The Joys of Being in Community...

Hello, friends! 

The past few days have been the hottest of the year here in Omaha, with the heat index being north of 115 on some days. Of course, these were the perfect days for our air condition to stop working. 

According to the repair folk, the folk who flipped the house did us dirty on a number of levels when it came to the AC. They bought the lowest quality unit possible (not ideal) but the bigger problems were that while they replaced the outdoor unit, they didn't actually replace the indoor coil, meaning there was a higher chance for something to go wrong. Add to that a poor soldering job on the pipes connecting the indoor to the outdoor unit that meant we were constantly leaving freon, and it really was just a matter of time before the system needed to be replaced. 

What warmed (or cooled) my heart was how quickly our friends came to rally behind us. Immediately after we told our friends that the AC was out, we got two invitations to have dinner in air conditioned houses. Not only was it good to get out of our hot house, but we also were able to have some really sweet times of connection with friends. 

Our new system is getting installed on Monday, so we still have a few days left in the heat. Thankfully, the next few days will cool off significantly, so we should be able to make it with just fans and open windows. Still, I'm so thankful for our friends, who were so generous and hospitable. While generosity and hospitality are not exclusive to Christianity, situations like this make me thankful to be part of the whole body of believers. 

Have an excellent day! 

~Adam  

Wild Travel Days!

Hello, friends!

There are all sorts of exciting things happening right now in the Leong household. The kids have just started school again (3rd grade for Ezra, 1st grade for Thaliea, and daycare for Jonah), Megan and I are starting our 15th and 17th years with InterVarsity, and Megan is starting her new role as Assistant Regional Director for Training and a Development.

But the big thing I wanted to write about today was how our summer ENDED, namely, with some wild travel, both nationally and internationally.

Megan's trip to and from World Assembly was relatively straightforward. She flew to Los Angeles, then to Singapore to visit some former students, before hopping over to Jakarta for world assembly. Her trip back was Jakarta to South Korea (to see more students) then to Los Angeles, Minneapolis, then back home to Omaha.

Our travels here stateside were a little more complicated. 

July 30: Drop Megan off at the airport then drive to Watertown to visit Megan's parents

July 31 - August 2: hanging out in Watertown

August 3: drive back to Omaha

August 4-5: in Omaha, packing for the next trip and watching Thaliea complete in her first triathlon 

August 6: drive to Kansas City to pick up my dad from the airport, then my dad and the kids got picked up by my aunt to spend some time with her in STL while I was at the Big Dig.

August 7-8: Big Dig for me and STL for the kids

August 9: finish the Big Dig and drive to STL, having dinner with a friend in CoMO along the way

August 10: in STL with the kids and my dad, including a trip to the zoo.

August 11: back to Omaha to try to clean the house a bit before Megan gets home on the 12th.

All said and done, I'm not sure how many miles we traveled, how many shows got watched on tablets in the car, or how many chips got eaten as part of the ever present "snack time." What I do know is that I'm glad it worked out and I'll be glad if I never have to do it again. =0).

Have an excellent day!

~Adam

Big Dig!!!

Hello, friends! 

Starting Sunday, over 50 staff and students from all over the Region will be coming together in the KC Area for The Big Dig, our pre-Fall conference. This will be our second year doing the Big Dig and I'm excited for the ways that God is going to show up. 

This will be an interesting Big Dig for me on a number of different levels. For one thing, it'll be just me going. Since Megan is in Indonesia and World Assembly (more on that in a few weeks), I can't staff the conference and watch the kids at the same time, so my aunt will be driving in from St. Louis to pick them up in KC and take them to StL for the week. My dad will also be flying in to eat KC bbq help watch the kids too. This means I'll be staffing a Regional Conference without any of the family around. I suppose I did something similar for Urbana but that was a National thing and this one will have lots of other families there. 

Another interesting thing will be that my role for the Big Dig will be a part of the Worship Team. When I was a younger staff, my ability to play multiple instruments meant that I was constantly recruited to help lead worship. However, as I got older, that role was passed to the younger staff. Well, apparently as I start Year 17 with InterVarsity, I'm back on the Worship Team saddle! I'll be banging on the drums this week, which really is the best because I don't have to worry about singing or being in tune. =0). 

