Wednesday...

Hello, friends!

Back when I was the staff of ACF, Wednesdays were definitely my busy days. I'd start in the morning with the normal admin stuff, move onto meetings with students in the afternoon, and spend the evenings coordinating our Large Group meetings. By Wednesday night, I was pretty beat.

When I transitioned away from ACF this semester, one of the first things that jumped out to me was how much more free time I had on Wednesdays! A lot of times I'm watching Ezra while Megan goes to small group but it's still slower paced than before.

This past Wednesday was definitely a throwback though. Let me run it down for you.

9:30am - Get to campus and head to the Black Culture Center (BCC). Campus is eerily quiet but the BCC is full of life. Black students have designated this as their home base for all operations, including walking to class together for strength in numbers.

9:35am - The doors are locked to the BCC and there are students standing guard, checking out anyone who wants to enter who isn't Black. There have been threats of violence made on their lives, so this makes complete sense and I'm not offended. Thankfully, I'm let in the door.

9:45am - I find a student who looks like she's in charge and I ask her how I can help. I ask particularly what kind of food they have on hand (of course I do) and she tells me that they have water and some snacks but not much else. A plan has been put into motion.

10:00am - Meg and I text and call back and forth, coordinating lunch for students. As the number of students who enter the building grows, so does the number of pizzas we'll need to order.

10:15am - At this point, I'm just trying to have conversations with students, hearing where they are, walking with them to class, and generally trying to bring a calming pastoral presence.

12:00pm - Meg shows up with 30 pizzas and drinks. They are much appreciated, well received, and quickly consumed.

1:00pm - Conversations continue and plans begin to form amongst our staff team about how to provide dinner for students as it becomes clear that they will be staying at the BCC for a while.

4:00pm - Join in a prayer call with our regional staff team, lamenting about what has happened and asking God for wisdom, guidance, and strength. It was a very uplifting time.

5:15pm - Leave to go pick up dinner. The meal for the night included fried rice, orange chicken, beef and broccoli, home baked cookies, and a few more pizzas.

6:00pm - Get back to campus to see that the students have left the BCC to do a rally at the student center. Students from Kansas City, St. Louis, and Jefferson City have joined them. Josephine (our intern) and I let the leaders know that we've brought food begin to set up dinner.

7:00pm - Dinner is served. Honestly, we weren't expecting as many people as were there and as soon as I walked into the rally, I saw that we were going to be short on food. This is where my Asian American hospitality gene kicked into gear and I began to feel great shame. =0). Still, everyone was very appreciative.

8:00pm - Cleanup and do a few interviews for local and campus newspapers. I don't know if any of our stuff was used but I tried to preach the Gospel as much as possible.

8:30pm - Bike home after a long day's work.

Friends, Wednesday was crazy. I've had longer days before in terms of hours. There have been days when I've gone from 6am - 10pm without a break. But this was different. This was special. This was emotionally exhausting. I'm glad that I was able to partake.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Wednesday was a team effort. Megan coordinated meals. Matti was working with ACF students. Chris ordered the food in Chinese, probably getting us a better deal. Josephine connected with students. It was a beautiful, long, and tiring day.

Have an excellent day!

~Adam

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