One of the reasons we wanted to have small group TFNs is because we know that guys and girls are drawn to different things. I think it’s funny how we can plan for the same event but get completely different results. The freshman experience this past Friday proves my point exactly:

The two freshman brothers’ small groups met at Fisk House (Pastor Daniel and Sarah’s house) and the Freshman sisters small group met at Jessica’s apartment. The bros had some “Man’s” pasta filled with TONS of meat: hot links, ground beef, kielbasa, you name it, it was there! The sisters decided to take on a more sophisticated, quality over quantity approach by having some Pesto chicken pasta.

After dinner, to work off the coma-inducing meal, both groups had some icebreaker time before the Bible study. The brothers played a round of paper basketball where the objective of the game was to get a ball of paper across the room into a wastebasket by dribbling it on a clipboard. It wasn’t easy but hilarious to watch. Over at Jessica’s place, the sisters had a cozy time of sharing through making  small booklets highlighting the story of their lives.

Both groups studied Mark 4, the Parable of the Sower.  It helped us to gain insight in how we listen and receive the word of God. There’s many ways in which we can be like bad soil, causing us to not listen and put into practice what we hear. Whether it may be distractions, worries, or other priorities, this passage gives warning that we must examine what kind of attitude we have when we approach God’s Word.

After the Bible Study, the sisters small group joined the brothers at Fisk and challenged them to a King Kong Shower Tournament! Miraculously the brothers succeeded in knocking off the sisters in an exciting and competitively matched finale.

Playing King Kong Shower takes a lot of energy, so we decided to go to McDonald’s for some late night nuggets, fries, Big Macs, and soft serves The brothers totally pigged out while the sisters opted to feel refreshed rather than overly stuffed (note the quantity of food that was bought by each respective group).

Then the unthinkable happened: while we were there, the lights went out! We didn’t want our fellowship to end on account of the lack of lighting, so we continued to eat until the employees had to finally kick us out.  We ended the night by looking at stars and waves at La Jolla Cove!

Here’s a recap of the different activities that took place this past Friday at our first ever Small Group TFNs! For those of you who haven’t heard, we are introducing small group TFNs to our Friday repertoire this quarter to give you guys the opportunity to get to know each other and have the chance to fellowship at our homes in a more cozy setting.

This past Friday, each group had their own unique activities planned, ranging from arts and crafts to going to the batting cages. With the groups being a lot smaller than our typical 80+ large group TFNs, each group had some amazing dinners such as BBQ ribs, make-your-own California rolls, pizza bagels, Pizookies, and homemade taro sago.

Frosh guys’ dinner

Stuffed to the max.

Pit!

MYOP (make your own pizza)

SUP sisters frame making

SUP Sistas!

SUP Bros at Fisk

Frosh Sisters

Frosh Sisters arts and crafts

Pizookies!

Frosh guys at the batting cages

If you’re sad that you missed out on this past Friday, no worries! We are having another Small Group TFN this Friday. Your staff will contact you regarding time and location and if you’re new, feel free to call up one of the staff (phone numbers listed in the right column).

It was a grand welcome indeed as we put on 3 a2f welcome nights to start off the new year and quarter! First time ever having 3 at the same time and we had a blast!   Through it we were able to meet and get to know many new friends, as well as old ones who were able to make it to one of the three locations we offered.  One welcome night was at ERC’s Asante room, the other at Warren’s Yosemite Room, and the third was at the MPR.  Each location was packed with people and ERC’s Asante room was so full that people were standing!

We began our welcome night at 6:30 PM with a fun yet challenging icebreaker that consisted of different true or false facts about UCSD.  After that we showed a video introducing our group and what we are about.  Following the video, our awesome skit teams put on a funny yet poignant skit called “Race of a Lifetime”.  Pastor Daniel, James, and Michael each gave a message based off of the skit at their respective locations. They talked about how they have experienced life being like a race, how we have such a limited amount of time on this earth, and the importance of finding out the purpose and meaning of it all. We ended the night with some Korean BBQ marinated to perfection!

A big shout out to our friends from Berkeley, SFSU, and UT Austin for using a part of their winter break to help us out. We’re thankful to be a part of our network of sister fellowships for without them a lot of the flyering, skits, songs and activities couldn’t have happened without them. It was awesome to see God’s people in action.

Though we’re sad so say good-bye to our Berkeley/SF/Austin friends, we’re really excited for all that is happening this quarter. This past Friday, we had our first TFN of the quarter at the MPR with Pastor Daniel giving a message in continuation of the Winter Welcome Night talk on life’s purpose. He gave a memorable demonstration of a mouse trap to show how for things such as a mouse trap, it’s easy to conclude what its purpose is and to evaluate whether it’s a good or bad one. But for people, it’s a little harder to tell and that’s why this quest for life’s purpose has been long and confusing for many. But there are good answers to this question and it’s an important question as it sets the trajectory of our lives.

After the message we had a good time getting to know each other through Charades relay, followed by an impromptu trip to La Jolla Shores to walk along the beach for some fresh night air. We ended the night at the local Denny’s where we packed into the upper room and took over a good half of the restaurant! It was definitely a night to remember.

Games With James