Last Thursday was the day we had all been anticipating.  The weeks leading up to this night was full of work and a lot of preparation.  Some of the work involved was marinating 200 lbs of meat, handing out 5500 flyers, hours of skit practice, preparing and setting up sound equipment, folding 500 brochures, staying up late nights creating  slideshows and videos, waking up early to post up banners and reserve rooms, and even having a special team of our Koinonia members from California take time away from their busy lives to help put on this event.  Every year our church has always mobilized all of our resources to make New Student Welcome Night the most happening, fun, exciting, and meaningful night for everyone whose been invited.  Why? So that as many people can come and hear the gospel message.

It was a packed and exciting night from the music to the hilarious video about “How to Survive College” to the humorous yet poignant skit about lost freshman.  However, one thing Pastor Manny talked about that night will remain with me and hopefully with everyone else sitting in the auditorium.  It was that there will be a lot of things in college that will urge us to cross boundaries that we never wanted to or imagined we would.  But God’s message is, “Go the opposite way,” and seek after God’s ways.

As college can be a confusing and hard time with a lot of choices to make, I’m thankful that for one night we could give our all so that 250 people were able to hear God’s word and have a chance to seek Him out.

What comes to mind when you think of the first week of school?  Homework, class, cafeteria food?  How about ice cream sundaes, ultimate frisbee, tug-of-war, shaved ice, magic tricks, and some Scattergories on the side?  We started this new semester with some fun and (of course) food, and tried out something new called WAGS (Welcome Activity Groups). We thoughts WAGs would be a  great way to help people plug in and get to know one another by checking out our Welcome Week activities with the same group of people, and it worked well.

“Ultimate Freezebee” was our first event, and a major hit.  Something about tossing a disc on a fresh, new lawn and talking around an ice cream sundae is hard to resist. Our second event was “Shaved Ice and Sports” where we had some friendly competition between the frosh and sophomores in tug-of-war, and the seasoned sophomores seemed to have an upper-hand. Finally, our exciting week ended with our favorite “Board Games and Bubble Tea”.  People got a chance to brush up on their vocab skills in Taboo and Catch Phrase, show off their hand-eye coordination with Jenga, and laugh during Apples to Apples at someone trying to explain how sponges are quite garrulous (you have to be there to know what I mean).  The night ended with Mo’s Magic Show, where our very own Maurice the Magician  shocked the audience with his amazing mind and card tricks.  He’s so good, it’s scary.

At the end of a packed week, we ended up having a lot of fun, good memories, and forming new friendships.

Just before the Davis team left, we decided to treat them out to a fun day on Lake Travis and rented some speed boats and a couple of pontoons.  We let the Davis people and the younger ones ride first on the sleeker speed boats while the rest of us rode on the slower but comfy pontoons.  I went on the pontoon first, and it was very relaxing.  But the quiet was interrupted by some screams and the roaring of a speed boat madly racing around.  Initially, we thought, “There’s some crazy people on this lake.”  But as the boat came closer, we realized it was actually one of our boats, and the driver was our very own Maurice Chung.  If you’ve ever seen Maurice drive, this news probably wouldn’t surprise you.  After our initial shock and Sunny’s “Oh my, oh my,” we traded places and got our chance on the speed boat.  Even though I enjoyed the pontoon, I have to say the speed boat was more exciting and something I’d consider purchasing for our church if we ever win the Texas lottery.

Our first LIFE Groups for the semester met at McCombs Business School last week.  The time began with a very delicious meal and some ice breakers and activities that helped us to get to know one another.  Some groups created “Self-Portraits” and went around describing themselves through drawings and colorful images while other groups had people think of three words that describes him or herself  in the past, present, and future.  It was a lot of fun, and each person learned some interesting facts about one another.

Next week we’ll be having some thought-provoking discussions on life and Christianity while continuing to have fun and good food.  Can’t wait!

Some of our sophomores and grad student attended our first discipleship retreat on Saturday. It was a time to realign their hearts to God’s word and deepen their commitment and understanding of the Holy God.  They had a chance to reflect on the holiness of God through the R.C. Sproul sermon, read articles by renown Christian authors,  and learned to view relevant issues for college students in a Biblical way.

I was thankful that each person wanted to spend their time learning God’s truth and values and were willing to take concrete steps of faith to trust God with their lives.  I hope they’ll remember and go back to what they learned during this retreat again and again and hold onto to the truth of God’s word as they face different situations this upcoming semester.

If you watched last year’s football game, you’ll know this is one game YOU CANNOT MISS.  Koinonia will be watching the UT vs. Texas Tech game and cheering on the Longhorns together with a tail-gate party beforehand. Come join us and bring your UT spirit!  Go Longhorns!

When: This Saturday (9/19/09)  at 5:30pm
Where: The 605 (see map)

We’re continuing our “Why Am I…” Series during our TFN Bible Studies.  This week’s topic is…

When: Friday (9/18) 7:30pm
Where: Mezes Auditorium – South Mall

And, as always, we’ll be having some FUN and FOOD after TFN. This week the frenetic Freshmen will be having their own game night at the 605, and the superbly sophomoric Sophomores and up will be having their own hang time.

If you want more info, feel free to email at info@koinoniatexas.org.

I don’t normally like to incite competition among the guys and girls…however in this case I think it’s fair to just report the facts.  In a spontaneous game of shooting baskets, our very own Jackie scored 75 while Frederick scored 54.  In other words, Jackie defeated Frederick.  It wasn’t just a defeat, it was a pure example of DOMINATION.  I’m sure some will try to justify this event as a “fluke” or “beginner’s luck ” but I think that only points to the the fact that some people can’t accept reality.