Birthday Fun and Staff Retreat

This past weekend was my (Emily) birthday!  Jonerik and I took Mary and Bub and my mom to Ocean City NJ on Friday!  We had a blast.

Saturday night we had some friends from Philly come over for some dessert and games.  Jonerik made me a delicious ice cream cake.

Shera made me some delicious-looking cupcakes and some other friends made a bobble-head of...yes that's right...of myself.

I feel blessed to have another year and reflecting back I am grateful for all that God has given me this year. 

Monday through Wednesday was spent at Sandy Cove for a church staff retreat.  It was an enjoyable few days spending time with the other staff and their kids.  We had some good meetings and some great worship and prayer.  Please be in prayer for our staff as we work together for one mission: 

"Bringing hope to our community through Christ and his church."

How God is moving!

We went to some appointments with Limaris last Thursday. She was scheduled to have some tests done and to meet with a surgeon to discuss the possibility of them going in and removing the remaining cancerous tissue from around her heart.

Praise the Lord, after 5 rounds of chemotherapy she has been told that the tumor has shrunk from approx. 6.7 cm to almost nothing!  The cells are still there but the surgeon’s are not able to operate because it is so tiny!!  We are rejoicing in this blessing and giving all the glory to the true Healer.  She may have another round of chemo to go.  Please keep her in your prayers as we have hope but the battle continues.

Our first meal in the new apartment!

≈

We are seeing God’s hand of love and grace in the life of Jonerik’s sister, Ruby!  About 2 months ago she started going to church and she accepted Jesus as her one and only Savior!  She is the mother of Lymarys and Carlos who are with us during the day while she works.  God is providing for her in new and amazing ways and she said that she is seeing things more clearly now.  One of the other pastors from Cornerstone Community has an apartment that he rents out to people. Ruby was looking to move and was able to move into the apartment about a week ago. It is a safe place for her and she has loving, Christian people that share things with her from their garden and share life with her. After her first night there she said, "I think that was the first time I have really slept in a month!!" Ruby also works with a Christian woman who has become a new friend. She is making a lot of hard, but right choices and is wanting to learn more about living a life pleasing to God.  

Please be in prayer for her as she is getting a fresh start.

What a gift!

This past week, a woman from our church gave a generous gift of using her time share in the Poconos!  We went up to the house for two days by ourselves for some much needed time away together.  It was nice to be out in nature and enjoy the quiet of the outdoors.  We did some hiking and swimming and simply relaxing.

On Tuesday Emily's mom, Limaris, and the five nieces and nephews joined us!!

We stayed until Friday and had a blast.  We went swimming every day.  They had an indoor pool that was perfect for the little ones and an outdoor pool that the bigger kids loved.  We had a BBQ and even played another family in a game of volleyball.  I was blessed by the kids and their singing.  Gigi, who is 3, doesn't do anything quietly and so when she sings she belts it out.  We were sitting by the pool while they were swimming and she starts with, "He can move the mountains, my God is mighty to save, He is mighty to save!!!!" (one of her favorites)

Another fun thing that was a surprise to us was that the house had a jacuzzi tub!  The kids enjoyed taking a "hot tub bath" when they came back from the swimming pools.  They were lovin' it!!!

Limaris wasn't sure she wanted to come this week.  She hadn't been feeling well, but it worked out and she really enjoyed herself.  This was a great time for the kids to get out of the city and for us to have some family time together without all the extra drama.  Jonerik's other sister was working so we missed having her there, but we are happy that she is doing well at her job.

We were so grateful for such a generous gift from God and from this individual because it was perfect timing.  

We are back in the city now and I was again reminded of how needy our community is.  I am moved at the spiritual darkness around us.  Trash covering the streets, graffiti all over the place, drug corners peppered all over the neighborhood, and children roaming the streets.  But God is moving and is making himself evident in our family's lives and we are praying that He will continue to move mountains.

In my last post I updated you with the news that we were going to have four of the five nieces and nephews for about a week.  I thought I would give you a glimpse of the fun things we got to do.  

In the Fairmount Park area there is a playground called the Smith Playground.  It is for children under the age of 10 and it is free!  They have a large wooden slide and lots of cool things to ride and climb on.

On Thursday, Jonerik and I had our monthly food give-away to do at Cornerstone.  The kids were a big help in getting ready, giving out the food, and cleaning up.  We had about 30 people come to pick up bags of food.  One woman came in and kept saying with a desperate face: "Thank you so so much! This could not have come at a better time"

The kids loved helping people sign in, get bags of food, and they thanked them for coming on the way out.  They did an excellent job except for when Gigi whispered to me (rather loudly) "I can smell him from over here!"  ...teachable moments.

That night we wanted to reward the kids with something special so we decided to make our own individual pan pizzas!!  Everyone rolled their own dough and topped it themselves.  As one kid was rolling the dough, he asked in wonder..."this is the pizza crust?!?"

Limaris is now out of the hospital after her 5th round of chemo.  She has an appointment on the 30th to talk to the doctors about the possibility of surgery to remove the cancer from around her heart.  Please be in prayer for the doctors to have wisdom in know what steps they should take.

For more adorable pictures of our week go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/Emily.Santiago109/TheKidsJuly2010#

Kiddos

This past weekend was a whirlwind of events.  Emily's oldest brother (who lives in TX) was in PA and proposed to his girlfriend here in Philly!  We got to be a part of the process and we are so excited to see God providing in His perfect way.  

Also, Emily's parents were moving and so we spent some time helping in that process of packing, loading, and unloading.  This was valued family time in the midst of plenty of hard work!  Emily's other brother and his family live over seas, but he was able to be present for the weekend of the move.

