Contact Me This Week:
My personal cell: 615.566.3513 (call or text)
My email: mike@myLIFEspeaks.com
During the week, if you want to talk or share something, let's chat. I'd love to hear from you.
A Little About Me
I'm Mike Wilson. My wife, Missy, and I co-founded a ministry called myLIFEspeaks that works in Haiti. And I've been in vocational ministry for 30+ years. That's long enough to know that the best things that happen at camp rarely happen on a stage.
I love teaching and sharing the Gospel, but I love what happens after the message more. The conversations on the way back to the rooms. The student who finally asks the question they've been sitting on for three years. The adult leader who says the right thing at exactly the right moment.
That's you, by the way. You're the one who gets to have those conversations. I want to help set them up well. This page is my way of letting you into the week before it starts.
The Good Shepherd: Where We're Going This Week
Every message follows a single thread through Psalm 23.
Each morning I'll set up the day and ask a question for your group to wrestle with in Bible study.
Here's the arc.
5 Day Camps
Tuesday Morning
The Good Peace: Psalm 23:2
In what areas of your life do you need rest and peace?
Wednesday Morning
The Good Restoration: Psalm 23:3
What does spiritual restoration and renewal need to look like for you?
Thursday Morning
The Good Presence: Psalm 23:4
How can you experience God's presence during challenging situations?
Friday Morning
Opening Night (Monday)
The Good Shepherd:
Psalm 23:1 & Mark 6:30-44
We set the foundation. Jesus is not an idea or a principle. He is a shepherd who provides, protects, and calls people by name. The goal tonight is to introduce The Good Shepherd.
Tuesday Night
The Good Peace:
Mark 6:45-52
Jesus comes to His disciples in the middle of a storm and offers peace before the circumstances change. This night plants a seed. There is one moment where the door to the Gospel opens, and there WILL BE a Gospel Invitation
Wednesday Night
The Good Restoration:
Mark 8:27-33
Peter gets the right answer and the wrong direction. Restoration requires the cross. This is a personal and reflective night. Intentional. Slower. Quieter.
Suggestion: Let your students sit in it after the service in church group time.
Thursday Night
The Good Presence:
Mark 8:34-9:1
This is another invitation. I will make a direct, clear call to follow Jesus. First-time decisions. Going deeper. Baptism. Joining a church. All of it is on the table.
If you have been watching your students all week and you sense something is stirring, Thursday night is the night to be close, to pray, and to be ready to have a conversation. This is one of the most important nights of the week for your role as a leader.
The Good LIFE: Psalm 23:5-6
What does an abundant life look like for you? We will send off with a challenge to let this Good LIFE shine through and into every aspect of LIFE.
6 Day Camps
Friday Night
The Good LIFE:
Mark 9:2-8
The Transfiguration. A glimpse of glory before the road ahead. Friday night closes with an open prayer time, not another salvation call. It is intimate and personal. Encourage your students to use it.
Friday Morning
The Good LIFE: Psalm 23:5-6
What does an abundant life look like for you?
Saturday Morning
The Good Sheperd
We put it all together and look ahead.
We will send off with a challenge to let this Good LIFE shine through and into every aspect of LIFE.
A Word About How I Handle Invitations
I want to be straight with you about this because I think it matters for how you prepare your students and how you trust what happens this week.
I don't do emotional manipulation. No drawn-out music designed to manufacture a feeling. No pressure tactics. No guilt. I believe the Holy Spirit does not need my help engineering a moment. My job is to preach the truth clearly, make the invitation plain, and then get out of the way.
I have raised four (of our six) kids. Four of them are adults now, and all four of them have had to wrestle with what they actually believe (I still have an 11-year-old at home and a 28-year-old son with severe disabilities). And when they've struggled, the hardest conversations were never about theology. They were about the moment they made a decision they didn't fully understand, because the room was dark, the music was loud, and everyone around them was moving forward. They looked at me later in their lives and asked why. I can't answer for them.
I struggled with the same thing myself for years. My own salvation was so wrapped in emotion that I missed out on a long stretch of growth because I wasn't sure what I had actually said yes to. It took me some time to find my way to something that was mine, not a feeling I had at a camp when I was eighteen.
So when I give an invitation this week, here is what it will look like. I will tell students exactly what they are being asked to decide. I will give them space to respond without pressure. I will not manufacture urgency. And I will trust that the same God who called them to this camp is more than capable of finishing the work He started.
And I ask the same of you. I believe it is actually a good thing for a student to struggle with decisions. I'll even remind the adults in the room to not run to a student to comfort them and tell them, "It's ok..." because, sometimes, it's just not ok and the student is the only one who knows that.
Be someone safe. Be ready for the conversation that might happen an hour later, or the next morning, or three weeks after camp, when something finally clicks.
The best decisions I have ever seen students make were the quiet ones. The ones nobody saw coming. The ones that stuck.
That is what I am believing for this week.
If something happens in your group that you want to talk through, find me.
I mean that. I'm not hard to find.
How I'm Praying For You & Your Students This Week
1
That the students who don't know Jesus yet would hear His voice this week and respond.
2
That the students who know of Him but have been running would find the courage to stop and turn around.
3
That the students who are walking closely with Him would leave here with a clearer sense of who they are and who they're called to be.
4
That you, the adult in the room, would have the words at exactly the right moment.
Let's Stay Connected
This week is just the beginning of the conversation for a lot of students. I'd love to keep in touch, hear how things are going in your ministry, and let you know when the book drops.
Drop your info below and I'll be in touch.
Come Find Me
I'm serious. If something from a message stirs a question for you or your group, if a student says something that catches you off guard, or if you just want to talk through LIFE, find me.
I'm pretty easy to find. Stop me if I'm walking by. Grab me during track time. Seriously.
Shoot me an email: EMAIL MIKE
Message me on Instagram: @mikewilsonmls
Let's talk about me speaking at your event:
Email:
Call:
More About myLIFEspeaks & Haiti
myLIFEspeaks is a Gospel-centered ministry working in Haiti through education, healthcare, special needs inclusion, and family empowerment. I co-founded it with my wife, and it's the lens through which I see everything, including a week at FUGE.
Learn more about it here: www.myLIFEspeaks.com
