4Corners: A Community for International Students at UCSB
One of my favorite things this year has been our 4Corners group, a community where international students at UCSB can build friendships, try new experiences, and have meaningful conversations about life and faith.
The name “4Corners” comes from the idea of people gathering from the four corners of the world. That’s exactly what the group felt like—students from different countries (Japan, Germany, and Botswana, to name a few), cultures, and backgrounds coming together to share life during their time in Santa Barbara.
For many people studying abroad, it can be really exciting—but it can also be challenging. Being far from home, adjusting to a new culture, and making new friends takes time. Our hope with 4Corners was simple: to create a space where students can build genuine relationships, be part of a warm community, and explore the deeper questions of life and God.
Weekly Community Groups
One of the highlights of 4Corners has been our weekly Community Groups. These gatherings gave us a chance to slow down, share food, and spend time together in a relaxed setting.
Each Community Group event started with food (of course), and included some kind of activity. Some of these were relationship-building activities, like Speed-Friending, while at other times we just had a good time celebrating different holidays together. Check it out!
Mid-Autumn Festival, where teams created their own dragon costumes and competed in a dragon dancing contest. Also, lots of tea and too many moon cakes were consumed that night.
Christmas, where we talked about the tradition of giving gifts and the story behind the holiday—the birth of Jesus, who came into the world and ultimately gave His life so that we could be forgiven and have a relationship with God.
A Lot of Fun Along the Way
While Community Groups were awesome and we got to meet a lot of international students, some of the best memories happened outside of our weekly gatherings.
Over the year we’ve:
Tried our skills at batting cages (some more successfully than others)
The girls had a craft night filled with lots of creativity and laughs
The guys grabbed dinner at a classic American spot (Chili’s) and watched one of the best movies of all time: Remember the Titans. Denzel in his prime.
For me personally, these times outside of the weekly events were the highlights of 4Corners. Just being able to genuinely connect with these students and see them form genuine friendships with each other was a blessing for me.
Conversations That Matter
Along with the fun stuff we did, we also spent time talking about deeper questions. As part of our Christian fellowship at UCSB, we looked at passages from the Bible and talked about what they say about life, purpose, and relationships.
We had a chance to share the Gospel (the good news of Christianity) during our Christmas Party, talk about what makes for strong friendships through lessons learned from Remember the Titans, and learn about each others’ life stories at our Life Journey event.
The conversations were open and welcoming. Students shared perspectives from their own cultures and experiences, asked honest questions, and explored ideas together. For many, it was a chance to think about faith and life in a thoughtful way, as well as bond over shared experiences. For some, it was their first time hearing the Gospel. One of the students went through Course 101 (a 5-week course on the foundations of Christianity) with one of our a2f mentors and came to church!
Saying Goodbye to Our Exchange Students
Looking back on 4Corners, what made it special was the relationships we got to form. Most of the students that we became friends with were exchange students and have gone back to their home countries. It’s unbelievable to experience how a group of people from different countries could grow so close over the span of only three months.
At our final gathering with the guys from 4Corners, we did a truck pull (we didn’t have a truck, so we used my friend’s Ford Expedition). We had each guy try to pull the car up an incline in a parking garage on their own first - none of them made it very far. As soon as they hit the incline, they couldn’t go any further. After each guy had a try, we had all of them pull the car together. Some guys pulling from the front, some pushing front the back. And BOOM! They towed that Expedition all the way up the 150-yard incline and made it to the top!
Why did we do it? Doing stuff like pulling big cars up hills is pretty fun for most guys. But also, we wanted to illustrate the power of doing life together with friends. You’re going to hit those uphill moments where you won’t be able to get up on your own. But if you have friends with you, that you can go through life with, then it’s a lot more doable.
Before saying our goodbyes, we gave each of the students a frame with pictures from our hangouts and a Bible verse about friends who stick closer than a brother. It was a reminder and prayer for them to hold on to those close friends who will stick with them through all of life’s ups and downs.
I was surprised by how precious each of these students had become to my heart, and it was really sad to have to say goodbye. We’re not sure if/when we’ll see them again, but our hope and prayer is that what they experienced and learned about God during their time here in UCSB will stay with them as they continue their lives back home… and that one day they’ll come to have a personal relationship with Jesus.
Justin Lin (c/o 2019) graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a Psychology Major. Hit him up to play soccer. He's currently serving as a mentor with students at a2f SB.