Dear Friends,

Hope all is well today!  Just a reminder that our very own David Sparks will be speaking 
tonight at 180 (BCM) at 8:30pm.  David is the Kentucky Annual Conference leader of youth 
and young adult ministries.  He is always thoughtful and passionate about his work with 
young people and always thought provoking.  It will be a treat to hear him.

Also, "Smiley and the Hot Minute" will be bring praise and worship music to us this 
Thursday at SOLID ROCK CAFE'.  There is free food at 6:30pm and worship will follow afte rward about 7:30pm.  They even have their own page on facebook!  The message will look at how we live out a God-sized purpose.

Now for Sami's Ramblings About Jesus:

Every now and then I get to watch Oprah.  It's one of my favorite shows because it inspires me.  Lateley I've seen a couple that have dealt with the subject of intention, basically what are we focusing on in our day to day lives.  It was a powerful insight for me because the message is that we give power to what we focus on. 

I am reminded of  a time when I was a young and very green pastor in Florida, enrolled in CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education).  My supervisor had a saying he would use when we allowed someone else to get the best of us.  He would say, "You gave your power away." 

I think we do the same thing when we focus on those parts of our lives that are difficult, arduous, challenge us in the most profound ways.  It's not that it's bad to think through the difficulties, but it is important where we stand when we do.  Where do we focus from?

Let me make it more plain.  When we look at our problems, challenges, and headaches, do we do it as beloved children of God?  Those whom our Lord delights in?  Or do we look at life as one who is about to get run over by it?  I have found that simply changing my perspective changes my whole day.  And often not just my experience of my day, but also the outcome of it  as well. 

There is a different kind of energy that flows out of me based upon my frame of reference.  When I am conscious of my identity as God's beloved, I act upon the abundance of a Heavenly Father who loves me, and desires to love on me.  I act confidently, knowing God has the answers so I don't have to.  I act fearlessly, because my heart is full of joy and desire, leaving no room for fear.  I a ct passionately, knowing that the passion of God's heart, living itself out through mine, will bring Life to my life.  All of those assets that are so admired by the world--confidence, fearlessness, passion--begin to redefine my identity.  The power of this redefinition is that its source has nothing to do with me at all.  It is like a river that flows through me, originating in the imagination of God.

Who does God imagine you to be?  How powerfully would this world be changed if we all allowed our focus settle exclusively on God's identity for our lives instead of our own?  It is amazing to me that the transformation of the world resides simply in our focus.  Wow.

Hope you have a great week!

Blessings,

Sami



Rev. Sami Wilson
Campus Minister/Director

WKU Wesley Foundation
1355 College St.
Bowling Green, KY 42101
(270) 842-2880

It's cold outside, again! (Wesley e-letter)

Dear Friends,

It is amazing to me that yesterday could be so (relatively) warm and today can be so 
cold!  Weather in Kentucky can change at a moments notice.  Anyway, hope you are all 
staying warm.

Speaking of staying warm, we are giving away Warm Fuzzies at DUC today (2-4pm) and 
tomorrow (10a-2p).  I even changed my picture to a Warm Fuzzy on Facebook to commemorate 
the event.  Be sure and pick yours up!

Remember tomorrow night SOLID ROCK CAFE'.  We will be talking about "Listening to God."  Specifically, how to tell whether it's God's voice or your own.  Free food at 6:30pm.  Love to see you there.

Now for Sami's Ramblings About Jesus:

This morning before my quiet time I found some songs I had written  a couple of years ago before my oldest son was born.  As I pondered them in the quietness of God's presence, it struck me that they still spoke truth to me.  All of them were written as love songs to God.   All of them speak of the power of God's presence.  The funny thing is that they reflect those quiet, intimate moments with the Lord that are often hidden.  These aren't mountain-top moments.  They aren't blind-me-on-the-roadside moments.  They are those simple times when life is ordinary and somehow an ordinary moment belongs to Him.  And it's not even that special, as if God shows up in a noticable way.  It is that ordinary moment that is given to Him. 

