Cornerstone Church

It is such a joy to write what God has done in our church and through our church. Seeing the wondrous work of God in people’s lives that you have never imagined makes a heart sing for his goodness and mercy.
It has been my desire to see my family come to know the Lord; I prayed for a decade that God would send someone else to share the gospel to them. Until September of this year, a tragedy happened; it was very hot evening, my uncle and his wife were sitting outside near the car park (the street is narrow and a lot of motorbike and car are parked in the street). At that same night, my brother and his wife were going out and came into the car. While he manoeuvres the car and his foot reaching the brake, his foot slid to the accelerator. The speeding car hit my aunty (my uncle’s wife) and it brought her against a wall. They brought her to the hospital but died after a few hours because of hemorrhage. My sister phoned me that night asking me to go home because my brother was devastated. I was hesitant to go home because I do not know what to say to my brother. However, the Lord spoke to me and my husband letting us know that he is about to turn this tragedy into blessing where people will come to know Him. My husband and I spent the night praying in the Spirit and prayed even while travelling to Ilagan the next morning. I remember one specific prayer that I ask from God, I said, “God, you know that I do not know what to say to my brother. However, I ask you to fill me with your presence in such a way that my brother and his family will sense it, that even if I do not have many words to say they will know that you are here with me. Indeed God granted my request; my sister-in-law testified that when we arrived they felt such strength and peace that defies description. In that we saw an open door for us to share God’s Word, my husband was able to deliver God’s revelation to their family about “the new beginning”. God did an amazing work in their family, for two Sundays they have to travel 2 hours just to attend the service here in Santiago and in their second time they even brought with them one family to attend in our service. In this situation, we saw the need to start a church in Ilagan. We prayed and plan for a one-week mission to start a church. Cornerstone Church Santiago set a mission the same time as the school holidays for we have brought with us our young people to do the mission.

All we saw in this mission is God’s faithfulness, mercy and grace. We talked to the owner of the place the we are renting now, the time we talked to him we have no money yet but bearing in mind that it is God’s will for us to start a church we step out in faith. We went to mission with no enough funds and having the faith to believe that where God guides He provides. God did not fail us; everyday God used different people to provide our needs. Halleluiah, what a faithful God we have, so faithful and true!

Finally, we started our Sunday service in Ilagan on November 1. And 15 people turned up that day (kids excluded). Now the church is 5 weeks old and it grew up in number, there are 30 people (kids excluded) attending every Friday night and Sunday morning. Moreover, I am amazed by what God has done, my uncle (whose wife died in the incident that I mentioned above) and 9 of his grandchildren are actively coming to church every Friday night and Sunday morning. In addition, my sister-in-law’s relative had started coming in church. I never imagined that I could be able to minister to my own family and relatives.

(Ephesians 3:20, NCV)

Posted by:
Pst. Maria Cristina Javier
Pst. Marlou’s (Senior Pastor - Cornerstone Church Santiago) wife

It has been a difficult season for the church since September until now. We were brought to a place of total dependence to him through this difficult time. The fact that things were not good, we were still able to go forward to what God is telling us to do. Praise God that I could able to report about the things that God has done in this church and through this church.


Here are some of the things that have happened this month:


• November 1, 2009, we are able to launch the church in Ilagan after the one-week mission. In October 26-31, 2009, our church sent out a team to go for a mission in Ilagan. The team was composed of three pastors; Pst. James Aquino, Pst. Marlou Javier and I, and the rest are all young people from our church. In this mission, our young people were able to conquer their fear, were able to share God’s word, and prayed for the old and young alike. Through this short mission a church started. We will be posting the story about Cornerstone Church Ilagan the day after tomorrow.

• November 13, 2009, our first ever worship seminar where majority of the Cornerstone Churches’ worship team attended the seminar. Our speaker, Stephen Chambers talked about the essential things to have an excellent worship team, which I think that what he said is true.

• November 22, 2009, while we were worshiping Pst. Mark received a revelation from God and delivered it to the people. This day is different because we had our altar call during the worship and not after the preaching. In addition, I saw many people responded that day and received a fresh touch from God.

• November 29, 2009, we had a speaker from Bolton who is already a long time friend of Cornerstone- Jillian Saunders. She spoke about not keeping the rubbish things that could not do any good to us. Moreover, she spoke of not holding back or keeping to ourselves the good things God has given us. Good things such as hope must be shared to the hopeless; the love God gave us should be shared to the rejected. After the preaching the altar was open, we felt such love, and compassion was release in the congregation.

God has done numerous blessings in the church despite the difficulties. The Lord taught me to count the blessings and through this, the church was able to rise above difficult seasons. We should always remember that in every season of our life God is always besides us and in us.


But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40:31

Many things are happening at our Churches, tomorrow we will see our new place in Salvador (our daughter Church). I asked Pst. Jonathan and Pst. Junior to look for a better place for us in Salvador 'coz in the last few months we used the public school but I really feel that we need to find a place for us. So pls continue to pray for us!!!

On friday afternoon, we will go to Cauayan to visit one of my friend and to pray for her and her business. After Cauayan, we go straight in Ilagan to visit and teach the Word of God. Then Cristeta, Me Anne and Dan-dan will stay at the Church in Ilagan 'coz I need to go back to Santiago for a sunday service.

My Wife introduce our team

Excited to preach the Gospel