Hello, friends!
I've been a missionary with InterVarsity for just about 10 years now. During that time, I've seen a lot. I've seen students make decisions to follow Jesus and students make decision to leave the faith. I've seen students catch a vision for being missionaries where they are and I've seen other students who were seemingly solid go through their college careers with no sense of mission. I've seen Freshmen get plugged in immediately and Seniors fall off the face of the earth. I've worked with White, Black, Asian, Latino, and International Students, with successes and failure across the board. I've started chapters and shut down chapters. I've seen a lot.
When you're in this line of work, you have to develop a thick skin to a certain extent while still not losing your humanity. On the one hand, when rejection and failure comes in terms of students not following Jesus or leaving the chapter, it's important to remember that it is not necessarily you they are rejecting but Christ. Just like when a student comes to Jesus it's not because of my work but because of Christ. If I don't remember that, I go crazy, getting too high with the highs and too low with the lows of student reactions.
At the same time, it's important to rejoice and mourn well. I joke all the time about not really having any emotions but the truth is that if I don't at least feel SOMETHING, then I'm probably not doing my job right. I can't just be trying to REACH students; I also have to be willing to LOVE students.
One of the most important ways that I'm able to do this is by focusing on the PROCESS and not necessarily the RESULT. I tell students all the time that it matters to me where you are but it matters more to me where you're going. If you are moving toward Jesus, we're doing just fine, regardless of what you think of him now. In the same way, if you're moving away from Jesus, that's a red flag for me, regardless of where you are presently. An honest assessment of where you are and where you're going are what matter most.
That's why texts like these are so interesting:
"I don't see the point because I don't know if I believe that he even exists. My father is dead and to me God is the same."
"In all honesty man when you first approached me on the field I didn't feel comfortable telling you I was an atheist due to the nature of the conversation, subsequently entangling me in a lie in which you believe I am slightly religions. I apologize and should have told you earlier but I am actually very against Christianity."
Quote number one was a text message that one of my students received from a friend who he has been trying to reach in his dorm. Quote number two was from a student that I met while doing a proxe on campus.
In both of these cases, I'm a little bit torn between the happy and the sad. One the one hand, I love the honesty. The fact that these things can actually be said means that there is a certain level of trust built up. Those confessions are not easy things to say but there was something in the relationship that compelled honesty.
However, on the other hand, my heart breaks for these students. One student is blaming God for the death of a loved one and can't quite get past the sense of loss. The other student is straight against God and isn't all that interested in even entertaining a conversation about Him. Those make me sad.
My first instinct is to put together a game plan on how to reach these students. There are bible studies to be prepped, conversations to be had, and all sorts of strategies to be employed. None of those things are necessarily bad either. But, I've been compelled to pray more this year and I pray that you'll join me in interceding for these students. Pray that God will reveal himself to them and that in their honesty about where they are with God, He will bring a truth that will set them free.
Have an excellent day!
~Adam
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Thursday, February 9, 2017
Welcoming and Being Welcomed at Mizzou...
Hello, friends!
When I first moved to beautiful Columbia, MO as part of InterVarsity, I was the only staff within 120 miles. The other two staff hubs in Missouri were in Kansas City and Saint Louis. Kansas City was part of the Kansas Area and I was with Saint Louis in the Missouri Area. During my intern year, because I had weekly training in Saint Louis, I actually had an apartment in both places. Monday through Friday I would be in CoMO, then Friday through Monday I'd be in Saint Louis. Thankfully, the rent out here is cheap enough that I was able to do that without too much trouble.
After I moved to CoMO full time, I still had to travel to Saint Louis for staff meetings but once a semester or so, the Saint Louis staff team would come out to CoMO so I wouldn't have to travel. At first, it didn't make a lot of sense to me since it meant more cars and more effort to get a bunch of people here when it was so easy for me to hop in my car and make my way to Saint Louis, but now that our Mid-MO staff team has grown and my family has too, I'm thankful that this tradition still holds true. Yesterday, the Saint Louis team hopped in their cars and trekked across I-70 to for our monthly staff meeting.
Our team and our campuses where work is being done has expanded over the past 10 years but Mizzou is still our hub so we met on campus. Meg was out of town for different staff meetings with the National International Student Ministry Team so it was up to me to host. Thankfully, being around her for a while has taught me a number of things about being a good host. We had planned out our staff meeting a few weeks prior so we had a good sense of what we were going to do and these meetings always have the same basic feel. We have 4 basic elements to every meeting: spiritual formation, lunch, training, and business. Our training was going to be centered around leadership recruitment for our chapters.
Then, last week, President Trump signed the travel ban, and our plans shifted a little bit.
