Treasure Hunting Goose Chases...

Hello, friends!

Here's what I hope you'll consider a fun story about following Jesus and planting!

I went to Lincoln yesterday and decided to do some treasure hunting prayer. Treasure hunting prayer comes from Mark 14 when Jesus tells 2 disciples to go look for a man carrying a water jug so they can have a place for the passover. The idea is simple. You spend some time in listening prayer, asking God to give you an image of some sort. Then, you go looking for that image (treasure hunting) and seeing what you find there. Sometimes they are places on campus (ie "Go to the fountain."). Other times they are more abstract.

As I was listening, the first phrase that popped into my mind was "red shoes." After a little while longer of listening and not really hearing anything else, I decided to go for it and walk around campus looking for red shoes.

As I was heading up towards the Soldier's Memorial, I saw a woman wearing PINK sneakers. I debated in my mind whether or not pink counted as red but before I could decide, I saw a man wearing very red sneakers and a cross earring walk past. I decided to follow him.

Oddly enough, I never caught up to him or got close enough to call to him without being awkward. When I got within calling distance, I was passing the library and a different man said hello to me. Not wanting to be rude, I stopped to talk to him and found out that he's a Christian staff member who works in academic services. One more contact in the books.

Walking back towards the memorial, another woman called to me telling me to get punch and ice cream. The library was having an ice cream party and the woman was the head of the library as well as an ordained minister in MidMO. Let's add to the Christian faculty contact list, shall we?

I finish up my conversation with her when I see 2 women walking back towards their dorm. One of the women definitely had very red sneakers, so I decided to follow them. I get up to their dorm and offer to pray for them. They were very much not into it but said I could. As I was praying for them, a Christian student who I had met LAST week walked out of the dorm and towards the student center. This student was one who I think has the potential to be a person of peace but I wasn't sure. At least I know what dorm she lives in now and I was able to remind her of who I am. =0).

Have an excellent day!

~Adam

Beautiful Inefficiency

Hello, friends!

Many of you who know me know that I love efficiency. It's one of my favorite things in the world. I love looking at a situation, a problem, a gadget, or whatever and asking myself, "How can I make that run better?" There's probably a bit of pride in there (read: there's DEFINITELY pride in there) but I really do believe that I have a special knack for looking at things and boiling them down to the basics, in order to make it the most efficient situation.

Here's something I've learned: If you want to be efficient at doing your administrative work (writing reports, responding to emails, preparing bible studies, supervision, etc.) as a campus missionary, do NOT work from home with a newborn.

Right now, Ezra is the antithesis of efficiency. He poops whenever he wants, usually right after he just had his diaper changed. He goes through onesie after onsie because he spits up after eating... then spits up again. He'll cry like a banshee for what seems like an eternity, only to be consoled after he's picked up because he had a gas bubble and didn't know how to burp while laying on his back. Seriously, raising RaRa, or any human, is strong evidence for the creation theory: how could anything EVOLVE into being that useless?! =0).

BUT, here's the thing: He's the only person in the world who could make me LOVE inefficiency as much as I do right now. I love changing his diaper, putting a new onesie on him, then rocking him to sleep. Emails are nothing compared to picking up my son and helping him pass gas. I will put any and all work on hold if it means that I get a chance to hold him and see if he'll smile. Work can wait because fatherhood is calling!

A few weeks ago, I tried doing some work on campus and actually, it was really efficient. Just like before RaRa was born, I biked to campus, popped in my headphones, went to the computer lab, and just kept typing, planning, and working until everything was done. In fact, it was probably even MORE efficient than before he was born. But that was because I wanted to get home as quickly as possible. Apparently I missed the little guy.

Of course, there will be errands to be run. I'll be heading to Jefferson City once a week on campus visits, meaning I'll be away for 10-12 hours at a time. I had a staff meeting a last week in St. Louis and I survived it ok. I'm not going to be able to spend 24/7 with the little guy and I know that. Still, there's something to be said for embracing the inefficiency and spending a little more time snuggling with my boy.

Have an excellent day!

~Adam

Part Time Planting

Hello, friends!

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this past week, I had the pleasure of gathering together with 9 other staff from around the Region (Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri) to do some training and workshopping about part time planting, which is what I'm going to be doing at Lincoln this year.

Part time planting is in some ways a new concept but in many ways it is an old concept too, one that has unfortunately been forgotten over time. Our hope in this team is to be able to recapture the magic and find best practices for a new generation of part time planters in the 21st century. Much of what we're going to do and try isn't new (it's happening with great success in many other parts of the world) but it's new to us and to our context.

