This past week marked the first week of the 2012-2013 school year for UT Austin! The picture of constant traffic around campus, the dollies loaded with boxes being led up to dorm rooms, and of course, the new freshmen as they take their first step into their college careers was all too familiar. As for us at Koinonia, this meant one thing: our annual tradition of holding welcome week activities to welcome the new students, and of course, our New Student Welcome Night. Last week was packed with different events, and to describe it in words would take days, so we will just let the following pictures do most of the talking.

We kicked off Welcome Week by gathering into the SAC ballroom for Boba and Boardgame Night. With an ice cold cup of milk tea and the timeless classics like Scrabble and Jenga, we were able to enjoy the company of old and new friends who joined us.

On the following day after service, we had our ever-popular event: Glow-in-the-Dark Capture the Flag at the Capitol. The heat and the threat of West Nile didn’t faze a lot of people as we had a record number of people join us for a night of Capture the Flag and shaved ice from Rita’s.

Just in case you were concerned, we’re not only about food and games (even though we do love good food!). On Monday afternoon, we had our Inside Scoop on your Major event. Several of our upperclassmen came by to the Atrium to share some wisdom they gathered about their majors and their experiences at UT over these past few years.

Later that day, we had our very first sophomore reception. In order to welcome all of the sophomore transfers and the new sophomores to our group, we held a reception in the Gregory Game Room. While enjoying a delicious dinner, we got to know each other by coming up with descriptive alliterations for our names. Afterwards, Pastor Manny gave a message, and we ended the time with a fun game on Texas trivia.

But wait! There’s more! We played a game of “Minute to Win It” where students were challenged to finish seemingly impossible tasks in one minute. It was hilarious to see students test their limits and even succeed!

All of these events built up to Koinonia’s signature event: New Student Welcome Night. This year, we had two showings at two different locations, Welch and Jester Auditoriums. We welcomed nearly 700 new students between the two nights. It was a memorable two nights with the debut of a new video, rocking praise, skit, and message. Pastor Manny covered a passage in the Gospel of Luke, challenging us not to miss out on Jesus’ invitation to the banquet. And of course, we had our own banquet as we enjoyed the long anticipated Korean BBQ.

Believe it or not, the week did not end there. We had our Praise Night and TFN on Friday, which was followed by the first night of our dodgeball tournament. It was a great way to end a packed week and to begin the first weekend of the school year! If you missed out on any of the events, no worries! We will be having TFN every Friday, which will be followed by our dodgeball tournament for the rest of September! You don’t want to miss out!