Hello, friends!
I'm writing this to you from beautiful Columbia, MO but I've only been back here for about 24 hours or so. The past few days were a whirlwind as I traveled to College Park, MD, to visit one of the staff who I'm coaching as part of my new role as Asian American Ministries Pilot Project Director. While I was there, I got to visit the campus (beautiful!), meet with the staff who is on the ground (gifted!), and do a quick training for the students who he is working with as part of the project (motivated!). It was a quick trip but one that was definitely worth it. Allow me to break down the timeline for you.
December 31: Buy tickets for Maryland visit set for the first weekend in February
January 28: Cancel tickets when it comes to light that the women are in the middle of sorority rush season and won't be able to meet
February 10: Begin trying to setup a new date for a visit
February 23: Come to the conclusion that the only date that's going to work is February 28. Proceed to purchase tickets, rental car, and hotel
February 27:
- 6am: Drive from CoMO to StL to catch my flight
- 4pm: Arrive in MD and get myself situated
- 9:30pm: Meet with the staff to go through the training I'll be leading
February 28:
- 11am: Ohana staff video conference
- 12pm: Prayer walking around the Maryland campus
- 3pm: Training prep
- 6pm: Meet the staff and his family for dinner
- 7:30pm: Pick up student number 1
- 8:30pm: Student 2 arrives and we do the training
- 10pm: Training finishes and we take folk hime
- 11pm: Debrief with the staff
March 1:
- 12:30am: Arrive back at the hotel, finish up a few things and pack before heading to the airport
- 3am: Arrive at the airport and take an hour nap before security opens
- 5:50am: Fly back to StL
- 9:15am: Arrive back in StL and drive to Jefferson City to staff at Lincoln
- 11:30am: Arrive at Lincoln and do my staff stuff there
- 4pm: Drive home from Jeff City
- 4:30pm: Back Home
That, my friends, is a ridiculous kind of trip but boy was it fun. There was something really beautiful about how quickly the trip came together and all the pieces worked. Of course, it would have been nice if the tickets had already been purchased so that part wasn't fun but the logistics of everything was the plan was put into motion was pretty great and more evidence that God is pretty great too.
Fortunately, this was my only visit for the year so I don't have to worry about doing something crazy like that again anytime soon. I'm also so thankful for Meg and her being OK watching Ezra for a few days without me so I could go on this trip. It was definitely good to go but certainly better to be back.
Have an excellent day!
~Adam
Thursday, March 2, 2017
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
The Joys and Heartbreaks on Honesty...
Hello, friends!
I've been a missionary with InterVarsity for just about 10 years now. During that time, I've seen a lot. I've seen students make decisions to follow Jesus and students make decision to leave the faith. I've seen students catch a vision for being missionaries where they are and I've seen other students who were seemingly solid go through their college careers with no sense of mission. I've seen Freshmen get plugged in immediately and Seniors fall off the face of the earth. I've worked with White, Black, Asian, Latino, and International Students, with successes and failure across the board. I've started chapters and shut down chapters. I've seen a lot.
When you're in this line of work, you have to develop a thick skin to a certain extent while still not losing your humanity. On the one hand, when rejection and failure comes in terms of students not following Jesus or leaving the chapter, it's important to remember that it is not necessarily you they are rejecting but Christ. Just like when a student comes to Jesus it's not because of my work but because of Christ. If I don't remember that, I go crazy, getting too high with the highs and too low with the lows of student reactions.
At the same time, it's important to rejoice and mourn well. I joke all the time about not really having any emotions but the truth is that if I don't at least feel SOMETHING, then I'm probably not doing my job right. I can't just be trying to REACH students; I also have to be willing to LOVE students.
One of the most important ways that I'm able to do this is by focusing on the PROCESS and not necessarily the RESULT. I tell students all the time that it matters to me where you are but it matters more to me where you're going. If you are moving toward Jesus, we're doing just fine, regardless of what you think of him now. In the same way, if you're moving away from Jesus, that's a red flag for me, regardless of where you are presently. An honest assessment of where you are and where you're going are what matter most.
That's why texts like these are so interesting:
"I don't see the point because I don't know if I believe that he even exists. My father is dead and to me God is the same."
"In all honesty man when you first approached me on the field I didn't feel comfortable telling you I was an atheist due to the nature of the conversation, subsequently entangling me in a lie in which you believe I am slightly religions. I apologize and should have told you earlier but I am actually very against Christianity."
Quote number one was a text message that one of my students received from a friend who he has been trying to reach in his dorm. Quote number two was from a student that I met while doing a proxe on campus.
