A New (but kind of a bummer) Milestone...

Hello, friends!

In just a few hours, we will be embarking on a new adventure, and one that I must say, I'm torn. Here's the scoop.

Y'all know that I love Asian American Ministries. I love being Asian American. I love reaching other Asian Americans with the Gospel. I love talking to people about why it's great to be Asian American and why they should be trying to reach Asian Americans with the Gospel alongside me. It was an easy call then when I was invited to coach a staff out in Boston on how to reach Asian Americans on the campus via the "secular" student organization. When I started Mizzou ACF all those years ago, I started by getting involved in Mizzou's Asian American Association (AAA). With only 2.5% of the student body population being Asian American, AAA was a great way for me to meet a lot of Asian Americans at once. In Boston, they are going to try to reach their Asian Student Union (ASU) so they asked me to coach a staff as she did it. I was more than happy to say yes!

One piece of the coaching includes a visit to Boston to see the staff in action as well as meet her students and give a little "on the ground" coaching. T used to live in Boston so I've been there before but I was definitely excited to go. Megan is going to a wedding in Virginia with Ezra this weekend anyway, so it seemed like as good a weekend as any to make a visit.

While I was packing, I had a revelation... This is going to be my first weekend away from Ezra and Megan since he was born. In fact, this is going to be my first night away from those two since Ezra was born. For the past 3+ months, I've pretty much been able to count on the fact that at the end of the day, I'd be able to kiss my wife and son goodnight before going to sleep. The streak ends tomorrow night.

All said and done, I think I'm ok with it. It was bound to happen at some point, right? It's just a few nights and I'm not a super emotional person anyway. Still, it's a bit of a bummer to think that tomorrow night, I won't be able to bounce Ezra to sleep while singing "Closing Time." I guess all good things must come to an end.

Friends, we really need your prayers this weekend for all of our travels. Please be praying first for journey's mercies, that all 3 of us will get where we need to go and get home safely so we can be together as a family. Second, please be praying especially for Meg. She'll be the one taking Ezra on the plane and taking care of him this weekend in a place that isn't Columbia. Finally, please be praying for Ezra, that he'll be more like his mom on the plane (no motion sickness or discomfort) and less like his dad (generally a mess).

Have an excellent day!

~Adam

The Long Play...

Hello, friends!

After a 44 hour work weekend (15 hours Friday, 18 hours Saturday, and 11 hours Sunday), 2 sick days (migraines are the worst!) and a fair amount of Ezra time (I really didn't get enough of it) I feel like I've fully recovered physically from FC15. What a weekend it was!

Fall Conference weekends normally have a certain structure to them. Students arrive on Friday night in anticipation of the weekend to come. We have our first session that is followed by the small group "what are you hoping to get out of this conference?" question. Saturday morning has another session followed by free time. Saturday night, the Holy Spirit falls, the speaker makes a call to faith, a bunch of students "stand up" to make decisions to follow Jesus, and we all leave after the Sunday session refreshed and ready to take on the world. I would venture to say that this structure isn't even special to Fall Conferences but it pretty much standard across the weekend Christian conference landscape. It's a good formula and it works.

However, sometimes you get a conference theme and you know that things aren't going to be wrapped up into a tiny bow come Sunday morning. FC15 definitely had that feel.

"Reconciliation" is a HUGE topic, one that isn't easily defined or easily remidied. Where does one begin? Is racial reconciliation the most important topic? How do we reconcile the good news of the Gospel with what we're seeing in the world right now? What about socioeconimic reconciliation? How about gender reconciliation or sexual reconciliation (asking the LGBT questions)? Students come from a number of different backgrounds and belief systems. It would be impossible to cover everything that needed to be covered in the course of a weekend and we knew that going into FC15. The word that I kept getting was to "remember the long play..."

With a conference theme like "Reconciling All Things," your goal is not to have the conference be self contained. You want it to bleed out beyond Sunday afternoon. We want there to still be conversations, wrestlings, and question asking because the long play says that figuring out our role in God's reconciliation of all things takes time.

Let me give you an example. Saturday morning we held a series of workshops called, "How the Gospel reconciles the _________ community," with "Black," "Asian American," "White," "Latino," "Native American," and "International" filling in the blank spot. Students would attend 2 workshops. First, they would go where they identify (ie, I would attend the Asian American workshop). Second, they would go where they DON'T identify but want to reach. Each workshop was about 45 minutes.

