August 12      6:30p      Buck-O-Bun

August 19      6:30p      Buck-O-Bun

August 20      6:00p      Dollar Dogs

August 26      6:30p      Buck-O-Bun

August 23      7:00p      AWANA Leadership Info. Night

August 30     11:30a      Jr. High Servant Evangelism 

Keep Praying
Keep our India Mission Team in your prayers: Lee & Mary Beth Ramlo, Katie Burris, Steve Hicks, Rick Hicks, Andrew Runion, and John Kruckenberg.  The team will be coming home August 3rd.  Check out the church’s homepage online for an update on the trip directly from the team.

Can You Hear Me Now?
September Sundays are back!  Join us for worship at 10am every Sunday in September as we explore communication in all generations.
7th       Echo Boomers - Pizza Lunch
14th     Kidz Konnection - Pancake Breakfast, 9am - Children’s Musical, 5pm
21st     The Greatest Generation - Glory Gates Quartet Concert, 6pm
28th     Boomers - BBQ Lunch

Sign Up for Church Camp
Camp will be held at the Oak Glen Christian Conference Center November 7th—9th.  Our speaker this year will be Kirk Balius. 

Grill Master?
Chefs are needed to cook for the weekly High School “Buck-O-Bun” on Tuesdays and Jr. High Dollar Dogs on Wednesdays (1x/month).  Please let Christie Runion know if you are interested in signing up for a date. christie.runion@taftavenue.org 

SCRIP
Pay for your STAPLES, OFFICE MAX OR OFFICE DEPOT back to school supplies by ordering scrip in advance.

Cool down that summer heat with a trip to BASKIN ROBBINS ice cream shop, but pay for that cone with scrip.  

Welcome!
Please give a warm welcome to our new Music Director, Ed Nilsen, his wife Roxanne, and two teenage daughters.  We are so happy to have them join our church family and excited at where God will take our music ministry under Ed’s leadership. 

Wanna Be a Leader?
There will be an AWANA leadership information night for old and new leaders at the home of Lee & Mary Beth Ramlo on Saturday, August 23rd, at 7pm.

As I’m writing this our India team is preparing – preparing to leave on a 50-plus-hour traveling adventure.  Please ask the Lord to give them His mercy so that they sleep, arriving rested for the days in their appointed villages.  Our brothers and sisters will need the fullest mercy of God in the villages near Siligri.

Last year we requested from the Lord of the harvest that two churches be planted in villages where the name of Jesus has never been heard; and that those churches would spread the news of Jesus to other villages.  God answered our prayers.  Now our team is returning, not only to encourage, but hopefully to bring a good report of the faith and love of last year’s converts, and that they are standing firm in the Lord.  This is Paul’s desire for the Thessalonians.  Read chapters 2 and 3 of his first epistle to this beloved church.  Paul’s heart’s desire is that they be found with Jesus at His second coming, “For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation?  Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming?  For you are our glory and joy” 1 Thessalonians 2:19-20 (NAS).  It gives me a sense of oneness with the apostle Paul knowing that our desires are the same.

There is a sweet attraction that frontier work brings to the church – the gospel to lost nations, tribes, and tongues.  This faith we have is a honey-filled, applicational wonder.  It works.  It has the ability to change lives – children, young adults, grandmothers, fathers, aunts, nieces, neighbors, English speakers, Swahili speakers – of all shapes and sizes and colors – in huts and tents and concrete apartment complexes.  In our deepest place of personhood – in the warp and woof of individual personhood, we all share the same foundational problem: repeated fits of insurgency against God and subsequently the wrath of God.  It is a complex maze of deception and revolt, and yet singularly easy to diagnose – sin – breaking God’s laws.  But, by our God, we also all have the cure available in spades, John 4:14, “whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.”  All must come by way of Jesus, none are excluded from His exclusive claim, John 14:6, “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.’” (NAS)  And, He accepts all who come to Him in repentance and faith, John 6:37,  "All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.”  (NAS)

These golden nuggets of truth that have taken root in the villages in India have the same power in Orange.  We can become discouraged, even growing suspect of the power of the gospel, because the allure of modernity, materialism, fun and the false hope of business have blinded so many to God’s grace.  We are the frequent receptors of snickers and wagging heads when we offer liberating and life-giving grace.  There is an inherent discouragement that comes when the goodness of God is spurned again and again.  But just as Paul returned to his sending churches and told of the turning of so many to the truth, my prayer is that the seven who come home next Sunday will bring us new hope.  And so, until they come home, let us pray for gospel success! 

Youth Ministries

Children's Ministries

We read in Acts 13 how God, through the church of Antioch, launched the missionary movement to the Gentiles through fasting and much prayer.  This first missionary journey came from the Spirit’s initiative as the leaders of the church worshiped.  We are privileged to be links in this missionary enterprise which the Lord has guided down through the centuries.  We are always pleased to learn of God’s direction in the tasks He has given to our representative missionaries as we faithfully support them with our prayers and finances.

In a recent letter, Eunice Castle relates the outcome of a 1994 short-term mission team from her church in Diamond Bar.  Daniel, a young man they witnessed to in the courtyard of a hospital in Tatarstan, accepted Christ as a result of this team’s ministry.  Daniel enrolled in the Bible College in Moscow.  After graduation he served four years as Youth Pastor at the “Singing Christians Methodist Church” in Moscow.  Then the Lord led him into a church planting mission work in Pavlodar, Kazakhstan where he has established three church plants since May 2002.  This example from Eunice presents just a glimpse of the future witness and the salvation stories we may experience from the efforts of our TACC short-term missions ministry to India and other regions.

Sunday, July 6th, I visited with Eunice Castle and learned more about her work in Russia.  Eunice is tentatively scheduled to return to Russia in August as a staff member in a K thru 12 Christian school.  She will serve in a support role for the day-to-day school operation allowing other missionaries freedom to be diligent in the proclamation of the gospel.  Please pray for all the necessary paper work to proceed in a timely manner, for safety and good health as she travels and
readjusts to the environment and responsibilities in Russia.  Eunice clearly illustrates that life does not end with retirement, but if we allow it, God will open a new door of service for Him.

On Wednesday, July 16th, we had the pleasure of spending an evening with Peter and Jennifer Joneleit.  They gave us an overview of the work the Lord has given them to do under the umbrella of Proclaim Ministries in Europe, and a brief outline of the work they will be engaged in upon their return to Germany in November.  Peter will become the assistant to the pastor of a church in Kandern where his major function will be in the venue of church planting.  He will continue with his responsibilities of planning and bringing together the unique activities for Proclaim.  This arrangement allows a more normal family routine for Jennifer and the girls.  In early July, under the Lord’s providence, Jennifer experienced a miscarriage; we are thankful for her good recovery.  They ask that we continue to uphold them with our prayers as they seek clarity for each step of the process required to get them back to their field of service for the Lord.

Please visit the Missions Table in the Courtyard where you will learn of the prayer needs of our missionaries.  Be sure to thank Lee and Mary Beth for their faithful effort to provide us this information.

Let me call your attention to the weekly efforts of those people who go out each week in a loving mission effort to retirement homes in our community.  Pray for them, seek them out, express your appreciation and gain insight into this volunteer activity.  You will see their names in the bulletin each week.

This article is being written just prior to the departure of our India Team on July 23rd and returning the first week of August.  Keep them in your prayers.