ALIVE: "Courage"

In this week's sharing, we had the privilege of having Richard, Brooke, and baby Max Nungessers with us. Richard and Brooke shared from Mark 2, where Jesus called Levi to follow him. We see Jesus having the courage to reach out to a man despised by others. Jesus wasn't afraid of how others would perceive Him, He knew what was right.

How often do we talk ourselves out of doing something courageous? It could be standing up for a rightful cause, could be defending the weak, or simply approaching a person to get to know him or her. We are filled with daily opportunities to be like Christ, but often times we waste it because of lack of courage.

If Jesus was preoccupied with how others may think of Him, He would've never approached Levi, and Levi would've never followed Jesus, and Levi would've never written the gospel of Matthew. Imagine what may be lost in the greater scheme of things simply because we were too preoccupied with our fears of self-doubt or how others may perceive us.

Choose today to live courageous. It doesn't take much. Jesus did it with "Follow me." The Levis of city today are waiting for us.

FoF meets every Tuesday night 7:00-8:30 pm at Sweet Surrender Cafe (Ul. Krasinskiego 1/1 Poznan).

Our first guest speaker!

Hi y'all!

Last week, October 16th we met up at Sweet Surrender Cafe and had our second meeting this academic year. We started off with a game to get to know each other better. Next, we had a great worship by the candlelight and then moved on to the main point of our meeting.

Our guest speaker was Andrew Ngaditono, who started the "ALIVE: God, self, community" series. The whole group had a lively conversation, when analyzing Ezechiel 37:1-14. Andrew explained that God is active, as He pursues us continuously. He reaches out to all of us and restores the broken-hearted - He's the God of hope. We need to focus on keeping our eyes on the Lord, because He breathes life into us and breaks the chains of the painful past.
People seek God, people seek His help. Communities look for those, who were healed by the Lord, because they are blind themselves and need to be led to the Savior of the lost.
We must remember that in God we have our strength, our power, our hope. It is thanks to Him, the Creator of us all, that we can be healed from the pain, our weaknesses and brokenness.

It was a wonderful, encouraging meeting. We were very blessed to have Andrew preach that night!

And so, if you want to find out more about "ALIVE: God, self, community" series and grow in love for God, come and join us! We're there, Tuesdays, 7pm, Sweet Surrender Cafe waiting for you! :)

BUNKO NIGHT!

Tuesday October 9th we started this month with a social event.
We met up at karolek in the second floor for pizza and game night! :)

There wasn´t that many who showed up so we decided to play a game calledBANG!
It was a lot of fun, the game was basically like a mafia game.

The night was a success. Fun game, excellent pizza and great people. I forgot who won BANG, but hey! It´s not about winning, it´s about participating!! :D (I lost...)

Hope to see you all next time on FoF. Tuesday 7pm at Sweet surrender!

Xoxo

Kicking Off The New School Year!

Hi all,

you are all invited to the first general meeting of FoF this Tuesday evening October 2nd, at 6 pm. We will meet together at Sweet Surrender and walk together to the nearby Millennium Pizza for dinner.

Come find out what FoF is all about! We'll see you there!

Blessings,
Andrew Ngaditono

Sweet Surrender:
Zygmunta Krasińskiego 1
60-830 Poznań
http://fofnan.blogspot.com/p/when-and-where.html

Millennium Pizza:
Adama Mickiewicza 18A
60-101 Poznań, Poland
http://www.milenium-pizza.pl/

4W'S TUESDAY, APRIL 24TH

WANTED!

Karoline, responsible for the “Welcome” part

The suspect was seen last Tuesday at Sweet Surrender Café around 7 p.m. She was wearing a black shirt and a wide smile. According to the witnesses, she was distributing small cards to the FoFers, asking them to write their names on the scraps of paper. Once they had followed her instructions, she collected the scraps and mixed them up so that no one could see their content, after which the participants were to pick one card and write something nice about the person whose name they drew.

WANTED!