There isn't a lot you can do in 45 minutes and we knew that. What you CAN do though, is start the conversation. I think that's what we did. We had students in the first workshop begin to discover their ethnic identities in ways that they hadn't considered before. In the second workshop, you could see the gears turning for students as they considered what it would look like to connect with someone different from them.

Our job is far from over and our job looks very different from normal. Thinking about the long play means that follow up is more crucial than ever before with every student who attended, not just those who stood up Saturday night. (That's especially true this year as no one stood up Saturday night). It means that FC15, instead of being the end of our New Student Outreach season, actually begins a new season of hopefully hard conversations and new revelations. It means that after 44 hours of conference directing, 2 sick days, and not nearly enough Ezra time, the long play is just beginning.

Have an excellent day!

~Adam

FC15 Hooray!!!

Hello, friends!

As I'm writing this, we are preparing for our Fall Conference 2015 (FC15), Reconciling All Things. In just a few hours, over 120 college students from all over Missouri will be gathering together to worship, fellowship, and learn about how our God wants to reconcile us to himself and to each other.

I'm directing this conference and have been humbled by God's goodness in a number of ways. He has continued to show me that He is the one who is in charge and that He will take care of the conference and the students.

Will you take a few moments RIGHT NOW and pray for FC15? Here are a few specific ways that you can pray:
- Journey's Mercies. Our site is about a 2-3 hour drive from either St. Louis or Columbia. Pray that students arrive safely and prepared to receive what God has for them.

- Logistical Peace. The only thing you can guarantee at a conference like this is that something will go wrong. As director, I'm feeling the pressure to make sure that we have all our bases covered. Please pray for the peace that surpasses all understanding.

- Soft Hearts. Our topic is a heavy one and we will be having a number of different groups joining us. There will be Black, White, Asian, and International students from a number of different countries all joining us. We also have at least 8 non-Christians. Please pray that God will soften their hearts to receive what He has for them.

- Ezra's First Conference. We're not sure how he'll do. Pray that he'll eat well in a new place, sleep well in a new place, and generally continue to be the happy wonderful baby he has been so far.

Have an excellent weekend!

~Adam

Short but Sweet at Lincoln

Hello, friends!

Happy Friday to you all. I hope you are all enjoying your week and are preparing for a stellar weekend. This week was definitely a long one for me in terms of work but it's a good kind of tired. I'm especially encouraged by what happened at Lincoln this past week.

My normal plan for Lincoln is to carpool with a friend of mine down to Jefferson City, drop him off around 7:30, spend the day on campus meeting students and praying, then be done by 4 to pick up my friend and head back to CoMO. Megan needed me to watch Ezra @ 2 and I had set up a meeting off campus @ 9:30 so I already knew that I was going to have a shorter day. It's amazing what can happen in just a little bit of time.

I got onto campus around 11 and checked inside the prayer box that I'd left on the counter of the bookstore. The first few weeks we'd had about 3 prayer requests but this week there were 8, including one student who wanted for "God to use her as his vessel on campus." I'd say praying for that is a pretty good start, wouldn't you?

The plan from there was to meet students for lunch @ noon and then head back by about 1:15 so I could get the car back to Megan by 2. That makes for about 75 minutes worth of vision casting and bible study. Of course, that supposes that students don't show up late and/or have to leave early. =0). Instead of 75 minutes, we ended up with about 15 minutes, which was really just enough time to share a little about our stories and do a little vision casting.

On my way home, I really didn't know what to think. We sort of got our bible study started but there wasn't as much momentum or time together as I would have liked. I had plans and they didn't really get executed as much as I would have like. But then I started thinking about WHO was there.

Looking back at the students who were there, even though it was just a short meeting, I don't think I could have asked for a better group in terms of students to potentially plant a ministry.

First there was the "Gatherer." M is a total gatherer. She showed up late but she knew EVERYONE. In fact, most every student who came by our table did so to say hi to her. One of her friends even stayed for our bible study! In order for a plant to get off the ground, there needs to be a student who knows everyone and is unafraid to invite people. Which brings us to...

