We are now squarely into Spring, which means it's the most wonderful time of the year. Baseball season has begun again!!!
~Adam
Hello, friends!
I don't know what's happened to Demitrius or Wingo in the past 17+ years since I graduated from WashU (#GoBears). What I do know is that while I was a student, Wingo would also put a few extra fries on the plate to go with my double cheeseburger (Swiss cheese, in case you were wondering) and that Demitrius would always refer to everyone as "young man" or "young lady" when taking their order. They worked at Bear's Den, the food spot visited by every student who lived on the South 40. They, along with the rest of the mostly Black food workers at Bear's Den were kind, courteous, funny, and really good at their jobs. I never had a super long conversation with any of them (they had to get through the line of students as quickly as they could) but I liked them and seeing them behind the counter at Bear's Den was a constant throughout my 4 years there.
A few weeks back, there was an incident at Bear's Den. According to those present, eggs and racial slurs were thrown in the direction of Bear's Den employees, allegedly as part of a Greek Pledge Week event. One Fraternity and one Sorority have been suspended while an investigation takes place.
When I heard about what went down, a few things went through my head. First, I felt sad for my alma mater. Y'all know that I have as much school pride as anyone, so to see WashU in the news for something like this was not ideal. (I also had to question my school loyalty, seeing as how I wasn't even aware of what went down, but that's a different thing). I was brought back to my old stereotypes that I'd believed about Greek life before and during my time in college. (Thankfully, seeing how Greek InterVarsity operates has disabused me of that notion.)
Mostly though, I thought about Demitrius and Wingo and the rest of the workers I encountered at Bear's Den. They don't deserve to feel unsafe at work. They don't need the added stress of wondering if they are going to be assaulted, verbally or otherwise, while they are trying to serve students. They deserve to be treated with with respect and dignity, just like anyone who is made in God's image. I doubt that Demitrius and Wingo still work at Bear's Den but whoever is there now still deserves better.
The one thing I haven't figured out yet is whether or not there's anything I need to do beyond just feeling sad from afar. I don't live in St. Louis anymore. I'm not the staff at WashU or have direct access to students like I did before. I don't think that WashU losing my meager contributions would have a whole lot of impact. It's not that I'm stuck; it's more that there isn't much to do.
So, I'm going to pray. I'm going to pray from my alma mater. I'm going to pray for the students who allegedly perpetrated these acts. I'm going to pray for the Greek system at WashU, which probably has some things to work out. I'm going to pray for the InterVarsity students at WashU too. I'm going to pray for Demitrius, Wingo, and all the workers at Bear's Den, past and present; that they may know that they are seen and loved by God.
#GoBears
~Adam
Hello, friends!
Last weekend we welcomed the 5 new hires into our Region to Omaha for our first ever New Staff Onboarding Weekend (NSOW)!
NSOW used to be called MPD 101, which was when the new staff would come to Omaha (or be online) and I'd get them set up to do good MPD throughout the summer, wit hopes that they'd be fully funded by the beginning of the next school year. This year's class was bigger than I was going to be able to manage, so we decided to enroll them in the National training program. However, we still wanted them to have some good community building time and learn more about the Region.
When Megan took on her new role as Assistant Regional Director for Training and Development, one of her roles was onboarding the new staff and making sure they got acclimated well to Regional and National policies. We realized that we could use this weekend as a two-fer, and NSOW was born.
Megan and I decided that the best way to schedule things, both from a content and a childcare standpoint, was to do an onboarding sandwich of sorts. Megan started things off Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. I took over Saturday in the late morning (after what was supposed to be Ezra's soccer match) and then we'd work together on Sunday morning. We covered some of the nitty gritty of staff life (policies, expense reports, etc.) while also doing some reflection and community building (axe throwing, anyone?). We also had a great dinner with some amazing ministry partners who have been advocates of ours for a long time with their church and a friend of ours came and gave a great talk on faith and power in ministry.
Things didn't go totally according to plan. We had two of our 5 staff need to leave early Saturday morning because of illness. Ezra's soccer match was cancelled due to cold weather (the right call but still a bummer). We also didn't see that the AirBnB where the staff were staying had a full dishwasher, so I bought some bowls when I didn't need. But, those were all minor compared to the great experience everyone had, including us.
Friends, please be praying for Hannah, Alison, James, Jaqui, and Steven as they begin their InterVarsity staff journeys. We'd love it if they were in it for the long haul and had a good staff experience.
Have an excellent day!
~Adam