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