AHEAD OF THE CURVE

Technically, Ryan Wagner has completed his New Staff Training. But technically, Ryan cannot be a senior staff memeber. It's not that we are that technically selective on the Gravel Road. It's just that Ryan, though trained and deployed, is still in the process of applying for full time staff. He has completed the training as an intern of the Mizzou team over the past four years, and with some debt retired, will be coming on staff this January. So if those of you training new staff want to turn up the heat on your trainees, tell them Ryan from MU completed his training, and he is not even on staff yet. (Slackers.)

Ryan was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on September 13 of 1983 and raised in St. Charles, Missouri. After running out of towns named for saints he decided to go to college in Columbia where he graduated with a degree in Atmospheric Science from the University of Missouri in 2006. It was there that he began understand what being a saint was all about. "I grew up in the faith so there was not a distinct date or time I can point to but I totally gave all I had to Jesus in college." The Mizzou CRU team had quite an impact on Ryan's life: "I would say the people of most influence in my life next to Jerry Seinfeld would be staff men like Matt Thiessen, Chris McKinney, Alan Toigo, and Eric Yearwood. So I have been interning part time since 2006 'til present."

One of the more humorous stories of his training came after Ryan's first year/intern training in Boulder. He and his wife Jamie decided to get a pet. They tried the unconventional route by getting a monkey and a pigeon. Though initially affectionate with one another, the fowl-primate tension climaxed when the monkey got big enough to eat the bird and did so.

So it was off to the kennels in search of a canine, much to the chagrin of their director Matt Thiessen. Being a dog owner is just one of many of Ryan's passions: "I have a beagle named Honey. I feel that every man needs a dog. I am a big time learner and absorb information about useless information. My sense of humor is dry to the bone but I’m trying to condition it with moisturizer. Speaking of, I wear gloves to bed with lotion in them to keep my hands all day soft....Just kidding. That last one was a fib." That's OK- so was the monkey and pigeon story.

When asked to share an intern highlight Ryan brought up a creative 'outreach' that went 'inreach'. "One of my best ministry memories was going to Moberly Community College. A group of us interns just packed up the foosball table that we had in the office, drove on over to the school which is completely commuter, set it up, and we just played and played! We had some people play with us and had a few conversations from being close to the outside 'smoker’s shack' but ministry wise it was almost a completely wasted day! But oh the fun!"

So what are you looking forward to moving from intern to senior staff status Ryan? "I learned that there is a lot of great information around there! Have you heard of this thing called the 'wiki'? I have no idea where they got the name from but it is great! The many resources that Crusade has are amazing! The thing I enjoy or will enjoy most about being on staff is the big picture! Always the big picture! The thing I least enjoy or will not enjoy about being on staff is filling out references."

There he is folks- coming to a campus near you this spring. Congrats Ryan on completing your training, internship, and hopefully very soon your MPD. You are officially our first adjunct senior staffer of the week. Which makes you elgible to play the gravel road of the month contest which will officially be next week. Until then, keep getting those references in.

-Bert