Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from TNF Torrance!

TNF began the Christmas season with the annual Christmas TBDT that includes presenting presents, caroling, and spreading the Christmas spirit to one another.

TNF Torrance had a festive Christmas carnival with beautiful crafts and competitive games.

The fun did not end there! The Thieu and Nghia Christmas party added more warmth and bonding to the season, through food and games.

Lets not forget the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of baby Jesus. With hard work and dedication TNF Torrance presented the Nativity play on Christmas Eve, celebrating the coming of Jesus.

Once again Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from TNF Torrance.

Chị Veronica

Huynh Trưởng 

Đoàn Thiếu Nhi Fatima

Đức Mẹ Truyền Tin Torrance

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August 27, 2016 - One Day Spiritual Retreat for Leaders - "What is Your Net Worth?"

Today, TNF Torrance held our annual One Day Spiritual Retreat for Leaders. 

This event was for our members age 16+ and the theme this year was "What is Your Net Worth?" In preparation for the coming school year, we want to remind ourselves about what is important in our service and renew our faith. We welcomed our current and future leaders to experience a day of self-reflection and discussion to talk about our gifts as children of God. 

We had several presenters including So Thanh (DMTG), Cha Long, Cha Hoai Chuong, Thay Pho Te Long, and our own HTs Anh Peter and Chi Diana. The day was spent exploring society's definition of net worth compared to God's definition of net worth. As Catholics, what ideas of net worth should we hold most important? We talked about what our God-given talents are and how to use them in our work as fishers of men. As young people, there are often no easy answers to these ideas but we want to continually recognize that we are all different and have many things to offer to God and our world.

One the short and simple ideas of the day: love yourself!

We hope that our participants were able to bond and have a great time throughout this retreat. More importantly, we hope that you were able to learn, be challenged, and grow from this experience.

Keep an eye out for Peter's Pickles for more on the discussion of "What is Your Net Worth?"!

- Chi Pauline

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RECAP: Thứ Bẩy Đầu Tháng - February 7, 2015

For the first Thứ Bẩy Đầu Tháng (TBDT) of the 2015 year, we gathered in San Gabriel on February 7. This TBDT was the start of something new called a "Passport to God". With this passport, for every time that you attend TBDT you will receive a sticker or stamp on your card. For every three, you will receive a ticket that will be drawn in a raffle at the end of the year on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. This year's grand prize is an iPad!

Although the passport is a fun incentive to go to TBDT, it also reminds us of a much more important reason to go: to make devotion to Mary. At TBDT, we can receive the Eucharist, go to confession, pray the rosary, and spend time with Mary. The mysteries of the Rosary remind us of the life, death, and glory of Jesus and Mary. It is important to meditate on these events and as we strive to love God like Mary has shown us, we get closer to God.

This TBDT we were joined by Cha Hiếu, who held mass. After mass and the Rosary prayer, we played games such as Musical Chairs 2.0, French Charades, and Singo. Our spirit was bright as we acted (some terribly) and sang some of our favorite tunes. We had lunch together and Đoàn Torrance was soon on the road back to our church to start sinh hoạt.

We had a full day of laughter and fun with our TNF family and we look forward to the coming events. We hope to see you in Torrance for March's TBDT on the 7th! 

Also, take a look below to watch our vlog from this special day!

Chị Pauline

Ðoàn Trưởng 

Đoàn Thiếu Nhi Fatima

Đức Mẹ Truyền Tin Torrance

 

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Thứ Bẩy Đầu Tháng December 6th, 2014

Last Saturday, each Doan came together for Thứ Bẩy Đầu Tháng (TBDT), the first Saturday of the month. It is important that as the Youth of Our Lady of Fatima, we unite each TBDT to attend mass, receive the Eucharist, pray the Rosary together, show penance, and bond with each other. Most importantly, we do these things to meditate and spend time with Our Mother Mary. 