Regardless of your political leanings, and whether or not you think the travel ban is a good idea or a bad idea, the truth is that it had consequences for international students. We know of at least a handful of students who were supposed to come back the US from their home countries in the few days after the Executive Order was signed who could not and had to wait in limbo while clarification was made. We also know through conversations with international students that many were feeling uneasy because they didn't know if their countries would be next on the list or if they would be able to go back home after the semester was over. I've gotten in trouble for letting my politics show on this blog before. This isn't about that so please don't read too much into what I'm sharing. I'm just telling you that these are some of the effects we've seen.
Post-Executive Order, the team decided to switch up the training, not to directly address the executive order, but sort of in response to it. Instead of talking about student leadership, we were going to be a little more experiential and see if we could figure out how Mizzou felt about its campus in terms of it being a welcoming environment and how much students engaged with people of other cultures. Our plan was simple: stand outside with posters asking those two questions, then ask students to identify their thoughts with stickers and talk to them about why they put what they put. Here are a few photos of us at work:
Here are my big takeaways from our time.
- When you ask a good question, you get good answers: Y'all, it was COLD yesterday. The temperature was in the low 30's with a little bit of a wind. We really shouldn't have been out there. And yet, folk still stopped by. Most didn't stay long to talk but people were still intrigued enough to stop by and put a sticker on our board.
- Personal experiences reign supreme: It's no secret that Mizzou has had its troubles in terms of cross cultural conflict in the past year. Still, the phrase that we heard over and over again was, "Well, Mizzou has had a problem but I'M welcoming so the campus must we welcoming.
- No one wants to admit areas for growth. You may not be able to see it on these photos but regardless of whether or not someone things that Mizzou is welcoming to every culture on campus, EVERYONE says they engage with people from other cultures regularly. I've been on campus long enough to know that isn't the case but I'm not so sure that I would want to admit it either.
One last really fun story. While we were out there, a Black student came by to put a sticker on our board. On the question of whether or not the campus was welcoming to all cultures, he put his sticker all the way to the left, on the "False" side. As he was explaining his experiences on campus, including being called the "N-word" on multiple occasions, a White student came up to put his sticker on the board. After the Black student shared his story then left for class, the White student said, "well, I WAS going to say true, but based on hearing that guy, it seems like maybe it isn't so much."
Friends, we're calling that a breakthrough towards a more welcoming Mizzou. =0).
Have an excellent day!
~Adam
When I first moved to beautiful Columbia, MO as part of InterVarsity, I was the only staff within 120 miles. The other two staff hubs in Missouri were in Kansas City and Saint Louis. Kansas City was part of the Kansas Area and I was with Saint Louis in the Missouri Area. During my intern year, because I had weekly training in Saint Louis, I actually had an apartment in both places. Monday through Friday I would be in CoMO, then Friday through Monday I'd be in Saint Louis. Thankfully, the rent out here is cheap enough that I was able to do that without too much trouble.
After I moved to CoMO full time, I still had to travel to Saint Louis for staff meetings but once a semester or so, the Saint Louis staff team would come out to CoMO so I wouldn't have to travel. At first, it didn't make a lot of sense to me since it meant more cars and more effort to get a bunch of people here when it was so easy for me to hop in my car and make my way to Saint Louis, but now that our Mid-MO staff team has grown and my family has too, I'm thankful that this tradition still holds true. Yesterday, the Saint Louis team hopped in their cars and trekked across I-70 to for our monthly staff meeting.
Our team and our campuses where work is being done has expanded over the past 10 years but Mizzou is still our hub so we met on campus. Meg was out of town for different staff meetings with the National International Student Ministry Team so it was up to me to host. Thankfully, being around her for a while has taught me a number of things about being a good host. We had planned out our staff meeting a few weeks prior so we had a good sense of what we were going to do and these meetings always have the same basic feel. We have 4 basic elements to every meeting: spiritual formation, lunch, training, and business. Our training was going to be centered around leadership recruitment for our chapters.
Then, last week, President Trump signed the travel ban, and our plans shifted a little bit.
Regardless of your political leanings, and whether or not you think the travel ban is a good idea or a bad idea, the truth is that it had consequences for international students. We know of at least a handful of students who were supposed to come back the US from their home countries in the few days after the Executive Order was signed who could not and had to wait in limbo while clarification was made. We also know through conversations with international students that many were feeling uneasy because they didn't know if their countries would be next on the list or if they would be able to go back home after the semester was over. I've gotten in trouble for letting my politics show on this blog before. This isn't about that so please don't read too much into what I'm sharing. I'm just telling you that these are some of the effects we've seen.
Post-Executive Order, the team decided to switch up the training, not to directly address the executive order, but sort of in response to it. Instead of talking about student leadership, we were going to be a little more experiential and see if we could figure out how Mizzou felt about its campus in terms of it being a welcoming environment and how much students engaged with people of other cultures. Our plan was simple: stand outside with posters asking those two questions, then ask students to identify their thoughts with stickers and talk to them about why they put what they put. Here are a few photos of us at work:
- When you ask a good question, you get good answers: Y'all, it was COLD yesterday. The temperature was in the low 30's with a little bit of a wind. We really shouldn't have been out there. And yet, folk still stopped by. Most didn't stay long to talk but people were still intrigued enough to stop by and put a sticker on our board.
