Reflections on CSR

Hello, friends!

Last week I mentioned how Megan and I were going to be attending Central Staff Retreat (CSR) for the weekend. Well, we're back! It was a great time being with other staff from Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska on both the undergraduate as well as the graduate/faculty side of things. Here are a few of my takeaways and highlights from the weekend. 

Highlights: 

- Being an MC is my happy place. When dividing up roles for CSR, the conference director offered me 3 options: prep the testimonies, lead a seminar, or be the MC. I told him that so long as what she needed was a "hype" MC and not a "spiritual pastoral" MC, that I was her man. She said that was great so I said "yes" and it was so much fun! Being an MC really plays to my strengths. Giving out useful information? Check. Telling a bad joke every now and then to lighten the mood? Check. Being the center of attention? Check. 

- I wrote a song! One of the things I used to when I was younger was write song parodies as welcome songs to various InterVarsity events. I hadn't done one in a while, and since I was the MC, I had the microphone, which meant I could do whatever I wanted! We went with Since U Been Gone, in honor of me reaching my goal of being in the top 0.01% of Kelly Clarkson listeners on Spotify. 

- I'm going to read a book! At most of the meals there were table discussions. Some of those meetings were business related (since this is the only time we are all together in person throughout the year, it makes sense to get some work done) but some were fun! One of the meal sessions I attended was for one of my colleagues, Mark, who is writing a book about Star Trek and Christian apologetics! It's going to be nerdy and spectacular in the best possible way. 

- We totally crushed it on snacks. Saturday night, the undergraduate team (that's us!) hosted snacks (the graduate/faculty team hosted on Friday night). We opted for state themed snacks, with Missouri and Kansas hosting one room and Nebraska and Iowa hosting the other. While I have to admit that MO/KS "won" on account of them having Arthur Bryant's barbecue sauce at their room, but honestly, the NE/IA crew really crushed it. We had state staples like popcorn, Dutch letters, and various cheeses. Plus, we just had so much food! Folk may or may have not spent more time in our room than the other room... =0). 

All in all, it was a really great weekend. Not having the kids there meant that Megan and I could be fully present to do the things we were asked to do (Megan crushed it leading her seminar, as I knew she would). Next year will be an Urbana year so we won't have a staff gathering in December, meaning the next time we'll all be together will be in 2026. Still, these kinds of weekends remind me that I have great coworkers and I'm so blessed to be on this team. 

Have an excellent day! 

~Adam

     

Central Staff Retreat!

Hello, friends! 

Tomorrow, Megan and I will be heading back to beautiful Morovia, Iowa for Central Staff Retreat (CSR)! In some ways, this will be a new thing. In other ways, it'll very much be an old thing. Allow me to explain. 

For the past few years, we've had our Regional Staff Conference (RSC) in Kansas City. Kansas City is actually relatively central to all the staff in our Region. However, this year, for various reasons, we decided to change our location. Also, instead of the staff team meeting together just being our undergraduate regional staff team, we're also going to be joined by the Graduate and Faculty Ministry (GFM) team as well. That's why the name has been changed from RSC to CSR. We want to reflect the fact that it's not just a Region getting together. It's all the staff in the Central US. 

Also, this will be the first InterVarsity Conference in a while where the kids won't be joining us. Since Megan is one of the directors and I'll be serving as the MC, we won't have the capacity to watch the kids while also doing our jobs. At other conferences, like International Getaway or the Big Dig, either one of us or neither of us had major leadership roles, so we could either split kid duty or one of us would handle it. That's not possible this weekend but thankfully, Megan's parents are coming into town to watch the kids. 

While there may be some new things, there are also some things that will be very reminiscent of the days of old. One of those is our location. While we won't be heading back to Kansas City, our location, Honey Creek Resort, is a place where we had RSC for a number of years back in the day. I still remember the layout of the conference center, from the rooms to Buccaneer Bay, the indoor water park (fancy, right?!)