In both of these cases, I'm a little bit torn between the happy and the sad. One the one hand, I love the honesty. The fact that these things can actually be said means that there is a certain level of trust built up. Those confessions are not easy things to say but there was something in the relationship that compelled honesty.
However, on the other hand, my heart breaks for these students. One student is blaming God for the death of a loved one and can't quite get past the sense of loss. The other student is straight against God and isn't all that interested in even entertaining a conversation about Him. Those make me sad.
My first instinct is to put together a game plan on how to reach these students. There are bible studies to be prepped, conversations to be had, and all sorts of strategies to be employed. None of those things are necessarily bad either. But, I've been compelled to pray more this year and I pray that you'll join me in interceding for these students. Pray that God will reveal himself to them and that in their honesty about where they are with God, He will bring a truth that will set them free.
Have an excellent day!
~Adam
I've been a missionary with InterVarsity for just about 10 years now. During that time, I've seen a lot. I've seen students make decisions to follow Jesus and students make decision to leave the faith. I've seen students catch a vision for being missionaries where they are and I've seen other students who were seemingly solid go through their college careers with no sense of mission. I've seen Freshmen get plugged in immediately and Seniors fall off the face of the earth. I've worked with White, Black, Asian, Latino, and International Students, with successes and failure across the board. I've started chapters and shut down chapters. I've seen a lot.
When you're in this line of work, you have to develop a thick skin to a certain extent while still not losing your humanity. On the one hand, when rejection and failure comes in terms of students not following Jesus or leaving the chapter, it's important to remember that it is not necessarily you they are rejecting but Christ. Just like when a student comes to Jesus it's not because of my work but because of Christ. If I don't remember that, I go crazy, getting too high with the highs and too low with the lows of student reactions.
At the same time, it's important to rejoice and mourn well. I joke all the time about not really having any emotions but the truth is that if I don't at least feel SOMETHING, then I'm probably not doing my job right. I can't just be trying to REACH students; I also have to be willing to LOVE students.
One of the most important ways that I'm able to do this is by focusing on the PROCESS and not necessarily the RESULT. I tell students all the time that it matters to me where you are but it matters more to me where you're going. If you are moving toward Jesus, we're doing just fine, regardless of what you think of him now. In the same way, if you're moving away from Jesus, that's a red flag for me, regardless of where you are presently. An honest assessment of where you are and where you're going are what matter most.
That's why texts like these are so interesting:
"I don't see the point because I don't know if I believe that he even exists. My father is dead and to me God is the same."
"In all honesty man when you first approached me on the field I didn't feel comfortable telling you I was an atheist due to the nature of the conversation, subsequently entangling me in a lie in which you believe I am slightly religions. I apologize and should have told you earlier but I am actually very against Christianity."
Quote number one was a text message that one of my students received from a friend who he has been trying to reach in his dorm. Quote number two was from a student that I met while doing a proxe on campus.
In both of these cases, I'm a little bit torn between the happy and the sad. One the one hand, I love the honesty. The fact that these things can actually be said means that there is a certain level of trust built up. Those confessions are not easy things to say but there was something in the relationship that compelled honesty.
However, on the other hand, my heart breaks for these students. One student is blaming God for the death of a loved one and can't quite get past the sense of loss. The other student is straight against God and isn't all that interested in even entertaining a conversation about Him. Those make me sad.
My first instinct is to put together a game plan on how to reach these students. There are bible studies to be prepped, conversations to be had, and all sorts of strategies to be employed. None of those things are necessarily bad either. But, I've been compelled to pray more this year and I pray that you'll join me in interceding for these students. Pray that God will reveal himself to them and that in their honesty about where they are with God, He will bring a truth that will set them free.
Have an excellent day!
~Adam
Thursday, February 9, 2017
Welcoming and Being Welcomed at Mizzou...
Hello, friends!
When I first moved to beautiful Columbia, MO as part of InterVarsity, I was the only staff within 120 miles. The other two staff hubs in Missouri were in Kansas City and Saint Louis. Kansas City was part of the Kansas Area and I was with Saint Louis in the Missouri Area. During my intern year, because I had weekly training in Saint Louis, I actually had an apartment in both places. Monday through Friday I would be in CoMO, then Friday through Monday I'd be in Saint Louis. Thankfully, the rent out here is cheap enough that I was able to do that without too much trouble.
