An Odyssey of Car Miracles

Hello, friends! 

A few Sundays ago, our car wouldn't start. Thankfully, we were in the parking lot after church so we were able to get the car jumped and be on our way. I dropped the family off at home then drove to AutoZone to get the system tested. There were options of what it could be

:
- If it was the battery, no problem because we just recently bought a new battery so it would be under warranty and we'd get it replaced free of charge.

- If it was the alternator, a slight problem but we just had THAT replaced a month ago, so you'd better believe that I'd be fighting to get that replaced free of charge.

- Alas, it was the starter, meaning another good chunk of change would be going down the drain to get it replaced.

It was at that point that Megan and I had the conversation as to whether or not we needed to trade in our van and get something new. We had a tough decision ahead of us. On the one hand, we had the long term decision of whether or not to get a new car. On the other hand, there was the short term decision of whether or not to get the starter replaced. If we get it replaced but then get a new car, then we sort of wasted the money to get the starter replaced. BUT, if we do get it replaced and ride it out, who knows how long until something else breaks down.

We bought that van in 2016 when it had just over 25k miles on it after we found out Megan was pregnant with Thaliea. That van survived our move to Omaha, many trips to South Dakota (and a vacation to Colorado!) and over 125k miles over 9 years. It served us well but we knew we couldn't hold on to it forever. Plus, the dealerships of that particular car company in the Omaha area are pretty bad when it comes to customer service. We'd be getting a new car at some point, there was just a question of how long we could hold out. 

In the short term, we decided to not get the starter replaced and literally pray that the starter wouldn't go bad again at any point. Miracle #1: The starter survived! 

With the starter seemingly in good shape (albeit still a gamble), we decided that we could look for new (to us) cars but we weren't so desperate that we would make a bad deal just because we needed something. That Sunday night, we looked around and found a few options that were close to what we wanted. There was one in particular that was a 2019 Honda Odyssey with about 60k miles on it. The price was in our range so we set up an appointment. 

When we got to the dealership, the car wasn't actually ready. They said it would be ready in an hour so we went to a different dealership to look at a different option. That wasn't going to do it for us, so we went back to the first place. The salesman brought the car out to us... except that he didn't. IT WAS THE WRONG CAR! 

At that point, we had to go, so we told him we would try again tomorrow when the right car was ready. Except we never got the chance. When I called the next day to confirm the appointment, I was told that the car we never got to see had been sold the previous night. Miracle #2: Not getting that car. 

Why was that a miracle? Because Sunday night, I decided to look online again, just to see if there had been any new listings. There I found a 2023 Odyssey with under 35k miles on it, also within our price range. Miracle #3: Finding a better car! 

We tried to set up an appointment to see that car but they said that it wouldn't be ready to look at until Tuesday. There was a small crack in the front bumper that needed to be replaced. Megan was heading out of town for work on Tuesday, so it looked like we were going to be out of luck. EXCEPT WE WEREN'T... Miracle #4: The car got finished early so we were able to look at it on Monday. 

As I said, there was a small crack on the front bumper but that was easily fixed. HOWEVER, what that meant was that since the car no longer had any cosmetic damage, the asking price was going to be much higher. EXCEPT IT WASN'T... Miracle #5: Because we saw the listing at the original, lower price, we were able to buy the car at the lower price. 

The only thing we had left to do was the finances. I wasn't stoked about having a car payment but I knew our budget could handle it within a certain range (Thank you, Public Schools!). But in order to get the payment within our range, we needed to put some money down. How much down? Well, the exact amount that we had... 

Let me explain. Last month, my dad was looking through his files and he found some savings bonds that belonged to me. The amount those bonds were worth was the exact amount that we needed in order to put down a down payment that would get the monthly payments within our budget. Miracle #6: The savings bonds that showed up out of nowhere. 

So, now we have a new (to us) car. It's a Honda, which means we can use the mechanic that fixes our other car (Honda Fit) that we really like. It also means that we don't have to worry about getting a jumpstart in the middle of a parking lot. God really came through for us. The next miracle will be to see if we can keep it clean for more than a week... =0). 

Have an excellent day! 

~Adam 

Bye, bye old car!

Hello, new car! 

Running (Around for) Revive!

Hello, friends! 

Last weekend we hosted InterVarsity students from Nebraska and Iowa for Revive, our Fall Conference. Everything that I've heard about Revive is that it was a really great time. The students had fun, folk got connected to one another, and the Holy Spirit moved in some really powerful ways. 

