Jon's Work Trip to STL

At the end of April, Jon had to go to St. Louis for four days for the semi-annual major gift officers meeting at Lutheran Hour Ministries' Headquarters.  Jon decided to actually fly out a day early so he could watch and cheer on the Concordia Men's Tennis Team as they competed in the annual CIT (Concordia Invitational Tournament) against Concordia Wisconsin, Concordia Seminary and Greenville.  Jon was not only able to cheer on the guys from Concordia Nebraska who he hits with sometimes still, but one of his former college roommates and tennis teammate, Tim, who is a 2nd year seminary student playing on the sem's tennis team.  Tim actually ended up winning his singles flight at #3 and earned a tough victory on Saturday.  Way to go Tim!

Tim and Jon. 

Jon, Tim, Hannah and Coach Harms.  Tennis reunion!
Hannah played #1 for the girls some of the years while Jon
played and Coach Harms was Jon's coach for 4 years.

Tim's parents were able to make the trip down to STL from
Fort Wayne, Ind. where Tim's father is a pastor. They were
happy to see Tim play but they were surprised when Jon
ran into them at the Subway close to the sem.  :)

On Saturday night after tennis, Tim and Jon went out for some BWW's and then went to go see the new Sci-Fi thriller, Oblivion at a dinner theatre.  The movie theatre had reclining chairs which were super comfortable!

One of the nicest theatres Jon's ever been too.  

Tim relaxing before the movie started.  Don't those chairs
look comfortable?

Tim and Jon enjoying watching baseball and basketball
at Buffalo Wild Wings, some great wings and a beer.

Then, on Sunday, Jon went to church with one of his mentors, Al, and his wife Joan.  After church, they went out for brunch at a restaurant called The Egg and I.  Jon will be able to see them again this upcoming weekend when he goes back to St. Louis, but more on that later.

Monday-Wednesday, Jon spent time at the office in several long meetings but the highlight came on Tuesday morning when Lutheran Hour Ministries' Family Campaign party happened.  The purpose of the Family Campaign is to get employees of LHM to be donors to LHM as well.  There were a total of 41 prizes available for drawing to those that have given a gift to LHM and in those 41, were 7 sets of Cardinals tickets.  After 5 Cardinals packages had been drawn, Jon decided he wasn't going to win so he went up to take a photo of his co-worker, Carla playing Vanna White.  As Carla was modeling two box Cardinals tickets, Jon's name was called!  It was a surprise but super exciting as Jon will be able to go back to St. Louis this weekend with his good friend Aaron who is a HUGE Cards fan.  More pictures to come.  :)

Carla modeling the tickets.  This is the actual photo Jon took
while Brad read his name!  Crazy.

Diamond Box Seats.  Super Excited!

Finally, on Tuesday night, Jon was able to go to a St. Louis Blues Hockey game with a friend from college, Emily, who works at CPH and her boyfriend, Ryan.  Ryan works for the Blues so our seats were amazing!  We were in the 7th row and got to see several goals scored as the Blues clinched their playoff spot.  Thanks for the great tickets Ryan!

Jon, Emily and Ryan.

With the win, the Blues clinched a playoff spot.

It was a great but long trip to St. Louis and Jon felt blessed to be able to do so much and see so many people.  It will be quite the month for sports in St. Louis for Jon as he will have amazing seats for the upcoming Cards game.