Beauty in Unlikely Places--Wesley Foundation E-Letter (Methodist Campus Ministry)

Hello Everyone!!!! Hope you are all very blessed.  We had a fantastic time at Mt. Union UMC on Sunday morning.  I am so proud of all of our students who went.  It was such a blessing.  This week we go out again to Christ UMC on Wednesday (meet at Wesley @ 5pm) and to Faith UMC on Sunday (meet at Wesley @ 8am).  It will be so cool!!!!!

 

Remember we have worship tonight at 6:30pm and then a free meal and Bible Study on Thursday, again at 6:30pm.

 

Are there any of you out there who would be interested in putting together a 3 person team (or several) to play in a basketball tournament at Christ UMC on Saturday, May 2?  Let me know.  They could also use help setting up too.  Very cool!

 

Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

 

Yesterday Tim and I stepped out of Kroger’s on Scottsville road and saw the most beautiful rainbow.  It stretched all the way across the sky.   It was amazing.  So beautiful.  It was hard not to stop and stare at it as we were making our way back to the car.  And is was also kind of cool to hear the gasps coming from others as they stepped outside for the first time.  It was kind of a validation that we had witnessed something impressive.  Others noticed it too. 

 

As we made our way home, I kept trying to get a good picture of it before it faded, and before the road veered toward a different direction.  Here’s the best picture I got:

 

 

This is the best one I got.  I hated it that it’s in a parking lot, and the view is obscured by traffic lights, billboard signs, and the golden arches.  But then I began to reflect upon the significance of God’s grace.  God doesn’t just choose pretty landscapes to reveal His glory.  And He certainly does not reserve His grace for only those lives that are already well ordered and pretty.  In fact, Jesus makes it very clear that He comes to those who need him.  In response to the Pharisees he says, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’  For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners” (Matthew 9:12-13).  So why should I complain that God’s beautiful sign of promise appears in the midst of an ugly human landscape?  Isn’t that where it is needed most?

 

I love that it also means that things in my life don’t have be perfect for the hand of God to begin to move in them.  Often, that is when I need to see glimpses of God the most, when I feel most desperate, most separated from His love, and the most surrounded by the fallout from my own mistakes.  It’s like we all need to be able to look around at the debris of our lives and say, “Yeah, I’m responsible for that, but I see that His mercy is bigger than the mistake that got me here.” 

 

Recently I watched a movie starring Antonio Bandares called Take the Lead.  It is the story of a dance instructor who is moved to begin teaching ballroom dancing to students in an inner-city high school who are relegated to detention in the basement.  There comes this moment when his regular dance students confront these street wise kids and basically tell them their efforts are worthless and don’t amount to anything.  The inner-city kids are dejected, ready to give up.  They feel Banderes has fed them, a bunch of “rejects,” a pack of lies, and that he should just give up too.  And then he says to them, “I don’t see rejects.  I see choices that have yet to be made.”  He tells them that excelling does take work, but they have it within them to choose excellence.  Isn’t that good news?  Isn’t that the hope we all need to hear?  That our lives are not determined by the mistakes of our past but by our ability to allow something better to take root?  That’s what a rainbow over McDonald’s means to me.  It feels like God saying, “You may have given up on yourself, your dreams, your life, but I haven’t given up on you.  And I can show up in the most un-likeliest places.”

 

As we complete another semester together, let’s remember that we are still in the season of Easter.  It is still a time to reflect on the amazing ability to God to turn things around in our lives in un-mistakable and even un-likely ways.  God is not bound by any human condition.  In fact even death is not a hindrance to Him.  He promises to make all things new (Revelations 21:5).  And as you finish the next few weeks, remember that He is with you, and He is completely able to work in any circumstance you have.  You just have to allow Him.  He has a rainbow for you too.

 

This is me trusting,

 

 

Sami

 

 

To subscribe or unsubscribe to the Wesley Foundation Weekly E-Letter List go to:

http://lists.wku.edu/mailman/listinfo/wesley

 

Sami Wilson

Campus Minister/Director

WKU Wesley Foundation

United Methodist Campus Ministry

270-842-2880

sami.wilson@wku.edu

 

Reason to Hope Again--Wesley Foundation E-letter (Methodist Campus Ministry)

Hey everyone!  I hope you had a fantastic Easter weekend.  It was just so good to be with family and remember God’s goodness.  Now it’s time to jump back into the craziness of a semester speeding toward conclusion!  Let’s all hang on for a wild ride!

 

This Tuesday night at 6:30pm we will conclude our look at the armor of God.  Join us for a message on the Sword of the Spirit.  In the armor this is the only offensive weapon God gives us.  Find out what it is so important, and so powerful. 

 

Also on Thursday night at 6:30pm we will eat FREE FOOD, and we will talk about the message we want to bring to local congregations as we tell them about the Wesley Foundation.  Come ready to sing and celebrate all the good things God is doing! 

 

This Sunday we travel to Mount Union UMC to sing and share.  Meet at the Wesley Foundation at 9:15am.

 

Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

I have just finished a book called The Centurion’s Wife.  It is the fascinating story of a centurion who is assigned by Pilate to discover the truth behind the missing body of Jesus following His crucifixion.  As a reward for his services the centurion is promised the hand of Pilate’s niece who lives as a servant within Pilate’s house.  Specifically this young woman is the handmaiden to Pilate’s wife, who sends her on a similar mission, asking her to befriend Jesus’ followers as a way to understand why she is troubled by dreams of the dead prophet and whether they are planning to revolt against Rome.  The journey of discovery that both pursue lead them to a faith they never imagined.  But it also reveals the story of the first believers and how they experienced the baffling events of the crucifixion, resurrection, and eventually Pentecost.

