More Fall Conference and Fall Retreat Prayers Needed!

Hello, friends!

As you’re reading this, Megan and I are getting ready for Fall Conference and Fall Retreat! Every year, InterVarsity students from all over Missouri gather together for a time of fun, community, and hopefully finding Jesus. This year, international students will have a special track dedicated especially to them, which is exciting for us (especially Megan). =0).

Friends, we need your prayers, now more than ever. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about Fall Conference during my 10+ years on staff (and 4 years as a student), it’s that the Holy Spirit moves in really powerful ways during our time together but the Enemy does his best to make moves as well. I have seen students meet Jesus in a really powerful way at Fall Conference. I’ve also seen all sorts of crazy things happen that keep students from being fully engaged, from car problems, to illness, to spiritual oppression. We need as many people as possible interceding on our behalf, praying protection over the students (and staff) and asking the Spirit to move in really powerful ways.

Below is a link where you can sign up to pray for Fall Conference and Fall Retreat for an hour over the course of the weekend. My hope is that we’ll be able to have every spot filled and that the entire conference will be coated in prayer. If you have an hour to spare this weekend, would you please consider signing up for a spot?

Have an excellent day!

~Adam

Sign up here to pray for us! 

Praying for Fall Conference and Fall Retreat...

Hello, friends!

Thank you so much for your partnership on our prayer intercessor teams for past conferences. It really makes so much of a difference for the students and for us as staff when you pray with us. We appreciate the insights that God gives you as you listen on our behalf - it helps us get fresh perspective and confirmation as to how God is at work.

Would you be willing to partner again with us this Sept. 29th to Oct. 1? We have an international fall retreat and a fall conference running simultaneously for students in Missouri, and we are praying for 25% of the students who come to be non-believers. We know that there will be much resistance from the Enemy, and are looking for a team of prayer partners who can commit to praying through at least one of the hours that we will be at the camp. Would you consider joining with us again? If so, you can enter your information here.

Feel free to invite anyone else you know who might also be interested in praying with us!

Also, if you'd like to gift a scholarship to a student to help pay for the costs of attending either of these great conferences, you can use this link here.

Have an excellent day!

~Adam

The joys of not having to work...

Hello, friends!

I like to tell the staff I supervise that one of the really unique parts of our job is that we are actively trying to make ourselves obsolete. If we've done our jobs correctly, students are the ones taking ownership of the chapter and we serve more as support staff than the leaders of everything. In reality, this is much easier said than done but every now and then we get little glimpses of how that could actually look.

Hey Day is Columbia College's student activity fair. For 90 minutes, most of Columbia College's 850 residential students walk through the gym while literally dozens of organizations, student groups, banks, etc. give away free gear and try to drum up interest. With free food, music playing, and constant movement, it is beautiful chaos.

Columbia College's InterVarsity chapter is currently in "replant" mode, which means we are working on reestablishing ourselves as a student org and getting some structure going. We currently have 2 students actively involved so I figured that Hey Day would be a great way for us to reintroduce ourselves to the campus. However, with only 2 students, one of whom is a Freshman I just met a few weeks ago, I figured that I'd be doing most of the heavy lifting for Hey Day.

There's nothing quite as satisfying as being proved wrong for the kingdom. =0).

When I got there, I was the first one of our crew there and I didn't know if/when our students would arrive. Meg said she had a free hour and I figured it couldn't hurt to have a second person to table with me, especially someone who is a great gatherer like Megan. But, before she got there, our students showed up and then they got to work.

Friends, it was so much fun seeing these two students greeting their classmates, casting vision for InterVarsity, inviting them to our bible study, and getting contact information. They were absolutely crushing it. In fact, they were doing such a good job that by the time Meg arrived, she saw that everything was under control and left right away because she saw she wasn't needed. I actually got a little bored because before I could even say hi to any students, these two had already greeted them, invited them over to the table, and started talking. I'm never going to complain about that kind of boredom.

As you're reading this, we will have finished up our first CCIV bible study of the year. I don't know how many of the 25+ students we met will be there but I'm excited nonetheless to know that whoever comes will have come because of a student invitation.

Have an excellent day!

~Adam

Wayback Wednesday...

Hello, friends!

This is my 11th year with InterVarsity. During that time I've held a number of different roles and positions. My current role is Associate Area Director for Missouri and I'm also the Director of the Asian American Ministries Pilot Project. What that means is that I spend more of my time supervising staff than I do hanging out with students. Still, I'm not totally out of the game because I'm planting chapters and Lincoln University and Columbia College, as well as staffing the Nurses Christian Fellowship chapter at Mizzou. What this means is that on occasion, you get really long days like the one I had yesterday. Let's break it down, shall we?

6am - Get up to get ready for the day. This included a morning run for reasons that will become apparent later.
7:15am - Load up the car for the day.
7:30am - Meet with one of the staff I supervise to help her prep for a sermon she's preaching at her church on Sunday.
9am - Head to the local brewery to pick up the ROOT BEER keg for an event we're going to have on campus at Lincoln. (Gotta run in the morning to eat ice cream in the afternoon!)
9:30am - Go to the grocery story to get the dry ice and ice cream for the Lincoln event.
9:45am - Drive to Lincoln in Jefferson City, about 30 miles south of CoMO.
10:15am - Stop at a gas station to get a bag of ice because I forgot I need to keep the keg cold.
10:30am - Set up shop on campus, getting ready to give away root beer floats and do Gospel presentations,
10:50am - The first wave of students come and we start giving away floats and the Gospel.
12:30pm - We see the Lincoln kitchen staff start to set up by our spot because apparently there's a pep rally for Lincoln's first night game on Saturday.
1:15pm - We decide to pack up an hour early so as to not interfere with the pep rally.
2:00pm - I grab some lunch before bible study at 3.
2:50pm - I get stuck in traffic on my way back to campus.
3:15pm - I get to our bible study space and no one is there... whoops.
3:45pm - Pick up a few things for Megan and go to the grocery store to get more ice cream since we still have half a keg left.
5pm - Go home to see my wife and kids.
6pm - Pack up the car to deliver food that Meg cooked, as well as the keg and ice cream to ACF's first large group. I'll be staying to help out our intern who runs ACF.
6:45pm - Realize I forgot the projector and head home to grab it.
9pm - Large Group ends and cleanup begins.
9:30pm - Head to the local brewery to drop off the (now empty) keg.
10:00pm - Head to the grocery story (open 24 hours!) to return the unopened ice cream we didn't use.
10:30pm - Head home and get ready for bed.

Friends, I haven't thrown down a day like that in years. Literally, years. One the one hand, it was absolutely exhausting. On the other hand, it was fun to see that I've still got a few gallons left in the tank. I certainly won't be expecting to this every week but it was nice to know I still could. Sometimes the good LORD smiles on you and gives you an extra dose of energy. Thanks, Jesus.

Have an excellent day!

~Adam