Prayer in a Cup Reflection

By: Hannah Schlenker

For the past few weeks Marsha, Eddie and I have been gathering on Tuesdays at 12:30 for a time of prayer and reflection. It is based off of Joyce Rupp's guide called "The Cup of Our Life" that takes an ordinary cup/coffee mug and uses it as a metaphor for our life and spiritual journey.

Every day for six weeks there is a different theme, and once a week you gather to talk about the process. Each day includes a couple pages describing the theme and what it means. Then there is a breathprayer (pray a few words breathing in, a few breathing out), a reflection where you are instructed to think about the theme, a scripture, some journaling prompts, a prayer, and something to do during the day.

Last week one of the themes was "The Cleansed Cup". It really resonated with me for some reason. It talked about being able to recognize what is "stained" within you, and asking for God to help cleanse you. The scriptures were:

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and steadfast spirit within me (Psalm 51:10)

and

First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may become clean (Matthew 23:26)


In other words, you have to recognize your "stains" before the Holy Spirit can clean them, and furthermore, if you take care of yourself (spiritually) all the rest will come together. The whole week was about accepting yourself, imperfections and all.

We also talked about an E.E. Cummings poem that I like. It beautifully presents an image of oneness with God, and our need to spend some time alone with God. I'll leave you with that poem.

l(a

le
af
fa

ll

s)
one
l

iness

Peace and Forgiveness on the 10th Anniversary of September 11

By: Eddie Crise

I had the privilege to attend a community event remembering 9/11 and looking to the future for peace.  After the event, we also went on a peace walk around City Park.  Both religious leaders, city and university administrators, and the University of Iowa Interfaith Service Group's Michael Goldberg spoke at the event.  He eloquently related the focus of peace to the Interfaith work we are doing.

 Michael Goldberg

Here is what Michael said:

"I would like to thank the other speakers for coming, and I would thank the Consultation of Religious Communities for allowing me the opportunity to speak tonight in memory of those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001.

I was in fifth grade when the terrorist attacks took place. My generation remembers 9/11, but many of us had a limited conception of the world before then. We’ve come of age in a post-9/11 world, a fact that presents both disadvantages and opportunities.

I’m speaking here tonight as a representative of the University of Iowa Interfaith Service Group, a student organization on the Iowa campus that was just established this past spring semester.

This organization is a service group that seeks to include participants from different faith and non-faith backgrounds, people with diverse beliefs and practices. There are two main activities that the group focuses on. The first is action—where participants work together to perform community service. The second is dialogue—where participants share their experiences with the service and share the beliefs that brought them there and inspire them to act.

Some chose to demonize religion after 9/11. Conversely, we recognize an opportunity to be constructive, to find and work together with people who share in our commitment to building a better society.

9/11 was an example of the harmful form belief can take. It was an act intended to control people through fear, to divide and incite hatred. That is why interfaith service, cooperation, and dialogue are as important as ever. And that is why it is so crucial that we come together; that we stand and proudly voice our common beliefs in building a more inclusive society and improving our communities. 

Thank you for your time."

Thank You Free Lunch Volunteers!

By: Eddie Crise

We had such a great meal at Free Lunch this Tuesday!  Fifteen volunteers came over the course of preparation, serving and clean-up to offer over 120 servings.  Jobs varied from lots of washing and recycling (thanks Chris and Tim!), to cutting a watermelon (thanks Hannah!), to serving guests (thanks Jeremy, Marsha, Elizabeth, Misael, and Gail).  And thank you so much to everyone I didn't call out by name.  The timing of when volunteers arrived and left worked perfectly as it seemed that someone new would step in as somebody else left. 

One other organization I want to praise is Table to Table.  They have an awesome mission of the reclamation of food that is not able to be sold at the grocery store, but good enough to eat the next day at Free Lunch and other programs in Iowa City.  All of our food from Table to Table (this month included some great salad greens, fresh fruit and veggies, and dessert) comes to us completely free.  They did a fantastic job for us!

So thank you to everyone who made Free Lunch a reality on Tuesday and if you're looking to help in the future, our next meal is October 11.  Hope to see you there!

