Northland at Oviedo

OVIEDO PRAYER TEAM FORMING!!!

Dear Oviedoans,

I am so excited about being chosen to lead the prayer team at Oviedo! It is my passion to encourage people to draw closer to Christ through prayer. There are several ways you can join in the ongoing prayer:

1. Email Prayer Chain - you can pray at home or wherever you get your emails. We pray for urgent individual needs and for Northland ministry events. And anything else we can think of that needs prayer! These emails are sent out once a week.  Email me if you would like to receive them.

2. Altar Prayer Team - If you are comfortable praying for others, or would like to become more comfortable. If you would like to join the team, let me know and we can begin by letting you "shadow" one of the current team members.

3. Pre-service Pray Meeting - this is still in the planning stages. We would like to start having a prayer meeting, probably at 8 on Sunday mornings, to pray for the Northland services, Joel, Vernon, the Worship Team and upcoming Northland events and ministries.

4. Children and Student Ministries Prayer Team - also in the planning stages. We would like for there to be a group of people who are dedicated to praying for the leaders and teachers and for the children and students and their prayer requests.

Call or email me if you are interested in any of the above prayer opportunities! It is an honor and a blessing to see what God does when we allow Him to use us by praying for others.

Carol Boldman

407-484-2221

cboldwoman@gmail.com

Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2

"In the form of COMMUNITY!"

For those of us that remember the Saturday morning cartoon with the Wonder Twins you may remember the above mantra.  They ususally followed it up with some unusual element (form of an icicle) and some rare extinct animal (form of a Dodo Bird).  Never understood the choices but none the less one thing always became apparent: They NEEDED each other! 

Well I am continuously amazed at what God is doing in and through this site and one thing is apprent to me all the while...we NEED each other.  We just finished the ALL CHURCH STUDY and one thing was apparent there too...we NEED each other.  Well if Warner Brothers figured it out, and we seem to be repeating that same mantra there might just be something to it? 

Biblically it seems like God would agree: Hebrews 10:24-25 says, "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching."  Then again in Matthew 18:20 it tells us, "For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them," which clearly leads us to believe that Jesus Christ himself wants us TOGETHER, and HE will join us!  WOW!

Well in light of all that, we at the Oviedo site bring you our very first, FORUM IN THE FOYER!!

(click Images)

              

We are also excited to be bringing you the YAH ZONE experience in April.  This is a place for children whose parents serve at one of our services OR are attending a Small Group/Class during the 1100am service can go and PLAY!!! Currently those children have had to go to the same Sunday School class twice.  Not any more, now they can come and play the Wii, boardgames, dance to music, play outisde in the courtyard, etc.  It will be THE place to be for kids in Oviedo at the 1100am service!  If you want your kids to BE A PART OF IT, sign up to serve in any ministry area or to attend a Sunday Group/Class!

BOTTOM LINE...BE A PART OF IT...NORTHLAND at OVIEDO!!!

"Be Still" Women's Retreat

Twenty of the Oviedo Women gathered in the home of Kathy Franz this past weekend with a desire to know God and to just "be still."  All day I felt His sweet presence as we heard from different speakers (via DVD), heard an amazing testimony from Kathy that was packed with practical application, and took in different workshops where examples/ideas were given to incorporate into one's time with the Lord.  Our day was wrapped up with a sweet benediction from our very own Barb Lacich.

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Whenever we hold an event (or whatever you want to call it) for the women at Oviedo, HE shows up.  He always does.  We are going into our third year of experiences with you all and wow HE has been over and present at every one.  Our hope is that you (women) are connecting with that presence and with other women who can lift you up, this is the reason we do what we do.  Please know we will never just do something in order to be "busy" or to simply fill your calendar with one more activity, we seek to encourage, equip, inspire and challenge you, dear ones, to walk closer to our Lord and to live in authentic relationship with one another.  All of this is for the purpose of equipping one another to minister, every where, every day:  in our marriages, children's lives, individual ministries, friendships, and in the workplace.

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Thank you Ladies for sharing your lives with us.  You are dearly loved and prayed for.  May we continue to spur one another on to love and good deeds! (Hebrews 10:24)

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Maggie Jobson

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Enjoy these beautiful memories of our time together!  Click each photo to enlarge the picture.

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Hula Bowl

We had an great time of fun and fellowship on Saturday, March 1st at the Hula Bowl.  This was a unqiue way to celebrate and say Mahalo (Thank you!) to the many volunteers who serve our Oviedo community so faithfully.

"Today your servant knows that he has found favor in your eyes..."  2 Samuel 14:22

Click on the pictures below to see some of the fun times shared!

Calendar of Events

Hula Bowl: Volunteer Appreciation Event

BE A PART OF IT! 