The full time planting model that we are used to implimenting is one that I was taught and have embraced for years. The name of the game is total immersion. You spend as much time as you possibly can on campus, in that community, building relationships and casting vision for the group. In my case with ACF, it meant moving to Columbia. For others, it can be moving even further or just changing your commute. Either way, it's a method that is high investment and definitely has its strengths. I'm so glad that I was a full time planter for ACF and I wouldn't change that experience for the world.

On the other hand, part time planting focuses on People of Peace, folk who are ALREADY invested in the community, who ALREADY have a vision for the campus, and who just need a little empowerment or coaching to get things done. What I love about this model is that it allows for students, staff, faculty, people in the community, and the like to take on a majority of the load for a group of people with whom relational trust is already built. Another thing I love is that it allows for a greater reach by the staff. Instead of spending 40/week on one campus, I can plant of 3-4 campuses simultaneously, increasing the scope and influence of InterVarsity and the Gospel.

This idea is hardly novel. In Ethiopia, our sister movement EVASUE has a  student to staff ratio is 1000:1, compared to the 35:1 ratio we have here in the US. Back in the day, when InterVarsity first came to the United states, there were 8 staff covering 90 campuses. Somewhere along the way, we changed our model. Some of the change has been good but some of it has led us to miss a lot of campuses that are right in our neighborhoods.

Ultimately, I'm really excited about this team and this experiment. It is going to require a lot more intentionality and a lot more dependence on Jesus to do the work that needs to be done but I am confident that he is willing and able. My role is going to be less "centerpiece" and more facilitator, which will be different for me but something that I think I am looking forward to.

Friends, please pray for me as I embark on this new journey. Pray not only for fruit at Lincoln in limited time but also for peace as I plant and for eyes to see where he is moving. This is an experiment that we are hoping will go national in a few years so please, also pray for eyes to see what is happening from a structural level and words to describe my experiences clearly.

Have an excellent day!

~Adam

The Baby SuperBlog!

Hello, friends!

In case you haven't heard, Ezra Adam Leong was born on July 5, 2015. I've taken the past 2 weeks off to enjoy being a father and hanging out with the little guy. I knew that I wanted to blog about my new experiences but there are so many new and exciting experiences that I knew I couldn't get it all done in one shot.

So, here's to another SuperBlog! Much like my Cambodia blog from last year, this is the homepage of sorts. Below, you'll find a bunch of blogs on a bunch of different topics related to the miracle that is Ezra (RaRa). I hope you enjoy!

Have an excellent day!

~Adam (and Megan and Ezra)

My wife the rock star
What's in a name?
On Family
Saying Goodbye
Things you can do while holding a baby
Useless Training
Back to Work
Things I've Learned

What's in a Name?

Hello, friends!

One of the things that has surprised me the most about the response that we've gotten to Ezra is how many people compliment our choice of name. I'm sure that no one would say, "Man, that name is terrible!" to our faces, but folk have been genuinely excited to hear him called Ezra. I figure now's a good of a time as any to go through the naming story.

When we were first trying to have a baby, Megan was hanging out with Jesus one day and was in the book of Ezra. I'm not sure of all the details but she heard very clearly that we were going to have a baby boy. Mind you, this was when we didn't know that she was pregnant yet. When we found out that she was pregnant, we looked at the calendar and realized that she got pregnant right around the same time that she heard from Jesus that we were having a boy. When we found out at 20 weeks that we were in fact having a boy, that made things even cooler.

However, Ezra was not a lock for the name. We had a whole list of names that we considered. I liked some that she didn't. She liked some that I didn't. We knew that we wanted a name that would strike a good balance between sounding good, having good significance, and not been TOO common. Eventually, we decided that we would have our top 3 names and make a decision once he was born. We did this for 2 reasons. 1) This gave us more time to pray through the names and 2) it allowed us to honestly tell people that we didn't have a name yet when everyone asked. We wanted him to be the first person to hear his name.

After he was born, both Megan and I knew that Ezra was his name. It couldn't be anything else. We're holding onto the other top 2 options in case we have more boys but this little guy is Ezra. =0).

Of course, he wouldn't be my son without a kicking nickname. In fact, one of the reasons that Ezra stayed in the top 3 for me for so long was because I liked the nickname possibilities. Without further ado, I present to you a current list of nicknames for Ezra Adam Leong.

Ezi - This is what his mother will be calling him. It's simple and it makes sense. I anticipate this being the most popular of the nicknames.

RaRa - This is what his father will be calling him. I wanted something a little unique. Also, I love how every time you say it, it sounds like you're cheering for him.

Little E - This is what his grandfather (Papa John Leong) will be calling him. My nephew's name is Elliot so Papa has decided that Ezra will be Little E and Elliot will be Big E.