I'm also excited to see some old friends who have moved teams. There are a few staff in particular who used to be on our undergraduate staff team who moved to the GFM side. It will be good to see them again. 

So, friends, if it comes to you this weekend, would you be praying for CSR? Pray for the logistics of winter travel as we have staff from 4 different states coming into town. Please pray for Megan as she leads the weekend and for my voice as I speak from the front. Please pray for the kids as they spend the weekend with my in-laws (and for my in-laws as they spend the weekend with my kids!). Ultimately, please pray the God will move in our staff team while we're together. 

Have an excellent day! 

~Adam

Seven Pounds, Explained...

Hello, friends! 

Before we got on the plane to go to California for Thanksgiving, I weighed myself, just like I do every morning that we're in Omaha. When we got back a week later, I weighed myself the next morning, just like I do every morning that we're in Omaha. The result? Let's just say that I ate very well and am now sufficiently insulated for winter in Nebraska. =0). 

All in all, I gained 7 pounds, which is about a pound a day. I have no idea if that's a low amount, a high amount, or a regular amount. What I do know is that it was a DELICIOUS amount. 

Usually, when I go on trips, I come back and blog about a what I did on the trip, running through things chronologically. This time, in honor of those glorious 7 pounds, I decided to focus instead on the food I ate while I was in California as a way to talk about our trip. Strap on your bibs, because here we go! 

Jook: My brother makes fun of me because of how much my family likes jook. It's just rice porridge. Some call it "poor people food." Yet, it's a Leong family staple. As soon as we got off the plane in California and back to my parent's place, everyone had a big bowl of jook as an evening snack. The amount of love and care that my dad puts into making the jook is something else. JoJo says that it's his favorite meal of all time and that Gung Gung (my dad) makes jook even better than mommy (Note: Megan thinks so too). =0). I'm not saying that we ate a lot of jook, I'm just saying that there my dad had to make a second pot of it by Day 3. 

Dim Sum: Omaha has a lot of really great food. One thing it does not have is good dim sum. Maybe there's a place that does good dim sum in Omaha. I haven't found it. So, when my dad suggested that we do dim sum after church on Sunday, I was all in. Did I order all my favorites? I did. Did my mom over order because she wanted to make sure that I had my fill? She did. Did I end up eating a bunch more the next day or two to eventually finish everything? Yes, yes I did. 

Popcorn: There's nothing special about buttered popcorn. I was just surprised that I ate as much of it as I did. Namely, because we went to go see Moana 2 (super good) and the circus (also super good!). Side note: apparently, our family is a circus family! I think this is the third or fourth time that I've been to the circus with the family. That is not something that I would have guessed I'd say before starting a family. 

Burgers: I only ate 2 burgers while I was in California. The first was an In-N-Out Double Double wiith grilled onions (also with fries and a shake) after the circus (it really was a good circus). The second was a chiliburger from Tommy's, which I might actually like better than In-N-Out but don't get nearly as often because no one else in the family likes it as much as me. Both burgers were classics and both were delicious. 

Lobster: We celebrated my dad's 70th birthday while we were out there. He wanted a Chinese banquet so we threw him a Chinese banquet. We had lobster, noodles, fried tofu, pork chops, oysters, and some veggies for good measure. Seriously, it was one of the best lobsters I'd ever eaten. We had 3 tables (my dad is VERY popular...) so at my table was our kids, my niece and nephew, and my uncle and aunt, meaning I was the only person at the table in their prime eating shape. That lobster never stood a chance...

Sushi, Noodle, and Nuggets: Tuesday was Jonah's birthday so we did all the things he wanted to do. We went to the beach and ate Chick-fil-A nuggets. I came home and had sushi and noodles. We generally doted on the boy. All of it was fine, if unspectacular. These are all things that we have in Omaha but they are the things he wanted, so that's what we did. (Confession: I had my sister pick me up a bahn mi for the beach because we don't really have those in Omaha either.)