After I moved to CoMO full time, I still had to travel to Saint Louis for staff meetings but once a semester or so, the Saint Louis staff team would come out to CoMO so I wouldn't have to travel. At first, it didn't make a lot of sense to me since it meant more cars and more effort to get a bunch of people here when it was so easy for me to hop in my car and make my way to Saint Louis, but now that our Mid-MO staff team has grown and my family has too, I'm thankful that this tradition still holds true. Yesterday, the Saint Louis team hopped in their cars and trekked across I-70 to for our monthly staff meeting.
Our team and our campuses where work is being done has expanded over the past 10 years but Mizzou is still our hub so we met on campus. Meg was out of town for different staff meetings with the National International Student Ministry Team so it was up to me to host. Thankfully, being around her for a while has taught me a number of things about being a good host. We had planned out our staff meeting a few weeks prior so we had a good sense of what we were going to do and these meetings always have the same basic feel. We have 4 basic elements to every meeting: spiritual formation, lunch, training, and business. Our training was going to be centered around leadership recruitment for our chapters.
Then, last week, President Trump signed the travel ban, and our plans shifted a little bit.
Regardless of your political leanings, and whether or not you think the travel ban is a good idea or a bad idea, the truth is that it had consequences for international students. We know of at least a handful of students who were supposed to come back the US from their home countries in the few days after the Executive Order was signed who could not and had to wait in limbo while clarification was made. We also know through conversations with international students that many were feeling uneasy because they didn't know if their countries would be next on the list or if they would be able to go back home after the semester was over. I've gotten in trouble for letting my politics show on this blog before. This isn't about that so please don't read too much into what I'm sharing. I'm just telling you that these are some of the effects we've seen.
Post-Executive Order, the team decided to switch up the training, not to directly address the executive order, but sort of in response to it. Instead of talking about student leadership, we were going to be a little more experiential and see if we could figure out how Mizzou felt about its campus in terms of it being a welcoming environment and how much students engaged with people of other cultures. Our plan was simple: stand outside with posters asking those two questions, then ask students to identify their thoughts with stickers and talk to them about why they put what they put. Here are a few photos of us at work:
Here are my big takeaways from our time.
- When you ask a good question, you get good answers: Y'all, it was COLD yesterday. The temperature was in the low 30's with a little bit of a wind. We really shouldn't have been out there. And yet, folk still stopped by. Most didn't stay long to talk but people were still intrigued enough to stop by and put a sticker on our board.
- Personal experiences reign supreme: It's no secret that Mizzou has had its troubles in terms of cross cultural conflict in the past year. Still, the phrase that we heard over and over again was, "Well, Mizzou has had a problem but I'M welcoming so the campus must we welcoming.
- No one wants to admit areas for growth. You may not be able to see it on these photos but regardless of whether or not someone things that Mizzou is welcoming to every culture on campus, EVERYONE says they engage with people from other cultures regularly. I've been on campus long enough to know that isn't the case but I'm not so sure that I would want to admit it either.
One last really fun story. While we were out there, a Black student came by to put a sticker on our board. On the question of whether or not the campus was welcoming to all cultures, he put his sticker all the way to the left, on the "False" side. As he was explaining his experiences on campus, including being called the "N-word" on multiple occasions, a White student came up to put his sticker on the board. After the Black student shared his story then left for class, the White student said, "well, I WAS going to say true, but based on hearing that guy, it seems like maybe it isn't so much."
Friends, we're calling that a breakthrough towards a more welcoming Mizzou. =0).
Have an excellent day!
~Adam
When I first moved to beautiful Columbia, MO as part of InterVarsity, I was the only staff within 120 miles. The other two staff hubs in Missouri were in Kansas City and Saint Louis. Kansas City was part of the Kansas Area and I was with Saint Louis in the Missouri Area. During my intern year, because I had weekly training in Saint Louis, I actually had an apartment in both places. Monday through Friday I would be in CoMO, then Friday through Monday I'd be in Saint Louis. Thankfully, the rent out here is cheap enough that I was able to do that without too much trouble.
After I moved to CoMO full time, I still had to travel to Saint Louis for staff meetings but once a semester or so, the Saint Louis staff team would come out to CoMO so I wouldn't have to travel. At first, it didn't make a lot of sense to me since it meant more cars and more effort to get a bunch of people here when it was so easy for me to hop in my car and make my way to Saint Louis, but now that our Mid-MO staff team has grown and my family has too, I'm thankful that this tradition still holds true. Yesterday, the Saint Louis team hopped in their cars and trekked across I-70 to for our monthly staff meeting.