All Northland Oviedo volunteers and their families are invited to join us for this super fun event!  (Click on the image on the left for more details.)  RSVP REQUIRED and SPACE IS LIMITED so email Amanda to reserve your spot TODAY!

Not currently serving?  Contact Amanda Hartley and get plugged in by March 1st so you too, can BE A PART OF IT!  Children's Ministry, Sunday Morning Service Team, Set Up/Take Down Team, Prayer Team, Communion Servers - there are so many ways for you to get involved.  If you're not sure where you fit best, we'll help you get plugged in to a ministry area that works best for you.

Contact Amanda Hartley at 407-382-4994 or akhartley@comcast.net for more details.

A New Beginning...

Hello, for those of you who I haven’t met yet, my name is Erica Emler and I have recently come on board at Oviedo as the Student Ministries Intern. Who am I? Where did I come from? Why am I here? Glad you asked. I am a recent graduate (‘07) of Asbury College (near Lexington, KY), but I will always call Gnadenhutten,OH home. Let me help you, pronounce it like this…JA-NADE-EN-HUT-EN. It is a town of no more than 1,500, and I technically lived about 6 miles outside of town. Talk about the middle of nowhere. I was working in Winter Springs over this past summer without any specific intention of sticking around long-term. Over the summer it became clear that God had a purpose for me, larger than the 3 months of the summer I’d spent here. The couple of months following proved to be challenging as I transitioned my entire life to Florida. I landed at Northland due to some great connections that God really made happen for me through relationships I’d built over the summer. 

Now for the big question: Why am I here? I mean, Northland @ Oviedo. The best way to explain this is to give you a look inside the development of student ministries over the past couple of months. It’s been about two and a half months since I started here at Oviedo. To be honest, I’d never started anything like this before. Yeah, I’d invested in numerous students, lead short-term missions trips, organized camps, etc., but to actually start a student ministry from the ground up…I was (and still am) excited, nervous, and anxious, but completely ready to take the challenge head-on.  I began having conversations with people around me who had been where I was, taking every piece of wisdom that I could get. The development of who we are and what we will choose to be about is now underway. Big Picture: Helping people to know and follow Christ. How is this played out? As I continue to pray about what this big picture looks like, it has become clear that building relationships with students and parents has to be the most important thing. I count it a huge privilege and responsibility to invest in the eternal perspective of these students. Just to give you an idea, we’ve had over 20 middle school students come to one or more events from 6 different schools so far. We started a boys Area Bible Study (ABS group) in Oviedo that is led by two seniors from Winter Springs HS (Cameron and Spencer!). We will start an additional ABS group for girls in 2008, and another senior from WSHS (Melodie!) will be one of the leaders for this group. I can tell you that these guys are incredibly excited about investing in middle school students through these groups. We just finished off 2007 with our Christmas party that included students who’d been regularly attending youth group, plus a large group of students and adults from the Boys Town. We had a great time hanging out together, eating together (of course!), and talking about mending the broken relationship with God that we all come into this world with.

As we head into 2008 please pray for us as we continue to develop what it means to walk alongside these students as they journey through life.

If you are interested in investing in this ministry in any way, please contact myself at erica.emler@northlandchurch.net.

Jenny DeGeus will be missed!

Well somtimes somebody is so good at what they do, so valuable to the recipe for success that they do the Christ like thing and just become a part of the environment without drawing attention to themselves.  THAT is Jenny!  She has been such an incredible part of the Northland at Oviedo experience and yet she has never demanded anything in return, even a bit retiscent about me recognizing her this weekend at the site to all of you.  Jenny is leaving to follow her heart for World Missions, more specifically her pull to orphaned children in the Ukraine.  She has been there before and has worked with Music Mission Kiev, both cultivating her desire to serve and love the children in this part of the world.  Jenny is the real deal, she is the Gospel with hands and feet and she will be missed greatly in our family.  She has been here since the beginning and has led worship on Sunday as well as at last years Northland at Oviedo Womens Christmas Dinner.  Her voice, personality, humor and genuine sweetness have all been welcome and enjoyable from the start.  Jenny is in the middle of the photo of our worship team in this article (click on it to enlarge) in case you are unsure of who I am referring to.  If you are still not sure, pay attention this weekend as she will be leading worship from the main campus, be sure to listen to her amazing voice and heart for God that can't help but shine through all her music.  Jenny we will miss you greatly, but are proud to see you go and be a part of the larger Worship Team...to the world!  Blessings and prayers are following you all the way there and all the way back, so return soon with great stories of how HE used this part of your journey to be glorified and impact us all!

Jeremy Jobson, Assoc. Site Minister Oviedo

Since the last time, until next time...

