Haiti Disaster Response Team Deployment Sign-up

The Disaster Response Teams are forming for upcoming deployments to Haiti. Teams will depart from either Miami International Airport or Fort Lauderdale each Saturday through May 22, 2010. A total of 12 team members will be needed with various skill sets. The priority skill set will be medical, emotional and spiritual care, and some kitchen teams.  

Please plan on attending a required orientation meeting the Wednesday prior to departure and a required debriefing meeting the Monday following your return. The trip will return the following Saturday afternoon. All deployment requirements must be completed by the orientation meeting in order to submit complete data for the manifest for travel. Deployment missions will include local clinic, mobile clinic to refugee camps, night feedings and orphanage visits. This trip is for Disaster Responders and all training must be completed. Immunizations must be completed six weeks prior to deployment. Questions? Gretchen Kerr at 407-949-7190 or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Click to Register for APRIL 24, 2010 deployment
Click to Register for MAY 22, 2010 FINAL DEPLOYMENT

LISTEN: Interview With Marty Taylor on Facebook Worship App

You can also listen at chirb.it by clicking here.

Marty Taylor, Northland's executive director of media design and technology, talks to WQFL in Rockford, Ill., about worship on Facebook.

Traducción simultánea al español ha comenzado en Longwood y a través de Internet

En una habitación a media luz ubicada en el segundo piso de la iglesia Northland en Longwood, escondida de la congregación reunida en alabanza en el santuario a unos pocos metros, se encuentra Claudia Villalba.

Con unos audífonos y observando fijamente un monitor que ilumina su rostro, ve al pastor Vernon Rainwater dar la bienvenida al servicio de hoy.

“Thank you for bringing the church into this room,” Dice él.

“Gracias por traer la iglesia al interior de este sitio,” traduce ella.

Su saludo de bienvenida es escuchado en Longwood, por personas que llevan equipos especiales para escuchar la traducción simultánea... y en todo el mundo por aquellos que participan de los servicios en línea. Northland oficialmente ha comenzado a ofrecer traducción simultánea al español desde hace una semana durante los servicios de las 9 y 11 am. Según Mike Fernández, un ministro con muchos años al servicio de Northland quien está liderando los esfuerzos de interpretación en la iglesia, en respuesta tanto a las necesidades locales y a las oportunidades globales.

“Casi cada fin de semana teníamos personas que se acercaban a la recepción de la iglesia preguntando si ofrecíamos traducción simultánea al español. Además, son casi 500 millones de personas en todo el mundo de habla hispana” explicó. “El potencial para llevar la

Gloria de Dios a ellos es enorme”. Por esta razón, fue crucial que la traducción simultánea tuviese el más alto nivel de excelencia para que fuera entendida por el mayor número de personas. El ingreso de Claudia Villalba, nacida en Colombia, intérprete certificada federalmente quien además es creyente en Jesucristo.

“Los buenos intérpretes hacen mucho más que sólo traducir palabras, leen las expresiones faciales, los matices que transmite la intención del hablante”, dice Fernández. “Claudia ha recibido las más altas calificaciones de personas que hablan español de diferentes orígenes, ampliando el nivel de excelencia a esta área”.

Según el pastor principal de Northland, el Dr. Joel C. Hunter, tener un intérprete al español para los servicios literalmente abre un mundo nuevo para la iglesia. “Esto no es sólo un pequeño paso para Northland, sino un paso gigante para nuestra forma de hacer el ministerio”, explicó.

Si bien los informes alentadores están empezando a llegar de todo el mundo, una mujer en Longwood recientemente ayudó a entender lo mucho que este recurso significa para la gente.

Fernández concluyó diciendo que “la semana cuando comenzamos, una señora se nos acercó... su rostro resplandecía mientras nos compartía como había escuchado de la verdad de Jesús en su propio idioma. La tradición oral y la cultura del comentario son muy importantes para los latinos, los comentarios sobre la traducción simultánea al español en Northland se están extendiendo rápidamente. Es impresionante la emoción que estoy viendo sobre este nuevo servicio”.

Spanish Interpretation: Now Available in Longwood and Online

In a dimly lit room on the second floor at Northland at Longwood, tucked away from the congregation worshiping in the sanctuary nearby, sits Claudia Villalba. Wearing headphones and staring intently into a monitor that alights her face, she watches as Pastor Vernon Rainwater opens today’s service.

“Thank you for bringing the church into this room,” he says.

“Gracias por traer la iglesia al interior de este sitio,” she says.

Her welcome is heard both in Longwood, by worshipers wearing special listening devices, and around the world by those participating online.