Please be praying for us this next week. Between Omaha, KC, and StL, there's a lot of travel involved. We'll also have students and staff coming from all over the Region so that's even more travel. Also, please pray that the kids will do well with my Aunt and Dad. Finally, please pray that God will move in a really powerful way for the students and staff in attendance. The Big Dig was a really transformative experience for a number of folk last year and we're really praying that the same will be true this year. 

Have an excellent day! 

~Adam

A Death in the Family...

Hello, friends! 

Yesterday, I performed my second funeral of the year. Right around noon, we lost our dear pet, Fluffy. My original goal was to get Fluffy to 3 years. Instead, we had Fluffy for just short of 9 glorious months. He will be missed. 

Honestly, we'd seen this coming for a while. When we got back from SoDak in early July, Fluffy looked bloated and wasn't moving around much. There were a few possibly diagnoses: it could have been dropsy, a swim bladder infection, or he was constipated. We were hoping it was just constipation, so we didn't feed him for a few days and the bloating went down. It seemed like we were out of the woods but Fluffy still wasn't moving around much and he wasn't eating much either. Megan and I were pretty sure that the end was coming soon. 

Thaliea was the first one to discover Fluffy. Obviously, we were tore up about it and the older kids cried. Jonah just kept asking why Fluffy died and I don't think my answer of, "no pet lives forever" was really satisfying for him. Having the kids write final notes to Fluffy helped. We had a short service in the backyard, where Fluffy was buried, surrounded by his loved ones. 

Ezra, Thaliea, and Jonah have already talked about wanting to get a new pet. Once Megan gets back from her trip to Indonesia, we'll probably grab another betta. We bought some better food to supplement Fluffy's diet towards the end, so hopefully that'll help us keep the next fish alive a little longer. 

RIP Fluffy, you were a good pet. 

Have an excellent day!

~Adam

An eBike Saga...

Hello, friends! 

A few days ago, I rode my bike to the store to pick up some ice and other items for Ezra's birthday party. It was a relatively quick trip and I got there and back without incident.

The important thing was that I rode my electric bike there, which was the first time that I'd ridden an electric bike in literally months. It was a long process that cost way too much time and money. 

Everything started last September. I'd had my ebike for about a year and realized 2 things:

1. I really like riding an ebike. It made getting around town way better and it was nice getting to my meetings and not being all sweaty. 

2. I really did not like the ebike I had. I'd purchased a folding ebike so that it wouldn't take up as much space in the garage. I also didn't want to break the bank of an ebike before knowing how much I was going to use it. However, riding this bike was not a ton of fun. The quality could have been a lot better and it just wasn't as much of a fun ride as my other bike. Also, while being folding did help with space, it didn't help enough to really make a huge difference in the inconvenience of having that many bikes in the garage.  

So, here was the plan:

- Sell the old ebike

- Buy a bike conversion kit to turn my current bike into a ebike

Part one was easy. I sold the old ebike in September and then started research on which conversion kit to buy not too much later. 

Here's where the problems started. 

I picked an ebike conversion kit wit WAY too long of a delivery time. I finally decided on a brand in December. The delivery date said March, which wasn't going to be a problem since I wasn't going to be riding much during the winter anyway. What I couldn't have counted on was the backlog that meant that my bike didn't actually get delivered until April. 

My conversion kit was actually just a front wheel hub with a motor in it. The reason I picked this kit was because of the ease of installation. I had to connect a few wires, strap them down, swap the front tire on my current bike, and I'd be good to go! After I finally got my kit, I spent some time installing things and had everything up and running. Unfortunately, I did the installation on a Monday and realized that I was running a little late for soccer practice. So, I put the bike away and drove the practice. 

The big mistake was that instead of keeping the battery with the bike, I took out the battery and accidentally left it on the hatch of our car as I got the soccer stuff ready. I forgot to take the battery off the car and drove to practice. At some point, the battery fell off the car but I didn't realize it until the next evening, AFTER the street sweepers ran through the neighborhood. 

Since the kit was from a specific company, the battery was a proprietary technology and a random battery wouldn't fit. I'd have to buy a replacement directly from the company and they weren't going to be delivering until September at the earliest. So, instead, I spent the next few months trying to purchase the parts I needed online to see if I could still use the motor. After a few returns for bad parts, blowing out more than one front fork because of the torque provided, and eventually having to buy a garage sale bike, I got everything up and running and can now run to the store. 