 

What intrigues me most about the story is how it brings a fresh insight to the events of the resurrection.  For many of us we have heard the story so often that its implausibility is lost to us.  Of course Jesus was crucified.  Of course on the third day He rose from the dead.  Of course He ascended into heaven.  Of course He gave us His Holy Spirit so that we might know His presence with us always.  These are things we take for granted.  But could you imagine the shock and impact that these events had upon those who actually lived through them?  They had no way of knowing what would come next or what the implications would be.  They were immersed in a sea of confusion, impossibility, and faith-full waiting.

 

It is also a hope-filled waiting because the tragedy of Holy Week has been transfigured into the triumph of hope.  I love that.  I love that Jesus has a way of taking our most desperate moments and making them beautiful reasons for celebration and praise.  I don’t know how He does it; He just does.  It is the power of resurrection that remains alive within Him.  He resurrects all kinds of things.  Just when we think all hope is gone, and there is no basis for believing anymore, Jesus gives us a reason to hope again and legitimizes our belief. 

 

This to me is the miracle of Easter:  the God who seemed so distant during our black Good Friday legitimizes our belief with Sunday morning, in ways we could not have foreseen or even have had the good sense to hope for.  The Easter experience of resurrection is so far out of our sphere of imagination, we don’t even know how to ask for it, yet in God’s tender love and mercy He gives it to us anyway.  Eventually God makes the basis for our faith legitimate.  Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  Did you get that?  This is powerful!  Eventually our God-inspired faith finds its fulfillment in things that ACTUALLY come to pass.  Our faith in Christ is not baseless.  While Jesus asks us to trust Him, it is not without good reason, and it is also not without proof.  It’s just that the proof comes later.  We can trust that He wouldn’t ask us to trust Him if He knows that evidence of our faith won’t come at all.  Could you imagine what it must have been like for those early disciples when they finally got it?  When they finally understood that He meant what He said?  That when he predicted His own death the part about His rising again was just as real?  That moment of recognition must have changed everything for them.  In fact it did.  They go on to become fearless messengers of the good news that Jesus is alive to us all. 

 

So I find this truth to be at work:  We cannot always prevent, escape, or get out of our Good Friday’s, but the power Easter Sunday morning is still working within us.  We just have to wait to see it come to life.

 

This is me trusting,

 

Sami

 

To subscribe or unsubscribe to the Wesley Foundation Weekly E-Letter List go to:

http://lists.wku.edu/mailman/listinfo/wesley

 

Sami Wilson

Campus Minister/Director

WKU Wesley Foundation

United Methodist Campus Ministry

270-842-2880

sami.wilson@wku.edu

 

Hope in Desperate Places--Wesley Foundation e-letter (Methodist Campus Ministry)

Hey folks!  Hope all is well with you!  We still have a lot going on this semester.  Our outreach season is getting ready to launch.  Next week after worship on Tuesday and during program on Thursday we will put together exactly what we will be doing for the churches we will be visiting.  Our outreach schedule is as follows:

 

Sunday, April 19^th—Mt. Union UMC

Wednesday, April 22—Christ UMC

Sunday, April 26^th—Faith UMC

 

I know God will bless each of these outings, and give us the grace to share boldly the wonderful things He is doing in and through this ministry.  Come and join us as we share.  It will be fun!

 

Thursday night is our free meal and program.  Remember to meet at Wesley at 6:30pm for dinner.  Around 7:10pm we will walk together up to Garrett ballroom where we will get to experience the Veritas Forum.  This is going to be amazing!  Dr. Fritz Schaeffer will be talking about how faith and science, and sharing how God is working through both.  I’m so excited for it!  Been praying for it for a long time!!!!

 

Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

We are officially in the middle of Holy Week.  Since February this is what the whole season of Lent has been preparing us for: a time to focus on the journey Christ took to the cross.  It continues to be a part of the Christian year that brings me the most puzzlement and pondering.  I mean, I get the whole baby in a manger thing.  It’s so easy to cozy up to the warm images of Mary and Joseph staring with breathless wonder at the infant Jesus.  And Easter morning is cool.  It’s like the lilies are trumpeting out the joyful news that death has been demolished, while the smell of heaven wafts through the pews.  Who can’t get excited about that?  Of course the new Easter outfit helps.  And so does the whole, let’s look for eggs thing.  But Holy Week?  That one is so hard to understand.

 

Some people skip Holy Week all together.  They go straight from palm branch Hosanna’s to Easter morning Hallelujah’s.  I can’t seem to do that.  I guess it is because too much of my life seems to resonate with the uncertainty of Jesus’s journey to the cross.  There are too many unanswered questions in my life to ignore the one week in Christ’s earthly life where unanswered questions just hung in the air, especially the one that goes, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?”.   Sure we know that Easter is on the other side.  But the disciples did not.  His mother did not.  He even felt so staggered by the weight of what was to transpire that He begged His heavenly Father to make it go away.  In the middle of the darkest moments of Jesus’s life, answers just don’t come.

 

And that is why I have hope.  Hear Rainer Maria Rilke’s words to a novice poet seeking direction: 

 

I would like to beg of you, dear friend, as well as I can, to have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart.  Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language.  Do not now look for the answers.  They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them.  It is a question of experiencing everything.  At present you need to live the question.  Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day.

 

I have hope because I can hear the comforting words of Christ in the words above, comfort that comes from having to live through a hopeless experience, not being able to rush it, not being able to change it, but simply and courageously living it, listening to it, and allowing its story to bring its own answers to light, in its own time.  It gives me hope because it shows me that Jesus lived into the answer He was longing for, that the whole creation was longing for, one simple moment at a time.  And I know when I struggle, when I can’t find satisfying answers, His presence is right there living the questions with me until moment by moment that longed for answer begins to emerge. 