Northland officially began offering Spanish interpretation last weekend during the 9 and 11 a.m. services. According to Mike Fernandez, a longtime Northland minister who is leading the church’s interpretation efforts, this was in response to both a local need and a global opportunity.

“Nearly every weekend, we had people coming to the Welcome Desk asking if we offered Spanish interpretation. Plus, there are up to a half billion people worldwide who speak this language,” he explains. “The potential to bring glory to God is just huge.”

Connecting with the Spanish-speaking world is another way Northland is distributing itself, going out to others and meeting them where they are.

“Christ demonstrated His love for us by taking on human form and meeting us where we are,” Fernandez adds. “We’re trying our best to follow the Savior’s example — taking His message to others in a form that they can best relate to, for love’s sake.”

For that reason, it was crucial that the interpretation be at the highest level of excellence so that it could be understood by the maximum number of people. Enter Claudia Villalba, a Columbian-born, federally certified interpreter who also happens to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

“Good interpreters do more than relay words; they pick up on facial expressions, nuances that convey the intent of the speaker,” Fernandez says. “Claudia has gotten such high marks from Spanish-speaking people from different dialects, so the standard of excellence has been extended into this area.”

According to Northland’s senior pastor, Dr. Joel C. Hunter, having a Spanish interpreter for worship literally opens up a whole new world for the church. “This is not just a small step for Northland, but a giant leap for how we do ministry,” he says.

While encouraging reports are starting to come in from around the world, a woman in Longwood recently helped to bring home just how much this resource means to people.

Fernandez concludes, “The week we started, a lady came up to us ... Her face just lit up as she talked about hearing the truth about Jesus in her own language. Word of mouth is a big deal in the Latin culture, and word is spreading fast about our Spanish interpretation. You wouldn’t believe the excitement I’m seeing.”

ORLANDO SENTINEL: Longwood church puts services on Facebook

By Jeff Kunerth, Orlando Sentinel | 7:22 PM EST, March 11, 2010

Social-media-friendly Northland, A Church Distributed, will start broadcasting its services on Facebook this Sunday — one of the first churches to do so. Anyone on Facebook can watch Northland services and comment, in real-time.

As a "distributive" church, the goal of Northland is to allow people to experience church wherever they are and, more and more, people are on Facebook, said Nathan Clark, Northland's director for digital innovation.

"Facebook is the largest social destination on the Web. That's where people are," Clark said. "For us, this is the opportunity to transform Facebook into a place of holy worship."

The ease with which Northland embraces all forms of social media is evident on the church's Web site (northlandchurch.net) where icons across the top of the page invite visitors to follow on Facebook, Twitter, by mobile device and through blogs.

The Longwood church's hope is that its 3,200 Facebook "fans" will invite their Facebook friends to join them in the service. The church is also using Facebook ads targeted to the friends of Northland Facebook members to join the service as it's taking place.

Northland has had a Facebook page for about a year and has been working on an application for the past several months, Clark said.

Clark said the church has never had a problem with offensive comments being posted on its Facebook page and relies largely on Facebook members themselves to control inappropriate remarks.

Facebook is a natural extension of the church's Web site, which lets worshippers comment and interact with an online minister. The 12,000-member church often attracts as many as 2,000 online worshippers each weekend, said church spokesman Robert Andrescik.

Clark said Northland will make the technology available to other churches and faith-based organizations that want to join it on Facebook.

"The greatest advantage is you don't have to leave your community to be in church," he said. "We're trying to break down the false distinction between church and life."

Jeff Kunerth can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or 407-420-5392.

FIND THIS ARTICLE AT: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/os-northland-facebook-20100311,0,4477225.story

Savior Needed (Issue 10-2010)

I am encouraged by the words so many have shared with me these past few weeks in response to the sermon I preached — well, maybe better said, "read" — to all of you. If you were not there, feel free to check it out online as a streaming video. I have been most encouraged by the response to the conviction that comes from hearing the Sermon on the Mount in its entirety. It is pretty intense, direct and tough stuff to hear, but it was what Christ said. Without explanation in word, but by example in deed, He went down from the mountainside and continued His ministry.

I feel like one of the things Christ may have been doing was confining us all in our sin. It was like He was saying, “You think you follow the Law, and you don’t, but that standard is not even the real standard. The real standard is even higher than that — not adultery but lust; not murder, but hate. So, none of you is without sin. I want to make sure you understand that all of you have sinned and fall short of the glory of God! Now that you might begin to get that, let me go and show you what I am going to do about that reality that you are all in, your deadness and guilt!” If we don’t realize how much we need him, we may miss Him completely. They were missing Him completely. Galatians 3:22 says, “But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe” (NASB). I think that was the point of the Sermon on the Mount — to make them all realize how much they needed a Savior. That was my point in reading to you and to myself; that is my ongoing prayer, that we will all remember and remind each other how much we need a Savior! And then, in response to that Savior, to what He has done and what He has called us to do, that we will all live very different lives, together!

