A woman who was shot while shielding her twins as bullets flew through an East Oakland church on Christmas Eve was reported to be in stable condition and was expected to survive Wednesday.

Friends said Teresa Cordova, 38, was trying to protect her 7-year-old twins when she was hit by one of several bullets that came through the walls of the Centro Evangelistico Bethel Church at around 9 p.m. Monday night.

Pastor Edvin Salguero told KTVU that he was in the middle of his Christmas Eve sermon when the shots rang out.

“When I saw the bullets crossing the walls, I told the people, ‘Go to the ground!’” said Salquero. “I just threw myself to the floor.”

Salguero said he helped shepherd about 100 other parishioners, including crying children, into a back room after the shooting.

The pastor said he counted seven or eight shots through the wall of the church, including one bullet that ended up in this empty stroller.

The pastor's 13-year-old daughter, Raquel, said a woman's baby was in that stroller just moments before the shooting started.

“A couple minutes before, she had taken the baby out,” she said.

Despite a packed house for Christmas Eve, no one else inside the church was hit.

Salguero said Tuesday that his next service on Thursday would go on as scheduled.

“I have to go back,” said Salguero. “Because I'm serving God and I have to go back.”

Witnesses say the stray shots came from a car outside and the church was not the target.

Oakland Police said that a 17-year-old was fired upon as he left a liquor store that shares a parking lot with the church, though it was unclear if he was the intended target.

Both Cordova and the teenager were taken to Highland Hospital to be treated for the gunshot wounds and were expected to survive.