October 2019 Newsletter

A Thank You from Sam Smallwood

One of our leadership students, Sam Smallwood, wanted to write you all a special thank you:

Words cannot express how much Cornerstone and Andy’s ministry has meant to me during my time at Pitt. Frankly, I don’t know where I would be today had I not decided to walk through the doors of Bellefield Church on Wednesday nights. Yes, I was always planning to attend church there on Sundays, but I wasn’t sure how large of a role faith would play in college outside of that. I felt called to explore things further, however, and get involved in some sort of Bible study. After meeting Andy, I knew Cornerstone was where I was meant to be. He talked so passionately about what he does, what campus ministry meant to him in college, and the many ways in which Cornerstone pours into its students every day. And now, as a junior, I am so glad I took that extra step and am truly grateful to have found such an amazing place full of fantastic people who love Christ and love each other.

Cornerstone has allowed me to grow in so many different aspects, not only strengthening my faith in God but also helping me to develop my leadership skills and grow to know myself better. Whether through leading Freshmen Bible Study every week, the CCO’s annual Jubilee Conference, or any of the multitude of conversations had with other students, I have discovered new and exciting ways to apply my faith in college, spent more time in the Word, and have grown much stronger in my prayer life. God is constantly putting new opportunities in front of me and without Cornerstone, my time at Pitt would be lacking purpose.

Andy has been such a huge influence not only for me, but for so many of the students who attend Cornerstone. He is a great mentor, teacher, and spiritual guide, but he is also an amazing friend. It is because of your generosity that we are able to experience his gifts every week and why our campus ministry is so outstanding. We all greatly appreciate your continued support of Andy, and for those of you who do not yet donate towards his ministry, we would be so thankful if you considered doing so. You play a big role in making Cornerstone so great!

Financial Update
Do to various reasons, 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. Finances can always be a worry, however. Especially when one support raises.

We need your help financially. I need help putting that cushion back into my ministry account, especially since I have received a raise. We have been about $600 (a month) short for the past few months. Having this cushion helps me to minister to students, and see how God uses them 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 (like Sam) and seeing God transform them, is a true blessing. It is my ministry. Seeing how God has worked through you all to provide financially is a true blessing. It is my ministry. I thank you all for that.

If you would like to help this ministry, we are always looking for new supporters. This is what makes ministry possible. Now this is as important than ever! If God leads you to do so, we would love for you to be a part of this ministry through gift. I am asking that my current supporters give an extra $10 to $50 on top of their usual giving. We are also looking for some one time donations of $100 to $500. If that is too much, then that is fine. Any gift is a good gift. 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) preach to myself daily.

We thank you, and pray that God will 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.

If you would like to donate, click on the following link: https://ccojubilee.org/about/our-team/andy-moore/261/

Moore News

As I mentioned in our last newsletter (a while ago), Emily I took our 15th anniversary trip (a bit late) to Tennessee. We stayed at a little Air B&B in Dandridge (home of Bush’s Baked Beans) and spent most of our time exploring the small town, as well as visiting Knoxville and Gatlinburg. Knoxville was amazing. We hiked at Ijam’s Nature Center, went to World’s Fair Park and the Sun Sphere, explored the very large University of Tennessee Gardens, and finally ended up in Old Town. Needless to say, we loved Knoxville. There is so much to do there! Gatlinburg, on the other hand, is too touristy for our liking. We enjoyed ourselves there, but preferred Knoxville a lot more. It was great to get away for a few days.

While Emily and I were in Tennessee, Benjamin took his first mission trip to Charleston, South Carolina. He, along with 16 other youth spent their week helping the elderly at a nursing home. He had a blast. There is also another piece of big news for Ben: as of September 8, Benjamin became 13! That’s right, we officially have a teenager in the house. Where has the time gone? He is a sweet young man with a big heart, and we couldn’t be any more proud of him.

While Ben was in South Carolina, Joshua and Asher spent their week with my parents in southern West Virginia. Though not quite as structured as Ben’s trip, Asher and Josh always enjoy spending time with Gammy and Pops.

Asher is now in 4th grade, and continues to enjoy Fulton. He is the artsiest of the three, and has started taking some lessons through a local church. Also, he turns 10(!) on October 6th. It seems to be a year for milestone birthdays. It’s cool to see his personality grow, and he continues to be the most empathetic of us all.

Joshua has started a new school: Schiller STEAM Academy. So far, he has given nothing but rave reviews. He has also joined the flag football team, and is a starting wide receiver for them. That’s pretty impressive, since there aren’t too many 6th graders on the team. He’s had a few nice games, and continues to get better. It’s difficult managing the schedule of three boys at three different schools, but they all seem to love it.

Thank you for reading our (late) Newsletter. We pray that you continue to seek God.

In Christ,
Andy Moore

May 2018 Newsletter

Cornerstone Update
The school year has come to an end, and the majority of College students have gone home for the summer. Instead of taking time to recover in May, we have already begun to plan for the fall semester. This is partially due to the fact that my coworker, Mark Michaelis, will be in Philadelphia. Mark will be working with students in the CCO’s experiential trip, entitled “Encounter Philadelphia.” We are trying to plan everything we can for the upcoming semester while we still have him around. Let me just say, that I think that we have some exciting things planned for Cornerstone.

