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Six go to New York City to soothe students
By GAIL HOLLENBECK
© St. Petersburg Times, INVERNESS -- Six Citrus County residents recently traveled to New York City and witnessed the devastation at ground zero. "It looked like a landfill. It just looked like this huge pile of rubble," said Katie Bird.
They went to New York City to aid Campus Crusade with its Student Venture ministry to high school students. Their task was to counter the devastation and its resulting fear with a message of healing. The group included Bird, a dental hygienist, Baird, operations manager for the county elections office, Inverness optometrist Julie Howard, college student Ginny Harris, and Megan and Carl Vonderhaar, Bird's daughter and son-in-law. Megan is the Citrus County affiliate for Student Venture. "The focus was to get 200,000 "No More Fear' student survival kits into the hands of unchurched high school students," Bird said. "And through the materials in the packets to share the compassion, love and hope that is in Christ." Bird had learned in September that Campus Crusade was looking for workers for the New York City project. "I called, and sure enough they were," Bird said. "They were actually in the middle of a prayer meeting praying for more people to come and help." She was recruited to work as an administrative assistant for the strategy team from Sept. 30 through Oct. 17. When she arrived in New York City, Bird was impressed with both the enormousness of the task and the quality of the packets that were being prepared. "John Sather led the task force," Bird said. "I've never worked under a leader who had his combination of skills. He's an excellent communicator and organizer, but he never lost sight of people. He always brought us back to biblical principles." Bird called home and asked if the others would come. As members of the task force, the volunteers worked on preparing and distributing the strategy kits to high school students and then connecting the students with ministries there. The kits contain a magazine called Fallen But Not Forgotten. "It is absolutely incredible," Bird said. "It's a beautifully done magazine that includes a tribute to the firefighters. They have so far printed and distributed 3-million in New York City." Also in the kit is a Bible, a hip-hop CD by King's College, and a booklet that talks about a relationship with Christ. "For the video, they shot actual film footage at ground zero, talking to students about how they were handling their fear and emotions," Bird said, "and they also interviewed some of the New York Yankees and got their faith response to what went on." Harris worked as Bird's secretary for the week she was there. As it was Bird's, it was her first missions trip. "I just had a desire to want to go help and do anything I could," Harris said. "We were in a cab and Julie Howard was trying to minister to the cab driver, and it kind of hit me. Here we were all the way in New York City trying to minister wherever we went, and it hit me that we need to be doing this right here at home, right here in Inverness." Because she lived in Queens until the age of 12, Baird was assigned to "the trenches," making contacts to help distribute the kits. "Part of what drew me to New York City was that I'm a single parent," Baird said. "In the World Trade Center tragedy, approximately 10,500 children were left fatherless. Our country is already fatherless, and this just put a burden on me to go up there and do what I could do to help." The group came back with many stories. Last Sunday, Howard and Baird shared some of them at two local churches that had been praying for them. "The neatest story came through a youth pastor at the Times Square Church," Howard said. "He told us about one member of his youth group who was the only person to show up at "See You at the Pole' at her school (where students gather at the school's flag pole to pray). "Later that day a classmate asked what she was doing at the flagpole before school that morning. This young woman answered, "I was praying for you.' The other young woman broke into tears and said, "I can't believe someone was praying for me. My father perished in the World Trade Center attack, and I was planning my suicide.' "So as a result, this young lady led the other young lady to the Lord and she is being spiritually fed and mentored through the Times Square Church youth ministry. Now, we have the joy of passing on these stories of the faith." Bird said she felt the sovereignty of God in a way she never had before. "When I first got to New York City, I heard a lot of people ask where God was when the Twin Towers happened. It was the day the bombing (in Afghanistan) started that I found out that prior to Sept. 11, someone had donated a million dollars to Student Venture with the challenge that they wanted it to be used where it would have the greatest impact. To me that was the most awesome part of what happened. "All of a sudden I could see just where God was. He was there way ahead of time with provision, with a strategy, with tools and people in place to put together something that would make a tremendous impact. And I thought, "You know, God, there's no place on earth that I would rather be than part of your counterattack in New York City.' " How to helpDonations for the continuing work of Campus Crusade for Christ in New York City may be mailed to 229 Jackson St., Suite 100, Anoka, MN 55303, ATTN: Chris Sather. For information or to view the magazine Fallen But Not Forgotten, log on to www.ccci.org and click on Helping America Heal.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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