This week’s focus verse in James 1:2-4 on perseverance is great and makes me think of one of my favorite passages that starts in Romans 4:25 and ends in 5:8. “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (NIV).

Both of these verses talk about the importance of lacking nothing in us, because of what He did and is continuing to do in, around and through each of us. All that we experience and endure is meant to draw us closer to Him. We are a workmanship rooted in our need of Him; He knows that, and He wanted to be sure we knew that, so that we would run to Him. Go back and read the Sermon on the Mount again and again, remembering how much you need a Savior, and then praise God for His provision of that perfect Savior. Live a life that shows your gratefulness to others. Who knows, they may want to know what is different about you, and you can tell them!

My Inmost Being (Issue 9-2010)

We continue to move through the Lenten season, renewing our hearts, souls and minds on our way toward the cross and celebration for the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I am compelled by the Lenten Reader, the recent Ash Wednesday service and the ongoing Group Study interactions around this concept of the 2 Stories in Scripture: that of Adam, and that of Christ. I cannot help but think and pray about the many conversations that are shaping week in and week out using the materials on page 10, the videos online, the reader and, most importantly, the Scripture to learn more about how these stories collide, divert, intersect and weave their way into our own stories.

I am deeply moved by how much my own story calls upon the 2 stories in Scripture — not only how the "Adam in me" walked through a big chunk of my life seeking to make myself god, or allowing so many little gods in along the way as I wandered through the world, taking notice of all the alluring, "shiny" objects that would catch my attention, for a short while, but also how the "Christ in me" would never allow me to settle for very long on anything that was less than the one true God, making all other things vulnerable to decay, rust or robbery, as it says in Matthew 6:19-20. I am humbled by the passionate pursuit of me by Christ when I was serving the Adam in me, and I am overwhelmed by the passionate pursuit of Christ by Him in me since I have responded to Him.

But most perplexing to me is the verse this week from Psalm 139:13-14 that says, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well” (NIV). Why? Because it tells me that He knew me before I ever was, and He knew all I would do and fail to do, and be, good and bad, and He still chose to create me. Then it tells me the even harder part of that to believe, that I am one of His works, and that His works are wonderful. I am wonderful, in my innermost being, I am wonderful. Not because of me, what I do, or even who I try to be, but because of who He is, who Christ is in me!

One of my favorite songs is Switchfoot's "This Is Your Life." I love the line from the refrain, “This is your life, are you who you want to be?” The answer is that the person of Christ in us is the "who" we want to be, but there is a flesh that wages war with that every day, and just like Paul confesses in Romans 7, it is a war that is real. But Paul goes on to say that my “inner being” delights in God’s law (v.22), which brings us back to the psalm because I was created and knit there by God. Psalm 37:4 says it another way, “Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart” (NIV). Be the Christ in you, and you will be who you want to be, in your innermost being, because that is how He made you.

Facebook Worship: Official Launch This Sunday

If Facebook were a country, it would be the third largest in the world behind China (1.33 billion) and India (1.17 billion), and followed by the U.S. (307 million). Now, a new church is being planted in the “nation” of Facebook, bringing live worship to its 400 million-plus residents.

On Sunday morning, Northland will officially open the doors to its new Facebook app, which will allow worshipers to invite their Facebook friends to go to church with them—without leaving the familiar Facebook environment. Plus, even when live worship isn't happening, the opportunity for worship is readily available because the previous week's service will be posted and available for viewing 24 hours a day.

“We encourage people to be the church everywhere, every day, so it just makes sense to put resources out there that will help people to be that church,” explains Nathan Clark, Northland’s director of digital innovation.

Northland first began taking church out of the building in 2001 via “distributed sites”—live, two-way video connections between locations. The church now operates four of these sites in Central Florida.

Northland started webcasting live services in January 2006 and, 18 months later, launched an interactive webstream of its services that includes immediate access to an online pastor and the ability to chat instantly with other worshipers. Approximately 2,000 people use this venue each weekend.

On July 4, 2009, the church launched an iPhone Web app—offering not just videos of past services, but the ability to join live services as they are happening over 3G and Wi-Fi networks. Additionally, 200 of Northland’s congregants now serve as online missionaries, replying to emails from thousands of seekers around the world.