I can hear in the songs the rythm of my life speaking.  In one there is so much pain.  And yet a repeating affirmation of faith answers:  You, God, are there.  In one there is that beginning awareness of God's closeness and a companion awareness of yearning to be His.  In another there is a simple trust that speaks beyond circumstance:  My heart and my life are safe in Your hands. 

Where do you hear the rythm of your life speaking? I guess this experience brought forth for me that awareness that life, at its most basic,  is a search for God, and living is being found in God.  When everything "spiritual" is stripped away (that sense of being used by Him, the pride of serving Him, the fruit or growth that comes from Him, the elation of feeling close to Him, the compulsion of having to see Him) all that's left is simply Him.  And in the grand scheme of things, that is enough.  That simple Presence is enough to order my days, our days.

Now I like spiritual fireworks better than anybody.  I like the rush of feeling God's power move through my life like a racing river.  I love seeing Him work.  I especially love being a part of His work.  Yet I find in that hunger a spiritual greed that tends to take over.  If I really had to choose, it's really His quiet closeness that I need more.  Because it's really the only thing that sustains.  Nothing else, not even the things of God, can take the place of God in our lives.

Gosh this is such a profound truth.  It's like I hate it even as I write it.  But I know it is true.
My most honest confession is, "I want the stuff of God."  Yet God is so much more satisfying, ultimately, than all His stuff.  Some spiritual guru, somewhere, sometime, said, "Seek the God of consolation rather than the consolation of God."  I'm beginning to understand more what that means.

So here's the good news in all of this.  While we cannot eat spiritual dessert all the time, we can be quite nourished and ultimately satisfied with the simplicity of just being His.  And out of all that being, our lives begin to make sense.  We begin to know peace.  We begin to know, without having to be reminded every second, who we are and whose we are.  And God's most important work is done then because no one gets to take the credit but Him.

Blessings,

Sami



Rev. Sami Wilson
Campus Minister/Director

WKU Wesley Foundation
1355 College St.
Bowling Green, KY 42101
(270) 842-2880

Wesley Foundation E-letter, Methodist Campus Ministry

Dear Friends,

Hope you are all staying warm on this cold evening.  The Super Bowl party was great fun Sunday night.  For those who missed it, we will try to have another sports and chilli get together for the NCAA Basketball championship game.  Come on down for another night of mayhem.

We are also beginning a new Ladies Bible Study.  Meet at the Wesley Foundation at 11:30am on Thursdays. 

Tonight at Solid Rock Cafe' we will be having hot food and good fun.  We will be talking about listening to God.   I mean, how is it possible to know what God wants for us and from us?  Together we'll find out.  Join us at 6:30pm at the Wesley Foundation.

Enough announcements.....

Now for Sami's Ramblings About Jesus:

Ever been lost?  There's a hit TV show by that name.  I don't know that I've ever been lost like that before, but immediately what comes to mind is shopping with my mother as a child.  When I was a small girl, and even a teenager and college student, I loved to shop.  And anytime my mother and I would go shopping (the mall, Wal-mart, wherever)  I had a tendency to get pre-occupied with stuff she wasn't interested in.  I would wander off, first just a few feet, being sure to keep her in sight.  Then I would go a little farther.  I would stay gone a little longer.  And then before I knew it, she was no where in sight, and I couldn't find her.  I can still feel that pit of the stomach sickness that would kick in the moment I realized I was . . . . lost.

Yes, these were the days before cell phones.

How many of us could say, "Been there; done that"?  It's so easy to get lost.  It just takes the lure of a minute second of diverted attention, the itch to just check something out,  the hook of becoming engrossed, and then the sickening realization that finding one's way back is more than difficult; it begins to look and feel impossible.  It happens in so many different ways, times, and places.   It even happens to responsible individuals.  It even happens to persons of faith.  It can happen anytime we wander off and take our focus away from where it is supposed to be.

