A Few Weeks Home...

Hello, friends!

It's the middle of July, meaning we're just one month away from the start of the school year! Time sure does fly when you're having fun! This is the season where we start to transition from all the summer work that needed to be done to thinking about the semester ahead, before you know it, it'll be August and it'll be time to start up another fun year of ministry!

Do you know what my favorite part of these next few weeks is going to be? It's going to be not having to travel anywhere. No work meetings. No weddings. Nothing like that. I just get to hang out at home with my wife and son and be home for a bit.

Here's been my calendar since May 1. Mind you, not all of this has been work related but still, it's a lot of miles on the car, a lot of time on the road, and a lot of nights sleeping in a bed that actually isn't mine.

May 6-9: Impromptu trip to South Dakota for Mother's Day (4 days)
May 13-20: End of the year conferences in the Lake of the Ozarks (8 days)
June 2-3: Regional Ministry Partnership Development training in Iowa (2 days)
June 4: Area staff team meeting in St. Louis (1 day)
June 13-15: Regional Leadership Team meeting in St. Louis (3 days)
June 17-18: St. Louis so Meg can attend a bachelorette party as a bridesmaid (2 days)
June 25-28: St. Louis for a wedding then immediately to Chicago for another wedding and some meetings with potential donors (4 days)
July 1-6: South Dakota for the Fourth of July, Ezra's birthday, and a vacation (6 days)
July 9: Day trip to Innsbrook, MO to attend a wedding (1 day)
July 13-14: Omaha, NE for a staff meeting with other staff in the region plantin on campuses part-time (2 day)

By my count, in the last 75 days, I've been out of town for 33 of them, or just under 45% of the time. Even if you just count the business travel, it's about 25% of the time. I know there are tons of jobs where this is normal, or even light, and again, not all of this was for business purposes, but still, that's a lot of travel!

Of course, I'm not complaining. I love the work that I do and every trip on that list was totally worth it. However, when I first started working for InterVarsity, one of the things that took me by surprise was just how much travel was involved. Especially when I was the only staff out here in Columbia and everything was centered in St. Louis, it felt like I spent just as much time in the car as I did on campus. Now that I've been around for a while and have more and larger responsibilities, the amount of travel has become even more pronounced.

All this is to say that I'm excited to be spending the next 3ish weeks in Columbia with no plans to go anywhere that I couldn't get by bike. =0).

Friends, please pray for this time home. Pray that it will not only be productive but also restful and restorative. Pray for good connections with friends and my family, and that my next trip will be met with excitement and not dread.

Have an excellent day!

~Adam