Lymary (pictured above) came with us to help with the move!


When we got home we returned to some other little ones waiting for us.  One of Jonerik's sisters, Limaris is in the hospital this week receiving her 5th round of chemotherapy.  She has a form of cancer called pericardial sarcoma which is basically cancerous tissue surrounding her heart.  It is very rare and unpredictable, but it is responding to the chemo and we are praying that the Lord will heal her of this.

While she is in the hospital we have had the privilege to watch her children.  You will recognize Lymary on the left.  The other kids below belong to Limaris - Dante (bottom) age 9, Dagiani or Gigi (right) age 3, and Damian (top) age 5.  They are riot and are certainly keeping us busy!

Lymary is at camp this week (thank you to anyone who gave money to support kids going to camp!  We'll write more on that later!).  Carlos is also staying with us this week because of his mom's work schedule.

So we have 4 kids this week!  We are having fun - playing Pretty Pretty Princess, having tea parties with the teddy bear (ok that's mostly me and Gigi), playing other games, reading, and singing.  These kids are great, but they have a lot of energy!  CEF has a group at Cornerstone this week doing a VBS every afternoon and the kids (and us) have been loving that.  What good timing.

You can be in prayer for us as we get a taste of parenting lots of kids.  We are taking it a day at a time.  It gets a little tricky when we need to go somewhere because we only have a car that seats 5 people, but we can walk most places in the neighborhood.  I have been blessed by the kids praying before meals and at night.  Their most common prayer is something like this, "Dear Jesus, thank you for this food.  Help us so mom can get out of the hospital.  Amen"  

The doctors are talking about the possibility of doing surgery on Limaris soon to try to remove the tissue that is around her heart.  This would be a very difficult and dangerous procedure.  We will post more as we learn when they might do this.  

God is moving in Jonerik's family and we are encouraged to know that nothing is impossible with God.  I have been greatly encouraged by 2 Corinthians 10: 3-4 - 

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. ⁴The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 

Summer Fun

One of Jonerik's sisters has two kids - Carlos (9) and Lymarys (11) and due to a recent job that she got (praise Jesus for his provisions!) we are getting to spend lots of extra time with them this summer so far!

This has been a great opportunity to pour into their lives and reaffirm God's love for them.  They go to our kids programs at Cornerstone and are loving the summer program Reading Rocks where they get books to read and are given rewards after finishing their books.  


Carlos (or Bubba as we call him) has been watching Jonerik play the guitar in church and seems to have a love for music.  This year he asked for a guitar for his birthday and asked Jonerik if he would teach him how to play.  We pulled some things together and were able to buy him a guitar this week!  He is loving it and Jonerik is slowly teaching him some starter chords.  We are praying over him that this would flourish in his life and that he would use his music for Jesus.  That the words of the worship songs would take seed in his heart.


Jonerik and I are getting tastes of parenthood with our nieces and nephews here in Philly.  We are stretched sometimes with the energy and effort it requires and we struggle with outside influences that threaten their innocence - but it gives such a personal thrust to our ministry here in Kensington.  They need Jesus like the rest of us and the rest our community.  The fight against the enemy is more personal and it is more intense.  We trust in a God who is all-powerful and is present here in Philly.  He is pursuing our hearts and He is relentless.  Praise God that there is hope for a community that sometimes seems so dark.


Romans 13: 11-12 - 
And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

Introduction

If you are reading our blog, you most likely know one or both of us. However, some of you may not have had contact with us for a while, so this is a re-introduction to where we are at in life.

We hope you will come back and stay updated on what God is doing here in Kensington and be in prayer about how you can support His mission in our community.

Who are we?

Jonerik spent most of his 'growing up' years in Kensington, Philadelphia. He became involved with Cornerstone Community Church in his teen years and went to their teen ministries. He gave his life to Christ and has found a second family in this church. In 2002 he went to Lancaster Bible College for a Pastoral Major and upon graduating in 2006 he moved back to Philly and began working at Cornerstone full-time. He preaches on occasion, teaches regularly, leads worship for the church and for one of the teen ministries, and is involved in several other ways.

Emily grew up in Northumberland, PA and gave her life to Christ at a young age. She also went to Lancaster Bible College in 2002, focusing her studies on Social Work. After graduating she stayed in Lancaster and worked at a non-profit organization called Bridge of Hope (www.bridgeofhopelcc.org). She was working with homeless, single mothers and assisting them in finding finding housing and becoming financially self-sufficient.

Where are we now?

We began dating about a year out of college and were married in October of 2009. We are now living in Kensington. Jonerik is still working full-time at Cornerstone. Emily had been working at the Chester County office of Bridge of Hope for about 7 months after getting married and has just ended her time with them so she could be more local and get involved here in the community.

Cornerstone Community Church is staffed by a wonderful group of people who have a passion for serving and sharing Christ. The staff is comprised of support-raising missionaries who are sent to share Jesus in a low income community. Our vision is to raise up a church body that would be self sustaining, but at this time it is only a vision. Because Jonerik was raised up for service in this church and this community, we trust God to provide for our needs in a unique way. We are looking for people who are interested in partnering with us in our ministry. There are opportunities to come and serve as individuals or as a group, opportunities to pray for our ministry, and opportunities to give financially to help meet our basic needs.

I will be posting more information about our neighborhood, our church events, personal updates, and our work on this blog. If you would like to receive an email or a newsletter with even more detailed updates, please email us or comment and we will get you hooked up!

If you want to learn more and see pictures of our church visit: www.cccphilly.com