'God sent her': Pastor of bilingual church and her sister open Annelesse Restaurant at Johnstown Galleria

Jul. 15—JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — Cecilia Cepeda makes homemade empanadas the way her grandmother taught her in the Dominican Republic.

She makes five types of empanadas, as well as a variety of meat dishes using chicken, pork and steak; plantains prepared in a variety of ways; mashed potatoes; yucca, or cassava; rice with corn, beans or green pigeon peas; seafood, including red snapper; and desserts, including flan.

She also cooks Mexican food — tacos and quesadillas.

And she's brought her traditional ethnic cooking to The Johnstown Galleria's food court.

The space in which Annelesse Restaurant opened within the past month had long been boarded up to disguise just how empty the food court was for years.

With the addition of Annelesse Restaurant, eight vendors form an arch from one end of the food court to the other. Annelesse Restaurant is positioned at one end.

Cepeda owns the business with her sister, Fabiola Felix, who spoke with The Tribune-Democrat at the counter while Cepeda finished preparing food in the kitchen.

"Cecelia is a pastor," she said. "God sent her to this area, Johnstown."

In 2007, Cepeda emigrated from the Dominican Republic to Lancaster, where she became involved with a church that sent her to be a pastor in Johnstown in 2017.

Her church, under the umbrella of the Church of God, is called Jesus es El Señor, or Jesus is Lord.

The bilingual church's meetings have been held at Oakland United Methodist Church since 2017, but Cepeda has recently relocated her local Church of God to 350 Sheridan St. in Johnstown's West End.

Meanwhile, she maintained a restaurant that she owned in Philadelphia, traveling there from Johnstown on weekends.

Prior to the pandemic, the church had about 50 congregants, Cepeda said. Many of them have since moved out of Johnstown, she said.

She said she hopes that her restaurant will become a beacon for Spanish-speaking people who have recently moved to Johnstown.

"Now with the restaurant, we are letting people know we have the church," she said. "We've met more people that we didn't know were over here."

Cepeda said half of her congregation, especially those from the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, speak English as well as Spanish, while some only speak Spanish. Cepeda said her congregants also hail from places such as Guatemala, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

The sisters decided to relocate their business from Philadelphia to The Johnstown Galleria about a month ago, mall owner Leo Karruli said.

"They heard that the mall was coming back, so they called me," he said. "They said, 'I'm coming back to Johnstown.' They are good people, and they work hard."

Cepeda said she believes her restaurant is an extension of her ministry.

"I want to be an example for people that you can be a pastor and have a job, too," Cepeda said.