Our team and our campuses where work is being done has expanded over the past 10 years but Mizzou is still our hub so we met on campus. Meg was out of town for different staff meetings with the National International Student Ministry Team so it was up to me to host. Thankfully, being around her for a while has taught me a number of things about being a good host. We had planned out our staff meeting a few weeks prior so we had a good sense of what we were going to do and these meetings always have the same basic feel. We have 4 basic elements to every meeting: spiritual formation, lunch, training, and business. Our training was going to be centered around leadership recruitment for our chapters.
Then, last week, President Trump signed the travel ban, and our plans shifted a little bit.
Regardless of your political leanings, and whether or not you think the travel ban is a good idea or a bad idea, the truth is that it had consequences for international students. We know of at least a handful of students who were supposed to come back the US from their home countries in the few days after the Executive Order was signed who could not and had to wait in limbo while clarification was made. We also know through conversations with international students that many were feeling uneasy because they didn't know if their countries would be next on the list or if they would be able to go back home after the semester was over. I've gotten in trouble for letting my politics show on this blog before. This isn't about that so please don't read too much into what I'm sharing. I'm just telling you that these are some of the effects we've seen.
Post-Executive Order, the team decided to switch up the training, not to directly address the executive order, but sort of in response to it. Instead of talking about student leadership, we were going to be a little more experiential and see if we could figure out how Mizzou felt about its campus in terms of it being a welcoming environment and how much students engaged with people of other cultures. Our plan was simple: stand outside with posters asking those two questions, then ask students to identify their thoughts with stickers and talk to them about why they put what they put. Here are a few photos of us at work:
- When you ask a good question, you get good answers: Y'all, it was COLD yesterday. The temperature was in the low 30's with a little bit of a wind. We really shouldn't have been out there. And yet, folk still stopped by. Most didn't stay long to talk but people were still intrigued enough to stop by and put a sticker on our board.
- Personal experiences reign supreme: It's no secret that Mizzou has had its troubles in terms of cross cultural conflict in the past year. Still, the phrase that we heard over and over again was, "Well, Mizzou has had a problem but I'M welcoming so the campus must we welcoming.
- No one wants to admit areas for growth. You may not be able to see it on these photos but regardless of whether or not someone things that Mizzou is welcoming to every culture on campus, EVERYONE says they engage with people from other cultures regularly. I've been on campus long enough to know that isn't the case but I'm not so sure that I would want to admit it either.
One last really fun story. While we were out there, a Black student came by to put a sticker on our board. On the question of whether or not the campus was welcoming to all cultures, he put his sticker all the way to the left, on the "False" side. As he was explaining his experiences on campus, including being called the "N-word" on multiple occasions, a White student came up to put his sticker on the board. After the Black student shared his story then left for class, the White student said, "well, I WAS going to say true, but based on hearing that guy, it seems like maybe it isn't so much."
Friends, we're calling that a breakthrough towards a more welcoming Mizzou. =0).
Have an excellent day!
~Adam
Thursday, February 2, 2017
Corners Conference Recap!!!
Hello, friends!
I'm back from Kansas City, full of fatigue but also full of joy. Y'all the Corners Conference was AMAZING! Allow me to throw a few stats at you:
- Over 400 students attended the 4 conferences
- Of those 400+ students, 9 students made first time commitments to follow Jesus, 94 students recommitted their lives to Jesus, and 81 students committed to "starting something new" on their campuses
- Mid-MO brought 8 students to Imani (6 from Lincoln and 2 from Mizzou), 11 students to Ohana (all from Mizzou), and 2 to Being White (from Mizzou)
Of course, stats are great, but the personal stories are even better. Here are a few of my highlights:
- Seeing M, one of my Lincoln students, at the prospective staff dinner and talking to him about what it would mean to potentially take that route as a vocation.
- Sitting at dinner with R on Saturday night, and the first question she asks me being, "Can you guarantee that we'll be able to come here again next year?"
- At lunch on Sunday, as we were getting ready to head back home, hearing all the stories from the Lincoln students about their experiences and THEN hearing them tell their friends about the experiences with such excitement on Wednesday when I went to Lincoln.
My role actually was with Ohana, not Imani, so that was a little bit of a logistical thing, to try and check in as much as possible while still doing my job. A few Ohana highlights would be:
- Seeing Danny thrive in his role as Party Master while simultaneously taking care of the Mizzou students
- Having a really great conversation with one of the WashU students about school pride (#GoBears!)
- Having fun as an MC for the conference, much better than my first go around at the last Ohana (practice makes perfect, I guess)
Now, you may be thinking to yourself, "self, the words are great, but I want me some pictures!" Friends, I have you covered. =0).