Well in the last month a lot has happened here at Northland Oviedo.  We had an incredible time at our Family Picnic on November 3rd.  I look forward to the next one, that park was amazing and the weather was...well let me just say I am glad we cancelled the time prior.

We have added a Fellowship element to the Foyer at Hagerty High School, and imagine that it includes FOOD!  Like I have said before, we enjoy eating together, I mean it is Biblical to break bread with one another:)  This has been a cool experiment and thanks to the hard work of Cyndi Lott and her volunteers it has been done beautifully.  It is working better than we imagined, people are hanging out and talking, eating something, drinking coffee or tea and learning about one anothers lives.  This is awesome, so THANKS to those of you who have already enjoyed it, and if not, come on by it's worth it! 

We held our First International Students Dinner with Bridges International Ministry at UCF.  There were over 20 Oviedo participants who cooked, ate and enjoyed conversation with the 35+ students from all over the world: Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, just to name a few.  We really had a great time and look forward to many more opportunities like that to reach out the over 1500 International Students at UCF.  It is like doing Missions around the world right in your own back yard!

We are getting ready for another amazing Christmas Season here at Northland and reflecting on Thanksgiving is just a reminder of what an amazing year we have had in Oviedo.  It only happened because of each of you, the hard work of countless volunteers, staff and most importantly God himself.  We have seen his presence here all year and I look forward to seeing it more this holiday season as we reach out to the children of the incarcerated in our community through the Angel Tree Project and to the kids of Girls and Boys Town with our Gift Card Secret Santa. 

God is good and He has blessed us so that we might be a blessing to others, and EACH ONE OF YOU has been a blessing to one another!  One way to continue to do that is by joining one of our Ministries: Children's, Sunday Service Team, Setup/Takedown, Communion and Immediate Needs.  Each of these areas is always looking for people to participate with those already involved and to watch authentic community happen as they do so.  The blessing goes both ways, for those serving and those being served.  Contact Cyndi Lott or myself to get plugged in.

So until next time, keep it up Oviedo, you continue to redefine the Christian Community as lived out at a multi-site, better known as YOUR CHURCH, YOUR FAMILY, YOUR NORTHLAND! 

Thank you and keep it up!  GOBBLE GOBBLE!

Jeremy Jobson   Assoc Site Minister

HERE WE GO AGAIN...FOR THE FIRST TIME?

WHAT DO I MEAN BY THAT?

Well we are about to endeavor on try number two for our Oviedo Family Picnic this Saturday, November 3rd from 1100am to 300pm-ish.  It is at the same location, Seminole Neighborhood.  Directions are listed below if you did not receive the emails today or flyer on Sunday.   We even did something similar last year when we had a Family Picnic in September at Riverside Park which was a great time, even though it was HOT!!!  We also had a BBQ right out in front of Hagerty High School that was also MMM MMM Good!!!  So in one sense, HERE WE GO AGAIN!

But in another sense, THIS IS FOR THE FIRST TIME!  We are not now who we once were.  Now a full year into our move to Hagerty from the movie theatre, we have:  added an official second service, changed worship times, moved storage to a truck from a trailer, had-lost-and restarted a Middle School minsitry, held classes, Life Trainings, baptisms, retreats and even endured the opening of our new state of the art facility right down the road!  WOW we have been very busy to say the least!  Now the dust and sweat have settled and I am begining to realize THIS IS JUST THE START of a whole new adventure that we are on together with HIM.

And yet the more I reminisce about those early meetings at the Masters Academy, the Women's Club and the Library at Lyman High School the more I realize we are right back at what started this whole thing...COMMUNITY!  It has always been about community for the Oviedo site from the start, community with one another and community with those not yet included (service). I am reminded of that when I see the recent Bicycle for the Homeless and Cookies for the Fire Dept Fusion events, the ongoing and developing relationships at the Girls and Boys Town, the Helping Hands painting project, the Bread of Life work project, the community love and support for the Houser's, the participants in every Immediate Needs ministry opportunity, the developing parternship with Its A God Thing in Oviedo and the love and fellowship at events like this weekends Family Picnic!

So come and be a part of this amazing thing God is doing in Oviedo, at the Picnic, on Sundays, everywhere, every day...Community Transformation, inside and out!  Thanks for being a part of it all so far and hold on tight, cause He is just getting started!

Phillipians 1:6 "being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

DIRECTIONS Take 426 towards Geneva, turn right into Seminole Woods neighborhood.  Turn right at the first stop sign.  Go to the second stop sign turn right.  Park is straight ahead! There will be signs!

See you Saturday, God Bless!

Jeremy Jobson - Assoc Site Minister, Oveido