Goodbye, Old Friends!

Hello, friends! 

This past week, I had to say goodbye to 2 friends who have been very dear to me... 

Our rice cooker and my e-bike... 

Our 10-cup rice cooker, which we received as a wedding gift 10+ years ago, finally stopped working. It wouldn't turn on unless you wiggled the cord just right. Friends, I have no problem telling you that we definitely ran that thing into the ground. Just for our family, we probably made rice between 2-3 times per week. Add in the times we cooked large batches for dinner functions, and the pots and pots of jook we made, we probably used that thing around 1700 times or so. It lived a good life, indeed. 

I had my e-bike for a considerably shorter time. I bought it in June 2021 as a proof of concept. I wanted to see if it was possible to get around all the places I needed to go with just an e-bike and public transportation. The answer was mostly yes (albeit the winters in Omaha made things tough). The one thing about the bike was that since I bought a cheap-o bike just in case things didn't work out, it wasn't exactly a ton of fun to ride. I missed riding on my non-e-bike, so I sold my e-bike and bought a conversion kit to turn my regular bike into a e-bike. I'm looking forward to a more pleasant riding experience, as well as a little less clutter in the garage (since we'll only have one of my bikes in there instead of two. 

We now have a new rice cooker (we cooked its first batch yesterday and it turned out just fine!) and my e-bike conversion kit will be delivered soon. Our old stuff served us well but now it's time to move on. 

Have an excellent day! 

~Adam 

Leader Launch!

Hello, friends! 

Depending on when you're reading this, Megan and I will either be preparing for, in the midst of, or recovering from Nebraska's Leader Launch, taking place 6pm Friday - 6:30 on Saturday. 

Here in Nebraska, we have just one really established InterVarsity chapter. The Creighton chapter is going strong and they've had leadership structures and retreats in place for years now. For the rest of the groups in Nebraska, Metro Community College (MCC), University of Nebraska - Lincoln (UNL), University of Nebraska - Omaha (UNO), Bellevue, and University of Nebraska - Hastings (Hastings), things are just starting out or are still in the planting stages. Megan had the idea of gathering these students together for community, vision, and hopefully some intentional time to make plans for the semester. It's a good idea and we're excited for the 8 students who will be in attendance! (One got COVID and had to drop yesterday). 

We have a lot of things planned for the Leader Launch. Tonight will be about casting vision and getting to know one another. Tomorrow, we'll have bible study, prayer walk on some campuses, and get to work on making plans for the semester. It'll be a jam packed 24 hours but I really believe it's going to be a good time. 

My role is hospitality and leading the training tomorrow afternoon. I've spent the past few days putting together games and menus and making grocery store runs to make sure that everyone is happily fed. Did I go a bit overboard? Perhaps. Will we have food leftover? Almost certainly. Did I stay under budget? Most definitely. Do I regret anything? Nope! =0). 

As the interim Area Director, Megan's not only coordinating everything, she's also doing the vision talk for tonight and will be generally keeping tabs on everything. It's a big job but no one is better suited for it than her. 

Friends, would you please be praying for Leader Launch this weekend? Pray that we as staff (we have 2 other co-workers working with us) will be attuned to the Spirit and lead well. Pray that the students will be connected to Jesus and catch a vision of what could be on their campuses. Pray that this will be the start of something big here in Nebraska. 

Have an excellent day!

~Adam

A Word for 38...

Hello, friends! 

First of all, Happy New Year! May 2023 be better than 2022 in every possible way! 

There will be an Urbana recap post coming soon (spoiler alert: it was awesome!) but with my birthday coming up, I wanted to officially announce my word for the year. 

As you know, every year, I give myself a word or theme for the year. It's an area where I feel like God is calling me to focus. Last year, the phrase was "Everything is Worship" and I tried to focus on making sure that everything I did was centered around trying to be worshipful. The year before that, the word was "Balance," and I tried to give each thing the time that it deserves. 

This year, I want to focus on "Compassion." Namely, I want to have compassion be my first reaction to others. 

If I'm absolutely honest with myself, it's way to easy to judge people. When I hear about people making poor decisions, whether it by politicians, friends, family, whoever, my first instinct is to judge them. How could they possibly make that decision? What were they thinking? Man, that was not smart. This year, I want to lead with compassion instead of judgment. That doesn't mean that I will agree with every decision that is made or think that every call is a good one. What I'm hoping it means is that I see people as God sees them and view them through a lens of love. 

We'll see where "Compassion" takes me. I know one are where that's going to be difficult is when the kids wake up early or have trouble going to sleep. I know that it'll be harder to have compassion on people I don't know and read about in the news. I also know that our God is a God of compassion, so this pursuit could make me a little more like Him, which is never a bad thing. 

Have an excellent day! 

~Adam