Rather than focus on the many ways we wander off, I want to encourage us to think of the One who is always ready to find us.  Back in the day, my mom didn't always know where to find me.  Sometimes I'd be in Wal-mart and hear my name on the loudspeaker.  But God always knows right where we are, even when we think we've wandered off from Him.  It's true that we can so run away with our choices that it is hard for us to think about Him, much less see His presence in our lives.  But even if we are lost from God, God is never lost from us. 

The thing that gives me hope more than anything else is the realization that God sees us and He wants to connect with us.  All I have to do to experience this is to stop running from Him, and to start running to him.  To begin to make different choices about how I spend my time, who I spend it with.  It is really as simple as redirecting my gaze to Him.  One of the most powerful statements of this truth came on the night we went to see Maya Angelou speak last semester.  After she was raped as a child, she chose not to speak for many years.  But then one day she dared to speak so that the poetry she loved so much could come alive.  This is what she said about that day:  "I found that I had left my voice, but my voice did not leave me."  All she had to do to reclaim that lost part of herself was to speak again. 

Just like all we have to do be found is to stop running away and start looking for the Lord, because He is always looking at us.  (Since He never loses us, He never has to look for us.)  I love that part of Psalm 23 that says, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life."  Goodness and mercy do follow us as surely as the eyes of the Lord follow us every step we take.  And if we just stop walking away from them, they bump right into us.  How painfully God longs to embrace us with love, and yet we seldom let Him.  We think if He follows us at all it is with retribution.  Really He is following us with love and longing, wanting only to heal us of the wounds we found in lostness.

My friends, join me in not being lost anymore.  Let's just be found.  By God.  And His amazing goodness.

Blessings,

Sami

Rev. Sami Wilson
Campus Minister/Director

WKU Wesley Foundation
1355 College St.
Bowling Green, KY 42101
(270) 842-2880

Wesley Foundation E-letter

Dear Friends,

Hope you are all doing well on this cold day. Amazing how the weather can change so
drastically so quickly. Kind of like the unpredictability of all aspects of life. It's
good to know that there is a warm winter coat in the closet on a day like this. Just
the way it is always good to know that God's peace and provision are always available to
lean on when we need it.

Anyway, SOLID ROCK CAFE is tomorrow night at 6:30pm. We will be having homemade soup, compliments of our dear frie nd Karen Ray. If you haven't met her, you should stop by. She is an awesome cook! We will be making plans for the rest of the semester, and then heading over to "AfterDark," at Van Meter at 8pm.

SUPERBOWL PARTY

We will meet for our annual Superbowl Party this Sunday at 5pm at the Wesley Foundation. There will be free food (Sami's chili), and we will project the game on the big screen in the living room. Come for a wonderful evening of fun and fellowship.

Now for Sami's Ramblings About Jesus:

This morning I have been sitting with the following scripture: Guard me as the apple of the eye (Psalm 17:8). Sometimes I go looking for scriptures to think about. But this one seemed to come looking for me. As I sit with it, I can't help but think about my boys. They are both the apple of my eye. I heard once that this expression comes from th at particular thing that happens when one's focus is so fixed on the another person that he or she could see their reflection in one's eyes.

This is how I look at my boys. It's as if I am trying to memorize everything about them in that moment so I wont forget, so my heart will always feel the joy of seeing their little selves, so I can always look back at that time and instantly be there again. When I am with them I watch over them in just this way. And I am immediately available if there is a need. I can steer them clear of danger. In the intenseness of my gaze I am a part of whatever they happen to be into.

And this is how God looks at us. He guards us as the apple of His eye. When I think of God guarding me as the apple of His eye, I am filled with such a sense of well-being. I know that He is watching out for me, ready to intervene if I need it, enjoying me, and being a part of my life.&nbs p; I think of the surety of a mother's gaze. Not much is likely to get by me. And if my boys are that safe in my gaze, it overwhelms me to think of how safe we are in God's.

Somehow understanding God this way takes the pressure off. The worries that would normally keep me up at night seem to lose their power when I really take a hold of this concept. I don't have to be all-seeing and all-knowing anymore. I don't have to be anything other than what I am.

