Feb. 10      2:30p      Secret Sisters Spring Kick-Off

Feb. 17      9:00a      Missions Conference 

Feb. 17     11:45a     Missions Indian Lunch

Feb. 24       9:00a     Missions Conference

Feb. 24       6:00p     Missions Asian Dinner 

Feb. 22-24  Away     Jr. High Winter Camp

Easter
Lilies                      

Homes
Needed                 

The Trinity College Symphonic Band is coming to TACC the first weekend in March. They will be performing at our morning worship service and at a special concert on Sunday night at 6pm. We need to place these student musicians in local homes. If you can house 2 or more students on Saturday & Sunday night, March 1st & 2nd, please call Nanette at the church office (714) 637-3220 or e-mail her at office@taftavenue.org. You will also need to provide meals and transportation to and from church.

On the Web                    

Have you visited the church website lately? We now have our weekly announcements online under the “About Us” section of the website. You can also check out what’s on the menu for Family Dinner Night. Simply click on the link located towards the bottom of the homepage of our website. Happy surfing.

SCRIP                        

SWEETS FOR YOUR SWEET...Valentines Day is just around the corner.  Plan ahead – buy See’s Candy scrip. 

BABY NEED A NEW PAIR OF SHOES?  Order Payless Shoe scrip first.  It won’t cost you any extra dollars, but it will benefit TACC students. 

NEW SCRIP!  Walmart/Sam’s Club in $25 and $100 denominations, and Michaels in $25 denominations.

Mark                       
Your Calendars

Women’s Ministries will be holding a retreat April 11th - 13th. Reserve that weekend on your calendars.

A Special Thanks    

“I’d like to thank my church family for your prayers and show of support as I get ready to deploy.”  Zach Marino

Flower Donations        

Secret
Sisters
Spring
Kick-Off                                      

It was fairly common a few years ago to hear the phrase “leap of faith” when describing the decision to trust Christ for forgiveness of sin, new life, and a future in heaven.  That description never sounded right to me, and I am more convinced now than ever that it meant casting aside reason to become a Christian.  It is baseless.  Our beliefs are grounded on real events and historical evidence that is solid and overwhelming.

I am currently reading a book by Richard Bauckham on the reliability of the gospels.  They were the first of the New Testament books to be widely accepted as inspired, reliable, eyewitness documents.  For that reason, in recent days, the attacks on their credibility has increased.  Fortunately, Christian scholars are ready and equipped to meet the many and varied objections to the gospel accounts.

I would like to mention for you one faith-supporting observation that Dr. Bauckham notes in his book, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses.  He writes, “the relative frequency of the various personal names in the Gospels corresponds well to the relative frequency in the full database of three thousand individual instances of names in the Palestinian Jewish sources of the period….these features of the New Testament data would be difficult to explain as the result of random invention of names…the evidence indicates the general authenticity of the personal names in the Gospel…they indicate the eyewitness sources of the individual stories in which they occur.”

In layman’s terms, what Dr. Bauckham is saying is that if the gospels were invented stories, the choices the writers made for the names wouldn’t reflect the normal distribution of names in 1st century society.  People who forge documents cannot be that precise and we wouldn’t expect them to be that precise.  All four gospels have a normal 1st Century distribution of name choices.  This is what we would expect from eyewitnesses who are only recording the truth.  From our modern data bases we have precise calculations of the names used and their relative frequency.  For instance, Simon is the most frequent male name in the first century and we would expect it to occur more than any other name in the gospel – it does, and at a statistically probable rate – not too much and not too little – just right.

Yes, our faith is based on fact and reason and reliable documents which report those facts.  Our Savior lived perfectly, performed miracles, died as He predicted and rose three days later.  On this we stand firm and steadfast.

Women's Ministries   

Mark Your Calendars: Women’s Ministries will be holding a retreat April 11th - 13th. Reserve that weekend on your calendars.

Youth
Ministry             

Attention Jr. Highers: Jr. High winter camp will be February 22nd - 24th.

Children's 
Ministries               

Children’s Choir: TACC Children’s Choir will be singing in the worship service on February 17th. Please have your kids at church by 8:30am. They will also be singing at our missions conference on February 24th.

As a church body we actively give prayer and financial support to thirteen individuals and couples in missionary ministry.  So when it comes time for this report, it is difficult to choose from only three or four prayer letters to share meaningful information in capsule form.

Our news from the India National Inland Mission is always encouraging with evidence of God’s faithfulness as well as prayer challenges.  In 2007 they trained and commissioned 272 new missionaries to work in the mission fields of South Asia.  Along with many other valuable projects, they saw 172 home churches established in pioneering unreached villages and ordained 15 new native pastors and evangelists.  But along with these good tidings come the reports of a considerable rise of persecution against the body of Christ.  “Over the last few weeks we have received emergency reports from some remote regions of ministry where there are daily warnings and death threats against our pastors and their families.  Currently, three of our pastors are in various local hospitals recovering from traumatic injuries inflicted by Hindu and Islamic militant groups.”

While the Lord has given us many opportunities to reach far beyond our American shoreline we also support ministries close to our community borders since there is always the need to reach our own culture’s diversity.

We continue to rejoice with Herb and Gloria Baker and the work they do with international students at the university level.  The fruit is far reaching.

Another “close to home” ministry is Campus Crusade for Christ, guided by Brent and Stephanie Dunnam, at a couple of our nearby college campuses.  They recently developed a new outreach idea called “Soularium,” which in a nutshell uses artsy photographs and questions that prompt students to initiate a spiritual conversation on campus that has, in turn, drawn new people to their weekly Bible study on campus.

Lee and Mary Beth Ramlo give a great deal of effort each Sunday morning to provide the Missionary Table with information and updates on these many endeavors we support.  Please enlarge your knowledge and ability to pray for the needs and activities of these ministries by visiting this wealth of information available to us.

Please uphold the Missionary Committee in prayer as they plan for the upcoming Missions Conference on February 17th and February 24th.  Their goal is to provide us with insights, information and inspiration that will motivate us to stand firm in supporting the work our Heavenly Father has put in our hands.