Now, every Sunday at 9 and 11 a.m. EST, Northland’s live services will also be accessible on Facebook. Clark says the motivation behind this new tool is to “take the church where people live.” According to Facebook.com, the average user has 130 Facebook friends and spends more than 55 minutes per day on the site.

“At Northland, we often talk about the need to take the church to the people, versus asking them to come to us. For us, it was a wakeup call to realize that we were doing precisely that online—asking people to come to our website for worship. Why require a virtual commute over to our website when you can have church where people are?”

Ultimately, though, Northland hopes online worshipers will join a community with other believers ... or start one. To that end, the church is providing tools for online worshipers to start “simple churches” in their homes at doingchurchsimply.com.

Clark concludes, “The point of being a Christian is to bear the image and good news of Christ everywhere. We hope this new Facebook app will help.”

To try the new app, visit apps.facebook.com/northlandchurch.

Provide Eco-Friendly Diapers for Haitian Children

We are looking for people interested in helping the children of Haiti who live in the orphanages and are located within the hospitals.  We want to create a long-lasting, economical and environmentally friendly cloth diaper alternative solution to the less friendly costly disposable diapers.  The cloth diapers consist of a washable outer cover that is a layer of moisture proof fabric covered with decorative cotton and then a removable washable liner which is easy to clean and dries instantly.  Each diaper cover grows with the child from birth to several years old.

Our goal is to supply diapers for 700 children.  We have funding for the pilot project that will create diapers for 200 children housed in the orphanages served by the Northland Disaster Response teams located in Carrefour, Haiti and surrounding areas.  Each child will receive two outer diaper covers and six liners.  That’s a total of 1,400 diapers to cut, sew and piece together and 4,200 liners!  We need your help … no experience necessary (except for the sewing station).  We are in need of remnant cotton material for the outer covering, please contact Laurie David below to donate. 

The first team project will take place during the LOCAL SERVE DAY, March 27, 2010.  CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP NOW.  For additional information or to donate directly to this project, please contact the team leader Laurie Davis at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or Gretchen Kerr at 407-949-7190 or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Great Article on Haiti Relief, ACTS Partners

Friends, here's a great article written by a reporter that traveled with us recently on a trip to Haiti. We got to know the Wyoming team since we are all ACTS partners, flying and serving together. I thought you might appreciate his perspective. You can read below or visit: http://www.trib.com/news/local/article_5f1250a5-957b-5e40-a0bf-c4c5dc5cb79a.html

Serving Him,

Gretchen Kerr

By JOSHUA WOLFSON - Star-Tribune staff writer | Posted: Sunday, February 28, 2010 6:00 am

A hot, dirty smell hangs over the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.

It's the odor of diesel that fuels the generators, mixed with smoke from burning garbage. It's the smell of people packed into a city where the system hardly functions.

The smell fades in the morning, but never really leaves.

It's easy to feel overwhelmed. The Jan. 12 earthquake killed more than 200,000 people and left many more homeless. It toppled buildings and transformed whole city blocks into rubble. Schools and churches are now chunks of concrete and twisted metal.

Images of suffering confront visitors almost everywhere they look. Sick babies, dressed in Sunday dresses, lying listless in the heat. Men with newly amputated limbs hobbling through dirty, broken streets. Cities of makeshift tents are packed with desperate, homeless people.

Before I traveled to Haiti, a physician assistant from Casper told me the hardest part would be leaving. Laurie Johnson had reason to know. She was making her 15th trip to the country, this time leading a Wyoming Haiti Relief team sent to provide medical care after the quake.

"By the time you leave, you will just want to give everything you have," she said.

I was skeptical. I figured after a week of reporting on the team's work, I'd have no trouble returning to a place with running water, reliable electricity and air conditioning.

Johnson was persistent.

"What happens to you down there will change your life," she said as we drove to the airport. "You will look at everything differently after that."

***

When the Wyoming Haiti Relief team arrived in Port-au-Prince, a month had passed since the quake. Most of the immediate injuries had been treated: Doctors had set broken arms, amputated crushed limbs and stitched up cuts.

A new set of problems followed. Wounds became infected. Contaminated water caused stomach illness, which led to diarrhea and dehydration.

Many Haitians showed signs of the emotional trauma. Some refused to eat or couldn't sleep.

The Wyoming team -- Johnson, nurses Cassie Amadio and Holly Nash, translator Paula Egan-Wright and paramedic George Bezares -- spent their days at medical clinics held at churches, schools and other public places.

