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

April & May 2016 Newsletter

University Sunday
Every Year, Bellefield gives Cornerstone the privilege of being in charge of its services. This includes the worship, ushers, prayers, readings, and the sermon. We call it, “University Sunday.” This year, we had two speakers: Zach Herbster, who spoke on “suffering” at the first and second service, and Kevin Tracey, who spoke on “love” at our third service. If you would like to hear their full sermons, please go to www.bellefield.org. In the meantime, here are some snippets from their manuscripts.

Zach Herbster, Saved to Suffer: “While all this talk of suffering might be easy to grasp theologically and intellectually, the affluent west still likes to avoid this reality at all costs. We have tremendous wealth, resources, and time that allows us to forget suffering by comforting ourselves with whatever we please. A recent New York post article announced that in America, and especially college campuses, “comfort is a preeminent value” that undergirds the American lifestyle. I hope we can grasp that this is incompatible with the Christian life, as it numbs us to the reality that Christians will often be uncomfortable in this world.

Let me be clear: affluence is not inherently sinful; it is a privilege and a great responsibility to have so much in order to be a steward of God’s kingdom. However, as Paul makes clear to the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians 4:8, affluence is a severe spiritual liability that can lead to complacency.

A final illustration: in 1978 Soviet author Alexander Solzhenitsyn gave a commencement speech at Harvard. He boldly claimed that the west had grown so comfortable that they focused more on “rights and freedoms more than responsibilities and purpose.” When comfort is preeminent, we inevitably are quick to proclaim what we are entitled to. But this is theologically bankrupt, for we know that God owes us nothing, and we have been made sons and daughters of God only by grace! Instead, we must focus on our responsibility as sons and daughters to gospel and our purpose: which is to be made into the image of Christ by following him in suffering. Solzhenitsyn puts it this way when addressing the contentious ideal of becoming “western-like”:

‘No, I could not recommend your society as an ideal for the transformation of ours. Through deep suffering, people in our own country have now achieved a spiritual development of such intensity that the Western system in its present state of spiritual exhaustion does not look attractive.’

This is humbling stuff. Let us not forget our true purpose as Christians while living affluently in an affluent culture.”

Kevin Tracey, Lord, You Know I Love You: Our time in Easter is amazing and beautiful and thrilling because we have all these moments of the risen Lord. These moments when God, in risen form, reminds us that even death wasn’t strong enough to overcome his love for us. That even in our darkest moments, when we nailed Love itself—Christ our Lord—to a cross, there will never a single thing that can overcome what Christ did for us. No matter where we are or where we turn, God is always waiting for us—always coming to us and loving us without restraint.

But sometimes that’s a really uncomfortable truth to hear. Sometimes, we don’t want to hear that God loves us unconditionally. We want a reason to scream and curse and cry, and not have to be confronted with the cross. Sometimes we want to deny what has been done for us, because honestly, that would be easier.

And so, probably because I’ve written too many papers over the years, I want to give you my main idea before we jump into some scripture: Jesus loves us in spite (and through) all we do to run the opposite way. And then, He charges us to go out into the world and love in exactly the same way.

Meet the Students

Meet Megan Graybill, a (now) sophomore Rehabilitation Science major at the University of Pittsburgh who is from McAlisterville, PA. Read more about her and her experience at Cornerstone:

1. What is your favorite childhood memory? It’s really difficult for me to pick a single, favorite childhood memory, but one that is definitely close to the top is the day I got my dog, Indy. My parent’s played it off like we were just going to visit an old friend of my mother’s. As it turned out this friend was fostering a dog who had just had puppies because their owner could no longer care for them. I picked one of the puppies up to play with it (because who doesn’t love playing with puppies), and you can only imagine my surprise when my parent’s told me I got to keep her.

2. What has been your involvement in Cornerstone? Honestly, my involvement with Cornerstone is so much more than I ever thought it would be in one year. I thought because I was a freshman that I would just stand by and watch everyone else run the show. However, I’m so glad I changed my attitude because being a part of Cornerstone, Freshman Ministry Team, Worship Team, and a Discipleship Group has had such a positive impact on my life. I love being involved in various aspects of Cornerstone because it means that I get to see God working in so many different areas of my life.

3. How has Cornerstone helped you during your years at Pitt? Cornerstone has been such an influential part of my life since coming to Pitt. It has shown me how beautiful it is to have the love and support of a Christian community and what a difference that can make in how I see the world and how the world sees me. I have grown so much in my faith in such a short time which has given me the confidence to step outside of my comfort zone and push past the limits I thought I had. I’m so thankful that God led me to Cornerstone because not only have I grown so much in Him but I have also made some of the best friends I’ve ever had. Here’s to the next three years.

Financial Update
God has blessed us recently by helping us reach our monthly goal. Now, we are asking for help on a unique way of giving. If you are interested in learning more, please click on the picture below.

Moore News

In my last Newsletter I mentioned that all three boys are currently playing baseball; Benjamin now plays for The Diamondbacks, Joshua is continuing with The Mariners, and Asher is now playing for The Scrappers. Just to give you a little picture of what our Saturday looks like: Three kids on three different baseball teams, playing (usually) at three different times, in (usually) three different locations. And that’s just a Saturday. Five other nights of the week are usually spent trying to coordinate practices and/or games. Is it busy? Yes. Is it tiring? Absolutely. Do I love it? You better believe it. Emily also seems to be handling it like a champ, but time will test our sanity.

We were recently able to take a weekend trip to the lovely Hidden Valley area of Pennsylvania, about 1 ½ hours outside of Pittsburgh. It was great to unplug for a couple of days, sleep in, and not be on any time restraints (except for three little stomachs)! Between the rain and the snow, we were able to play many board games, read books, and spend an afternoon at Seven Springs Resort to bowl, play miniature golf, and try our hand at some arcade games. But the best thing was hearing that the boys’ favorite part of the weekend was just spending time together.

I pray that this Newsletter finds you well!

In Christ,
Andy Moore