Wesley Foundation Update October 2009
Greetings,

Hopefully you are staying well this fall.  Be sure to check out what the Wesley Foundations are doing!  Please remember to send your college students an email to let them know you are thinking about them as the semester is getting busy!  This Wesley Foundation Update focuses on two of the Wesley Foundations in Iowa. 
Iowa State University

 
Dear Pastors and Youth Ministers:
 
Hello! My name is Lisa Putz and I am the Outreach Chair of the Vision Action Team and a student at Iowa State University. The Vision Action Team is a group of students of the Wesley Foundation at Collegiate United Methodist Church in Ames that plans programming to nurture and reach out to our peers on campus in God's name.
 
Reaching out to our peers on campus isn't the only kind of reaching out we need to do. Through discussion and reflection on our personal experiences, we have realized that there is a gap in the ministering to and with youth which we would like to fill. In the myriad tasks that need to be accomplished before actually attending college, the subject of God and how to retain your personal relationship with him through the transition to and during college sometimes gets forgotten. 
 
The Vision Action Team and the CUMC Wesley Foundation look to fill that gap. We would love to come and share our experiences with the youth of your congregation.  We have created several different venues that we would like to offer you. These include (1) programming similar to what we do with the Wesley Foundation to give students an idea of what is offered at church in college and (2) programming that involves question and answer time about college, God, and life in general.
 
With these ideas, we are prepared to come to your door to facilitate a youth group, give a presentation, or just hang out. Our doors are open as well for any and all who wish to visit. Attached is a description of several options. If you have an idea for us, feel free to share it. Thank you for your time. We look forward to hearing from you soon to begin the planning process.
 
Peace,

Lisa Putz
Outreach Chair, Vision Action Team
Attachment
 
P.S. While our description of programming targets specifically junior and senior aged youth, the inclusion of any age-group from middle school through high school in what we do is a definite possibility.
 
University of Iowa

Thoughts and Questions on Prayer

Recently during worship our student community made their offering in the form of thoughts and questions about prayer. We offer these now to you for your reflection.
Is it possible or necessary to pray "unselfishly"?
When praying, does it have to be to ask for or thank God for something?  To me, praying is letting God know how I'm feeling about how life is going.

Do I need to pray for someone I have lost or are they taken care of?

If God knows my prayers before I even form them, is prayer just a way to make concerns known to myself - not something I do for God?

Prayer is my attempt at reaching beyond. Do prayers require words?

Prayer to me is a way to connect with the "web of the world" meaning we are all connected in thought and spirit.

I honestly do not know if prayer does anything at all. Yet I still do it, well... it's more like wishing for the same thing over and over again every shooting star I see. But it's the concept of thinking it and knowing it's something of significant importance to me in my life... if it's truly that important, then it's more likely to work in my favor.
What do you do when you cannot feel God's presence and it seems like you're praying to nothing?

I pray through music. Music is my language of emotion and release.

Prayer, for me, is joy: used in a technical sense to mean connection and investment. My choir director once told me that every time I sing, I have the ability to add more meaning and beauty to the world - if I focus all my attention on the music and the details and singing as one with the choir. For me this is prayer, when I am completely focused, committing all of myself, fully in the moment, in whatever I do.

Prayer is opening our hearts to God, making Him privy to our thoughts, feelings, hopes and desires. It is not always able to be expressed in mere words.
...with sighs too deep for words.

Prayer is awareness of others. When you think of others, you change your actions. When you talk with others, your actions change. You become empathetic, more loving. You are praying.

Should a prayer be spur of the moment or a planned event each day?

What's the difference between prayer and meditation? 

Marsha Accord
Associate Director
University of Iowa Wesley Foundation
Campus Ministry Matters!

Got rest?

Rev. Bridgette Young

Most of you are now four to six weeks into the fall term. I'm guessing most of you went the first three weeks or so without taking a full day off. Even now, you may be grabbing a few hours here or there to piece together enough time for breathing space. But is that Sabbath? 

We're all familiar with the irony that leaders in ministry are probably the worst keepers of Sabbath. Instead of pulling out the old Exodus text, here's a different one. "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God." (Psalm 42:1). We are in constant movement, panting to catch our breath, believing we have no time to breathe deeply of God and all that nurtures us. We ha
ve no time or space left for family, friends and encounters with the Divine. When time dedicated to God and loved ones feels more like obligation than restoration, we've got a problem. 

My doctor is a faculty member at Emory School of Medicine. Whenever she'd see me on campus I was usually exhausted and exasperated. Her admonition was, "What kind of model are you for students when they see you completely worn out?" It's so true. Many of our students believe their value and self-worth are measured by the numbers: group memberships, service activities, leadership positions, G.P.A. If we are teaching our students how to be good stewards of these precious lives created by God, we need clarity within ourselves that God created Sabbath for a reason. It was not because God needed rest, but we do. To quote author Marva Dawn (Keeping the Sabbath Wholly, Eerdmans Press), "A great benefit of Sabbath keeping is that we learn to let God take care of us-not by becoming passive and lazy, but in the freedom of giving up our feeble attempts to be God in our own lives." 

The work you do is too essential, and the life you have is too valuable for you to burn out. Develop or strengthen your Sabbath practices. Get rest!

Rev. Bridgette D. Young
Assistant General Secretary, Campus Ministry