Praise and Worship + School Supply Shop Off

WHEN: Friday, January 30th, 7:30pm - 9:30pm
WHERE: ACC Carey Building (direction and map)

Have you been challenged by the current financial crisis or worried about the tight job market? Even in tough times, we are really quite blessed in the United States. To help put that into perspective, Pastor Enzo Saavedra from Bolivia will be visiting to share about some of the challenges that young adults in his country face. Bolivia is the poorest country in South America, and it is experiencing some troubling political changes. Learn how God is working in Bolivia, and how God can use us (even in a recession) to truly be a blessing to people desperately in need.

Annie's life group will also be leading us in a night of praise and worship!

WHEN: Saturday, January 31th, 2pm
WHERE: ACC John Sung Building (direction and map)

Thanks to Jenny and Shelby for sharing about the tremendous need for manpower and resources at their school. Let's join together as a congregation to help these teachers and students start the new year off right by providing them with their needed school supplies!

We will meet at the John Sung Building at 2:00pm before splitting into groups and heading out to buy items on the teachers' wish lists.(Please note: We'll be taking monetary donations on Saturday to help with the cost of purchasing school supplies, so please come prepared.)

P.S. If you are not able to attend the event but would still like to help, we'll have school supply lists available on Sunday outside of Taylor Hall so that you can donate items instead of time. For more info, contact Edwin Woo at edwingwoo@yahoo.com or Nita Teng at nitayateng@gmail.com.

Capital Area Food Bank

WHEN: Saturday, January 24th, 9:00am- 12:00pm
WHERE: 8201 South Congress, between William Cannon Drive and Slaughter Lane (map)

We will be serving the city of Austin by sorting food down at the Capital Area Food Bank. Please wear closed-toe shoes (dress code requirement). If you would like to carpool down together, meet at ACC by 8:15am in the Carey building parking lot. If you will be driving on your own, meet at the food bank by 8:50am.We will come back north after we finish and have lunch together in Chinatown at Braker. Restaurant is TBD. EVITE to follow

Taste Taiwan... in Texas

WHEN: Sun, Jan 25th, 6:30pm

WHERE: Austin Taiwanese Presbyterian Church (5300 Duval Rd, Austin)

It's a boots 'n boba kinda night!  Free on Sunday, Jan 25th?  Of course you are!  Come taste Taiwan at Austin Taiwanese Presbyterian Church at 6:30pm.  Snacks are provided!

Why is a seemilngly "open" country so resistant to the Good News of Jesus?  What are the real needs of Taiwan? Come out and hear the answers to these and other questions through a fun & interactive time! (Also guaranteed to be challenging and enlightening.)  Speakers include Irene Nicholson & Katherine Tang, who are part of OMF--a ministry that serves throughout East Asia in evangelism and discipleship, church planting, tentmaking, student ministry, English teaching and mobilizing and equipping Asian churches for world missions.

Where did the socks go?

609 pairs were raised during the sock auction in December... Janie dropped off the socks the week after the auction; here's her awesome experience!

since we raised so many socks (hooray! God is so good!) mission possible was able to use the socks for two of their major christmas time events that week. the day i dropped off the socks, they were going to pass out ~200 free sleeping bags to people who received vouchers during a church under the bridge service or received them from people who went to the service. 3 groups of about 20 volunteers from a few local churches came in shifts to help pass out the bags + our socks! there was also a large donation of beanies, so mission possible reps were really excited to be able to offer people from the streets warm sleeping bags and accessories this christmas. apparently, a lot of the people who attended church under the bridge gave vouchers to their friends, who rode the buses with them to receive their bags.the rest of the socks were saved for a special christmas eve celebration/bible study that they held that week. usually, the center invites people on the streets to attend a bible study on tuesday and sleep at the center for the night, but they decided to move that week to christmas eve so that people would have somewhere to spend christmas morning at. they were expecting a little over 300 people to show up for the bible study/christmas night stay, so it turned out we raised the PERFECT amount of socks for their christmas activities that week! pretty exciting!

it was cool because i got to talk to some of the volunteers (including people who used to live on the streets) while waiting for the socks to be...whatever it was they needed done to them...and got to hear some really interesting stories. and it was really encouraging to see so many people coming during their holiday break to help pass out sleeping bags to people. the person coordinating the even was saying how this was a huge change from having only 2-3 people organizing this event last year.

CTI Concert

Wed, Jan 14
Dinner: 6pm @ Rudy's (183 & Duval)
Concert: 7:30pm @ ACC John Sung

CTI (Carpenter's Tools International), a music ministry that sends teams to locations around the world to work with established ministries, will be in Austin to hold a concert for us this Wednesday!  Stanley Tso, our worship intern last year, is part of the team that sings, does dramas with a clear gospel message, and give testimonies.  One aspect of their vision is to share the hope of Christ with those who don't know him.  We highly encourage you to invite your friends to this special event!

Since the team will only be here for one day, what better way to introduce them to Texas than with good ol' Rudy's? Please join us for dinner at Rudy's (183 and Duval) before the concert at 6pm.

Be the One to Save a Life

Jodie is a loving 34-year old mother, wife, sister, daughter, and friend. She's married to Alex, and together, they raise their 2 children--Tyler (5) and Elizabeth (1). She enjoys, baking, singingin, learning to play the guitar, and being with family and friends. Jodie is an active member of her local church.

In Nov 2008, Jodie's life was changed when she was diagnosed with Severe Aplastic Anemia (SAA). Her body can no longer produce any red or white blood cells or platelets necessary to clot her blood, provide oxygen to her body, or fight common infections. A marrow/stem cell transplant is needed for her recover completely.

You can help. Help save the life of Jodie, or someone like her, who is searching for a donor. Register to be a potential marrow/stem cell donor by filling out a form and swabbing your cheek. If you are selected as a potential match for a patient, additional testing will be asked of you. Doctors will plan to collect stem cells either from your marrow OR will plan to do a procedure to collect stem cells from your circulating blood.

There is a severe shortage of people from diverse backgrounds--including Asian and Pacific Islanders. Jodie is of Taiwanese descent and will most likely find a donor of Asian descent. YOU could be a match for her or someone else like her. There is normally a $52 cost for donor tissue typing, but because of the critical need for more ethnic minorities, this cost is completely covered by a grant for everyone of Asian/Pacific Islander descent.

ACC is having a bone marrow testing drive this Sunday at ACC from 11am to 1pm. Please stay after the English service to register and help save a life.