M*A*S*H

Mobile Artful Spiritual Haven.

My friend and colleague, Rhonda, asked me an interesting question recently. "What do we need to have a mobile chapel experience?" A couple of the SU campuses serve a much different demographic than the mostly 18-23 year-old residential undergraduate population at the main campus. How do we minister to a campus that is located in a professional office complex at which most of the students have wildly diverse schedules and family situations, who are studying to enter their second careers?

The trial-and-error process of figuring that out looks different than anything i've ever seen, and has been well-received. We have tried this at lunch time. I prepare a one-page program with a scripture reading, prayers and questions on which people may meditate; the September program can be viewed below. I have brought a small electric waterfall and some cloth to cover a table and placed a few candles on it. I set up my keyboard and improvise music as i am asked by participants or as i feel led.

Some people come in to pray for only a few minutes. Some show up when i get there and leave as i pack up. Some sit and stare out the lovely picture window that allows us to view the thick trees behind the building. Some read the program and journal as they go. Some take several more pages as they leave. Some sing quietly along with the familiar songs as i play them and somtimes i sing a bit too.

One woman told me that she was studying for a test next door and heard the music. She said, "You started playing 'It is Well With my Soul' and i thought, 'Thanks, God, that's for me!'" Many have commented that they feel calmer when they leave than when they arrived.

So, the recipe is not set, but so far includes: some inspirational words on sea green paper, a water fountain, a window to gaze out of, an electronic keyboard, a few candles, the tables at which the students sit and a few Spirit-led moments together. It's peace-promoting and powerful, community-building and individual, all at the same time. When it comes to my love for my job, beautiful duties like these are what put the "Spirit" in "Spiritual Life."

Here is the text from the September program. Enjoy!

Welcome to Oasis! This printed program is intended to offer direction, not give directions. You are invited to read, meditate, listen, pray, sing, sit, or move around as you wish to do so. Stay as long or short as you would like. Your host is DeLyn Celec, Worship Arts Coordinator in the Spiritual Life office, who is here to play a song that you suggest, pray with you, or help you however she can.
Gather
Prayer: As I enter into this time and this place, I breathe deeply of your Spirit, God.
I take a deep breath, grateful that you are present with us.
I take another deep breath, lifting to you the burdensome thoughts that are in my mind.
I take another deep breath, quieting my spirit, focusing my mind, and listening for your voice. Amen.
Proclaim
Psalm 139: 1-18, NRSV

1O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
2You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from far away.
3You search out my path and my lying down,
and are acquainted with all my ways.
4Even before a word is on my tongue,
O Lord, you know it completely.
5You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is so high that I cannot attain it.

7Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?
8If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
9If I take the wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
10even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me fast.
11If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light around me become night’,
12even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is as bright as the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

13For it was you who formed my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.
In your book were written
all the days that were formed for me,
when none of them as yet existed.
17How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18I try to count them—they are more than the sand;
I come to the end*—I am still with you.


Respond
You are invited to journal, writing or drawing your thoughts and prayers in response to these questions, or something else of which you are thinking:
How does God show me that I am “searched and known” by God?
I think of a time during which I ran or “hid” from God; what brought me back?
What do the complex intricacies of human bodies and souls, “fearfully and wonderfully made,” teach me about who God is?
If I read this text through the eyes of a loved one or neighbor or stranger or perhaps someone I do not like very much, what changes?

Send
Prayer: Gracious God, I praise and thank you that we are, indeed, fearfully and wonderfully made. Help me to reflect that knowledge in my daily choices, actions, and words. Show me times during which I have not acted like one who knows your greatness full well. Teach me to consistently choose better. Thank you that you are always with us. Thank you for your love. Help me to freely return that love to you and share it with others. Amen.
Oasis
reflect ~~~~~~~~~~~~ refresh ~~~~~~~~~~~~ refuel