I'm back from Kansas City, full of fatigue but also full of joy. Y'all the Corners Conference was AMAZING! Allow me to throw a few stats at you:
- Over 400 students attended the 4 conferences
- Of those 400+ students, 9 students made first time commitments to follow Jesus, 94 students recommitted their lives to Jesus, and 81 students committed to "starting something new" on their campuses
- Mid-MO brought 8 students to Imani (6 from Lincoln and 2 from Mizzou), 11 students to Ohana (all from Mizzou), and 2 to Being White (from Mizzou)
Of course, stats are great, but the personal stories are even better. Here are a few of my highlights:
- Seeing M, one of my Lincoln students, at the prospective staff dinner and talking to him about what it would mean to potentially take that route as a vocation.
- Sitting at dinner with R on Saturday night, and the first question she asks me being, "Can you guarantee that we'll be able to come here again next year?"
- At lunch on Sunday, as we were getting ready to head back home, hearing all the stories from the Lincoln students about their experiences and THEN hearing them tell their friends about the experiences with such excitement on Wednesday when I went to Lincoln.
My role actually was with Ohana, not Imani, so that was a little bit of a logistical thing, to try and check in as much as possible while still doing my job. A few Ohana highlights would be:
- Seeing Danny thrive in his role as Party Master while simultaneously taking care of the Mizzou students
- Having a really great conversation with one of the WashU students about school pride (#GoBears!)
- Having fun as an MC for the conference, much better than my first go around at the last Ohana (practice makes perfect, I guess)
Now, you may be thinking to yourself, "self, the words are great, but I want me some pictures!" Friends, I have you covered. =0).
Have an excellent day!
~Adam
Thursday, January 26, 2017
Corners Await!!!
Hello, friends!
I have done a lot of crazy things in the name of the Gospel and InterVarsity, but this weekend may take the cake. Our staff team is about to put on FOUR SIMULTANEOUS CONFERENCES AT THE SAME LOCATION.
That's right, this weekend, the Doubletree Hotel in Overland Park is going to overrun with InterVarsity students from Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas, as part of our Corners Conferences. The 4 conferences will include: Imani (a Black student conference), Ohana (an Asian American student conference), Mi Gente (a LatinX student conference), and Being White (a White student conference).
A question that I'm sure will come up is, "Adam, why have so many different conferences? Why not just have one big conference? Isn't that being divisive?"
First of all, that's 3 questions, not 1, but I still get your point. It goes like this. One of the things that I've learned in my time with InterVarsity is that culture and ethnicity are things to be honored, celebrated, and taken into account. Black, LatinX, Asian American, and White students experience the Gospel differently. We do musical worship differently. Our speakers are different. We have different life experiences. The point of the Corners Conference is that we want to celebrate this diversity, knowing that God is the author of each of our cultures. There will be some things that we do together as a whole group but we're having 4 conferences because we want to speak the heart language of students, and sometimes, that means being apart for a while.
Y'all, it's about to get crazy. At our Regional Spring Conference, Catalyst, last year, we had 139 students from our 4 states participate. Right now, we have over 400 coming to Kansas City this weekend. Our staff and students have been killing it on the recruitment side. Everyone has been working hard on the planning and logistics. It's been a fun thing to see.
We really need y'all to be partnering with us this weekend in prayer. There are a lot of moving pieces and if we are going to need as much prayer as we can get. Here are a few specific ways to be praying for us:
- Journey's Mercies: Praise Jesus, we have something like 20 students from Mid-MO attending the various conferences, including 6 from Lincoln! Getting all of them safely to KC and back is a huge priority for us.
- Our Speakers and Seminar Leaders: We are going to have some great speakers and our seminars are going to cover everything from Ethnic Identity Development all the way to being a minority in today's America. Please pray that our speakers and seminar leaders will be led by Jesus to speak words of truth.
- Our students: This is easily the biggest conference our Region has ever done in terms of student involvement. Please pray that the students will be receptive to hearing what God might have for them.
One last thing. If you're interested in giving scholarships to help our students attend, there's still time to give! Thanks to various scholarships and discounts, it costs about $40 for a student to attend. If you'd like to sponsor one of our Mid-MO students, you can do so by clicking this link here.
Have an excellent day!
~Adam
I have done a lot of crazy things in the name of the Gospel and InterVarsity, but this weekend may take the cake. Our staff team is about to put on FOUR SIMULTANEOUS CONFERENCES AT THE SAME LOCATION.
