All Will Be Well--Wesley Foundation E-Letter (Methodist Campus Ministry)

Hey everyone!  Did you have a good weekend?  I did—and I’m so glad to be back on campus with you.  I feel so blessed that I get paid to walk this journey with each of you.  If I’ve forgotten to tell you lately, YOU ROCK!  And you have a special place in my heart.  So how about all the cool stuff we have going on this week?

 

WORSHIP is tomorrow night, 6:30pm as usual in the chapel.  We will begin looking at our theme for the year:  FREE FOOD.  What are we really saying when we offer people Grace that is best demonstrated in free food?  What does it mean for us?  How does it change our lives forever?

 

Also beginning on Wednesday @ 3pm LADIES SMALL GROUP!  Yay!  It’s time to start up again.  I know the time may not work for everyone, but we might be able to have some student led groups at another time as well.  I’m so excited about what we will be doing!

 

THURSDAY is free meal and program.  We will be looking at what does it mean to pray, “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done.”  Wow, what does it mean?  Come and find out. 

 

Anyone up for stuffing bags with me?  Our project for the week is to get our grab bags out to campus!  Yay!  I have more to put in them, but just need help dropping candy in. 

 

Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

Time is a big deal for me lately.  I am constantly seeking to know what time it is.  It is time to walk up the hill to teach my University Experience Class?  Do I have time to prepare my lesson?  Was the time I gave it adequate?  Is it time to lead worship?  Is it time for students to start arriving for our weekly meal?   Do I have time to make an extra trip to Walmart to get last minute groceries to make sure we have enough to go around?  Will all the projects for the beginning of school that fit in my head fit into the actual hours and days I have allotted to fulfilling them?  These are the time questions that I wrestle with every fall.  However, this fall my time questions are punctuated with more down to earth, basic concerns (for those of you who don’t know, I’m 27 weeks pregnant):  Is it time to eat?  My stomach is growling.  Can I wait the extra half hour at the nice restaurant or do I need to just get something fast because I am SOOOOO hungry?  Do I have time to pee?  Where is the nearest bathroom?  When will I go poop?  I sure don’t want to miss that important time each day!  If I don’t go, does that mean something is wrong and I’m in for another painful episode where I spend the afternoon in the hospital?  Then where does my time go?  Did I take the time to rest like I’m supposed to?  Did I remember that rest time right now is the most important time, that it’s no longer wasted time but healing time?  What if I don’t take time to rest, will my body crash?  Will I have enough time to devote to those I love so much-- my three precious boys at home, my dear students at my Wesley home?  Did I take the time to make sure that this baby growing in my belly is safe and nourished and healthy?  Where does all my time go?

 

It seems like such an insignificant question, but it’s one of the most important questions I struggle with each day.  I realize now that the decisions I make regarding my time affect not only me, but others. I want to honor the time God has given me in a way that honors Him, and especially those He has placed in my care:  my students, my children, my husband . . . as well as this Jeremiah boy who will be born in a couple of months, and this body that must keep him safe and well until he arrives.  How I spend my time does matter.

 

It didn’t used to seem like how I spent my time was such a big deal, but even as a young person I struggled with time, as I see many of you doing.  I see you struggling to adjust to the demands of your professors, each of whom believes that his or her class is the most important one you will ever take in your college career and levies assignments to match that expectation.  I see you struggling to find the time to work, knowing that if you don’t work, you won’t eat, or be able to pay your tuition, or even buy your books.  (btw, if you are worried about eating, please come see me.  I don’t want any of you to be hungry.)  I see you struggling to make sure you have time for friendships and Wesley activities, needing that precious time to unwind and laugh, and just be.  I see you struggling to juggle time commitments to family members, who are still important in your life, but not necessarily a part of your everyday life.  I know that like me you ask yourselves often, “Where does all my time go?”  And the pressing demands of each day also tend to stretch into worries for the future:  Will I be able to graduate on time?  Did I lose too much time with that bad semester?  What happens when it is time to declare a major?  I still don’t know what I want to do.  What if the time I am spending in college, working so hard for, turns out to be wasted time, and I can’t get a job when I get out?  What if the time I have invested in this relationship turns out to be a dead end, and I end up without a life-long companion?  As it turns out, time questions are not just big deal questions for me, they are big deal questions for us all.

 

I spent some time today going through a box in my office.  In it I found some odds and ends and a few forgotten pictures chronicling forgotten moments in my life.  The one in particular that caught my attention was a picture of me and Tim, sitting in a swing at Camp Loucon.  We had just started dating and were at the Wesley Foundation’s fall retreat.  It was the beginning a relationship that would stretch 16 years and would eventually produce three children (almost).  Sitting there with my brand new sweetheart, I had no idea that one day I would be leading Wesley Foundation retreats at Camp Loucon, or that the man I was sitting next to would be the anchor that would keep me strong, grounded and tied securely to God’s grace for rest of my life.  I had no idea then that I would end up where I am now, joyful, crazy, and finally at home in the craziness that I am.  Like many of you, I was a college student filled with apprehension and even some fears of what my life would be like, what would lie ahead.  But what I have learned since is that God is in the details.  Every moment life is held in His hands, and He has no intention of ever letting go.  As Psalm 31 says, “But I trust in You, O Lord; I say, ‘You are my God.’  My times are in Your hand.”  God is constantly guiding, shielding, nudging, PUSHING, pulling, encouraging, molding, helping, holding, hoping, building, and pruning us.  Every moment that He is active in our lives (and that would be EVERY one of them) is an act of love.  We cannot get away from Him, and when we entrust ourselves to Him (instead of fighting Him), just letting ourselves be held by the Strength that shapes the universe, we can rest in knowing that all will be well.  I can confidently say to that young woman (and young man) sitting in a wooden swing at Camp Loucon, “All will be well. You will see; all will be well.”  And I confidently say it to all of you, whom I see each day giving it your all, doing your best, and struggling to make the most of your time, “All will be well.  You will see; all will be well.”  And because I most often need to hear the sermons I preach, I say to my self even now, “All will be well.  You will see.  All will be well.”

 

This is me trusting,

 

Sami

 

 

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Sami Wilson

Campus Minister/Director

WKU Wesley Foundation

United Methodist Campus Ministry

270-842-2880

sami.wilson@wku.edu