We had our first round of applications and are excited to have the opportunity to come alongside our applicants and support such great projects! The following organziations received financial support through a Lockard Grant:

Teach Overseas: www.teachoverseas.org

Trans World Radio: www.twr.org

Educational Concepts International: www.ec-int.org

If you would like to apply for a Lockard Grant, fill out the application posted on our website and submit it by April 15th.

We found this list on wikipedia of Christian leaders working in Palestine and think it would be powerful for us to pray for them.

Would you like to join with us in praying for these Christian leaders?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_Christians



Do you support a ministry, missioner, or organization that is working in Haiti? We invite you to talk with us about your desire to support Haiti. One way you can do this is to submit a $500 matching Lockard grant application to TAG! You can also email us at tag@christourshepherd.org

We want to know about those missions you support so that we can support along with you.

Our 2010 TAG Year End Report is completed and printed. We are very grateful for this new communication tool. It is incredible to see how the Lord has used those in our body to be involved in sharing his tangible love with the nations. If you would like to receive a report, we would love to send you one! Please send an email to TAG@christourshepherd.org

This year we plan to utilize the blog more to share dates of upcoming prayer meetings, dates to completed Lockard Grant proposals, and other TAG happenings.

Join us this Sunday, January 16th, for our TAG Prayer Meeting as we ask our God to guide us as we budget and plan for 2011, give us wisdom on how to move forward in current projects, grant us new ideas to advance His Kingdom in all nations, and gift us with the provision and finances to act.

We will meet at COSC at 8:30a.m. There will be coffee and bagels to enjoy.

The Year End Report will include information regarding each TAG Lockard grant offered, long-term missioner, and long-term project  as well as outlined information about how to become involved and how to invest.

Before beneficiaries can be identified, before change is seen in dire situations, and before real intervention can improve lives, words must be communicated. Our body must be educated and fully knowledgeable of how The Antioch Group is currently involved around the world and how we desire our body to join with us in the future.

I believe our Year End Report will be a helpful way way to communicate!

If you are interested in helping with this project or giving financially in order to help publish our TAG Year End Report, please email emily@christourshepherd.org

During the month of September, TAG joins with the ASK Network to pray for the land and people of  THAILAND.

Known as Siam until 1939, Thailand is the only country in Southeast Asia never colonized by an outside power. The Thai use the phrase “land of the free” to express pride in this fact. However, many are not free. Thailand is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women and children trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor. According to a 2006 report by UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime), Thailand leads the list as the major source and destination of trafficked persons in the sex trade. Abducted minors account for more than 75 percent of this report. Poverty is a huge driving factor of the fast-growing sex industry and many flee to anyone offering them a job. The prevalence of Buddhism ranks among the highest in the world, yet there is a fledgling, faithful Church. Because we are created in the image of God, this dark evil is first against Him. Let us stand with the Thai Church and ASK for Light where there is darkness.

We are ASKing for:

• Church - “The earth is the LORD’S . . . who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart. . . This is the generation of those who seek Him, who seek Your face . . . Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in! Who is the King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. . . . The LORD of hosts, He is the King of glory. . . . ” Psalm 24

• Children - “Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, the fruit of the womb is a reward.” Psalms 127:3 ~ “Do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven continually see the face of My Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 18:10

• Abducted Ones - “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the defense of my life; whom shall I dread? When evildoers came upon me to devour my flesh, my adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell. Though a host encamp against me, my heart will not fear; though war arise against me, in spite of this I shall be confident. . . . I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living. . . . ” Psalm 27

• Slave Traders - “And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn . . . because no one buys their cargoes any more—cargoes of . . . bodies and souls of men. ” Revelation 18:11–13

• Government - “Give the king Your judgments, O God . . . May he . . . save the children . . . and crush the oppressor.” Psalm 72:1, 4 ~ “Liberate the weak and fatherless. . . deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.” Psalm 82:3–4

At Christ our Shepherd Church, we had the privilege to support various ministries through Sunday afternoon BBQs.  Each BBQ was sponsored by a member of COSC. This member shared with the body about a ministry and/or organization they desired our church to financially support. After church everyone had the opportunity to buy some BBQ and enjoy fellowship together. All the funds raised from the BBQ were sent directly to the ministry.

I was so encouraged by the generosity of God’s people to give! We supported the following ministries:

Foundation Rahab

The Baeder Family in Burkina Faso

“City of Rest” ministry in Sierra Leone

Intervarsity Fellowship

Operation Mobilization (ministry in the Middle East)

We have also granted several more Lockard Grants! Visit our website to view an updated list: www.theantiochgroup.org

Check back soon to read about our ASK prayer focus for September and learn about our upcoming TAG year end report!

“And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.”

Mark 12:30

Hinduism was founded in India and is the world’s third largest religion. It is the underlying belief system of the New Age thinking and emphasizes a belief that man’s inner core is divine. ! Many Hindus view their religion as a monotheistic faith but worship 330 million gods and goddesses that they believe to be facets of the one god. Contrary to the misconception that Hinduism is a peaceful religion, there has been great persecution of Christians by militant Hindus with churches, homes, and businesses being destroyed.

ASKing Points for India:

Revelation that leads to repentance

“That which is known about God is evident within them . . . For
since the creation of the world His invisible attributes,
His eternal power and divine nature, have been
clearly seen, being understood through what has
been made, so that they are without excuse . . .”
Romans 1:19–21 ! “The Divine Nature is not like
gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art
and thought of man. Therefore having overlooked the
times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that
all people everywhere should repent.” Acts 17:29b-30

For His bride in India:

SANCTIFYING

“You shall have no other gods before

Me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image,

or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above,

or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water

under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor

serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a

jealous God . . . ” Exodus 20:3–6

SERVING

“’And now, Lord, take note of their threats,

and grant that Your bond-servants may speak Your

word with all confidence, while You extend Your hand

to heal, and signs and wonders take place through

the name of Your holy servant Jesus.’ And when they

had prayed, the place where they had gathered

together was shaken, and they were all filled with the

Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with

boldness.” Acts 4:29–31

STANDING

“For God has not given us a spirit of

timidity, but of power and love and discipline.

Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our

Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in

suffering for the gospel according to the power of

God, who has saved us and called us with a holy

calling, not according to our works, but according to

His own purpose and grace which was granted us in

Christ Jesus from all eternity . . . ” 2 Timothy 1:7–9

ASKing Points for China:

• Restoration of the value of life.

“Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, the fruit of the womb is a reward . . . ” Psalm 127:3–5  

“For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb . . . I am fearfully and wonderfully made . . . and that my soul knows right well.” Psalm 139:13–15

• Protection of the unborn and the abolishment of the one-child policy.

“O LORD . . . You will incline Your ear to vindicate the orphan and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth will no longer cause terror.” Psalm 10:17–18

“Can a throne of destruction be allied with You, one which devises mischief by decree? They band themselves together against the life of the righteous and condemn the innocent to death.” Psalm 94:20–21

• Redeeming purposes in this next generation of males without prospective wives.

‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. . . . ‘” Jeremiah 29:11–13

• For His bride:

Pastors and their flocks

“Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, In His arm He will gather the lambs and carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes.” Isaiah 40:11

 Persecuted church missionaries

 “And they overcame him [satan] because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.” Revelation 12:11

Change agents

“You are the salt of the earth . . . You are the light of the world. . . . Let your light shine . . . ” Matthew 5:13–16