I say "from what I've heard" because honestly, I didn't participate in much of the actual conference itself. Between running snacks and running around with the kids, there was plenty to do. Allow me to break down my Revive. 

Friday:

- 9am: Take Thaliea to Costco, the Asian Market, and Walmart to go shopping for snacks. Did I buy too much? Definitely. Do I regret any of it? Certainly not. =0). 

- 11:30am: Back at the church to start setting up with the rest of the staff.

- 1pm: Staff meeting.

- 2:pm: Start setting up welcome snacks, which was coffee, hot water for tea, and chips. This included cleaning out the hot liquid containers and learning how to use the church 7:coffee maker. 

- 4:30pm: Dinner volunteers (Thanks, One Hope Church!) arrive and we begin dinner orientation.

- 5:15pm: Dinner arrives (shout out to Bridge Church for providing dinner!).

- 7:00pm: Dinner cleanup while the session starts.

- 8pm: Start heating up water for post-session snack (hooray for ramen!).

- 9pm: Run snacks after the session, which also includes trying to convince folk to take extra slices of pizza from dinner.

- 9:30pm: Clean up.

- 11pm: Home for the night.

Saturday:

- 7:15am: Head to the church with Thaliea to set up the morning breakfast spread (bagels, fruit, baked goods, and coffee/tea) as well as the mid-morning snack (granola bars).

- 8:10am: Switch with Megan to take the boys to sports.

- 8:30am: Coach Ezra's soccer match (Black Widows win!).

- 9:30am: Watch Jonah's soccer match (Cheetahs win!)..

- 11:30am: Watch Ezra's flag football game (Fire Phoenix lose...).

- 1:15pm: Drop the boys off with Megan and pick up Thaliea to take her to dance.

- 2:15pm: Back at the church to set up afternoon snacks (popcorn and trail mix)

- 4pm: Dinner volunteers (thanks, West Hills Church!) arrive and we begin setting up for dinner (baked potato bar!)

- 5:30pm: Serve dinner.

- 7pm: Clean up dinner.

- 7:30pm: Start setting out all the leftover snacks so that students can take them home after the session.

- 8:30pm: Connect with Bellevue and MCC students to hear about their experience.

- 9pm: Giveaway ALL the snacks

- 9:30pm: Clean up the church so it's ready for service tomorrow.

- 11pm: Home for the night. 

Three big lessons from the weekend: 

- Hospitality is hard work! Megan is the one with the gift of hospitality and I see how valuable that gift is. I'm sure that she could have found a way to do everything better, faster, and for cheaper. Mad respect to everyone who has that gift. 

- Kid Time and Conference Time is hard work! We opted to d o Revive in Omaha because it would be easier logistically for us. That was true for the conference but because that also meant we were in town for all the kid activities, it was much more complicated than if we were all at a retreat site somewhere. 

- The Holy Spirit loves to move at Fall Conference. The one thing that I heard consistently when talking with students was that the Holy Spirit did his thing, like he always does. Our Bellevue students were especially impacted, including one student who may have recommitted his life to Jesus (I still need to follow up). 

Thanks to everyone who prayed and gave so we could make Revive happen! 

Have an excellent day! 

~Adam

Revive!

Hello, friends! 

We are just one week away from Revive, InterVarsity Nebraska and Iowa's Fall Conference. It's been a few years since Nebraska has hosted a Fall Conference, so it's an exciting but kind of wild time right now. 

The process started last semester at Ambition. We had a number of students from Nebraska come and have really transformative experiences. The result was 2 new bible studies starting in Omaha and Lincoln. Suddenly, we doubled the number of campuses where there was student work. The past few years, we had traveled to Iowa's Fall Retreat but there was a real question about whether or not it would make more sense to host our own to continue to momentum of what God was doing in Nebraska. We decided to take the leap and Revive was born. In fact, from those initial conversations, Iowa decided that they would join in this year, meaning we were hosting students from two different states. 

Revive is going to be really great. We'll be bringing in an excellent speaker from Los Angeles as well as a worship leader from Colorado Springs. There will be workshops, fun times, and probably too much food. =0). 

Our big thing right now is recruitment. With just a week to go until Revive starts, we still have students who are on the fence about attending. This includes some students from our church, who were invited to attend since it'll be here in Omaha. There are lots of logistics that still need to be sorted but those don't matter if there aren't students there to experience those logistics. 

So, friends, would you spend a few minutes praying for our Revive recruitment over the next few days? Would you pray that students who are on the fence about attending would say "yes" to going? Would you pray that a friend would bring a friend? Would you pray that there be some surprise signups in the next few days? 

