This morning a new semester gets underway. For some of you, it will be at a new school as a first-year or transfer student. Some of you might be returning after some time off or starting a graduate degree. Some are returning to see old friends and make new friends. I am sure all of us have a bit of butterflies, questions about what this year will be like, daydreams about what joys and sorrows it might hold, and hopes for where we will be when it comes to an end next May.

This year will be different. COVID-19 remains present, but this will be the closest to ‘normal’ we have been in more than two years. Yet, we know simultaneously that things for all of us will still feel very different. Thankfully we won’t have to figure it out alone – we will have each other.

As always, we will continue to be a campus community defined by radical love, a commitment to justice, and service to our community. We will follow Jesus through our connection to each other and our refusal to let oppression and suffering define this world. Through the Spartan Open Pantry and our other service projects, we will help to care for each other and everyone in our larger community.

You have probably been told your entire life that school and everything you are doing are preparing you to make your mark on this world.  Perhaps you have even been told that even as a college student. While it is true that you are still learning, exploring, and growing, the truth is that your chance to change this world has already started.

I hope we will see you this week at Fall Kick-Off, Game Night, or our first Sunday Night Worship at 8 pm. But I want you to know that Wesley-Luther is a place for you, whether you come to every event or stop by the lounge once a year to see a friend. It is a place where I hope you know you can be yourself no matter who you love, where you have been, or what you believe about God. I hope it will always feel like a place that feels like a safe harbor no matter how often you seek its shelter.

I look forward to seeing you and getting to know all our transfers and first-year students. If you need to connect, my office door is always open (or at least my cell phone is always on).

Most importantly, I hope you remember that you are seen and loved. I hope that you know every day how incredible you are. I hope you know that God loves all of you as you are.

May you feel the peace, hope, and love of Christ as we all begin this new semester.

In Peace,

Andrew Mails
Campus Minister