 

And this is the hope of Holy Week that I offer to you.  All of us have those things that we wish we could be done with already.  All of us have those moments that leave us begging God, “Make it go away!”  All of us have those experiences that demand all we have to give and more.  And the reason I cling to the hope of Holy Week is because in any given excruciating moment there is a Savior standing with us.  One who has been there, and literally done that.  One who knows what it means to endure through until something gives.  One who does not offer glib reassurances but who waits it out with us, bringing a deep compassion and quiet strength that helps us make it through too.  This is why I need the message of Holy Week.  I need to know that my Savior knows my heart, especially when it is breaking.

 

He knows your heart too.  In the midst of your pain and uncertainty, He gives you His own broken heart fully and completely, so that yours may be healed.  Moment by moment.  Patiently resolving within you all the questions that leave you aching, until the answers you’ve been longing for are there in your midst.

 

This is me trusting,

 

Sami

 

 

To subscribe or unsubscribe to the Wesley Foundation Weekly E-Letter List go to:

http://lists.wku.edu/mailman/listinfo/wesley

 

Sami Wilson

Campus Minister/Director

WKU Wesley Foundation

United Methodist Campus Ministry

270-842-2880

sami.wilson@wku.edu

 

Seed Life Planted Here--Wesley Foundation E-letter (Methodist Campus Ministry)

Dear Friends,

 

Hope all is doing well!  Isn’t it beautiful outside?  It is so good to just sit in the sunshine.  Let’s all agree we’ll take a moment to let the sun shine on us today!  I’m in! 

 

Hopefully you are having a good week.  Remember to bring your CANNED GOODS to the Wesley Foundation to participate in the campus wide food drive sponsored by CSF to help restore the food levels at our local help missions.  This is such an important ministry.  Also, tonight is FREE FOOD, and our program.  Tonight we finish up with our study of the parable of the soils.  We will really look at what it means to be fruitful.  You also may want to come by and look at the Chapel.  It got painted as a part of our work day last weekend, and it looks really good!  Who knew that “butternut” was such an amazing color?

 

Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

On the window seal in our bathroom at home sit a couple of terra cotta pots.  They measure about two inches high, an inch and half wide.  And growing within them are several tiny shamrock sprouts.  While I was gone on spring break I arranged for my boys to have little gifts to open everyday, so they wouldn’t feel so far away from me.  I picked up the little pots at Target, complete with dehydrated soil, a seed pack, and instructions.  A couple of weeks ago the boys and I carefully added water to the dehydrated soil pellet, mixed it into each pot, separated out the recommended number of seeds, and placed them in the reconstituted soil, with a light blanket of dirt on top.  Every day we go to window seal to see how our “potted plants” are doing.

 

It’s quite amazing really.  Since I only paid a dollar each for them, I wasn’t expecting much.  But it has been pretty cool to see little green clovers poking their way through the dirt, seeking the sunlight, drinking in the water that little boys slosh all over them.  I am reminded of Christ’s words about faith as a grain of mustard seed.  Even though it is the smallest of all the seeds, it grows into some more shrub!  I believe clover seed is smaller still.  How cool is it that something so tiny could have so much life in it?  And that its life could spring up so quickly given the right conditions?

 

It makes me ponder once again the mystery and majesty of Easter.  Jesus also said of seeds that it is only when they die to their seed life, and are buried, that they can experience the true life they were created for in the beginning.  Of course He was referring to Himself, and trying to help His disciples understand that He too must die so that something greater could be born.  They couldn’t see past their limited perspective that dying to His earthly life was actually a wonderful, marvelous thing.  And tougher still was their understanding when He suggested that they also had to die to life as they knew it for His life to take root in them.  It’s crazy, but true.  We have to let go of the penny we hold tightly in our hands so that we can receive the vast treasure He holds in His.  But we will never have enough room in our hearts for His gifts if we cling stubbornly to what is already within our grasp.

 

Have you ever wondered what life is like for a seed?  It grows within the bloom of the plant that produces it, it is harvested, packaged, and then sits around dormant.  For months.  For years.  Maybe forever.  It is almost unbearable to consider that it was created for more, and yet the more that it was made for has to be delayed indefinitely, because packaging takes precedence over dirt.  I wonder how many of us are like the seeds that get relegated to indefinite packaging instead of dying to the seed life and finding the life we were made for?  I mean, I can understand the objections.  Dying to a self-directed life is kind of scary.  We are definitely trading the known for the unknown.  And for all the control freaks out there this is utmost in unbearable.  Of course it sucks when our lives are no longer neatly packaged and predictable.  Of course it is way neater, less messy, to have pretty flower pictures on our package, than to actually have to get dirty and grow real ones.  But holy cow, where is the fun in that?  Where is the adventure?  Where is the amazing fragrance and beauty that makes others stop and look and appreciate God’s handiwork?  I would much rather spend my days being a reckless, unpredictable, living work of grace than a lifeless picture of what might have been. 

 

Yeah.  That’s really how I feel. 

 

So as we draw closer to Easter, let us remember once again the journey that Jesus made to the cross.  Let us also remember that the cross has a claim on us too.  Just as He gave His life to us, we are invited to give our lives to Him, to let Him direct their course and flow.  I know He is so gentle in His invitation, and so generous in the love and understanding that champions every step forward we take to dying to the seed life within us so that REAL LIFE can be born.  I know He cheers for us when we get up, disregarding our clumsy attempts that make us fall.  He really only wants our best, and is fully equipped to give it to us if we let Him.  Let’s let Him.