Have an excellent day! 

~Adam 

Pumpkin Patch time!

Hello, friends! 

Apparently, we've started a tradition here in the Omaha Leong household. Once a year, during Scout Week, we head to Vala's for a day out at the pumpkin patch! 

Honestly, when we first moved to Omaha and heard about Vala's, Megan and I had the same reaction: who would pay that much money to go to a pumpkin patch! That seems like a total waste of money. However, 2 years ago, after hearing so many good things about it, we decided to give it a shot. Honestly, it was a pretty good idea. 

Vala's isn't a pumpkin patch in the traditional sense. It's sort of like if Disneyland and a pumpkin patch had a baby. There are shows. There are rides. There are animals. There's food to eat and things to see. We've gone for 3 years in a row now and each time we go we see something new and we run out of time before we can do all the things we did the year before. After our first time going a few years ago, I decided that 2 things can be true at the same time. Vala's costs a fair amount of money but is simultaneously worth the cost of admission (during Scout Week). 

Lest you think that this is an add for Vala's, I'll say that it certainly isn't perfect. We only go during Scout Week because otherwise the price of admission would a little bit out of our price range. However, when you take 25% off for the families of scouts, that makes it work a little better. Also, when we're talking about a theme park experience, we're also talking about theme park prices. We know exactly how they make their money and I have the empty bag of kettle corn to prove it. =0). 

In 2023 we went on a whim. In 2024, we went as a way to celebrate finding Gus after he ran away. This year, we decided to officially make it a tradition. We also brought a family friend and another family friend joined us for a bit too. We took the kids out of school early so we could spend as much time as possible at the park, which was the right call. 

We've hit a bit of a rhythm in terms of things that we know we want to hit. We rode the train. We jumped on some giant trampolines. We raced pedal racers We saw some pig races. We (well, everyone but me) rode the mini roller coaster. There's a section of the patch devoted to eggs that the kids really enjoy. We ate at the rib place like we did last year and we bought some kettle corn like we always do. This time we let the kids bring some of their own money so they could spend it on whatever they wanted (spoiler alert: the answer was sugar... The answer is always sugar). Everyone slept well when we got home, that's for sure. 

Ultimately, even though it wasn't the cheapest of days, I'm happy for a new family tradition to be born. I keep hearing about how quickly time flies with the kids. My hope is that we can provide enough of these family traditions that the kids can look back fondly on their childhoods. Then, eventually, they can pay for my ticket to get into the pumpkin patch. =0). 

Have an excellent day!

~Adam

Bellevue Kickoff!

Hello, friends! 

This week, Bellevue University started with its first bible study of the year. Well, to be fair, it wasn't actually a bible study. As per Bellevue InterVarsity tradition, our first event of the year was game night. The plan was simple: order some pizzas, play some games, and get to know one another. 

Another tradition of mine is that I always order too much food for the Bellevue Kickoff. I don't know if it's my optimism or just a value ingrained in me that we should never run out of food (thanks, Mama and Papa!) but I'm always going to over order. Based on our initial invitations and such, we knew that we'd probably have between 5-15 people at kickoff, which means that 3 large pizzas would probably be plenty. Did I order 4 just in case? Yes I did. Did Dominos give me an extra one because they accidentally cut the pizza wrong? Yes they did. Was it too much food? Yes it was. Did I partake of another Bellevue InterVarsity tradition by going around the student center trying to give away food? Yes I did. Do I regret any of it? No I don't. =0). 

Our crew was mostly regulars from last year but we did have 2 new students, which was nice. Neither of our plant winners from tabling showed up, so we played games to determine the winners. We played "Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza" and "Uno", and all friendships remained in tact. 

From here, our student leader will be leading bible studies and I won't be there regularly. I may try to get out there another time through the semester to support our student leader but we'll see. Either way, I'll continue to pray for the Bellevue students and that their community will grow in love for Jesus and in love for one another. 

Have an excellent day! 

~Adam

Back to the Tables!

Hello, friends! 

Yesterday, I did something that I haven't done in YEARS... I went tabling. 

Tabling is a staple of college ministry. It's exactly what it sounds like. You sit at a table and wait for students to come by so you can tell them about your group and try to get them to sign up. It's not always glamorous and it's not always fun, but the potential of it is always exciting. 