The "New Kid." G just stopped by to say hello to M but it was enough for her to stay when invited. It's one thing to have a group of solid students who are committed to the group and coming regularly. It's another thing entirely to have new students coming and checking things out, even if they don't all stay. A good group needs to begin with a culture of newcomers. Once the new kids get locked in, they can start to be affected by...

The "Influencer." This is the student who not only knows everyone but gets that it's about more than getting together and that it's about mission. The Gatherer and the Influencer differ in how they best express themselves. The G is all over the place with a lot of acquaintances. The Influencer knows lots of people too but he also has a few really tight relationships and sees himself as a leader. I'm pretty sure that A is going to be the Influencer in our group.

I'd be remiss if I didn't also mention how important it is for us to have the "White Guy" in our group to start too. Lincoln actually has more White students than Black students but most of student life is centered around the Black students because they are the ones who live on campus. If we're going to be a group that truly reaches the entire campus, it's important for us to begin with diversity instead of trying to add it later.

Friends, please continue to pray for our little group at Lincoln. The question is always who is going to show up the SECOND week. That's what builds momentum.

Have an excellent day!

~Adam

Terrible Efficiency...

Hello, friends!

A few weeks ago, I bought a new bike, replacing my old one, and shutting down the Penny Peddling blog. I said that I'd still occassionally post about my riding exploits on this blog, so here's my triumphant (or not...) return to me writing about biking. Hooray!

One blog post I did a while back was entitled Beautiful Inefficiency, talking about how much I've enjoyed working from home to be with Ezra. I'm considerably more efficient at getting stuff done away from home but the time I get to spend with my son is well worth the inefficiencies of working from home.

I've found that when it comes to biking, however, I've run into the opposite problem... I'm not too efficient for my own good.

Sulu, the bike that started it all for me, was stolen in September of 2012. For the next 3 years, I was riding my old bike, which I bought for $40 on Craigslist. It had thick, half-mountain/half road tires, was a little bit too tall for me, and only let me shift to 6 of the 18 gears it possessed. It got me where I needed to go but biking was a struggle. I earned every inch of every mile that I biked with that bad boy.

My new bike is like riding Sulu all over again. All the gears work. The tires are nice and thin (although not so thin that handling is a problem). It fits just right so I'm not having to strain to pedal. Last weekend I did a 40 mile ride with some guys from my church and I was feeling spectacular afterwards. If I'd tried to do 40 miles with my old bike, it would have taken forever.

Here's the thing though. A fast bike is GREAT for commuting for the obvious reason you get places faster. From a commuting standpoint, buying the new bike was a no-brainer.

From an EXERCISE standpoint though, having a faster bike doesn't actually help me, and kind of hurts in some ways. My goal is to do some sort of exercising for 45 minutes a day. When I was riding my old bike, it took me roughly 11 minutes to get from my house to campus. Now, it takes me only 7. It used to be that going to campus and back counted for nearly half of my exercise time. Now, it's not even a third!

This doesn't even take into account that I'm not working as hard either. I got a fitness tracker over the summer that also takes my heart rate. When I used to ride my old bike, I was breathing hard and definitely getting my cardio going. Now, I get to campus without even breaking a sweat and my heartrate in a barely elevated state. It's like I'm not working at all!

Am I bummed about the new bike? Of course not! It's so much better to ride and well worth the investment. I just think maybe I didn't consider the negative implications of being a much more efficient rider now. =0).

Have an excellent day!

~Adam

Changing Diapers, Changing Roles

Hello, friends!

When Megan and I first started doing ministry together in Columbia, it took us a while to find a system that worked. When we were both working with ACF, we found that while we did good work, it was hard to talk about what was happening on campus without switching from Husband/Wife mode to Coworker mode. On the one hand, it was great that we could contextualize all of our conversations really well since we both knew the fellowship. On the other hand, it was hard to have a real date when a lot of conversations turned into troubleshooting sessions.

The next year, Megan began planting ICF and a we developed a completely different dynamic, one that worked quite well. We now had the same job but different spheres of influence. In many ways, things went back to when we were dating; we could talk about work but it was in more of a "how was your day" kind of mode. Of course, there was the added benefit that we could actually help out one another when needed because we were actually living in the same city. This dynamic has been great.