We prayed the Joyful Mysteries, and reviewed each of the events of the mystery with Deacon Long. We began with The Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel comes to  the Virgin Mary and announced that she will be bearing God's child, Jesus. Then we discussed The Visitation, when Mary had received the news about her cousin, Elizabeth, who is also with child, and decides to visit her cousin. Due to time constraints, we concluded the Joyful Mysteries by envisioning the third mystery, the Birth of Jesus, Our Savior. He was born in modesty when Mary and Joseph were searching for a place to stay. As it was about time for the baby to be born, they were denied a room by every hotel they came across. Joseph then brought them to the town of Nazareth in Galilee, but there was no more guest rooms available. So when the time came for the birth of Jesus, she gave birth to her Son inside a barn and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, placing him in a manger. After each part of the mystery, we slowly prayed Our Father, 10 Hail Marys, Glory Be, and the Fatima prayer while meditating on the event of the mystery. We think about the importance of these events and how we can learn the fruit of the mystery.

After praying the Rosary, we did some singing practice and headed off to visit the residents of Olive Vista Behavioral Health Center in Pomona. We sang Christmas Carols and presented gifts that were blessed by Father Long. It was a joyous day, indeed! Thank you for those of you who woke up in the early morning to participate in this wonderful event! Special thanks to Doan Claremont for your hospitality and your work in making this very special day happen!

Chị  Lucy Ta 

Phụ Tá Nội Vụ
Đoàn Thiếu Nhi Fatima Đức Mẹ Truyền Tin Torrance

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Christmas Dance: Hang Bê-lem at SBTN with Ca Đoàn Tổng Hợp TGPLA

Yesterday, ten girls from Đoàn Torrance filmed a Christmas dance for the song Hang Bê-lem at the Saigon Broadcasting Television Network (SBTN), a Vietnamese TV broadcasting station here in Southern California. We were joined by our lovely friends from Đoàn San Gabriel as well as Anh Trung, Chị Hài, and Anh Long, who organized our participation! The program is a concert of Christmas songs performed by Ca Đoàn Tổng Hợp Tổng Giáo Phận Los Angeles. It will be airing on December 24 and 25. We invite you all to tune in and enjoy this beautiful event in the spirit of Christmas!

Chị Pauline

Ðoàn Trưởng 

Đoàn Thiếu Nhi Fatima
Đức Mẹ Truyền Tin Torrance

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Khóa Tĩnh Huấn 2014

"Đền Tạ là Phận Sự của Thiếu Nhi Fatima"

       Every year, we encourage our kids ages sixteen and up to attend an annual spiritual retreat to better prepare themselves to become leaders who can live and spread the message of Fatima for the younger kids.  This year, the theme was "Đền Tạ là Phận Sự của Thiếu Nhi Fatima", but what does it mean to "đền tạ"?
        We can always brag about God's love for us. For God has been with us through all our hardships and blessed us with tremendous happiness that outweigh our sufferings.  

But we could never brag about our love for him because we fail him every time we forget to pray, accidentally say his name in vain, lie to our parents, or be unkind to our neighbors. We hurt him yet he is always stay by our side, ready to forgive us.  Even though we mess up and cause a larger distance from him every time we sin, he closes the distance between us by repaying for our sins.  He corrects our misdeeds and pays our debts by sacrificing his only son, Jesus, to die for our sins.   But what can we do for God? We cause him so much pain and suffers to restore our relationship; how could we repay him?
        Sacrifice all you can for God and pray with all your heart to comfort him out of love... that is the way of the youth of Fatima.  Give God your time and serve his people by loving them just as he loves you. In Thiếu Nhi Fatima, our kids do this by sacrificing the time and choosing to devote to prayer, to share the good news of God, to care for one another, and to be good role models just like Jesus.  If we could be more like Jesus, we repay him and share the burden by meeting him halfway and close the distance we create from him.  

This weekend, 21 of our members raced (literally) to the seminary, wanting to learn more about God and longing to fill the gap in their hearts with the graces of Mary and God.  Together they helped, supported, and  strengthened each other to inspire faith in each other and work towards the goal to pass on the blessings and love to others.

Congratulations to Diana Dang and Thuan Phan on accepting the calling to serve God as leaders of TNF!!