That's right, this weekend, the Doubletree Hotel in Overland Park is going to overrun with InterVarsity students from Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas, as part of our Corners Conferences. The 4 conferences will include: Imani (a Black student conference), Ohana (an Asian American student conference), Mi Gente (a LatinX student conference), and Being White (a White student conference).
A question that I'm sure will come up is, "Adam, why have so many different conferences? Why not just have one big conference? Isn't that being divisive?"
First of all, that's 3 questions, not 1, but I still get your point. It goes like this. One of the things that I've learned in my time with InterVarsity is that culture and ethnicity are things to be honored, celebrated, and taken into account. Black, LatinX, Asian American, and White students experience the Gospel differently. We do musical worship differently. Our speakers are different. We have different life experiences. The point of the Corners Conference is that we want to celebrate this diversity, knowing that God is the author of each of our cultures. There will be some things that we do together as a whole group but we're having 4 conferences because we want to speak the heart language of students, and sometimes, that means being apart for a while.
Y'all, it's about to get crazy. At our Regional Spring Conference, Catalyst, last year, we had 139 students from our 4 states participate. Right now, we have over 400 coming to Kansas City this weekend. Our staff and students have been killing it on the recruitment side. Everyone has been working hard on the planning and logistics. It's been a fun thing to see.
We really need y'all to be partnering with us this weekend in prayer. There are a lot of moving pieces and if we are going to need as much prayer as we can get. Here are a few specific ways to be praying for us:
- Journey's Mercies: Praise Jesus, we have something like 20 students from Mid-MO attending the various conferences, including 6 from Lincoln! Getting all of them safely to KC and back is a huge priority for us.
- Our Speakers and Seminar Leaders: We are going to have some great speakers and our seminars are going to cover everything from Ethnic Identity Development all the way to being a minority in today's America. Please pray that our speakers and seminar leaders will be led by Jesus to speak words of truth.
- Our students: This is easily the biggest conference our Region has ever done in terms of student involvement. Please pray that the students will be receptive to hearing what God might have for them.
One last thing. If you're interested in giving scholarships to help our students attend, there's still time to give! Thanks to various scholarships and discounts, it costs about $40 for a student to attend. If you'd like to sponsor one of our Mid-MO students, you can do so by clicking this link here.
Have an excellent day!
~Adam
Thursday, January 19, 2017
The Year of Something...
Hello, friends!
Greetings from beautiful CoMO! The weather out here is actually so nice that I was able to bike today! Of course, I waited until the rain stopped. No sense in being unsafe. =0).
Thanks again to everyone who wished me well on my birthday. I had a pretty spectacular day. I got to hang out with Ezra and Meg, Meg and I went to go see a movie, and I ate a lot of free birthday goodies that were really terrible for me. There was supposed to be a major ice storm coming through but it stayed mostly south of us, so that was a huge blessing too. Meg and Ezra got me a new Cardinals cap (to be revealed once the season starts) and my sister got me a shirt. All in all, I'd say it was good birthday.
I don't remember how long ago it was, but a few years back a co-worker of mine introduced me to the concept of making each year the Year of Something. It was her way of saying of asking how folk wanted to spend the year in terms of focus and/or hopes. It could be the Year of Risk Taking or the Year of Running or something like that. I liked the idea so much that I decided that each year, on my birthday, I would make it the Year of Something. Past years have included the Year of Faithfulness and the Year of "Go Big or Go Home" among others. I like to use my birthday instead of the New Year because my birthday is so close to the New Year and it gives me some time to finish out the old year well without thinking too much about the year to come.
Friends, I'm in a little bit of trouble. I really don't know what this year is going to be the "year of"! I've had a few thoughts:
- The year of "yes!", which would be me saying yes to more and more things
- The year of prayer, focusing on intercession and going to God more intentionally and more frequently
- The year of activism, not just talking about the change that I want to see in the world but actually doing something to change it
- The year of implicit bias, focusing explicitly on the idea that implicit bias is a real thing and that if we are going to actually see change in the way that we relate to one another, we're going to have to recognize that
We're almost a week into my new "year" and I'm still not sure how this is going to go. My hope is that as I "try on" each of these ideas, something will just feel right. Your prayers would be much appreciated as I figure this out. Maybe you could send me your ideas, or let me know what your year is going to be. I can't say that I'll go with your suggestions, but it's nice to know you care.
Of course, if you don't have a "year of" for this year, I encourage you to get one! It's sort of like a New Year's resolution but better because it actually changes the way you think. Who knows, maybe this year will be the Year of Group Revolutions. =0).
