The Urbana Missions conference is just around the corner.  I’ll be sending posts from there next week.  Before taking off I wanted to get a few last minute fall highlights out to you.

If you need a link to access my donations page click here.  Many donors like to give in December – this will make it easy to give online and ensure that it lands in my account.  If you desire any last minute communication with me about a donation or need to send a gift through the mail, please just email me!  Thanks!

tim.perry@intervarsity.org

RLT Meetings in Nashville

I got to spend four days with my Regional Leadership Team – the group of Area Directors who are my peers.  Each December we have an extended meeting to pray, plan, to sharpen our leadership and deepen our own working relationships.  South-Central Regional Director Don Paul Gross hosts us in his hometown, Nashville, TN.  These are pics of our strategic planning and training sessions.  One of my former team-mates, Marcia Wang was with us leading us in learning about building more effective multi-ethnic teams.

Nationally we’re in the process of affirming a new vision campaign called The 2030 Calling.  It’s an expansive document calling us to engage in mission on campus at a very sweeping revival-like scale.  Our Regional and National leadership in GFM is helping us take steps toward the 2030 Calling that fit our context.  Its one thing to put a huge vision out there with several strategic initiatives, but how do you actually start building toward it?  That’s where teamwork at the Regional and Area level need to wake up and start cultivating results.

Collaboration with Undergrad InterVarsity

The day after I returned to Omaha from Nashville, I dove in my car to go spend a day with the undergrad side of the ministry in my geography.  The Central Region has an annual staff meeting of all their staff – same four states that I supervise, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska and Kansas.  There are somewhere around 40 staff in these states.  Here’s a quick run-down of who I met and what I learned (hopefully it’s obvious why I love hanging out with these staff).

• Stacy Rafferty the undergrad AD who lives in my town, gave me a very warm introduction to the entire region.
• I got to follow-up with Will Chu, AD in St. Louis I’ve met before.  He is over much of the state of Missouri and I’m curious about a possible GFM staff in Columbia.
• Will introduces me to Charis Chan – undergrad team leader in Columbia who tells me about a faculty group she has recently affiliated at Mizzou!  I had no idea I have a GFM group in Columbia (but no staff there).
• Touch base with Tim Lin, Area Director Kansas City.  Coming up this spring my GFM staff in Lawrence will be hosting a Veritas Forum event.  Wanted to see if Tim knew about it.
• One of my staff members – George Stulac, GFM Faculty worker in St. Louis also serves the undergrad staff in a Spiritual Director role.  George introduces me to several staff I haven’t had the chance yet to meet.
• Connected with Chad, undergrad staff in Ames.  GFM used to have a staff member at Iowa State – who has recently relocate.  Chad is interested in staff work among faculty.
• I finally get to meet Any Schoepf, Area Director for undergraduate Iowa.  She and I will connect again in Des Moines next spring when I’m through town.  She’s eager to introduce me to faculty at Drake.  I’m excited to introduce one of my friends from Omaha who teaches Marketing and commutes weekly to Des Moines.

Local Faculty

Last pic.  Two of my favorite Omaha faculty members.  Kathy Padilla is a long-time InterVarsity alum and faculty sponsor for our work at Creighton.  Peter Szto is a faculty and director in the Master of Social Work program at University of Nebraska Omaha.  I’ve written about them in previous posts.  It was fun to see them connect at a local InterVarsity holiday party.  It was very exciting to discover that two local undergrad staff are now also graduate students at UNO.  Hmmmm.

Next stop, Urbana 18!  Maybe I’ll see some of you there!