See you in 2020!

Hello, friends!

We are 10 days from Hot Cocoa's due date but the boy is moving around quite a bit and we think there's a chance that Megan could go into labor early. Once Hot Cocoa is born, I'll be spending a ton of time with him  and the fam. I've heard that the transition from 2 kids to 3 is a doozy, so I'm looking forward to paternity leave. Also, Disney+ just launched so I'll probably be spending a lot of time introducing my children to the joy that is Gargoyles... =0).

So, with that being said, don't expect much from this blog for the rest of the year. As always, it's been a pleasure sharing with you the joys of ministry and life in Omaha. 2019 was a big one (aren't they all?), full of changes and new blessings. I'm very much looking forward to 2020 for a number of reasons, at least one of them being that I get to share more life with y'all!

For (possibly) the last time in 2019...

Have an excellent day!

~Adam

Church as Home

Hello, friends!

Folk who know me know that loyalty is something that I take very seriously. Once you're on my team, or I'm on your team, we are locked in for life. That's one of the reasons why I have a tendency to hoard a bit (loyalty to inanimate objects is odd, I know...) and why as much as I try, I just can't quite quit my 1-7 Miami Dolphins.

An area of my life where it's been interesting to see my loyalty play out has been in looking for a church home. I'm not one to change churches very often and as I look back on my life, every church change I've ever done has been precipitated by a life change at some point. Case in point:

- In 1989 (or so), my family moved to CBCOC and has been there ever since
- I started going to St. Louis Vineyard in 2003 after moving to St. Louis for college and stayed there for my my 4 years at WashU (Go Bears!)
- In 2007, I moved to Columbia, MO and started attending a Vineyard church, going there until it shut down in 2009
- After the Vineyard shut down, I attended C2 in CoMO until I got married in 2012
- 2012 was at Jubilee in St. Louis, where Megan and I attended until we moved back to CoMO
- Once back in CoMO, we attended Christian Fellowship until we moved to Omaha in 2018

Now we're here in Omaha and we've been attending Bridge Church in North Omaha for the past year or so. We love the diversity, we love the leadership, and we love the mission of the church. These past few weeks was a whirlwind of action for me personally in terms of church stuff:

- Church Sunday
- Trunk or Treat Tuesday
- Meeting with one of the Pastors on Wednesday
- Small Group on Thursday
- Men's Breakfast on Friday
- Bringing the word for offering during service on Sunday
- Small Group on Tuesday

I was looking back on this past week and as I was reflecting on all the stuff I did with church this past week, I came to the realization that Bridge has reached the point in my life where I can call it "my church" as opposed to the "church I attend." The difference may be subtle but it is important. I don't take the idea of having a home church lightly. I know of too many people who have been burned by too many churches to just take for granted the idea that every Christian will find a church they feel comfortable calling "home." I know that some churches have felt more like home to me than others and that some never quite got to "home" status in my mind.

Who knows what the future holds for us and Bridge. No church is perfect, and Bridge is no exception. Knowing that no church is perfect has served me well in the past, and I have no reason to believe that it won't serve me well here. Still, we plan on being in Omaha for a long time, and things can change. I'm not planning on going anywhere anytime soon, but I also didn't plan on leaving Cali, St. Louis, or CoMO, so I'll hold only my plans loosely. What I do know is that at this point, I'm happy to have a church to call home.

Have an excellent day!

~Adam

Trunk or Treat!

Hello, friends!

Last night, our church held its annual Trunk or Treat, which is it's Halloween celebration. Folk from church set up the backs of their cars in our church parking lot and folk from all over the neighborhood come by to get candy and play some games. Here are some photos:

As you can see, one of our children was very much more into it than the other kid. =0). It was a cold night but both kids did a great job of going to all the cars, not complaining about how much candy they got, then helping Megan and me pass out candy to all the kids who came by.

Based on how much candy we bought, I'm going to guess that we had somewhere between 400-450 kids show up with their parents and such. It wouldn't surprise me if there were at least 750 people who came yesterday, many of whom don't actually go to our church and were just from around the neighborhood. One of the things that drew us to Bridge was how invested it was in the community, which, since it's less than a mile from our house, is also our community. It was a ton of fun to put together a trunk, meet our neighbors, see lots of kids having fun, and give out lots of candy.

Speaking of decorating a trunk, did you see how great our trunk was? We didn't win "Best Trunk" (one family build a haunted house off the back of their truck!) but I'd like to think we get points for most economical. How did we decide on a St. Louis Cardinals themed trunk? Well, besides the fact that they're 11-time World Champions (most in the National League) and the family team, we also needed to figure out something that would be quick, cheap, and easy to put together. Gathering up all my Cardinals gear (honestly, we only used about 10% of the Cardinals stuff in the house) and arranging it in a way that celebrated our team checked all the boxes.

Tomorrow, we'll be taking our storm trooper and emo Nemo out trick or treating. It's supposed to be even colder than it was yesterday. We aren't supposed to have snow tomorrow (it's snowing as I'm writing this) but there will be a good stiff breeze, so we'll see how long the kids last. =0).

Have an excellent day!

~Adam