- Personal experiences reign supreme: It's no secret that Mizzou has had its troubles in terms of cross cultural conflict in the past year. Still, the phrase that we heard over and over again was, "Well, Mizzou has had a problem but I'M welcoming so the campus must we welcoming.
- No one wants to admit areas for growth. You may not be able to see it on these photos but regardless of whether or not someone things that Mizzou is welcoming to every culture on campus, EVERYONE says they engage with people from other cultures regularly. I've been on campus long enough to know that isn't the case but I'm not so sure that I would want to admit it either.
One last really fun story. While we were out there, a Black student came by to put a sticker on our board. On the question of whether or not the campus was welcoming to all cultures, he put his sticker all the way to the left, on the "False" side. As he was explaining his experiences on campus, including being called the "N-word" on multiple occasions, a White student came up to put his sticker on the board. After the Black student shared his story then left for class, the White student said, "well, I WAS going to say true, but based on hearing that guy, it seems like maybe it isn't so much."
Friends, we're calling that a breakthrough towards a more welcoming Mizzou. =0).
Have an excellent day!
~Adam
Thursday, February 2, 2017
Corners Conference Recap!!!
Hello, friends!
I'm back from Kansas City, full of fatigue but also full of joy. Y'all the Corners Conference was AMAZING! Allow me to throw a few stats at you:
- Over 400 students attended the 4 conferences
- Of those 400+ students, 9 students made first time commitments to follow Jesus, 94 students recommitted their lives to Jesus, and 81 students committed to "starting something new" on their campuses
- Mid-MO brought 8 students to Imani (6 from Lincoln and 2 from Mizzou), 11 students to Ohana (all from Mizzou), and 2 to Being White (from Mizzou)
Of course, stats are great, but the personal stories are even better. Here are a few of my highlights:
- Seeing M, one of my Lincoln students, at the prospective staff dinner and talking to him about what it would mean to potentially take that route as a vocation.
- Sitting at dinner with R on Saturday night, and the first question she asks me being, "Can you guarantee that we'll be able to come here again next year?"
- At lunch on Sunday, as we were getting ready to head back home, hearing all the stories from the Lincoln students about their experiences and THEN hearing them tell their friends about the experiences with such excitement on Wednesday when I went to Lincoln.
My role actually was with Ohana, not Imani, so that was a little bit of a logistical thing, to try and check in as much as possible while still doing my job. A few Ohana highlights would be:
- Seeing Danny thrive in his role as Party Master while simultaneously taking care of the Mizzou students
- Having a really great conversation with one of the WashU students about school pride (#GoBears!)
- Having fun as an MC for the conference, much better than my first go around at the last Ohana (practice makes perfect, I guess)
Now, you may be thinking to yourself, "self, the words are great, but I want me some pictures!" Friends, I have you covered. =0).
I'm back from Kansas City, full of fatigue but also full of joy. Y'all the Corners Conference was AMAZING! Allow me to throw a few stats at you:
- Over 400 students attended the 4 conferences
- Of those 400+ students, 9 students made first time commitments to follow Jesus, 94 students recommitted their lives to Jesus, and 81 students committed to "starting something new" on their campuses
- Mid-MO brought 8 students to Imani (6 from Lincoln and 2 from Mizzou), 11 students to Ohana (all from Mizzou), and 2 to Being White (from Mizzou)
Of course, stats are great, but the personal stories are even better. Here are a few of my highlights:
- Seeing M, one of my Lincoln students, at the prospective staff dinner and talking to him about what it would mean to potentially take that route as a vocation.
- Sitting at dinner with R on Saturday night, and the first question she asks me being, "Can you guarantee that we'll be able to come here again next year?"
- At lunch on Sunday, as we were getting ready to head back home, hearing all the stories from the Lincoln students about their experiences and THEN hearing them tell their friends about the experiences with such excitement on Wednesday when I went to Lincoln.
My role actually was with Ohana, not Imani, so that was a little bit of a logistical thing, to try and check in as much as possible while still doing my job. A few Ohana highlights would be:
- Seeing Danny thrive in his role as Party Master while simultaneously taking care of the Mizzou students
- Having a really great conversation with one of the WashU students about school pride (#GoBears!)
- Having fun as an MC for the conference, much better than my first go around at the last Ohana (practice makes perfect, I guess)
Now, you may be thinking to yourself, "self, the words are great, but I want me some pictures!" Friends, I have you covered. =0).
Have an excellent day!
~Adam
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