Have an excellent day!
~Adam
Greetings from beautiful CoMO! The weather out here is actually so nice that I was able to bike today! Of course, I waited until the rain stopped. No sense in being unsafe. =0).
Thanks again to everyone who wished me well on my birthday. I had a pretty spectacular day. I got to hang out with Ezra and Meg, Meg and I went to go see a movie, and I ate a lot of free birthday goodies that were really terrible for me. There was supposed to be a major ice storm coming through but it stayed mostly south of us, so that was a huge blessing too. Meg and Ezra got me a new Cardinals cap (to be revealed once the season starts) and my sister got me a shirt. All in all, I'd say it was good birthday.
I don't remember how long ago it was, but a few years back a co-worker of mine introduced me to the concept of making each year the Year of Something. It was her way of saying of asking how folk wanted to spend the year in terms of focus and/or hopes. It could be the Year of Risk Taking or the Year of Running or something like that. I liked the idea so much that I decided that each year, on my birthday, I would make it the Year of Something. Past years have included the Year of Faithfulness and the Year of "Go Big or Go Home" among others. I like to use my birthday instead of the New Year because my birthday is so close to the New Year and it gives me some time to finish out the old year well without thinking too much about the year to come.
Friends, I'm in a little bit of trouble. I really don't know what this year is going to be the "year of"! I've had a few thoughts:
- The year of "yes!", which would be me saying yes to more and more things
- The year of prayer, focusing on intercession and going to God more intentionally and more frequently
- The year of activism, not just talking about the change that I want to see in the world but actually doing something to change it
- The year of implicit bias, focusing explicitly on the idea that implicit bias is a real thing and that if we are going to actually see change in the way that we relate to one another, we're going to have to recognize that
We're almost a week into my new "year" and I'm still not sure how this is going to go. My hope is that as I "try on" each of these ideas, something will just feel right. Your prayers would be much appreciated as I figure this out. Maybe you could send me your ideas, or let me know what your year is going to be. I can't say that I'll go with your suggestions, but it's nice to know you care.
Of course, if you don't have a "year of" for this year, I encourage you to get one! It's sort of like a New Year's resolution but better because it actually changes the way you think. Who knows, maybe this year will be the Year of Group Revolutions. =0).
Have an excellent day!
~Adam
Thursday, January 12, 2017
Staff Conference Hooray!!!
Hello, friends!
Sorry about not posting anything last week. I was actually in beautiful Orlando, Florida at our National Staff Conference. Between the meetings, the sessions, the seminars, and the sunshine, and in an attempt to stay fully present, I more or less went offline for the week. It was really nice.
Every 3 years, InterVarsity's entire staff team gathers together to reconnect, be re-inspired, and be reminded of our vision as a staff community. This Staff Conference (SC17) was special for a number of reasons. First of all, it was InterVarsity celebrating its 75 year anniversary! There was a really cool timeline up in our main session space that had our history, both its highs and lows, with photos and quotes and everything. It was pretty cool to see (even though I didn't get through all of it).
The second reason that it was a special staff conference was because of everything that has happened in our movement since the last staff conference, in fact, even in the last year! In the past 13 months or so, we had an Urbana, a new president was named, and we were in the news for our theological stance on sexuality. We had a lot of staff coming in from different places, not only geographically, but also mentally and emotionally.
As is often my nature, here are a few quick bullet points on my reflections from SC17:
- These things sure are different when you're a veteran staff. This is my 10th year with InterVarsity. I am by no means the longest tenured staff with our movement. It's not even close. However, I'm also not a young staff anymore. When I was younger, my Staff Conferences were full of play time, free time, and general chill time. As I've been on staff longer and longer, and taken on more and more responsibility, I've seen that more of my time at these things is filled with meetings. I don't think I had a breakfast meeting but there were definitely lunch meetings, afternoon meetings, dinner meetings, and even late night meetings. When we only get together every 3 years as a national team, you figure out how to meet. Meg's schedule was very similar. It's certainly not a bad thing. It's just a different vibe than from before.
- I know fewer and fewer people every year. I'm pretty sure that when I went to my Orientation for New Staff (ONS) in the summer of 2008 (after my intern year), we were the largest ONS class in InterVarsity's history. There were over 100 of us who joined staff that year. Since then, I'm pretty sure that number has been surpassed but what struck me is that at SC17, I saw even fewer people from my ONS class than in previous Staff Conferences. In one sense, I know that makes sense. I've talked to a number of friends from that ONS class over the year who left staff to go on and do great things. Still, it was a little humbling to walk into SC17 and know that there were a few folk I saw last time that I won't be seeing this time.