My role in ICF the past few semesters has been one of logistics. I've been the guy in the background doing all the stuff that no one notices so that Megan can connect with students and have conversations that aren't constantly being interrupted by "hold on, I have to go take care of this." It's a role that I enjoy, not just because it means I'm doing something useful, but also because every now and then I get to stop and watch Megan in action, which is a site to behold. I tell you, she is REALLY good at her job. =0).

Friends, tonight the role changes just a little bit. Megan got off of maternity leave this week and tonight is ICF's first Dinner and Discovery (D&D), which is dinner and a bible study for students. D&D is a great place for Christian students to learn how to serve and lead, for non-Christian students to learn about Jesus, and for everyone to join together in community. When I helped at D&D (which wasn't every time) my role was usually jack of all trades. I was giving rides, setting up audio/visual equipment, making copies and things like that. Tonight my role is decidedly different... child care.

D&D will be on campus, which means Meg will be on campus and I'll be having a "boy's night" with RaRa. Who knows what we'll do tonight but I'm sure of two things: I'm in charge of at least one feeding and a few diaper changes.

I've taken care of RaRa by myself a few different times before and nothing has ever gone wrong. This one just feels a little different because it's for work and this will probably be a regular occurance. I'm excited for some time with my man though, that's for sure.

So, friends, if you remember, please pray for our family tonight. Pray for us boys as we hang out and bond like a father and son should. Also, please pray for Meg that she'll be fully present and that big things will happen tonight.

Have an excellent day!

~Adam

When Campus Becomes a War Zone...

Hello, friends!

One of the things that constantly strikes me as I continue on this journey of campus ministry is remembering that the fight we fight is not just on the campus but is a spiritual battle as well. There is a real enemy and he does not want us to advance the Gospel in a real and meaningful way. He does not want college students to follow Jesus. He doesn't want campuses transformed into places where the Gospel shines. He certainly doesn't want students to graduate with a sense of purpose and calling to follow Jesus wherever they go next. So, the enemy fights, and he fights dirty. He lies. He steals. He destroys. I wish he wasn't so good at what he does but this ain't his first rodeo. Here are a few of the battles I've seen over the past week or so.

I was talking to a campus pastor the other day and he was talking about an administrator who is downright hostile towards Christians. The pastor was sharing with me different interactions that he's had with this administrator, as well as giving me a little bit of background about why this administrator may be so hostile. As we were talking, the sense of spiritual warfare was palpable. Somewhere along the way, this administrator started believing the lie that having a Christian presence on campus was not just bad for the school but bad for him personally. This administrator has a fair amount of power at the university too, meaning that we can expect plenty more battles to come.

A few days ago I was talking with some coworkers about a cult that has made its way onto a number of different campuses across the nation. Cults are scary business already but the ones that are disguised as Christian groups are the ones that terrify me the most. I've heard a number of stories of students who got involved, thinking they were joining a Christian group, only to realize that something wasn't right when the group started putting extra-biblical requirements on their salvation. Thankfully, those students got out but a number of students, too high a number, get sucked in for good.

Usually, August isn't migraine season but this past month had its share of close calls. There was more than one occasion where I had to fight to get up and fight off the pain. Looking back at my calendar, I noticed a pattern: Migraine days were days when I was going to be doing something significant on campus, usually a visit. One could call it a coincidence but I know there's something more to it than me just happening to be dehydrated on the exact day I'm supposed to go visit a campus and try to plant some campus ministry.

What's the solution? Friends, the solution is prayer. This past week, I spent a significant amount of my time at Lincoln praying. As I walked around campus, I saw students with crosses around their necks, dropping F-bombs and N-words, talking about how plastered they were going to get over the weekend. So I prayed that they would encounter the real Jesus. I saw students visibly in distress, with that glassy look in their eyes like they didn't know how they were going to make it through the day. So I prayed that they would feel the love of Christ and that it would give them hope. I walked around the library and prayed that it would be a place of refuge and learning and that walls would be broken down. I prayed that a light would begin to shine on campus. I thanked God for the work that he's already done. I sang "This Little Light of Mine." I prayed.

Friends, will you take a few minutes right now and pray for the work that's being done here in MidMissouri? Would you pray for more workers for the harvest? Would you pray that God would break through the lies students are believing? Would you pray for a revival at Mizzou, Lincoln, Columbia College, and wherever we aren't yet? Would you praise Jesus for the good work that he's already done? Will you pray with me?

Have an excellent day!

~Adam