 

This is me trusting,

 

Sami

 

To subscribe or unsubscribe to the Wesley Foundation Weekly E-Letter List go to:

http://lists.wku.edu/mailman/listinfo/wesley

 

Sami Wilson

Campus Minister/Director

WKU Wesley Foundation

United Methodist Campus Ministry

270-842-2880

sami.wilson@wku.edu

 

The Best Things In Life Can't Be Ruined By the Economy--Wesley Foundation Eletter (Methodist Campus Minsitry)

Hello everyone!  Hope you had a great weekend!  This week as we gather together, lets remember to bring some canned goods for local food banks.  This is a small way we can impact people’s lives with God’s grace.  Thanks to CSF for organizing it!  They rock!

 

As we look ahead we have some cool stuff coming up.  Next Monday night at 6:30pm in Garret room 301 there will be a prayer gathering for the Veritas event coming up on April 9^th.  This will be an opportunity to gather with folks from other campus ministries to pray for and with each other, and especially about this joint effort to share Jesus with our campus.  On April 9^th we will be hosting Dr. Fritz Schaefer, chemistry professor from the University of Georgia.  He will be speaking on the topic of “The Big Bang, Stephen Hawking, and God.”  The whole aim of this event is to engage people on our campus in a way that shows how faith in God and a love for science can coexist.  There is a meeting on Thursday at 4pm at CSF to involve students in the planning and implementation of this event. If you are interested in attending on behalf of the Wesley Foundation, please let me know.

 

Again we have a great week planned, filled with worship Tuesday night at 6:30pm and free food and a program at 6:30 on Thursday.  Our theme for worship on Tuesday is the shield of faith, how exercising our faith is so important in our lives, how to have it and how to use it.  Thursday night we will continue to look at the parable of the soil and learn how to get rid of those pesky weeds and thorns.  See you soon!

 

Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

A few years back Nicholas Cage starred in a movie called “The Family Man.”  It is the story of a man who lives life in the fast lane, has everything imaginable that he could possibly want, is wealthy beyond his dreams, and is thoroughly miserable.  Even while surrounded by opulence that only copious amounts of money can provide, he is haunted by memories of his first love and what might have been if he had chosen love over the ladder of success.  As the movie progresses he has an encounter with a mysterious individual who grants him a glimpse of what could have been if he had chosen love.  This glimpse reveals a life far different from the one he lives, filled with a humble house, mini-vans, penny pinching, and sparse living.  But at the same time he discovers the joy of belonging, a wife who loves him unconditionally, children who bring laughter, and the kind of happiness he had been longing for all along.

 

If you haven’t seen this movie, I would recommend it, especially at a time like this.  I believe that the gospel, or good news, can be wrapped in a video box.  Because this movie comes with a message that the things in life most precious to us can never be bought in a store.  I am reminded of Tim’s and my first two years of marriage.  I was a full-time seminary student in Lexington, Kentucky.  I was a part-time youth minister at a small church.  He was in graduate school at UK working on a masters, also working part-time.  We had a crazy-high rent that we paid for a tiny apartment on campus at the seminary; it made a dorm room look spacious.  I believe the only reason we ate was because Tim’s parents fed us every weekend, and then sent food home with us to nourish us during the week.  I’ve tried to add it up in my head; I don’t know how we made it.

 

But as financially strapped as we were, I have very fond memories of that time.  We would take long walks together down-town.  One of our favorite dates was to walk to the public library and check out books.  Sometimes we would stop at a Mexican food stand on the sidewalk and get these amazing chimichangas, cheap.  Our big night out was to splurge and go to Fazzoli’s.  In those lean times we learned how to love each other well when times are tough and it doesn’t come easy.  And that love has sustained us for almost thirteen years.  It’s kind of funny now that both of us would love to take leisurely walks hand in hand.  We could for about five seconds.  And then reality would hit and we would both be chasing little boys, trying to keep up.

 

All this is to say that the life God promises does not come with a price tag attached.  It is available in any economy, and it survives any stock market crash.  In the gospel of Luke, Jesus sent out his disciples two by two, and said, “Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals.”  Just a couple of paragraphs later it says, “The seventy returned with joy.”  Did you see that?  I never noticed it before today.  It is almost as if Jesus is proving Himself to them by asking them to rely totally on His provision, leaving behind their own efforts of self-sufficiency.  And He indeed provided!  We don’t know how, or through whom, or in what measure, but undoubtedly they returned to him not needing to complain.  There was no room for complaint because His joy had filled them up.

 

The point is that we can trust God.  God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  Governments may change, stocks come crashing down, politicians and elected officials can disappoint us.  Even education, church, and family cannot provide the stability we long for.  We are really hungry only for Him.  And only He can satisfy.  We can even be surrounded by the stability that worldly success can provide and still be devastatingly empty.  So in this crunch time, let Jesus be it for you, your all in all.  He is able out of the storehouses of His love and provision to meet your every need, teach you to be wise, and fill you with unmistakable joy, regardless of what wall street says.  I believe our country’s current financial crisis is, at its heart, another opportunity for God to show off.

 

This is me trusting,

 

Sami

 

To subscribe or unsubscribe to the Wesley Foundation Weekly E-Letter List go to:

http://lists.wku.edu/mailman/listinfo/wesley

 

Sami Wilson

Campus Minister/Director

WKU Wesley Foundation

United Methodist Campus Ministry

270-842-2880

sami.wilson@wku.edu

 

Somebody fed me on our Mission Trip--How Cool! Wesley Foundation E-letter (Methodist Campus Ministry)

Hellooooooo!  I hope each of you had an amazing spring break!  It is good to be back in town.  I can’t wait to swap stories of our crazy adventures!  Can anyone say Chevy Chase and National Lampoon’s Vacation?

