MO Fast, MO Furious

"How about... MO-IST?"

The story that I tell a lot is that when I first joined staff, I was the only IV staff for 120 miles. I'd moved to CoMO when there wasn't any IV work in the state of Missouri beyond St. Louis and Kansas City. I actually had 2 apartments, one in CoMO and one in St. Louis because I needed to travel back and forth every week for staff meetings and trainings. The 2 hour drive wasn't a ton of fun (this was before podcasts were really a thing). Paying 2 rents was a bit of a bother (although, housing was so cheap it was still OK). Not being able to get a part-time job in either CoMO or StL because I was never in one place more than 3 days in a row made things a little difficult (although it did eventually contribute to my love for ministry partnership development since I had to raise a higher than normal budget). Still, all of that was worth it because coming into St. Louis each week meant that I could be a part of the Missouri team.

As it stands right now, I am the elder statesmen of the Missouri Team. If you include the 4 years I spent as a student to the 10.5 years I've been on staff, that's nearly 15 years that I've been a part of InterVarsity here in the great state of Missouri. I've seen us reach new campuses and shut down chapters. I've seen literally dozens, if not hundreds, of students make decisions to follow Jesus. I've led roadtrips all across Missouri planting and scouting new campuses. I've seen a of things. I've made a lot of friends. It's been an amazing run.

Somewhere around 2013 or 2014 (the years all run together at this point), the Missouri International Student Ministry (ISM) area, which was made up of staff focusing in ISM in the state of Missouri, and the Missouri Area, which was made up of staff focusing on "domestic" student ministry in Missouri, decided to merge into a single area. In hopes of making sure it didn't feel like an acquisition but like a true merger, we floated the idea of changing our name to something new for the both of us. My favorite name was MO Fast, MO Furious, which eventually just got shortened to the MO Fast Team (My least favorite option was MO-IST, or "moist"). Being a part of this team has been one of the great honors of my life.

My dear friends, Will, Flyaway, Topes, Choco Cats, Dom, Baby Bear, Danny, Charis, Meg, Strongbad, David, Sheriff, Charlamagne, Ashley, Gelnoak, Legend, Miss Ashley, T-Mo, Jon Wang, La Reina, Tammy, D-Queen, Brian, La Capitana, Kes, Robert, Jojo, Jordan, Snack Pack, El Supervisor, and every volunteer who has helped us bring the Gospel to college students in Missouri, I say, "Thanks." Thanks for being a great team. Thanks for going to the hard places. Thanks for celebrating with me and mourning with me. Thanks for taking risks with me. Thanks for letting me be a part of your staff lives. You will forever be a part of mine.

Have an excellent day,

~Adam