As I think of the pressures and challenges of college life, there are so many pitfalls that are available for falling into. And yet in this most important time, God is there with you, guiding you, enjoying the fabulousness of who you are, always ready to step in do what God does best: save the day.

I guess I just want to challenge you with this thought: You are the apple of God's eye. He delights in you and watches over you with great joy.& nbsp; People in your life may not understand you, but God is immediately connected to your deepest being with His deepest self. And He wants you to enjoy the great love He has for you. So join me in a day of sitting in His gaze, and being an apple.

Blessings,

Sami


Rev. Sami Wilson
Campus Minister/Director

WKU Wesley Foundation
1355 College St.
Bowling Green, KY 42101
(270) 842-2880

Wesley Foundation E-letter

Dear Friends,

Hope this finds you well. We are off to the start of another great
semester.

Solid Rock Cafe this Thursday! Faith UMC's praise band is bringing
music and a great
home-made meal will be provided by Broadway UMC. I hear they are
bringing breakfast!
Come for free food and a time of starting the year off right. We will
be looking at how
to make the best start of things with God's help.

Now for Sami's Ramblings About Jesus:

Often a new year brings many changes. For my family, the biggest
change is the addition
of our newest member Isaiah Wesley. He was born on November 10th
weighing 6lb 5oz. It
is amazing how crazy life with a newborn and toddler (Noah, my other
son, is 2 years
old) can be. But in the midst of all the craziness, God always seems
to know how to get
my attention.

Like when I spent three days over the break watching the "Lord of the
Rings" trilogy. I
thought I was finding a mind numbing distraction from the endless
cycle of feeding,
burping, and changing diapers. But in the midst of the distraction,
God spoke to my
heart. Mr. Frodo, the hero of the movie, is desperately trying to
complete his quest to
destroy the Ring that rules all others. It is a terrible burden
because the Ring exists
only to dominate and rule all others. The bearer of the Ring faces
tremendous
temptation to give in to his or her own evil desires of domination.
Even the person
with the best intentions can find his or her will to do good
eventually eroded by the
Ring's power and seduction. So Frodo is chosen as the one who must
destroy the Ring by
returning it to the fire in which it was forged. Now Frodo is a
hobbit. A small
creature that has none of the skill, prowess, or powers that others
do. Frodo often
doubts his own abilities. At one point, the Queen of the Elves
encourages him by
saying, "Even someone who is small can change the future." No one else
could do what he
alone was chosen to do.

As I have pondered this, it struck me that this is how God works in
our lives. We may
not think we are much by the world's standards, but with God working
in us, we can do
great things. The familiar scripture says, "I can do all things
through Christ who
strengthens me." I have often looked at the enormity of ministry and
wondered how
someone like me could do something like that. In one conversation with
myself I even
said, "Whatever made me think I could do this?" And in that instant
these words came
into that place in my heart where God speaks: "I did."

But here's the thing. We often cannot do these God-sized things alone.
As a mother and
a minister I face this reality everyday. God always is supplying
someone to make the
burden lighter. And this leads me to the best part of the "Lord of the
Rings" movie.
It is in the final moments when Frodo is nearing the end of his quest.
His faithful
companion Sam is with him as they draw closer to the volcano where the
Ring must be
destroyed. Sam sees the complete exhaustion Frodo wears upon every
ounce of his being.
Knowing Frodo cannot go any further, Sam says to him, "I cannot carry
your burden, but I
can carry you." And with that he picks Frodo up and carries him to the
completion of
his journey. That picture reminds me of the devoted friends who
carried the paralytic
to Jesus, even lowering him down through a hole in the roof to deliver
him right at
Jesus's feet. So many times we need someone to carry us there. It's
hard sometimes to
admit we need to help of others. We have to be humble enough to accept
help, especially
when we need it most and want it least. But praise God for those Sam's
in our lives who
recognize our need and lend themselves to seeing God's vision for us
completed in us.