- It's nice to be at a conference and not be working at a conference. One of the best things about Staff Conferences is that most of us are there to be participants and not presenters or conference directors. This is a welcome change from the norm. As you know, I've been Missouri's Fall Conference Director for the past 3 years. I've also put on smaller things for students on individual campuses or for Mid-Missouri. Even at Urbana, I'm not directing but my primary concern is making sure my students are doing OK. It's fun work and it's good work but it's exhausting. SC17 didn't have any of that. I could go to a main session and just learn from the speaker without having to think through how students would be receiving the message or how to debrief the session later. If things ran over time, it didn't bother me. I could go to those various meetings and spend time at the pool with my wife and son without any guilt. It was pretty great.
Our theme for the conference was Magnificat. We were in the beginning of Luke, talking about Mary and the birth of Jesus. It was a beautiful time to not only spend more time thinking about the Christmas season but also a reminder that God's M.O. is to do miraculous things through the unlikeliest of people. That was a good word to receive as I prepare for the semester ahead.
Have an excellent day!
~Adam
Sorry about not posting anything last week. I was actually in beautiful Orlando, Florida at our National Staff Conference. Between the meetings, the sessions, the seminars, and the sunshine, and in an attempt to stay fully present, I more or less went offline for the week. It was really nice.
Every 3 years, InterVarsity's entire staff team gathers together to reconnect, be re-inspired, and be reminded of our vision as a staff community. This Staff Conference (SC17) was special for a number of reasons. First of all, it was InterVarsity celebrating its 75 year anniversary! There was a really cool timeline up in our main session space that had our history, both its highs and lows, with photos and quotes and everything. It was pretty cool to see (even though I didn't get through all of it).
The second reason that it was a special staff conference was because of everything that has happened in our movement since the last staff conference, in fact, even in the last year! In the past 13 months or so, we had an Urbana, a new president was named, and we were in the news for our theological stance on sexuality. We had a lot of staff coming in from different places, not only geographically, but also mentally and emotionally.
As is often my nature, here are a few quick bullet points on my reflections from SC17:
- These things sure are different when you're a veteran staff. This is my 10th year with InterVarsity. I am by no means the longest tenured staff with our movement. It's not even close. However, I'm also not a young staff anymore. When I was younger, my Staff Conferences were full of play time, free time, and general chill time. As I've been on staff longer and longer, and taken on more and more responsibility, I've seen that more of my time at these things is filled with meetings. I don't think I had a breakfast meeting but there were definitely lunch meetings, afternoon meetings, dinner meetings, and even late night meetings. When we only get together every 3 years as a national team, you figure out how to meet. Meg's schedule was very similar. It's certainly not a bad thing. It's just a different vibe than from before.
- I know fewer and fewer people every year. I'm pretty sure that when I went to my Orientation for New Staff (ONS) in the summer of 2008 (after my intern year), we were the largest ONS class in InterVarsity's history. There were over 100 of us who joined staff that year. Since then, I'm pretty sure that number has been surpassed but what struck me is that at SC17, I saw even fewer people from my ONS class than in previous Staff Conferences. In one sense, I know that makes sense. I've talked to a number of friends from that ONS class over the year who left staff to go on and do great things. Still, it was a little humbling to walk into SC17 and know that there were a few folk I saw last time that I won't be seeing this time.
- It's nice to be at a conference and not be working at a conference. One of the best things about Staff Conferences is that most of us are there to be participants and not presenters or conference directors. This is a welcome change from the norm. As you know, I've been Missouri's Fall Conference Director for the past 3 years. I've also put on smaller things for students on individual campuses or for Mid-Missouri. Even at Urbana, I'm not directing but my primary concern is making sure my students are doing OK. It's fun work and it's good work but it's exhausting. SC17 didn't have any of that. I could go to a main session and just learn from the speaker without having to think through how students would be receiving the message or how to debrief the session later. If things ran over time, it didn't bother me. I could go to those various meetings and spend time at the pool with my wife and son without any guilt. It was pretty great.
Our theme for the conference was Magnificat. We were in the beginning of Luke, talking about Mary and the birth of Jesus. It was a beautiful time to not only spend more time thinking about the Christmas season but also a reminder that God's M.O. is to do miraculous things through the unlikeliest of people. That was a good word to receive as I prepare for the semester ahead.
Have an excellent day!
~Adam
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