 

Anyway, this week we are back to our regular schedule.  Worship tonight at 6:30pm.  And Thursday we will have a free meal and program.  Justine Pile will also be there to discuss specifics of Relay for Life.  There is much to do as we prepare!  Also, we are participating in a campus wide food drive.  Our brothers and sisters from CSF are implementing it as a way to rebuild food pantries after the terrible ice storms this winter.  So bring non-perishable items to worship or free meal night.  We will do this each week until the end of the semester.  This is an easy way to share God’s love with someone else!

 

Also we will have small groups this week too!

 

Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

It is good to be back home in Bowling Green.  Like many others I spent Spring Break on the road. And traveling can be such a weary business.  However, one of the truths that became evident while we were away was that being on a journey is as exhilarating as it is exhausting.  All of us who were on our Spring Break mission trip could testify that we were blessed in the going.  How thankful I am for the experience. 

 

This morning in my quiet time I discovered the following quote from a journal article: 

 

Perhaps Jesus’ knowledge of road lessons compelled him to send the twelve disciples on a journey through villages (Luke 9:1-6, NRSV).  He “gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.”  Although given “power and authority,” they needed something more; the needed to rely upon hospitality and its possibilities. . . .  Being dependent and vulnerable is how disciples come to experience God’s sustenance through community. . . .  He insisted that they rely upon the communities that awaited them.  They needed to give hospitality a chance to flourish (Weavings:  The Road.  “At Home on the Road,” by Luther E. Smith, Jr.  p.10).

 

Luther Smith must really dig mission trips with college students!  Or else he has an insight into the nature to stepping out in faith to serve God in places far removed from “home.”  What he describes is just what we experienced.  The whole way we found ourselves drifting between two extremes of a paradox.  On the one had we had left the comfort of home to serve, to share Jesus with those whose paths we intersected.  On the other hand we were served by the hands and feet of Christ who provided the comforts of home in order to enable our service for Him.  As much as we were a face of compassion for others as we went out, each day we were bathed in the compassion of hospitality that attended generously to our needs.

 

We never know which we will be called upon to give, yet both kinds of service are interwoven into the fabric of the Kingdom of Heaven.  At each church we stayed at we were received with joy.  We received home cooked breakfasts, lunches to sustain us on the road, and company eager to hear the stories of our adventures when we returned.  Each day we ventured out to share the love of Jesus with people we didn’t know, in all kinds of ways.  Sometimes it meant knocking on doors and offering prayer to strangers; sometimes it meant holding a baby or playing with a special needs toddler; sometimes it meant hanging dry wall and offering prayers of encouragement for a family we will never meet, and sometimes it meant giving food to a homeless person and seeing them as a child of God instead of a stranger to be avoided.  Each day God offered us an opportunity to experience giving away His love in a new way.  And each night God surrounded us with the body of Christ, ministering to our weary bodies so that the next day we would be refreshed and able to serve again.

 

When I hear Jesus say in the gospels, “Behold, the Kingdom of God is at hand,” I believe this is what He was talking about.  Every moment is a chance to leave the ordinary self-seclusion of safety and step into the adventure of love that is ready to participate in God redeeming the whole world.  And every moment God invites us to participate in redeeming our corner of it.  Extraordinary love looks quite ordinary.  In fact, making beds, serving lunches, offering smiles and encouragements are things we do everyday.  It’s just that we do these things for ourselves and those we are comfortable with.  What makes love extraordinary is when we offer it to folks we don’t normally do such things for, even those we see everyday and we’d rather not do them for.  I believe the miracle of transforming the world is not that amazing things happen as much as God enables amazing generosity in us human beings who are so conditioned to just take care of our own.

 

Driving to work this morning I saw the following bumper sticker:  “Welcome to America.  Now speak English or leave.”  Something in my heart broke when I read that.  I could never imagine Jesus saying that to one of His children that He painstakingly knit together in its mother’s womb.  I am so thankful that our hosts last week did not say things like that to me.  So often we will encounter people who don’t have what it takes to live up to someone else’s expectations.  And we are faced with a choice:  will we love and enter into a redeeming relationship with them through the power of God’s love, or will we demand they be like us and throw them away when they aren’t?  Will we have the courage to allow Jesus to shape our response?  Will we become a community where hospitality has a chance to flourish?

 

This is me trusting,

 

Sami

 

To subscribe or unsubscribe to the Wesley Foundation Weekly E-Letter List go to:

http://lists.wku.edu/mailman/listinfo/wesley

 

Sami Wilson

Campus Minister/Director

WKU Wesley Foundation

United Methodist Campus Ministry

270-842-2880

sami.wilson@wku.edu

 

The Difference Between Tutors and Tooties--Wesley Foundation E-letter (Methodist Campus Ministry)

Dear friends,

 

Hope all is well with you this week!  This week begins the season of Lent, the 40 days (not including Sunday’s) leading up to Easter.  Lent has traditionally been a time to focus on turning our whole attention to Christ, to actively create space in our lives where this is possible (especially where it has not been before), and to listen intently to what He would say to us as we prepare for the celebration of Easter, Christ’s death on the cross and His resurrection.  This week we will be offering an opportunity to offer yourself to God in a new way, to consecrate more of who you are to more of who He is.  I hope you will join in this journey of preparation.  It will be a total blessing!

 

With that in mind here are the activities this week:

 

Tuesday Worship—6:30pm, we will look at the Belt of Truth, especially how it relates to Jesus’ time of temptation in the desert. 

 

Wednesday, Special Ash Wednesday Service—Noon in our chapel!  Come and receive the imposition of ashes.  We will prepare our hearts together  for this time of consecration!

 

Thursday Free Meal & Program—6:30pm, we will look at how life can so easily become like the soil on the path, as well as what to do when that happens!