I want to encourage you today, at the beginning of a new semester and
a new year to
believe in yourself. You have a special and unique purpose on this
earth that only you
can fulfill. God has plans for you that are important, that fulfill a
wonderful part of
the purpose He has for His kingdom. Don't doubt yourself simply
because you don't think
(or others don't think) you measure up to greatness. Allow God's
greatness to be
revealed in you through your obedience to the purpose He has given
you. And finally, be
humble enough to admit that you may not always be able to do it on
your own. God always
sends us help when we need it. They cannot complete His mission for
us, but these
faithful friends can carry us to that place where we can complete our
mission for Him.

Blessings,

Sami

Rev. Sami Wilson
Campus Minister/Director

WKU Wesley Foundation
1355 College St.
Bowling Green, KY 42101
(270) 842-2880

Thunderstorms moving in again--Burgers will have to wait :(

Dear Friends,

 

We’re going to have to postpone our cookout again.  The weather channel is predicting thunderstorms this afternoon.  Instead (since everything is frozen anyway) we will wait until the November 11^th home football game and tailgait together.  Sorry for the change in plans.  Hope you have a good day anyway!

 

Sami

 

 

Wesley Foundation E-letter (Methodist Campus Ministry)

Dear Friends,

 

Hopefully by now you got our notice about the postponement of our South Lawn Cookout due to rain.  We will be out tomorrow 1pm- 5pm on South Lawn with 360 burgers, 360 hotdogs, drinks, and tons of chocolate candy to give away.  So come on down tomorrow and get fed.  It’s our little way of sharing God’s love.

 

Solid Rock Café – New Series Starts Thursday!

 

This Thursday night (free food @ 6:30pm, program afterwards) we are beginning a new series where we examine what it means to be United Methodist, what are our beliefs and how did we get them, as well as looking at John Wesley and why he is so important as a founder of Methodism.  This is a great time to come and bring your questions about who United Methodists are.  This is particularly good even if you are just curious about how faith expressions differ among denominations.  Feel free to join us, even if you’ve never been before.  For more info call 842-2880.

 

Now For Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus

 

Tomorrow we will be on South Lawn handing out free food.  Ever since I was a poor, starving college student I have always associated free food with grace.  To me, that’s what grace is:  nourishment that comes from unexpected places, given without price.  It is so easy to get caught up in the rat race of having to create your own life, manage your own affairs, assure your own success.  There is so much pressure in this world to perform, to produce, to prove.  There is no freedom in a life like that.

 

But there is tremendous love and freedom in Christ, in God’s grace, in simply finding oneself fed on the way to the next thing on the agenda.  Something about those surprise encounters with grace seem to change the agenda.  The need to perform, to produce, and to prove, just doesn’t seem so important anymore.  What becomes important is simply being in the Love that seeks and finds us.  My heart yearns to be found that way.  My heart yearns to be a part of God’s finding of others, who are lost little sheep like me.  And somehow this makes it all the more real to me.

 

My very dear friend often says, “The process is love; don’t hinder the process.”  And yet, I find myself getting in the way so many times.  I am so thankful that God is bigger than me.  And able to work around my stubborn headed willfulness.  Because sometimes I even turn the gift of being surprised by grace into another agenda item full of performing, producing, and proving.  Lord have mercy on me! 

 

Well, He does.  I guess what I most want to say in this rambling message is that God’s love is real.  And if you need a simple, tangible reminder of that, one you don’t have to earn, one you don’t have to buy, one you can simply receive without any cost or price, then stop in and eat a hamburger.  I will join you in remembering as I bite into mine, because I need those reminders too.  Maybe together we can know that God’s love is really enough, and the gift of the life we have really is good.

 

Blessings,

 

Sami

 

Sami Wilson

Campus Minister/Director

WKU Wesley Foundation

United Methodist Campus Ministry

842-2880

sami@wkywesley.org

www.wkywesley.org

 

Weekly E-letter from WKU Wesley Foundation

Dear Friends,

 

It’s cold outside!  If your folks are coming down for homecoming, now is the time to have them bring your heavy coat!  But it is also a beautiful time as well.  The leaves are changing and there is a crispness in the air.  It’s all good; at least if you can stay warm.

