CJ Ortega

Pastor CJ Ortega, what a man of God he is. He wasn't raised in church and joined the United States Marine Corps going around the world. It was on the island of Okinawa, Japan that he accepted Christ as his savior with the help of his born again staff sergeant. That was the first discipleship experience that he had. Following 17 years in the Marine Corps CJ moved to the Reading, PA area and got a job as a bouncer at a nightclub. Because that environment was as conducive to being a Christian as the Marine Corps was he fell from the Lord.

He married his second wife (after the first abandoned him) and found himself in the hospital praying to God for good health for both the baby and mother while she was in labor for over 24 hours and said to God that if the baby and mother came out problem free then he would it all and serve Him. The mother gave birth to a healthy child and suffered no problems herself. Holding to his word CJ then began to follow after Christ with determination.

He now serves as a pastor of a plant church in inner city Reading, PA. which is thriving in its ministries to the poor and homeless which are very dominant populations of that city. This church holds a soup kitchen every Friday producing over 150 plates of food for some 100-120 homeless that come. The kitchen is operating off of an absolute minimal budget of $1.20 per plate or less. They also have a house that is used to provide shelter to drug addicts who want to break their addiction and allow them to stay for a 9 month intense program that equips them to be able to support themselves financially, setting them up to become eligible for jobs on the outside and more importantly provide intense discipleship that their faith and knowledge may grow so they can stay drug free.

He has learned a lot from church planting, the difficulties, the do's, the don’ts, and so much more. What was neat was that it was obvious as an audience to tell that he is a pastor fir for an inner city plant church. He was charismatic, untraditional, straightforward in speech, and most of all loving.

Elijah & Ashlee Hollis

Their story:

Elijah was born and raised in the church but lived not serving in one local town church but on the road doing ministry with his close and extended family. The traveling started when he was only 7 years old and lasted for 12 years being home-schooled the entire time. During the latter time of raveling, when it was just his immediate family is when he says that he began to "own the ministry" by leading worship with his brother for youth groups, expressing their creativity, and not being just another little kid that is doing whatever their parent told them to do.

He attended CBC and got his credentials and a ministerial license. He later married Ashlee, a long time friend from one of the churches that he would visit with his family while in road ministry and whose dad was roomed with Elijah's dad in college. After God worked in Elijah's heart and burdened him for the youth he accepted a job offer at a church plant in Kennet Square to serve as the youth pastor with his wife which is the beginning of High Voltage Youth Ministry.

There they have had a greatly successful opportunity of ministry reaching out into the community and their creative methods are certainly to be credited for their accomplished efforts. Together, along with their lay leader team, have created events that are highly interactive and fun such as a Willy Wonka theme where everything is edible, culturally relevant mushroom fest, and a black and white event where those are the only two colors present.

Their challenges have been many but together they have come together as husband and wife and sought after God for his direction to rise up leaders from their ministry. Building disciples seems to be built into their ministry and even more so into their lives. Everything they do seems to revolve around the idea that they are there not only to win people to the Lord but also to nurture them and make them disciples to go out and share the Gospel message. This is evident in that out of those who have come there is a good portion who have come back to serve and pour out into the youth that are there.