Mandarin Noodle House: The Mandarin Noodle House has the absolute best spicy beef noodle soup in the world (Megan's being a close second). I will fight anyone who says otherwise. I try to get out to "The House" every time we're out there but it sometimes doesn't work out. Thankfully, it's not too far from where my brother lives and my siblings were kind enough to plan a day in that area (including the banquet for my dad) so I could grab some for lunch. It was everything I remembered it being. 

All the things: Y'all, I ate a LOT of stuff on Thanksgiving. First there was breakfast because I needed my energy before playing football with some family friends (threw 5 TD's with 2 picks; intercepted my brother at least twice, we won 2 of the 3 games. Thanks for asking). I went to my sister's house where we ate lunch, which would have been a light affair, had she not seen that the taco truck was open while running errands. We went with my parents to watch Moana 2 (popcorn + milk duds + the Rock = a very entertaining time) before coming home to make final preparations for Thanksgiving. 

Quick note about a Leong Thanksgiving: My parents are the kind of generous and hospitable people who invite everyone over for Thanksgiving. When you include immediate family (which is already 18 people), extended family, and friends, you end up with somewhere between 40-50 people inside the house, which means a LOT of food. There were the traditional Thanksgiving staples like turkey, ham, roast beef, yams, stuffing, cranberry sauce, etc. My aunt made Chinese sticky rice. There were LOTS of desserts. I pretty much stuffed my face while watching the Dolphins not even really put up a fight against the Packers. 

There were other things I ate too. I had some really bad diner biscuit and gravy while visiting with my old youth pastor. We drank tons of boba and Megan got her avocado smoothie. My mom took us to Dairy Queen. My dad made St. Paul sandwiches, and I had a gobbler (or two) with the leftovers. We went to see Megan's uncle and her cousins and ate the famous Horner Spaghetti (which is so good, y'all...)

I think there were only two things I DIDN'T get around to eating. We didn't have time on Sunday for me to get a donut at the shop down the street before church. A few people brought cranberry sauce to Thanksgiving, so I didn't get to make it with Thaliea like we normally do. But, only missing 2 things is pretty good! 

Friends, looking back, it's pretty obvious how I gained 7 glorious pounds. Maybe I should be surprised that it wasn't more. But hey, that's what Thanksgiving is all about right? You spend time with your family. You eat way too much delicious food. And, most importantly, you only pack your stretchy pants on the trip. =0). 

Have an excellent day!

~Adam

Note: I didn't take a ton of photos on this trip. Mainly because I'm bad at taking photos in general but also because my hands were usually full of food...

Thankful!

Hello, friends! 

Happy Thanksgiving, friends! I'll be in California next week but I wanted to do a little something for Thanksgiving this week, noting all the things I'm thankful for from 2024. 

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I'm not exactly what you would call a "reflective" person. I don't spend a lot of time thinking about the past or focusing on things that have already happened. I have much more fun thinking about the future and the things that could be. So, exercises like this are sometimes hard for me. What am I thankful for from the past year? I have no idea. I can't even remember what happened last week, much less what happened in January. Still, these kinds of exercises are good for me, so here we go! 

- I'm thankful for our pets. Gus is perfect in every way, especially since we changed his substate and his enclosure doesn't smell as bad as it used to smell. Phoebe is still very much a puppy but she's growing and learning and we get along pretty well. 

- I'm thankful for our kids having friends. Our kids are pretty popular and I'm OK with that. Ezra has his friends from scouts and soccer (#GoBlackWidows) and is often being invited to playdates. Thaliea has her friends too, including a relatively new best friend and enjoys playing after school. Even JoJo has his buddies from preschool and daycare. He's even starting to remember names! It's so good to see our kiddos being social and enjoying community. 

- I'm thankful for Bellevue University. My first few years out here in Omaha, my student ministry interaction was pretty minimal. I would help at a student conference if I could or I would meet with a student or two, but it wasn't anything sustained. The past few years, and this year especially, I've been really involved with Bellevue University and it's been great. I don't actually spend a ton of time with the students but just the fact that there's a chapter that is growing with great student leaders is a huge blessing. 