 

This week is a different kind of week because of the Homecoming festivities. 

 

We are partnering with the BCM (Baptist Campus Ministry) to build a float for the Homecoming Parade this Friday.  You are invited to work on the float with us Monday – Thursday, 3pm till midnight at the WKU Ag Center whenever you can make it.  Be sure to bring a pair of scissors!

 

HOMECOMING ACTIVITIES!!!!!

 

Tuesday Night—Movie Screening and Float Preparation!

 

We will meet at MMTH for the screening of our film that was entered in the Two Day Film Challenge 2006.  For those of you who worked on this project it will be a fun time.  For those who are just curious it should be awesome to see what your friends have been up to.  Afterwards we will go to the Ag Center to work on the float.

 

Thursday Night—Meal and Program (Prayer of Dedication for Float) and Float Preparation!

 

We will meet at our usual time (6:30pm) for our meal at the Wesley Foundation.  Then after a short devotional time and prayer we will head out to the Ag Center to work on the float together with BCM.  Come and join us for free food and fun!

 

Friday Night—Parade, Street Fest, Big Red’s Roar!

 

The Homecoming Parade is at 5pm.  We will meet at 4:15pm at the Wesley Foundation and go watch the parade together.  You can call the Foundation at 842-2880 for more info on where we will gather to see the parade.  After that we will enjoy the Big Red Street Fest (5:30pm Preston/South Lawn) and then go to Big Red’s Roar @ 8pm.  Be sure and wear your Wesley Foundation T-shirts!

 

Saturday Afternoon—Tailgating and Game

 

We will be camping out in the Valley with a couple of vehicles on Friday night to reserve a space in front of Gilbert, McCormack, and Rodes for Saturday’s Tailgating.  If you are interested in parking your car with us, let me know!  On Saturday at 11am we will gather in front of the valley to begin cooking burgers and dogs.  We will hand out as much as we’ve got until it’s gone, so stop by for some free food!!!!  We will stay until about 3:30pm, and then we will pack up and go to the game!

 

Now for Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

Water.  It’s important stuff.  Since I have been pregnant this time around, I don’t go anywhere without my water bottle.  And I find that things go a lot better with me when I am drinking water on a regular basis, which reminds me, I’m feeling kind of parched!  If I don’t get enough water during the day, my legs and feet cramp up in the middle of the night.  Or my big belly with a baby in it (and I do mean BIG!) will tighten up on me and make any kind of movement difficult.  Or I will find myself out of breath and lightheaded, and I will have to lie down on my side until it passes.  This is just an amazing time in my life when the extra physical demands upon my body MAKE (as in “He makes me to lie down in green pastures”) me aware of how much water is necessary to keeping everything going.  Our flesh needs water.  We cannot do without it.  When we neglect that need, serious consequences take place.  Our bodies start to kick us.

 

Likewise our spirits need water.  We cannot go without the water of God’s Holy Spirit without serious consequences happening in our lives.  And what affects our spiritual selves, affects everything else we are connected to.  I love the promise that Jesus gives to the woman at the well:

 

If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. . . .  Those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty.  The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.  John 4:10-14

 

She says, “Give me this water.”  When was the last time you heard the promise of what Jesus offers and asked Him to give it, to be it for you?  I think all too often we settle for the water of the flesh, and never even realize there is water of the Spirit, unquenchable water that gushes up from within us, sustaining us, equipping up, empowering us, uplifting us, and connecting us to God Almighty who loves us more than we could ever know.  As I look at the way most of us live our lives (by doing a bunch of stuff to live up to impossible standards), I see so much cramping up of the spirit, difficultly of real movement, running out of breath, and incredible fatigue.  This is not what Jesus promised when He offered us Himself!