Brother Ez - This is what his other grandfather will be calling him. It's a play on words from Brother Iz, who's the guy who sang that version of "Somewhere over the Rainbow" that everyone likes.

AJ - This is what my younger sister has been calling him. I've been told it stands for "Adam Junior" because he looks so much like me.

Ez - This is what a few folk with the name Ezra guess he'll be called because that's what they're called. Again, it's simple and makes sense. I prefer Ezi myself.

Eazy E - Also acceptable would be Dr. Dre or Ice Cube. (Just kidding… sort of)

Have an excellent day!

~Adam

Useless Training...

Hello friends!

One of the things I heard over and over from folk once we told folk that we were having a baby was that I needed to get as much sleep as I could now because once the kid was born, I was going to miss all that sleep. My thought was to actually move in the opposite direction. I figured, if I spent time during Meg's pregnancy getting LESS sleep, I'd be better prepared and less affected by the lack of sleep that came once RaRa was born. Well, here's how that went…

From my research on the internet, there were two themes that emerged. One, in order to learn to function on less sleep than normal, the best method was to set a normal sleep time and a normal wake time that never changed. The theory is that no eventually the body would get used to the new rhythm and would regulate itself. Well, looking at my calendar, if I wanted to set my alarm for the same time every morning, it meant that I had to look at the earliest I would have to get up on any given day and resolve to get up at that time every single day. Looking at my calendar, that meant getting up @ 5am every morning to make it to my 6am men's small group on Tuesdays… oy.

Getting up at 5am every morning was hard and I didn't succeed every morning but there was one added benefit. Most days I didn't have something to do right away so I got to fish more. =0).

The second theme that emerged from my internet queries was that while it is possible to function on less sleep, it's not a smart proposition. I think I saw this as well. I didn't get deathly ill or anything like that. I didn't end up with more migraines or a weaker immune system. But, I could tell that I was more tired and that my body was struggling. I was surviving on less sleep but I wasn't thriving. Still, in my mind, if it made me a better father, then it was worth it.

Well, fast forward to RaRa being born and here's what I've learned… all my training was pretty useless. It isn't so much that I needed to learn to function on less sleep. Actually, what I needed to do was learn to function on shorter spurts of sleep. RaRa has been feeding every 2-5 hours. Those first few weeks, I was up with Megan to help her with the feedings, which means that I was up every 2-5 hours. It's actually possible to get 8-10 hours of sleep in a day. You just have to be prepared for it to come in 3-4 sleep sessions, which was not part of my training.

So, here we are. I'm still glad that I tried the experiment, if for no other reason than because I got to fish more. Still, as a word of warning to all those soon to be fathers out there: don't try to game the system. When people to tell you to get as much sleep as possible before your baby is born, take them up on it.

Have an excellent day!

~Adam

Things I've learned...

Hello, friends!

I've been on this earth for over 30 years and so I've learned a thing or two in my day. Still, fatherhood is a new beast entirely and throughout this process (pregnancy, birth, and being a dad) I've learned more than a few new tidbits. Here are a few of my favorites.

God covered all the bases when he made the human body. So, apparently, when a woman becomes pregnant, HER BODY GROWS AN ORGAN SPECIFICALLY FOR GROWING A BABY. The placenta essentially feeds the baby for 9 months then at birth it exits, only to grow again when another baby comes along. Does anybody else find that fascinating?

Rapidly Involuting Congenital Hemangiomas are nothing to be worried about. When RaRa was born, he had a big purple bump on his left leg. Being a first time dad and medical novice, I was super concerned. Was it a tumor? Would we have to amputate the leg? What event should we start training for in the Paralympics? Well, it turns out that what he has is a Rapidly Involuting Congenital Hemangioma, which means he has a cluster of blood vessels that look like a bruise but will eventually go away and may leave a little birthmark. Again, God covered all the bases when he made the human body.

Eating is not intuitive. For someone who loves to eat, and I mean, I LOVE to eat, it boggles my mind that eating doesn't just automatically happen. Well, babies need to learn to eat, and that includes RaRa. He's already gotten so much better but at the beginning, we had to feed him every 3 hours so that he'd learn to eat and that Megan's milk would come it. The process itself, waking him, calming him because he was mad that we woke him, changing his diaper because when he got mad he wet himself, then getting him to actually eat, took an hour or more, so it was definitely a process. Don't worry folk, he's growing like crazy. =0).

Fatherhood is the best. Y'all, it's pretty ridiculous how great fatherhood. RaRa doesn't really do anything yet. He sleeps, eats, and poops. He hasn't learned to smile or anything like that. Still, I could spend hours upon hours just staring at him. Every move he makes is amazing. This is pretty much the greatest thing ever.

Have an excellent day!

~Adam