Laurie, responsible for the “Worship” part

Again, according to the witnesses, Laurie brought her laptop with her to FoF and shared two videos that showed different ways of worshiping God.  In one of the videos, a young artist recited a poem for God’s glory. He was trying to explain the difference between real faith and religion, and showing how people can sometimes mistake one for the other. You can watch it here: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IAhDGYlpqY&feature=share

The second video was related with visual arts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VtiHkkbq18&feature=share

WANTED!

Andrew, responsible for the “Word” part

The discussion started with Andrew focusing around Romans 12:9-21. Everybody talked about the verses that moved them the most in the passage, and in the end it turned out that in the Bible, even the seemingly short fragments are rich in important spiritual remarks.

WANTED!

Kremena, responsible for the “Witness” part

Kremi shared with the FoFers her experiences in living the Bible truths on a day-to-day basis. A consistent attitude of putting the Bible principles into practice pays out in the long run, because the others are drawn to the people whose moral core is clearly defined and well-founded.

BUNCO!!!

Bunco!

No, that is not a new acronym for FoF meetings, it was the game played on the 2^nd floor TV lounge in Karolek for the FoF social!  

Tim arranged everything to get us access to the room!  Go TIM!!!  At first David, Tim, Milena and Theresa were wondering if we should have a change in “game” plans, since we did need a few more people than 4.  Suddenly more people showed up and there were enough people to make it a game night of Bunco with a few “ghost people” added in to make it an even 12!

It was easy to get into the game and yell at the dice to roll the needed numbers.  In fact we were getting so intense that when someone came in to ask if it would be possible to watch TV, no one responded to him, but kept on rolling the dice!!!

Of course when the huge pink pizza boxes arrived, the game was stopped immediately!   Yum!

Soon the games continued!  There was an obnoxious duck that was passed around whenever someone rolled a “Bunco”!   Prizes were given to the person with the most wins, most losses and the final person with the traveling stuffed duck!  Hats off to Vince (most L’s), Nina (last person with the duck) and Roman (most W’s!)! 

 

Thanks to all who participated and we missed those of you who didn’t make it!  Hope to see you at the next FoF event. 

Happy Easter to all!  Our Savior is Risen!

WWWW March 20, 2012

“Ok, here’s what we’re going to do. First, we should stand round in a circle – has everybody found their place? Good. Now, you reach out your hands to grab somebody else’s hand, but make sure that you hold two hands of two different people… Done? Good. Our objective for now is to undo this knot”, explains Tim the rules of our welcome activity. The biggest difficulty? At any moment, you’re not allowed to release your grip on the hands you’re shaking. On the other hand, it’s the best way to welcome people whose names have slipped your mind and to greet them again with a hearty handshake! Tonight we’re in the Sweet Surrender’s office and since a lot of us have showed up for 4W’s, it seems that there’s not much space left in the room… But who cares? We’re having fun, even though we’re squeezed and tied up in a new Gordian knot in the cramped office. After some effort, we find our way back to the initial circle.

Andrea leads us in worship, and I like these moments on Tuesday when I can just be here and praise God with other FoFers. Karoline prepared the word section – she wants to share with us one of her favourite Bible passages: Matthew 6:33-34. “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” It’s reassuring to know that even though our lives are far from being blissful and easy, no matter what happens God is and will be our provider if only we choose to put our trust in Him. One student notices that the promise of these verses doesn’t lose touch with everyday reality – for Jesus admits that each day brings its own trouble. What he offers isn’t a free from trouble existence smelling of roses and filled up with entertainment – but still, he guarantees that we can count on Him in every situation and, as a result, we have all reason to await future with hope!

After the short discussion on Matthew, Theresa asked us to turn a couple of pages in our Bibles to find Matthew’s last verses, in which Jesus gives us his Great Commission: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20) This time, we are to particularly focus on two key words, namely “go” and “all”. Jesus doesn’t want us to stay in churches and hang out only with Christians. We are to be his representatives in the world, a task implying that we spend time with those who haven’t heard yet of His Good News.

Tuesday night is when my soul gets some good spiritual food. Join us next time!

They are listening attentively...

...aren't they?