April 2019 Newsletter

Jubilee Testimony

Meet Jordan Helsel, and read about her experience at the Jubilee Conference:

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

Meet Jack McAuliffe and Megan Graybill, and read about their experience on the Habitat for Humanity Spring Break trip:

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.

Financial Update

March was a great month for us! As you can see from the chart, we made 96% of our monthly goal! That’s incredible! Thank you to everyone who has supported us in our ministry. Cornerstone, and ministering to students like Jordan, Megan, and Jack, would simply not be possible without you. Just because we made our goal for a month does not give me an excuse to rest or be lazy, however. We are always in need of help financially, and 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. I am asking that my current supporters give an extra 10% to 25% on top of their usual giving. This will help to make my goal. Remember that any gift is a good gift. 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

For Benjamin, Joshua, and myself, baseball is back in full swing (pun intended). After taking a baseball sabbatical for a year, Ben and Josh will be joining the Cubs, and I will be the assistant coach. They had to shake off the rust a bit, but it didn’t take too long. It helps that their new head coach really isn’t new at all, but coached them in a season of Fall Ball. Now, I will just have to get over my Pittsburgh Pirates pride as I dawn on a Cubs baseball cap.

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

June 2017 Newsletter

Meet the Students

Meet Jack McAuliffe, a sophomore that has been involved in Cornerstone, and read his testimony…

Starting college is truly overwhelming. It’s a place where you are forced to make choices that shape who you will be and what your future will look like. You’re away from your home for the first time and students must choose between so many different facets of life to find their foundation. After applying to nine schools, I really questioned if coming to Pitt was the right choice of where I was supposed to be. I remember researching the campus ministries at Pitt and coming across Cornerstone. I mentioned it to my mom and she said, “Oh I know what that is, that’s where I went at Pitt.” I was blessed to grow up in a Christian household and upon going to school I knew I wanted to make God the priority in my life. Immediately upon walking into Cornerstone I felt welcomed into the community with friendly faces and interesting ice breaker questions from some of the students. I really enjoyed my first Cornerstone nights and Freshman Bible Studies and decided to go on the fall retreat.

The fall retreat provided me an opportunity to work on new friendships but more importantly to strongly feel God’s hand on my life. On the last day of the fall retreat weekend during our quiet time I came across Matthew 6, specifically the section “Do Not Worry.” This section calls us to trust’s God provision for our life which I realized I needed to do for my life. I read, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” This is when I first realized that Pitt is where I was supposed to be. I thought of all the amazing, accepting people I had made friends with the Cornerstone community and knew that through all of my uncertainty, God had gone before me and had what was best for me planned. I was aware that God is unchanging and would continue to be my rock in college and that this community will allow me to grow closer to Him.

My freshman year of Cornerstone continually challenged me to reexamine my priorities, trust, and understanding of God and scripture. Freshman Bible Study went through the Sermon on the Mount this spring and I really valued every discussion we had about how God calls us to live our lives. When Jesus gave this teaching, it was very counter cultural and that stands true today. My faith and the support from Cornerstone makes me want to pursue being a better person each day even when it’s not the easy path. I was blessed to be part of a discussion group with two other Cornerstone guys who had so much knowledge of the scripture that I truly benefited learning from them. I’m thrilled by my opportunity to be a part of Freshman Ministry Team next fall and hopefully be a friendly face to help new freshman feel comfortable joining this community. As someone who is generally quieter, I will be challenged out of my comfort zone. But, no one ever grew in their faith or as a person without challenge. And that’s what Cornerstone is all about.

Financial Update

Every so often, I write a newsletter largely dedicated to support raising. As you may have guessed, this is one of those Newsletters. Support raising has been one of those things that I have been descent at. I make my asks and I write my newsletters, and God puts the wheels in motion. I no longer view it as a “necessary evil” as some often do, but as a necessity for living and to see God’s provision. This, however, does mean that support raising is always easy, or that I don’t hit bumps in the road. Lately, it seems that I have hit quite a few bumps.

Do to various ministry expenses, our ministry account as dwindled down; it no longer holds the financial cushion that puts my mind at ease. I know that God has provided, and will continue to provide. There is no doubt about that. My mind is not worry free, however. The thought of providing for my family always pops up. I don’t have sleepless nights over it, but it is a pin prick in the back of my mind. I know that I need to pick things up, or that pin prick might become larger.

To put it bluntly, I need your help financially. I need help putting that cushion back into my ministry account. Having this cushion helps me to minister to students like Jack, and see how God has worked in his life during his years at Pitt. Yes, I will continually need to seek financial help as long as I’m a campus minister, but having a balance to work with frees up my time a bit more.

Working with College students, and seeing God transform them, is a true blessing. It is my ministry. Seeing how God has worked through all of you to provide financially is a true blessing. It is my ministry. I thank you all for that.

As you can see from the chart, we made $3,221 in the month of May; 82% of where we need to be. If you would like to help this ministry, we are always looking for new supporters. This is what makes ministry possible. Now is as important as ever! If God leads you to do so, we would love for you to be a part of this ministry through your giving. I am asking that my current supporters give an extra $5 to $25 on top of their usual giving. This will help to make up the difference and reach my goal.

In every Newsletter, I preach that God has always provided, and he always will. This is something that I not only preach to you, but (like the Gospel) I preach to myself daily. I will say it again, “God will provide. He always has, and He always will.”

Remember that any gift is a good gift. We thank you, and pray that 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.

To donate, go to: http://ccojubilee.org/donate/

Moore News

I am happy to say, that the Diamondbacks (Benjamin and Joshua’s Little League team) are in the World Series again for the second straight year! How they got there is quite the story. Going into the playoffs, we were the first seeded team, so we got a first round bye and were automatically in the semifinals. During the semifinals (against the Dodgers), we started out to an early lead of 7-1. The Dodgers soon mounted a comeback, and took the lead of 11-7 going into the final inning. The Dodgers got the first two outs quickly, and things were looking bleak. That did not stop us, however! We started to rally from behind, and soon we were down 11-10 with the bases loaded. Who came up to bat? None other than Benjamin. I can’t think of a higher-pressure situation for him. On the first pitch, he cranks a ball over the left fielder’s head and gets the walk-off double! The team dog-piled him, and he won star of the game! Now he and Josh are in the World Series. I’m not sure how the season will end, but I can tell you that both Joshua and Benjamin have had a tremendous season. I couldn’t be prouder of them!

Speaking of proud parents, all three of the boys had a great school year! Asher was accepted to the gifted program, Joshua was nominated and accepted to the National Youth Leadership Forum, and Benjamin won Student of the Semester in the gifted program! I always got good grades growing up, but never applied myself. Emily always got good grades growing up, but applied herself. I am glad that they got Emily’s work ethic!

We pray that that you are well, and that God is doing amazing things through you. Have a good a relaxing summer!

In Christ,
Andy Moore