 

Ladies Groups:  Wed. 1:30pm / Thurs. 3pm

Men’s Group:  Thurs. 5:30pm

 

 

Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

I live in a testosterone zone.  I am married to a wonderful man and also have two small sons.  Clearly I am outnumbered three to one.  The thing about being around boys all the time (and college students by the way) is that humor can often be very earthy, especially when it comes to bodily functions.  Passing gas is very much a moment of triumph and humor at my house, especially for my two year old.  We will be sitting in a room, hear a tell-tale noise, smell the tell-tale smell, and know that somebody “tooted.”  Isaiah will often say, with much enthusiasm, “I did it!”

 

One afternoon I was picking my boys up at their grandmother’s house.  I had just arrived and walked into the kitchen where my 12 year old niece was explaining that she had spent the afternoon helping one of her schoolmates with his work.  It was a proud moment when she explained to Nanny that she had been his tutor.  Isaiah was in the same room as well, and every time she said the word tutor, he would bust out laughing.  It took us a little while, but I finally figured out that he thought she was talking about passing gas.  He thought it was hysterical!

 

I can’t help wondering how many times we are trying to share with someone about our faith or trying to tell an unbeliever about Jesus and the results turn out the same?  We are trying to be helpful, like a tutor, seeking to share the knowledge that brings God’s life and goodness to those who need it, and instead they respond as if we are smelly, like a tootie, which is really all about hot air.  There were many times when I was a teenager that a friend would try to convince me I needed to be “saved” (apparently they thought infant baptism didn’t count), and I came away feeling less like I had received good news and more like I never wanted to speak with that person again.  Which also created quite a dilemma when I too felt led to share my faith with someone else:  I really didn’t want to stink up the place and turn them off instead of turning them on to a relationship with Christ.

 

What I have learned since then is that good news only has its source in the only One who is truly good.  Consider the following scene as it unfolded for the first people to really share God’s good news:

 

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.  And suddenly from heaven there came a sound lik the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.  Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.  Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.  And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.  Amazed and astonished they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?  And how is it that we hear each of us, in our own native language?  . . . .  in  our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power” (Acts 2:1-13).

 

The Holy Spirit, which is God’s power and presence with us, gave them everything they needed to speak the word of truth to those who needed to hear it, and who were also vastly different from them.  So what I have learned, and what I have witnessed in my own life, is that the Spirit of God makes the message of God clear in a language the hearer can understand.  On that day it had a lot to do with literal languages.  I think that is still true, but I also believe that today it has as much to do with different generations, different cultures, different experiences, different everything.  Each one of us hears differently, for all kinds of reasons.  It takes the wisdom and power of God to translate His good news into truly good news for all of us.  We each hear differently; we need God to translate His Holy Word into our difference.  We may still not accept it, but at least then we can understand it. 

 

So this Lent, it is my prayer that God will fill us with the power of His Holy Spirit, just like Jesus came out of the wilderness filled with the power of the Spirit, so that we can truly convey the good news of Christ’s death and resurrection to people who need to experience it so badly.  If we try to do it without Him, even though our intentions might be good, our results will smell.  And who wants to be smelly when we can be the aroma of Christ?  May God’s grace and goodness help us to become tutors of His Holy Word.  And may we receive all the help we can get, especially in all the ways we try to give it.

 

This is me hoping,

 

Sami

 

 

 

To subscribe or unsubscribe to the Wesley Foundation Weekly E-Letter List go to:

http://lists.wku.edu/mailman/listinfo/wesley

 

Sami Wilson

Campus Minister/Director

WKU Wesley Foundation

United Methodist Campus Ministry

270-842-2880

sami.wilson@wku.edu

 

You're Beautiful! Wesley Foundation E-Letter (United Methodist Campus Ministry)

Dear Friends,

 

Hope all of you are doing well!  I look forward to getting to see you this week.  We are back on our regular schedule this week:

 

Worship Tonight @ 6:30pm at Wesley

 

Thursday night free meal & program @ 6:30pm at Wesley

 

Ladies Groups:

 

Wednesday @ 1:30pm

Thursday @ 3pm

 

We begin a new series of messages tonight based on Ephesians 6, being clothed in the armor of God.  Come and experience God’s grace in giving you everything you need to meet the challenges of your everyday life.  And Thursday we will experience “Spontaneous Melodrama.”  I am so excited!  It’s going to be great!

 

Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

Last night after giving baths my boys and I sat down to color.  I told them that if they were good while they took their baths I would teach them how to draw butterflies.  We had great fun, and I re-discovered a part of me that has been neglected for awhile:  the artist inside.  I like making things.  I like to draw and color.  I like to sew.  I like to give expression to the pictures I see in my head, and then see them take shape as something pretty to hold in my hands.  I love seeing that vision come to life.

 

I think this is how God is, the One who spoke all of creation into being.  One of my very favorite scriptures is from Psalm 139: 

 

For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.  My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth (vs 13-15).

 

I can imagine God at the beginning of every life, watching it unfold, working through the process of growth even while a child is in its momma’s belly, choosing how the genes will fit together and express themselves, shaping and forming every part, seeing the totality of the life within His grasp, present and future, personality and body, spirit and mind, all coming together as a tangible expression of His creative love.  How cool is it that God is intimately and intricately involved in every part of our coming to life?  I can’t imagine God looking at any human being alive without a deep sense of joy and longing; joy because the vision of that person has become tangible, longing because each one of us has free will and may or may not choose to be in relationship with the One who made us.  Of course He longs for us.