Free Lunch with Interfaith Service Group

By: Eddie Crise

Hi Blogees,

I want to break the mold a little bit here and talk about an upcoming event, one that I have done over the past few years at Wesley.  Once a month the students at the Wesley Center serve in the Free Lunch Program.  Free Lunch is available to anyone who needs it in the basement of the Wesley Center six days a week, Monday through Saturday.  The students at Wesley serve on the second Tuesday of the month, coming up September 13.  

Free Lunch is perfect for college students because there are a variety of jobs and timing is flexible.  Any time that you can give between classes is valuable!  We start prep work around 10 AM, serve the meal between Noon and 1 PM, and clean up until about 2 PM.  It’s a great, hopefully convenient way for many of you to help serve the community.

This month I’m especially excited about Free Lunch because the University of Iowa Interfaith Service Group will be making Free Lunch their first service event of the year.  The UIISG is a new organization on campus that brings together people of different faith backgrounds to do community service and subsequently talk about how service is important to everyone’s faith.

Hopefully you can join us for part of Free Lunch on September 13 between 10 AM and 2 PM.  Whether it’s cooking, serving, or dishes we really appreciate your help.  I’ll be back with a follow-up to tell you how the meal went.

Start of a New Semester

By: Hannah Schlenker

Wow! This semester has gotten off to a running start, that's for sure...

But first of all, welcome! This blog is written solely by students at The Wesley Foundation at The University of Iowa. This blog is a unified place where we will share our experiences with programs at Wesley. It’s a place for us to reflect on what these gatherings mean to us and how we are growing closer to one another and to God. We hope that this will serve as a safe, public place for us to give a student’s perspective on what faith means in college. We also hope to give other students an idea of what Wesley is all about. 

A BIT ABOUT ME

I first got involved with Wesley last year (my junior year), because I realized that when I was at college, as opposed to at home, I was missing out on the community and support that I found through gathering with spiritual people (read: church and stuff). In just a year I've made some really great friends -- great as in they are great people and we've become pretty close. I've also gotten more intentional about my own prayer and reflective life. I love having the opportunity to share my beliefs with people who are eager to listen, discuss, and never judge.

STUDENT ORG. FAIR

But I was saying, this semester is already crazy! Last week I represented Wesley at the Student Organization Fair. I got to talk to some neat people and hand out tickets for our free midnight breakfast. I also got pretty sunburned and now my shoulders are peeling. :-p

SPEAKING OF SPIRITUALITY

Then Thursday was my [21st] birthday! I handed out some more Midnight Breakfast tickets during the day, and went to Speaking of Spirituality in the evening. This group holds a special place in my heart because it was the first group I started going to at Wesley. Our topic on Thursday was pretty simple and the mood was celebratory (Eddie, our friend and fellow Wesleyan, also celebrated his birthday). We talked about what we did this summer and what our hopes are for the coming semester! Mostly we ate pizza and laughed a lot.

MIDNIGHT BREAKFAST

Friday night from 11pm-1am Saturday we hosted a free midnight breakfast at Wesley. We were super thankful for a bunch of volunteers from local churches who came out and helped us prepare, make, serve, and clean up the whole event! We had made-to-order pancakes hot off the griddle, fresh scrambled eggs, and sausage. Also milk and juice to wash it all down! My job was to stand outside the building with a sign and get people to come in! It was a little discouraging when for the first hour pretty much everyone turned us down. But BOOM! After midnight we had whole groups of people get excited about it and come enjoy some fresh home-made breakfast food. This event was a blast!

 Eddie getting his pancakes and eggs

PIZZA WORSHIP

This was a smaller event on Sunday night. We had free pizza from Godfather's, a great band made up of local First United Methodist Church members, and a short program about the emotions and experiences we have when starting something new. This was fitting for the start of the semester! All in all it was a pretty fun event, except that some of us were still pretty tired from the Midnight Breakfast.

Anyway, that was a pretty looooong post! A lot happened. Hope you're all having a great start of YOUR semester!