- I'm thankful for my parents making it to 70. Honestly, I don't have a great concept of what counts as "old age." 70 seems old but then again, there are people in the highest levels of government who are older than my parents. I think I'm influenced at least a little bit by the fact that at least 2 of my 4 grandparents (maybe 3?) died before turning 70, so I always figured that 70 was a good goal to hit. I'm sure my kids agree. 

- I'm thankful for opportunities to preach. Bridge is a great church and I'm so glad that I get to be a part of it. I'm also glad that they've trusted me enough to allow me to use my gift of preaching. There's a joke at our church that I get assigned all the hard sermons (see last week's post about politics) but the truth is that I really love the chance to share God's word. 

I'm sure if I thought about it more, I could make up a whole list of things I'm thankful for. There really are a lot of things, including my health, curling, and of course, Megan. This is just a small sampling so I can get the thankfulness juices flowing. I'm also super thankful for you, dear reader. When I started this blog all those years ago, it was because I wanted to keep people up to date on ministry happenings. It never stayed that way and I've been able to share about other aspects of life and the goodness of God. For that opportunity, and the fact that people actually want to hear about what's going on, I am truly thankful. 

Have an excellent day! 

~Adam

Preaching on Politics!

Hello, friends! 

As I'm processing the results of yesterday's election, I keep going back to the sermons I preached a few weeks back for our church. The first was on the importance of the Church being involved in the political process. The second was about how we as the Church should interact with our political "enemies." Even though the election is over, I think these sermons still hold relevance. I hope they bless you in the same way it blessed me to prepare and preach them. 

Have an excellent day! 

~Adam

Onward to Minneapolis!!!

Hello, friends! 

Last week, on account of parent-teacher conferences (the kids are doing great in school, by the way), we had a 4 day weekend. We decided that the best way to spend that time was to head to Minneapolis to visit Megan's sister and her family. We hadn't been back to Minneapolis in a while (we're pretty sure that Megan was pregnant with Jonah when we last visited) so we were long past due.

Friends, when I tell you that we had a trip, we had a trip! Here are a few highlights: 

- Visiting with ministry partners, both on the way into Minneapolis, on our way our of Minneapolis, and even while we were in Minneapolis, while my sister-in-law's kids were still in school. Did we get photos with any of them? Of course not! We were having too much fun. =0). 

- Seeing some friends from college who live in the area. Did I get a photo of that one? You betcha! #GoBears 

- Visiting Minnesota's largest candy shop and the site of the world's largest jigsaw puzzle, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. 

- There was family fun too! We made dumplings together and the kids got to ride around the neighborhood, courtesy of my brother-in-law's one wheel. 

- Did I mention that Phoebe came with us? Did I mention that she got sick because she ate a bunch of stuff underneath our car seats while on the way there? Did I mention that we took a nap together and it was glorious?! Because all those things happened! 

- Of course, let's also mention that we got to visit Megan's old stomping grounds at Minnesota State. Her old dorm is now a parking lot, but the clock tower is still there! #GoMavs

- We also took some family photos, but you'll just have to wait for our Christmas card before you see those... =0). 

All in all, it was a great trip. Everyone had fun, everyone was well (enough) behaved, and it was good to see family. We'll be sure to head out there again before another 5 years passes. 

Have an excellent day! 

~Adam 

Adventures in Solo Parenting!

Hello, friends! 

This past week, Megan was in St. Louis leading our new staff cohort in a training on scriptural engagement. Besides being slightly jealous that she got to eat all the delicious things that St. Louis has to offer (she declined to bring me back any White Castle...) it was going to be another adventure in solo parenting! 

Solo parenting isn't anything new to either of us. Sometimes she goes on trips and sometimes I go on trips. The one thing that made this adventure extra exciting was that this was the first time either of us would be solo parenting with a dog (and a tortoise!). This would also be the first time since JoJo started pre-school. 