 

I can’t help thinking about this creative labor of love that God gives whenever I reflect on the visitor who stood on the steps of DUC last week.  I’m not quite sure I can name his purpose for being there.  I suppose he felt called to expose and name the sin that enfolds many college campuses.  He argued forcefully with many who stopped to listen to his rampage, having their comments rebuffed with his determinations about their spiritual status.  Many came away feeling condemned by this man.  I hope and pray they didn’t come away feeling condemned by God.  “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17).  I just feel in my heart that this man did not communicate the longing that God feels in His heart for His children who are not connected to Him, whose lives are somehow missing the fulfillment, the fullness, that He wanted to bring forth when He created them in the first place.  I just know that when God looks at us, He sees His labor of love.  Certainly it pains Him to see us living in brokenness and sin.  But He also understands why we are broken, how we got that way, and especially the tender mercy of Jesus Christ that heals us so that we can choose well, so that we can choose Him.  Jesus took all that condemnation to the cross so we would bear it no more.  It is His gift to us.  He has removed everything from us that could separate us from the God who created us.  When God looks at each one of us He sees the child He made and loves.  And even before we see it ourselves, He sees the magnificent being, mature and complete, that He created us to be.

 

Thursday night after experiencing an amazing day of sharing God’s love through warm fuzzies (200 feet down from the guy with fuzzy purposes) and an amazing night of prayer, I had a dream.  In my dream people were lining up to receive a revelation from God, but the person sharing it said they must be spanked to learn a lesson in submission.  As I stood looking at these persons standing in line to be beaten, something within me broke and began to say passionately to the pastor, “You can’t do this!  You don’t understand, these persons have been abused!”  I knew that they would connect the abuse of their past to this “lesson in submission.”  I knew it had to be stopped.  That’s all I remember from that dream, but it’s message is clear.  Coming to know the God who made you is not a fearful and degrading thing; it is a joyful and life-giving thing.  God does not sanction any abuse, including religious:  “They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord” (Isaiah 65:25).  Even His judgment is filled with love, always wanting to redeem and fulfill that initial creative impulse that made your birth His tangible expression of Divine Love.

 

So I don’t care if your life is filled with sin, you are still beautiful to me because you are a child of God.  Where I see you hurting I hurt.  Where poor judgments keep your heart and life broken, I weep for and with you.  But God’s Love always sees you through the redemptive power of Jesus Christ.  When God looks at you He sees the Love that gave you life in the first place, and the promise and possibility of Christ’s love fulfilling that life within you.  You are precious to me and especially to Him.

 

This is me hoping,

 

Sami

 

 

 

To subscribe or unsubscribe to the Wesley Foundation Weekly E-Letter List go to:

http://lists.wku.edu/mailman/listinfo/wesley

 

Sami Wilson

Campus Minister/Director

WKU Wesley Foundation

United Methodist Campus Ministry

270-842-2880

sami.wilson@wku.edu

 

Chili Prayers--Wesley Foundation E-letter (Methodist Campus Ministry)

Dear Friends,

 

I hope you are staying warm in all of this cold weather!  If you want a ride to the Wesley Foundation just call 270-842-2880 thirty minutes before we meet and someone will come and pick you up!  Also, this should warm your insides:  We were able to give $94.11 from our student offerings to help people who are still suffering from the winter storm.  I know many of your families remain without power.  We pray God’s protection and help for them.

 

Tonight is our FREE MEAL and program.  It will be lots of fun.  The food is always good.  So join us at 6:30pm.  Next week we will be in DUC for our Valentine’s outreach to campus giving away warm fuzzies.  Come and find out how you can be a blessing!

 

Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

Last Sunday night we had our annual Superbowl party at the Wesley.  We also had some special guests join us (hi Justin and Beth!).  It was a wonderful time of fellowship and fun.  And the game was so exciting even I got into it!  Like most events in life, it took some preparation.  And as I began that afternoon to brown the beef for our chili feast, my heart began to think fondly of those who would be consuming the very thing I was in the midst of cooking. 

 

I think all things in life can be holy when offered to the Lord, because the Lord is always near.  On a plaque at a retreat house I often visited in Florida were these words:  “Bidden or un-bidden, God is present.”  How true.  There isn’t anywhere He is not.  Psalm 139 puts it this way: 

 

Where can I go from your spirit?  Or where can I flee from your presence?  If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.  If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.  (Psalm 139: 7-10)

 

And even when we exert all kinds of energy to go to places He is not, even then our efforts are wasted because He is still there.  How much better then to give up running and simply welcome the inevitable; let Him join us where we are, even as we are. 

 

I think one of the biggest reasons people run from God is because they expect Him to try and squash them.  Kind of like the new reality show called  “Wipe Out,” they think God is just waiting for an opportunity to wipe them out and knock them off of their feet for all the ways they haven’t been able to live up to what they think are His expectations.  I remember in high school English having to read a sermon by Jonathan Edwards called “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”  In high school I think I believed it.  But since then, as I have gotten to know the Lord in a very personal way, I have discovered Him to be nothing like that at all.  I have found that God is funny and gentle, tender and wise, mischievous and good, constant and persistent, steadfast and patient, creative and comforting, new and challenging, unrelenting and stubborn, consistent and expectant, hopeful and helpful, generous and courteous, everywhere and intimate, knowledge giving and mysterious, loving and leading, inviting and welcoming, sending and commissioning, quiet and consuming.

 

So I stood at my stove top making chili, thinking fondly of those who were about to eat it, thinking fondly of the Lord, and I began to pray that all who eat would be fed with God’s love, even as they would be fed with ground beef, tomatoes, beans, and spices.  And just as that chili would give nutrients to sustain, I prayed that the Love of God would make its way all through their lives giving strength and guidance where it is needed most.  God is as present to us as chili in our stomachs.  And the pervasive love of God works its way into our lives in ways we are totally unconscious of, making ripples of impact the way the co-centric circles of water ripple forth from a stone’s throw.  Often we only hear the stone drop and think the event is over.  We rarely are patient enough to see water lapping gently against the shore. 