 

I have been under so much conviction in the last few months to return to that place where God’s Spirit flows freely within me.  I cannot experience it when I am bull-headedly trying to live up to some standard or unrealistic expectation.  In fact, the Spirit doesn’t flow for me where I am trying to earn anything.  It only flows from within me, in the way Jesus describes, when I purposefully expose myself to grace . . .  God’s grace.  That place where I am loved, and I don’t have to earn it, I don’t have to live up to it, I don’t have to manufacture it, I don’t have to manipulate myself or others to get it.  It is that place where I must simply sit in it and ENJOY it, letting Jesus’s love fall all over me.  And then the serving part isn’t such a struggle.  It just naturally results.  I want to share His love with others because I have been given His love to share.  I know myself as loved.  I know how to speak value into other lives because I know my own value, apart from what I do and totally connected with what He does for me.  This is the water that never runs dry.  It is the Water of His Holy Spirit.

 

My heart for you is that you would experience this artesian spring of Life welling up from within you too.  That you would know it is okay to not be perfect, it is okay not to have it all planned out, it is okay to be human after all.  It is okay to just . . . be . . . His.

 

You are His.  The blessing comes in knowing it.  Gosh you are so loved.

 

Peace on the journey from another pilgrim.

 

Sami

 

Sami Wilson

Campus Minister/Director

WKU Wesley Foundation

United Methodist Campus Ministry

842-2880  www.wkywesley.org  sami@wkywesley.org

 

 

 

Wesley Foundation E-letter, United Methodist Campus Ministry

Dear Friends,

Amazing how quickly the weather can change!  Hope you are finding a way to stay dry on these windy, rainy, fall days!

Here is what is going on this week:

Worship

Tonight at Soul Feast we will enjoy a Taize' worship service.  This is a meditative prayer service that is filled with music, quiet reflections, scripture readings, and community prayers.  We will meet @ DUC, room 340 at 6:30pm.

Weekly Meal & Program

Thursday for our Solid Rock Cafe' we will meet at the Wesley Foundation at 6:30pm for a meal and program.  Since it was too cold last week to watch "Glory Road" on the lawn, we will watch it together in-doors at the Foundation after dinner. We will also think together about the ways we see the gospel represented in the themes presented by the movie.  Just come and take a study break.  We'll pull out the popcorn!

Now for Sami's Ramblings About Jesus:

It is the coolest thing that just happened to me.  I'm sitting outside on the front porch of the Wesley Foundation, writing this e-letter, and one of my students walks by from one of my classes.  We just had the coolest conversation about faith.  It's not something we can talk about in class, in a secular university.  But as he reminded me, it is something we can live.  You and I are living words of Scripture.  We can live in such a way that people who are in the world and of the world will look into our lives and see a different quality there than what they experience personally.  It is true that when we "abide in Christ" that abiding has a tangilble expression in how we live our lives.  Boy this excites me so much.  I love seeing the power of the gospel really become good news for people. 

When I lived in Florida, I was an associate pastor at a large church.  I led a weekly ladies prayer group affectionately known as "the Naggy Ladies."  (Someone else named us, but we liked the name and kept it).  As one person put it, we nagged God until something happened.  The thing that so inspired me about these dear friends is that we would leave our prayer time and each of them would go into their lives in the secular world.  Some of them taught school, some worked in insurance agencies, some worked in very profit oriented businesses.  Each of them had to live out the majority of their lives on, what I like to call, the front lines.  What continued to amaze me in all the years we met and prayed together was how powerfully God used each of them as change agents in the circumstances they lived in.  And our little prayer group began to get a reputation.  People who would never step foot inside a church began to ask each of the ladies to pray for them or specific needs in their lives.  God used each of them to bring the light of Christ to dark corners of the world.  Indeed each of them were living Scriptures that shared the hope of Christ in tangible ways.  What is even coolest of all is that they are still doing it today.

As I live and breathe and work as a campus minister at Western Kentucky University, I find myself in the same position my dear Florida ladies were and are in.  As I meet students in all different places and circumstances on campus, I get to share the gospel on the front lines.  Often not by preaching.  But by trying to live in a Christ like way.  I really do admire and envy students who are people of faith.  You my friends are able to do this in ways that I can only imagine, because your whole lives are steeped in the front lines.  I want to say to you, do not be discouraged.  Just live the Christ light within you.  You are here for a purpose.  And you can be a vessel of good news poured out for others, even when you have to be careful about how you share it.  Live it first.  And know that by living it you are initiating that hunger and thirst within others to have that Christ light within them to.  And they will not go long without asking why you are the way you are or how to get what you've got.  This is what it means to be salt and light.