There's a rhythm common to all the clinics. The lines form before the team arrives. Mothers sit quietly with babies on their laps. A few of the children smile at the arrival of relief workers. Others just stare ahead blankly, too sick to show an interest.

Some will die for reasons that would outrage Americans if it happened in their country.

The providers set up quickly, taking whatever tables or chairs are available and setting up makeshift stations. On one table, they establish a crude pharmacy with over-the-counter painkillers, antibiotics and other medications.

Then the examinations begin.

They usually take less than 10 minutes. It's an imperfect business. Some patients need a hospital, but get pills instead. Plastic bags are in short supply, so the Haitians carry their medications home in fingers cut from latex gloves.

The volunteers try to find a solution, even if it's not ideal. A kind word and a few Tylenol can go a long way. Many patients haven't received medical care in years and just want someone -- anyone -- to care.

"Your smile at home doesn't mean as much," Egan-Wright said.

Sometimes a patient can't be helped. They are sent home with a note in case they go to a hospital.

"This is the frustrating part," Johnson said at one clinic last week. "They wait in line, have an eye problem, and we can do nothing."

As the day goes on, anxiety builds. Providers know they are running out of supplies. So do the sick and injured. The desperate grow more desperate.

The Wyoming volunteers helped treat thousands of people during their eight days in Haiti. But the sheer number of sick people left some questioning their efforts.

"I felt frustrated with what we were doing, that we weren't making a dent," Amadio, a nurse at Wyoming Medical Center, told Bezares as she packed her belongings to leave.

Bezares, who rescued victims in the World Trade Center during the Sept. 11 attacks, tried to console her.

"When you look at all the faces, we did a lot," he said. "One person's life was touched; it makes a big difference."

***

In order to operate effectively, each medical provider needed a translator. Since the Wyoming team had only one person who spoke Creole fluently, young Haitians filled the gap.

Most came from the Port-au-Prince area. Some had been students before the quake. Others had worked.

The translators had all suffered in the quake. They'd lost friends, relatives and their homes.

Leo Jamieson, a 21-year-old whose home collapsed in the quake, hoped to become a surgeon someday. He dreamed of helping his people by treating the sick.

"There are a lot of people in my country who never see a doctor," he said.

But when the quake struck, the prospects for Jamieson and his peers -- already limited in the Western Hemisphere's least developed country -- narrowed even further.

"There are a lot of things I want to do, but I don't have the possibility now," he said.

The translators had plenty of reasons to feel bitter and resentful. Their lives had been fundamentally altered for the worst. They were doing difficult, demanding jobs, without pay. A day's work meant simply food and water.

If they were resentful, the Haitians never showed it. Instead, they displayed a constant empathy toward relief workers who will never have to sleep on the streets.

One translator helped a volunteer find a collapsed music school in Port-au-Prince so she could make a donation. Others showed genuine concern toward Americans who became ill after working the clinics.

They loved to sing. On a bus ride near the seaside town of Coteaux, they belted out song after song. Hymns and gospel tunes, but also American pop.

Michael Jackson was a favorite. They sang "We are the World," several times, always with a sincerity and passion that would be difficult to find among Americans of the same age.

"It is not the melody," Jamieson told me. "I listen to the message."

***

Haiti's problems did not begin with the earthquake. The country suffered from years of poverty, political corruption and environmental problems before the earth began to shake.

Given those circumstances, it's easy to walk through the destruction in Port-au-Prince and wonder how the country will ever recover. More than a month after the quake, huge areas of downtown are still choked with the remains of broken buildings. Simply hauling away the rubble seems to be a task too enormous to complete.

On my third day in the capital, I was standing outside a tent city when a throng of young Haitians suddenly appeared. They were marching down the street, and for a second, I thought I'd gotten myself caught up in a riot.

Then I heard the singing. I couldn't understand the words, but the melody felt hopeful rather than sad. I looked out onto the faces and saw defiance.

Later, I asked the translator what they'd been singing.

"Haiti can't suffer anymore," she said.

The Haitians I met aren't a defeated people. They have suffered greatly, but rather than living as victims, they've showed resiliency and determination in the midst of catastrophe. They could have given up, but they've chosen to sing instead.

"As horrible as this is, there is hope here," Johnson told me later. "They see the potential to make it better."

On my last day in Haiti, she asked me whether I ever planned to come back. We were packing our belongings, and I paused before giving her a hedged answer.

"Maybe," I said. "But, there are a lot of other places where people have stories to tell."

Now that I'm home, I'd give a different answer. I'd tell her she was right. Leaving was the hardest part.

Reach reporter Joshua Wolfson at (307) 266-0582 or at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).