**Left to right **

(Top Row: Simon, Thuan, Bryan, Henry, Matt, Peter, Jonathan, Justin, Chris, Ryan, Anthony, Andy

Bottom Row: Pauline, Kathy, Britnee, Veronica, Lucy, Diana, Thuy, Nhu Lan, Brenda)

Chị Brenda Nguyễn

Nghĩa Trưởng

Đoàn Thiếu Nhi Fatima 
Đức Mẹ Truyền Tin Torrance

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A Day of Celebration for Our Vietnamese Martrys and Saints on November 16th, 2014

On November 16th, 2014 more than 3,000 Catholics attended to a very special mass to honor and celebrate the martyrs and saints of Vietnam. Fourteen different parishes throughout the region and Archdiocese of Los Angeles were united as one for this very special day. 

Yesterday, some of our TNF members participated in a heartfelt skit about our Vietnamese martyrs at Our Lady of Angels Cathedral before mass. This experience helped all of us have a better understanding about the martyrs who lost their lives in refusal to give up their faith for God. We pray that we live our lives through the demonstration of these martyrs as children of God. May God bless their souls eternally. 

To watch the performance, please Click Here.

The celebration was also featured on the LA Times! Click here to read the full article!

Chị  Lucy Ta 

Phụ Tá Nội Vụ
TNF Torrance

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Be still and know I am here.

RE: One-Day Spiritual Leadership Retreat

This past weekend on Saturday, August 30, TNF Torrance held our One-Day Spiritual Leadership Retreat for prospective leaders and well as our current leaders.

This year's theme was: Who do the crowds say I am? (Lk 9:18)
This verse is in reference to when Jesus asks His disciples who they think He is. We are followers of Jesus but how you live your life as His students also depends on your perspective. What kind of cross do you take up? Who do you think Jesus is?  

The event took place at our Ministry Center from 9 AM - 6 PM with 18 participants and 5 guest speakers. We had a full day of fun but also many learning experiences and moments of reflection.

We began the day with prayers and a short introduction to the purpose of the retreat. Then we headed outside for some fun warm up activities. Chị Britnee lead the group in a few rounds of a game called "Bird and Perch" well as "Body Parts" and "French Charades". By the end of the games we were comfortable and ready to learn.

Our speakers included Fr. Long, Anh Long, Fr. Hoang, TNF Torrance HT's (Brenda, Lucy, & Pauline), Deacon Long, and Linda. There were a range of topics such as Motivation, Priority Management, What it takes to be a Spiritual Leader, Love & Devotion, Reconciliation, and the theme, Who do the crowds say I am? (Lk 9:18). Each session was about an hour and included a variety of activities such as demonstrations, discussions, and reflections. 

Something fun we did was our Questions Box. Throughout the day, participants could put in questions for our speakers or to anyone else in the room. There were some silly questions, such as "What is your favorite boba drink? What do you think your best physical feature is?" and also some serious questions such as "Do you ever get scared about TNF? How do you deal with it?" 

At the end of the day, we were full of new ideas. We learned, we bonded, we laughed, and we cried. Looking back, we feel happy, motivated, and revitalized for the new year of TNF. 

We can certainly answer the question: Who do you think Jesus is?


Chị Pauline
Ðoàn Trưởng 
TNF Torrance

*Special thanks to our guest speakers for your continuous support and dedication to TNF and our future leaders. Big thank you to those of you that helped organize the event. We also extend thanks to those of you that participated in this event for your positivity and devotion to learning. Best wishes to all of you and God bless! 

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One-Day Spiritual Leadership Retreat

Summer is a time to relax and have fun but also a time to think and prepare for the next school year, especially for all of our youth leaders. We have a long year ahead of us (it's also our 25 year anniversary this year!) and we want to stay as enthusiastic and passionate about our work as much as possible.

TNF Torrance will be holding a One Day Spiritual Leadership Retreat for our youth leaders at the end of the month. There are many great guest speakers for this event such as our parish priest as well as other TNF leaders. The purpose of this retreat is to prepare our youth leaders as well as potential leader candidates to be great religious role models and get them excited for the coming year.

The theme of this retreat is: Who do the crowds say I am? Lk 9:18

We follow Jesus where He leads us and we want to take up our own crosses. But where does He lead us? What is the cross that we will take up? Who do you say Jesus is?

If you have been selected to attend this retreat, please RSVP on Facebook by Saturday, August 23.
We hope you can make it!

Chị Pauline
Ðoàn Trưởng 
TNF Torrance

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