 

And so here is to chili prayers and a Superbowl party, a holy event in the life of our ministry.  Jesus chose a party to perform His first miracle.  And those who received it were barely conscious of the grace that had just changed their lives forever.  In the same way our precious Lord still shows up at parties.  And He still transforms ordinary things into miracles of grace.  May His chili blessings be with you always.  (Just not the indigestion!)  And may you know that you never have to run from God’s love.  His love is everything your are trying to run to.

 

This is me hoping,

 

Sami

 

To subscribe or unsubscribe to the Wesley Foundation Weekly E-Letter List go to:

http://lists.wku.edu/mailman/listinfo/wesley

 

Sami Wilson

Campus Minister/Director

WKU Wesley Foundation

United Methodist Campus Ministry

270-842-2880

sami.wilson@wku.edu

 

Welcome Back to WKU: String Bikini's and It's great to be you!-- Wesley Foundation E-letter (Methodist Campus Ministry)

Dear Friends,

 

It is awesome to be back on the hill, and yes, we are back on schedule for our regular times this week (weather permitting of course).  Tomorrow night we will have WORSHIP at 6:30pm.  The praise team from Christ UMC led by Marco Ballesteros, Jr. will be leading us.  Our service will also center around praying for the semester and the year, consecrating it wholly to Him and asking His blessing upon it.  Come and be filled with His love!!!!!!!

 

Also on THURSDAY night we will have our free meal and program beginning at 6:30pm.  It should be a wonderful time because Todd Misenor from WKU’s health and fitness lab will be sharing with us about how faith and fitness fit together, as well as what opportunities are available at WKU’s Preston Center.  Todd attends Broadway UMC with his family.

 

Of course if there is an ice storm and it is dangerous to get around, don’t!  But I will send out a notice if we officially cancel any events.

 

Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

As a girl, I have struggled during my life with many things that girls struggle with.  The desire to be pretty has always been one of those things.  At least when I was younger, before babies, and certainly before becoming an old married woman.  Now Tim is the only one who I really, really want to impress.  As long as I am presentable, I could care less for ooh’s and ahh’s from anyone else.  But it didn’t used to be this way.

 

I remember one day when I was thirteen years old.  I was walking down the road from our home in the country toward our neighbor’s house.  The property our house was situated on backed up to Old Hickery Lake in Lebanon, TN.  Most of our neighbors were retired and spent their time fishing during the week.  During the summers we would gather at one of their houses, eat fried fish and hushpuppies, and enjoy the many outdoor activities that go along with lake living.  This particular neighbor had a swimming pool in their yard.  My brothers, sister, and I spent many afternoons there swimming, having dog paddling races, and playing “Marco Polo.”  On this particular day I could see that our neighbor had a guest.  I was so far away that I couldn’t tell who it was, but I did see that is was some girl in a string bikini, sun bathing on the pool deck.  I wanted so badly to be able wear one of those myself.  And in the stillness of my heart I prayed a prayer that only a thirteen year old girl could come up with, “God, I want to look like that.”

 

Eventually my walk brought me closer to the swimming pool.  It was with dismay that I finally recognized who the sunbather was.  Why it wasn’t a girl at all.  It was a middle aged woman.  And furthermore that was definitely NOT the body I thought I wanted.  Up close it really began to lose its appeal.  It lacked tone; it sagged; it bulged in all the wrong places.  From a distance it looked great.  Up close I decided really quickly that I was more than pleased with my own.  So have you ever heard of back pedaling prayers?  “Uhm, God?  You know that prayer I prayed just a minute ago?  Can I take it back?  I mean really, PLEASE don’t answer it!  I am very happy with what I have.  PLEASE don’t give me a string bikini filled with THAT!”

 

So what do string bikini’s have to do with Jesus?  Well, let me explain.  I spent a lot of my younger life wanting to be someone else.  As a pre-teen and teenager I felt awkward and shy.  I never really felt like I fit in.  I looked with longing at the lives of other girls in my Jr. High and High School, wondering what it would be like to be them.  I even envied the lives of other girls in my youth group.  I never felt pretty enough, popular enough, smart enough, talented enough, good enough.  Nothing in me seemed to be enough.  But the mercy of the passage of time is that it clarifies so many things.  I believe this is one of the great gifts of Facebook.  I have gotten to see many of the folks I went to highshool with.  And while it is so nice to see them again, it has revealed something of great worth to me:  I am glad to be who I am.  The realization came when I was reflecting on the Facebook reunions.  It was as if God asked me, “Now would you like to be any of them?”  And the answer that came back was no, I am glad to be exactly who I am.  Not that the lives they are living are bad.  They’re just not mine.  And God has filled mine with all the things that give me the most joy of all.

 

The gift of new beginnings is that we once again have a new opportunity for God to reveal how He lovingly made us for a single purpose, how who we are fulfills something that no one else can, how we are a labor of His love in design and destiny, and how we fit perfectly into His plan.  This is a time to step back and offer all that we are to a God who loves us so passionately, who crafted us so intentionally, and who guides us so specifically.  There are so many good reasons for why He made us the way He did.  And He alone can turn our regrets and what might have been’s into reasons for praise and celebration, because He uses even those to reveal His goodness and glory.  I just know that His story in your life is one that is worth knowing.  It is one worth sharing.  It is one worth celebrating.  So join me Tuesday night as we consecrate who we are and all that remains as yet unlived into His hands.  Join me in inviting His touch into our lives and let’s celebrate together the One who has the power to redeem it all.  Here’s to not having that prayer answered all those years ago.

 

This is me hoping,

 

Sami

 

To subscribe or unsubscribe to the Wesley Foundation Weekly E-Letter List go to:

http://lists.wku.edu/mailman/listinfo/wesley

 

Sami Wilson

Campus Minister/Director

WKU Wesley Foundation

United Methodist Campus Ministry

270-842-2880

sami.wilson@wku.edu