Know that Jesus loves you, and I do too.

Blessings,

Sami

Sami Wilson
Campus Minsiter/Director
WKU Wesley Foundation
United Methodist Campus Ministry
842-2880

 

Weekly E-Letter, Wesley Foundation, Methodist Student Ministry

Dear Friends,

 

I just got back from lunch with a dear friend of mine.  She is one of those people who helps me connect to the world beyond myself.  I hope that each of you have safe places in your life that help to transport you beyond the immediate here and now.  I always find I am refreshed and ready to step back into my day to day life afterwards.  Praise God for that!

 

Here is what’s going on this week:

 

Worship Tonight:  Soul Feast!

 

We are doing something a little different tonight for worship.  Last week we looked at what it means to take the love of Jesus beyond our own four walls.  This week we are going to do that—literally!  We are going to prayer walk campus.  Meet in front of Fresh Food Company at 6:30pm.  From there we will go two by two to pray for campus.  It should be awesome!

 

 

Thursday’s Free Meal and Bible Study:  Solid Rock Café!

 

We will be finishing up our movie series on the Lawn this Thursday.  We will begin at 6:30pm with dinner at the Wesley Foundation.  Then we will have a program that focuses on the God’s challenge to us to appreciate and celebrate diversity.  The title of our discussion is “What Color Is Your Rainbow.”  We will follow this with a showing of the movie “Glory Road” on the South Lawn at DUC (8:30pm).  So bring lots of blankets and warm clothes and join us for a challenging and worthwhile evening.

 

Now for Sami’s Ramblings About Jesus:

 

This past Sunday I was blessed with the opportunity to bring the message at Broadway UMC.  It was so awesome to see how a word of encouragement that God had laid on my heart met with what God was doing in lives of folks that I had not met yet.  I love that about the way God works.  He knows what needs are there, and uses ordinary people of faith to meet them, working in such a way that only He can take the credit.  It reminds me of something that someone in Gulf Port, Mississippi said to our group who went to do Hurricane Relief last Spring:  All we have to be is available; God does the rest.

 

We might think that leadership changes the world, or courage, or intelligence, or super-human strength, or money, or influence, or ___________________.  But really, the thing that really, really changes the world is the gift of our available-ness, to God.  What if our concept of being “available” was no longer associated with whether or not we were in the market for a love relationship and instead was related to how available we are to the Living God?  What if the conversations surrounding availability went something like:  “She’s totally available.  Wonder how long it will be before her life becomes an incredible adventure?  You know God doesn’t waste any time.  Give Him and inch of availability and He turns it into a mile.  Did you see how that guy really made himself available?  Look at him now!  It’s like he’s a totally different person.  God has totally transformed everything in his life, and he is, I don’t know, radically on fire for this new thing God started!  It’s like he could change the world or something!”  Could you imagine how the world we live in would be a different place?  How things would change if people, just believers even, were to radically release their own agendas and came to God as if their lives were a blank check that He could fill out any way He wanted?  Wow!  The implications stagger me!

 

Of course this comes from someone who struggles with availability everyday.  Especially when I think I know what God has in mind, but I get so intent on doing whatever “it” is that I forget to fellowship with HIM.  I do get glimpses though.  Of when God does something really cool, and I get to be a part of it.  Like when a message that was on my heart to give connects with a life, that I had no way of knowing would bring a positive impact the way it did.  Only God could know that.  Only God could connect dots that I can’t even see.

 

So be encouraged.  Know that He is connecting dots in your life too.  And live with me the challenge of being available.  Maybe together the sum of our availability will be greater than our individual parts.  And we will see God’s glory in a way we never imagined.

 

Blessings,

 

Sami

 

Sami Wilson

Campus Minister/Director

WKU Wesley Foundation

sami@wkywesley.org