Just a week ago (Nov. 15th) we had our annual ThanksFest! This is a tradition that was began at OU many years ago, and we have continued it here at TU. Last year we did a small version at the Tiffany’s home, similar to our weekly fellowship meals. This year we pumped up our students up and threw our first full-scale TU ThanksFest!

After all of the hard work, long nights, and heavy promotion, I can say it was a huge success! We had over 70 TU students attend the event!

A brief overview of the night:

• Students arrived, were greeted by our greeting team, chose a table, and met their table host
• As people were coming in, everyone made edible turkeys out of graham crackers, peanut butter, pretzel sticks, and M&M’s
• Next we made hand turkeys and wrote the answers to the following questions on the feathers: 1.) If your name was a verb, what would it be? 2.) If you could snap your fingers and be anywhere, where would it be? 3.) What’s your favorite holiday food? 4.) What one word describes Thanksgiving? 5.) What are you thankful for?
• Then we shared our answers for questions 1-3 with our table group
• Next it was eating time!
• While everyone was eating we watch the ThanksFest “What are you thankful for?” video. You can watch it here: https://vimeo.com/54304273
• Mary, our XAi coordinator, presented a brief history of Thanksgiving
• Erin, our fellowship coordinator, gave away XA shirts to people who could answer some Thanksgiving trivia questions
• We shared the answers to questions 4 & 5 in our groups
• Finally, Greg came up and talked a little bit about what Thanksgiving means to him

Overall, the night was a huge success. The response from each student was very positive, and we had about 10 students fill out a connection card.

I am extremely proud of our students. Each one went out of their way, and sacrificed their time and comfort, to make ThanksFest a huge success. Our table hosts were all-stars and did an amazing job connecting with the students at their table and building real relationships. As the students shared their answers to the questions above, we saw some really cool things happen. Our students were truly connecting with their table groups.

ThanksFest gave our students something to be excited about as they saw the vision for XA come alive and be active. Thank you to everyone who helped by cooking food, donating money, and giving their time. Below is just a short list of people without whom we could not have done this event…Thank you!

• Jan Willaford
• New Spring Church
• Michelle Etter
• Judy Ashmore & the Woodlake Pie Team
• Ric Shields
• Beggs First Assembly Youth Group
• and Many More!

-Adam