As you read these words, 19 students are working summer jobs, applying copious amounts of sunscreen, and dreaming about what might be in store for them in few short weeks. I do not know their names, and they do not know mine, but soon we will be locked in the intimate embrace known as education. These summer days will evaporate faster than either they or their parents can imagine. Soon they will find themselves seated in a college classroom. Soon they will be challenged and changed by the freedom that comes with this season of life. Soon they will discover the extreme highs and devastating lows that characterize the college experience. Navigating this terrain is not easy for in-coming or returning college students. They will need a mature guide - one that knows the pitfalls as well as the resources. Campus ministers and college chaplains are uniquely situated to be that guide - to shape and nurture these current and future leaders. I am grateful that the Iowa Annual Conference continues to support this vital ministry at this crucial time.
Thank you.
ted lyddon hatten
Drake Wesley Foundation
Thank you.
ted lyddon hatten
Drake Wesley Foundation
"Three Simple Questions," is both the title of a book and a three-word description of its contents. Bishop Reuben Job is the author of the book, but the questions have been around since the dawn of human consciousness: Who are you? Who is God? Who are we together?
They are deceptively simple. For those of us who are called to ministry with and for college students, these questions can be found lingering near the core of every conversation. A first-year student's response to these questions is very different from that of a graduating senior. The answers shift and change and deepen; the questions remain.
When the church supports the kind of work on college campuses, as Iowa United Methodists still do, it fosters leadership development and helps form faithful disciples. On behalf of students, faculty, and staff, thank you for your support of this vital ministry.
tlh
They are deceptively simple. For those of us who are called to ministry with and for college students, these questions can be found lingering near the core of every conversation. A first-year student's response to these questions is very different from that of a graduating senior. The answers shift and change and deepen; the questions remain.
When the church supports the kind of work on college campuses, as Iowa United Methodists still do, it fosters leadership development and helps form faithful disciples. On behalf of students, faculty, and staff, thank you for your support of this vital ministry.
tlh
Dry painting from an installation entitled, "This is Broken. This is Beautiful,"
William Jewell College, 2015, by Ted Lyddon Hatten.
William Jewell College, 2015, by Ted Lyddon Hatten.
From an interactive installation at Wm. Jewell College, Liberty, Missouri that explores the salvific power of beauty. With the fractures of our broken world rapidly spreading, can beauty restore wholeness? Can it heal? If beauty has the power to redeem, how can we nurture that process? What might happen if we place our brokenness in a context of beauty? These are a few of the questions that have shaped this installation that will give college students the opportunity to engage in a conversation about the relationship between beauty and brokenness.
From the Festival of Radical Discipleship, in Oak View, CA. This piece was done on Ash Wednesday in memory of Kayla Mueller, the Arizona student recently kidnapped and murdered be members of ISIS in Syria.
Materials used: sand, ash, and seed.
Week of Understanding, Scott Chapel, Drake University
Imagine Being Heard, Smith Chapel, Simpson College; February, 2013. Ted Lyddon Hatten