This summer, instead of having our usual large group gathering (which we have called Common Ground) we will be hosting a bible study on the Ten Commandments. I will be co-leading the Bible Study along with my coworkers Bobbi Perkins, Juliet Casinelli, and Dan Isadore. We will also be having another Bible Study, led by my former CCO Fellow Jordan Trump, on the book of Romans. It should be a great summer.

Meet the Students

Meet Sam Smallwood, a (now) sophomore student leader, and read more about him:

Faith has always been an important aspect of my life since I was a child, but I could not have foreseen how much stronger it would grow in my short time at Pitt so far. When I was beginning my freshmen year last August, I knew right away that I wanted to get involved in some sort of Christian ministry around campus. As fate would have it, on the Wednesday during orientation week at the "Maintaining Your Faith in College" workshop, I met Andy Moore and Morgan Mitchell at the Cornerstone table. In that moment, I felt God telling me that this is where I was called to be, that Cornerstone would grow me into the person I am meant to become and allow me to carry out his work impacting the members of the Pitt community at large.

I made my presence in the group felt from the start, arriving 20 minutes early for the first Wednesday service of the year and confusing everyone with my punctuality. Luckily, I was welcomed in with open arms and along the way, I have met some of my closest friends at Pitt who have played a huge part in my spiritual growth. From this time on, I immersed myself in Cornerstone. My favorite thing within the organization quickly became our weekly Freshmen Bible Study every Thursday night. In high school, I was never invested enough in scripture and I knew this needed to change when I went to college. So every week, I always looked forward to Bible study more than anything else. I could see the changes that this time in Cornerstone was having on my life. I was growing stronger in my faith and becoming closer to God than I ever had been before. But towards the end of my first semester at Pitt, I felt like I could be doing more to help others reach this same point in their lives. That is when I decided to interview for a position on the Freshmen Ministry Team, taking on a leadership role that shaped the next five months of my life and continues to do so now.

In my eyes, this past spring semester at Pitt has been one of the greatest periods of growth in my life across the board. I was really tested a lot spiritually, mentally, and emotionally, but I feel that I am a much stronger person now that I have made it out to the other side. I had to juggle very challenging coursework with being the President of my Hall Council and leading Freshmen Bible Study, and at times I got knocked down. But I always had people who picked me back up. I attended Jubilee and reaffirmed my place in all of this. And I had the reassurance from God that I would make it through these tough trials still standing tall. Without Cornerstone, my first year at Pitt would have looked a lot different. I would not have these important people in my life. My faith would have been stagnant. I would have lacked the strength to get through these difficult moments. But here I am today, stronger than ever because of that decision I made all the way back in August to check out Cornerstone. And now, as I soon enter my sophomore year, I will do all that I can to make sure that our campus ministry can have that same impact on a new group of students.

Financial Update

For the past four months, we have included a financial ask letter to go along with our newsletter where we asked you to “tithe your tax return.” We thank everyone who responded, going above and beyond anything what you may have felt comfortable doing. We are so overwhelmed at your kindness, selflessness, and generosity that we are at a loss for words. Thank you all for making everything possible!

Our financial journey is not over, however, for we are receiving a raise of an extra $350 a month! It is hard receiving a raise, mainly because the burden of raising the extra money falls on us asking you all for more help. We are stepping out in faith, again, and knowing the God will provide financially. In this step of faith, we are asking for you to be a part of this ministry through financial giving. We are also asking that my current supporters give an extra 10% to 25% on top of their usual giving. This will help to make up the difference from what I currently make and to help reach my new goal.

If you would like to help this ministry, we are always looking for new supporters. This is what helps makes ministry to students like Sam possible, and helps me get out on campus. Now that I have gotten a raise, this is more important than ever! Remember that any gift is a good gift. We could always use financial help, and if you are interested in supporting this ministry (or giving extra), I would love to meet with you. Please contact me using the information on the front of this newsletter or email me at amoore@ccojubilee.org. 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

Things are going well in the Moore household. Benjamin and Joshua both made the Elementary National Honor Society (Asher is not old enough, though he did make the high Honor Roll). This is the first year that their school (Fulton Elementary School) has had the Honor Society, so it was cool watching them inducted amongst the first class.

The boys just have about a month left in school, and then (hopefully) we can begin a rather relaxing summer. For Christmas we bought season passes for Sandcastle (a local waterpark), so it should be a rather fun summer. Sandcastle should also be a fun replacement for baseball, since Josh and Ben are taking the year off.

I am continuing with my education, and just finished taking “Basic Hebrew.” I’ve always heard that Hebrew is a language you just get, or you must work extremely hard at. Luckily for me, it was something that I took to. This summer, I will be taking a class on Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians.

Emily recently got a job a Chick-Fil-A and has been spending her mornings doing that before the boys get off from school. She will be cutting back on her Chick-Fil-A hours once the summer hits and the boys are on vacation. She will also be nannying again, in the not-too-distant future, for some friend’s kids. Also, Emily had a terrific Mother’s Day. The boys bought her the movie Black Panther (yes, that was a gift for her and not for themselves), and we ate at the local Mexican restaurant Patron.

We pray that his newsletter finds you well. God Bless!

In Christ,
Andy Moore