsletter a few weeks ago knowing I needed to put a new one out, and planning on finishing it quickly. Then a funny thing happened: my hard drive crashed on my computer at church. This means that I was forced to put this newsletter on “pause” for a while.Between the time of Part 1 of my newsletter and part 2, I was able to go on a much needed vacation to Colorado to see Emily’s family. It is exactly what I needed to relieve stress, refocus, and energize myself. Sure you may think that driving approximately sixty hours in a van (three days up, and three days back) with three young, energetic boys wouldn’t be relaxing, but it surprisingly was.
We did so much in Colorado, it is a little bit of a task to sort out and communicate just what we did. We hiked the Red Rocks outside of Denver, journeyed through Estes Park, went to a rescued wildlife sanctuary, and ate at the quirky restraint Casa Bonita (which I like to call the Mexican Chuck-E-Cheese). The boys had a blast playing football, basketball, golf, and baseball with Granny and Grandpa, and we had a great time with the rest of Emily’s family as well.
My real time of relaxation did not simply come from all our adventures, but came through going to Emily’s church (The Evangelical Free Church of Eaton) and meeting with her pastors which kind of became an impromptu counseling session for the past year. This helped me vocalize a lot of what I was feeling. It is interesting that this entire semester seemed to consist of counseling sessions for students, when I needed one myself.
Now I feel refreshed and ready to take on the new school year with a fresh set of lenses and ready to take on new challenges as well as try new things. God has indeed richly blessed us.
In Christ,
Andy Moore