All said and done, I'm back to having 2 bikes. The one I originally wanted converted needs its front fork fixed (the front tire won't stay attached, which is a problem...) so it's hanging out in the shed for now. The Frankenstein ebike I have now is a little big but it gets the job done. I've also learned a TON about how to repair ebikes, so I guess there's that. It was a frustrating process that took up way too much time and money but we're here and I'm happy. There may be some sort of lesson in the midst of all this but frankly, I don't think I want to learn it quite yet. For now, I'm just going to enjoy riding. =0). 

Have an excellent day! 

~Adam 

ACE Recap!

Hello, friends! 

A few weeks ago, I posted about our Alumni Communication Extravaganza (ACE) that I was leading for our Region. We were going to be contacting alumni up to 10 times over 3 weeks, asking them to consider starting or increasing a recurring gift to their alma mater's chapter accounts. We'd procured a $20k matching grant, so every pledge would be matched for the first year. When I last posted about ACE, we had about a week left and had raised just over $10,000. Things were moving but they were moving a little slower than I would have liked. 

Our ACE Coach from InterVarsity National told us that things would look like a step up graph. We'd get a lot of pledges in the first few days, then things would go kind of slowly during the middle chunk before really ramping up the last week, particularly the last 24 hours. Our graph looked a little bit different, as we had a slow start but a consistent middle chunk. I was cautiously optimistic that we'd hit our $20k goal by the 23rd, but I was also preparing for us to fall a little short. 

Friends, God showed up in a big way! Just over the weekend before our Deadline week, we saw our pledges jump from $11k - over $16k. We started the 23rd (Deadline Day) with $18k matched and immediately saw 2 more gifts come in to bring us past the finish line. Praise, the LORD, we'd done it! (Well, God had done it and we got to benefit from that. =0).).

BUT, God wasn't done yet! We passed our $20k goal so early in the day that we were able to find another $5k match to still hopefully inspire alumni. Then we passed $25k and had another decision to make. We ultimately decided that we would just tell alumni that we would guarantee to match any pledges made by the end of the day and go find the money later. 

Praise the LORD, by the end of the day on Friday, we had raised OVER $30,000!!! It was so great to see how alumni were inspired to give and how many connections were made. Our staff team was encouraged and everyone was glad we gave it a shot. 

Saturday, I was in a bit of a stupor all day. I was physically tired from having to hold so much tension for the past 3 weeks. I've definitely been sleeping well since, so glad to see God come through and to see a major project come to fruition. 

Have an excellent day! 

~Adam

Welcome to Scout Camp!

Hello, friends! 

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of taking the older kids to Cub Scout camp. For Ezra, it was his second trip to Camp Amikaro but this was Thaliea's first trip. One of the most fun things this past year was seeing how much Thaliea enjoyed being in the scouts. This camp definitely solidified her love for scouting. 

Ezra rode a horse!

Thaliea got to participate in the camp-wide morning flag ceremony

Thaliea and another scout wrote a skit that was performed at the camp-wide campfire on Saturday night

The counselors taught the scouts a few new dances

Pool time!

Thaliea's target after our unit on shooting. She took 2 shots and decided she didn't like it, but she still took credit for the target that I shot. =0). 

Ezra's target

Learning about animal habitats

Learning about static electricity

Rock climbing! Both Ezra and Thaliea made it to the top of the wall!

Hay Ride!

Thaliea really liked getting her camp shirt

Greetings from Pack 481! This is actually just half of the pack. Due to scheduling, we had to split our pack into 2 camping dates. The second group will go camping in July. 

Playing games with the camp couselors!

Hanging out with Conrad, who is in the same grade as Thaliea. 

Overall, it was a really great experience. The kids slept better than I thought they would (which was a blessing). Since our scout master wasn't there, I acted as the de facto leader for our crew along with another parent. At this age, all the scouts need to be accompanied by parents, so it was a lot of good collaboration. 

I was joking with another parent that I hope our kids remember these fun times later in life when they're complaining about their parents. =0). It really was fun and I'm glad I get to share these memories with them. 

Have an excellent day!