You never know who you're going to meet and the students that you meet at tabling are often the ones who become a part of your group for years to come. You wouldn't have met them if you weren't out there tabling, so you table. Last year, at Bellevue's tabling event, Jill met Ashlyn. Ashlyn signed up and brought her roommate Liberty to the bible study. Liberty got involved and went to Ambition where she gave her life to Jesus. Now Liberty leads the InterVarsity group at Bellevue. The LORD works in mysterious ways... =0). 

I haven't stretched out my tabling muscles for a while because I haven't needed to do it. When we moved to Omaha, I didn't have a campus assignment to start. When I worked part-time with the group at UNL, they didn't do any tabling. We were only allowed to do tabling at Bellevue since last year, which was covered by our student leaders. This year, because of work, Liberty couldn't do the tabling last night, so I hopped in, although she was able to join me this morning. 

Most of Bellevue's student body does their coursework online, so the New Student Orientation isn't jam packed with students. The students who are in attendance are primarily athletes and/or international students. Between the session last night and the session this morning, maybe only 20 or so students got connected to InterVarsity. On the one hand, that's not a ton. On the other hand, any one of those students could be a catalyst to the chapter thriving, so I'm not too worried about it. 

Grading my tabling skills over the past 2 days, I'd say that while I haven't lost my touch completely, I was definitely out of practice. We had all the good stuff like we normally do, stickers, candy, cups and such, but we tried doing a plant raffle, which was decently successful. We also asked students to join our SnapChat directly, which was new for me but apparently that's what the young people are doing today. 

Like I've said, the joy of tabling is in the potential. I'm praying that of these 15 or 20 students who expressed interest in our group that a few of them would decide to hang around and become part of the Bellevue community. Maybe some of them will invite their friends. Maybe someone who we met yesterday or today will give their lives to Jesus. The possibilities are endless. 

Have an excellent day! 

~Adam

Black Widows Assemble!

Hello, friends! 

With the start of the new school years also comes the start of extracurriculars. Thaliea will be starting a new dance studio (she's already been cast as a flower in the Snow White ballet) soon. Scouts is starting a little later than usual but we'll be getting going soon enough with all 3 kids in the pack. The big one for me though is the start of Ezra's soccer season. If my math is right, this will be my 11th season coaching Ezra's soccer team and our 8th season as the Black Widows.

As soon as I had Ezra, I knew that I wanted to be really involved in his extra curriculars, whatever those may be. I lucked out that he loves sports like I do; the wrench in the plan was that I wasn't anticipating soccer being his sport of choice. I never played soccer growing up, so it was a new adventure for me. 

In the early years, coaching was easy. All you have to do is make sure the kids aren't using their hands, are kicking the ball and not their friends, and know which goal is the right goal. There weren't even formal practices during the week. It was a lot of fun all around. Usually, the Y puts a bunch of random kids together so it's a new team each season. In 2022, Ezra decided that he wanted to ask a bunch of his friends to play with him and the Black Widows were born. We've been together ever since. 

For the past few years, I've felt a lot like Marge Simpson giving piano lessons: she doesn't know how to play the piano, but she's just trying to stay one page ahead of the kids. =0). I've spent many an hour watching YouTube videos trying to figure out what drills to run during practice to build the kids in their skill as well as understanding of the game. I'd like to think that the team has gotten better under my coaching. What I lack in skill and soccer knowledge, I try to make up for in positive attitude and encouragement. 

Honestly, last year was a bit of an up and down year. During the Fall season, we went undefeated in the 3/4 division so we decided to make the jump to the 5/6 division. During the Spring Season, as a team of 3rd and 4th graders playing against 5th and 6th graders, we had another undefeated season, which was lots of fun. But, we also tried our hand at entering a club tournament and got absolutely crushed, showing us how much more we had to grow. We had our first in-practice fight and had one kid leave the team because of trash talk gone too far. It was the first season where I wondered if it was a good idea to keep the team together. 

We'll see how much longer the Black Widows go. YMCA soccer goes through the 8th grade, so, in theory, we could go until then. Ezra has already told me that he wants me to keep being his coach (which is encouraging to hear). But, with this being the last year of elementary school, next year everyone may be headed out to different middle schools. Maybe that will mean they want to stick together. Maybe it'll mean it's the end of an era. 

Either way, I'm trying to enjoy this season. If the Black Widows continue beyond this year, I'll be happy to keep coaching. It it's the end of me coaching Ezra, I'll start coaching Jonah and we'll start the cycle all over again. For now, I'm just thankful that I've been able to invest in these kids over the years. Hopefully, it's been as much of a blessing to them as they've been to me. 

#GoBlackWidows

Have an excellent day!

~Adam