Welcome Back Students!

The 2008-2009 LSU School Year is about to start. We at Wesley Foundation are excited to start a new year with our returning students and arriving freshman!

This brand new start gives us all an opportunity to make new friends and find new ways to help out in our community, all the while having fun together. For you freshman, it’s a chance to come experience your first Wednesday Night Chapel. Starting at 7 p.m. we’ll have dinner prepared for only $2 if you’d like a change from LSU Dining, and at 8 p.m. we move to our chapel for worship. That first chapel of the year is August 27th. And don’t worry, EVERYONE will have a chance to sign up for small groups and other service opportunities then.

LSU’s Wesley Foundation is connected with University United Methodist Church right off campus on Dalrymple Drive. This church enjoys having college students around and can’t wait for the semester to begin. Every year right before school starts, they host LSU Sunday. This year LSU Sunday is August 24th. Feel free to wear jeans and your favorite LSU t-shirt to church on LSU Sunday. Not only is dress more casual, but there is a FREE LUNCH right after just for the students! It’s a great opportunity to meet Don Meeks, the campus minister, and yours truly, Peter Gaughan, the Wesley Foundation Intern.  There we’ll have more information about the groups you can join and the things you can do. Plus, we’ll take you over to the Wesley Foundation Building if you’ve never been. I can’t wait.

If you have any questions or ideas for the year, why wait until LSU Sunday?

You can contact Don by emailing him at lsuwesley@bellsouth.net or Peter at justpeter@lsuwesley.org.

Don?t Mind the Stress, the Salmon Are Eagerly Awaiting You

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been very stressed lately.  While you all have been busy with school, Sarah and I have been busy with finishing all the last minute details for mission trip.  And while everyone else talks about how excited they are about mission trip or their own spring break plans, I feel stressed about mission trip and imagine all sorts of outlandish scenarios of how things could go wrong.  I try to take comfort in this verse:

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.  The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.  Romans 8:18-19

Usually when we read this verse, we think of it applying to some distant future, but what if in some small way it comes to pass, at least partially, over spring break?  At some point, I’ll let the stress, the weight, the responsibility I feel go and let God take care of things.  All the minor frustrations will be forgotten in the pure joy of serving God and neighbor in Seattle as God reveals Himself through us.  I also take solace in the fact that there are untold numbers of salmon eagerly awaiting our arrival to plan trees and shrubs to protect their habitats and provide them shade as they migrate.  Soon we will be celebrating Easter, when we declare that Jesus is risen and, through our actions in mission, we will declare with our actions that Christ is still present in the world today.

So if you’re reading this and you’re getting a little bummed because you’re not going on mission trip, don’t be!  There are opportunities all around you, not just in Seattle.  Be open to how God might want use you on that beach in Florida or ski slope in Colorado.  All people need the gospel, the homeless poor and salmon of Seattle as well as the financially secure college kids and jellyfish on the beach.