Honestly, those two facts were big changes. Usually, it'd be a situation where we would pay for an extra day or two at daycare, then I'd drop everyone off in the morning, work all day, then pick everyone up and do the dinner/playtime/bedtime routine. But, since JoJo is in preschool in the morning, we can't do daycare for just the afternoon. Added to that, since I had to let Phoebe out to go to the bathroom every few hours, I couldn't just be out all day. It was a different experience indeed! Here's how it broke down: 

Monday: 

- 8am: Head out and do some Sabbath stuff before Megan heads to the airport

- 10am: Get back to the house to say goodbye to Megan

- 11:30am: Pick up JoJo, go get lunch, and head home to let out Phoebe

- 2pm: Take Phoebe (with JoJo) for a walk

- 2:30pm: Take JoJo to Costco to pick up some groceries

- 3:30pm: Get a call from Megan that Thaliea threw up and needs to come home

- 3:50pm: Pick up Thaliea and Ezra from school

- 4pm: Get home, cook dinner, get Ezra to do his homework, get Thaliea to bed, make sure JoJo is entertained, and let out Phoebe

- 5pm: Eat dinner and playing outside with the boys

- 7pm: Bedtime routine and try to get everyone in bed by 8

Tuesday:

- 6:30am: Wake up to feed Phoebe and find out that she pooped in her kennel overnight

- 8am: Get everyone ready for school/daycare (Thaliea stayed home) and bribe them with McDonald's if we can do it quickly (we do... McGriddles for everyone!!!)

- 9am: Get back home and work from home, occasionally switching off my screen so I can let out Phoebe or get something for Thaliea

- 3:30pm: Pick up JoJo

- 5:30pm: Pick up Ezra from his friend's house (he went there after school)

- 5:45pm: Head to Alpine Inn for dinner with some of the men from our small group (and to feed some raccoons!)

- 8pm: Bedtime for EVERYONE (if only it was that simple)

Wednesday:

- 5am: Wake up with a massive migraine but still let out Phoebe because we CAN'T have a repeat of yesterday

- 6:30pm: Wake up again, migraine is still there, and get ready for the day

- 7:30am: The kids are up and it's time to get ready for school

- 8:30am: Everyone off to school, including JoJo to preschool

- 9am: Go back home and try to get some work done, while occasionally letting out the dog

- 2pm: Pick up JoJo

- 4pm: Pick up Ezra and Thaliea

- 4:30pm: Cook dinner while bribing the children with ice cream if everyone does all their chores and homework

- 6:30pm: IT WORKED! Go get ice cream

- 7:30pm: Let's get everyone to bed! 

- 8:45pm: Have a phone call with a ministry partner

Thursday:

- 5am: Did I wake up this time? I assume I did but I really don't know

- 6:30am: Feed the dog. Either I got up the first time or the second time on this one...

- 7:30am: Kids are up and it's time to go!

- 8:15am: Everyone out the door so we can get donuts on the way to school (for those counting at home,that's bribery #3)

- 9am: Back home to play everyone's favorite game, "Work while occasionally letting out the dog!"

- 3:30pm: Pick up JoJo

- 4pm: Pick up Thaliea, Ezra, and Ezra's friend for a playdate

- 5:30pm: Friend heads home and we're off to church small group

- 6:30pm: Tell the kids that if they finish their food, they can have a s'more (#4!)

- 7:30pm: Head home because there's still homework to be done! 

- 8:30pm: Bedtime for the kids

- 9pm: As much cleaning as can get done before Megan gets home, including dishes, laundry, mopping, and cleaning the bathrooms. Many podcast episodes were consumed... 

- 11:30pm: Sleep, blessed sleep

- 12:30am (Friday): Megan comes home and our family is complete again... 

By the numbers, we had 4 briberies, 1 poop emergency, 1 puke emergency, and 7 dog walks, which isn't too bad! Everyone is alive. No one got lost (I'm looking at you, Gus!), and a decent time was had by all... 

Funnily enough, Megan will be out of town for work again next month, so we'll get to do it all over again! Please pray. =0). 

Have an excellent day! 

~Adam