No one ever had to guess what Keshira Watson wanted to do for a living. From the time she was in 2nd grade, she just knew.
“I’ve always known that I was called to ministry,” said Keshira, 22, a student at Philander Smith University in Little Rock, Ark., a historically black United Methodist school founded in 1877. “I’ve known since I was 7 years old. It was just a gut feeling.
Philander Smith University is one of the black colleges supported by the Black College Fund which provides financial support to maintain solid, challenging academic programs; strong faculties; and well-equipped facilities.
“I used to watch my youth pastor and all of the ministers, and I was just in love with what they did, and I always wanted to be just like them.”
That modus operandi of following her gut convictions followed Watson into high school. Invited by a friend, she first visited Philander Smith University for a Youth Theological Institute the summer before her senior year. As soon as she heard about the college at the institute, she decided there was no other school for her—even though she’d never even seen the campus.
“From that moment, I knew that I had to go to Philander,” she said. “I didn’t apply to any other colleges. Before I joined the [youth theological] program, I didn’t even really want to go to college. But I was determined to go to Philander Smith University after that program.”
Watson went on to serve as chaplain of Philander Smith’s Student Association for two years, a role where she learned to listen to God and simply put herself in a position to be used by God, when and if her fellow students needed her.
“I prayed at all the meetings,” Watson said. “Other than praying at events and at meetings, there wasn’t a certain requirement I had.
“So, I realized from talking to students that a lot of them just needed prayer. They were trying to find their way to God, but it’s not always as easy as it seems.”
Today, Watson is serving as a minister in training at Wesley Chapel United Methodist Church in Little Rock, where Rev. Ronnie Miller-Yow has given her a variety of assignments so that she can discover where she might best fit in and want to serve long-term.
Having served in on-campus and now an off-campus role, Watson sees that her job is to, if nothing else, simply smile, take time to talk to people, and show them the love of Christ. For that, she doesn’t need to be pastor or be ordained, she said—she just needs to be available. In the process, she’s learning new things all the time from the people she encounters.
“A scripture that sticks with me says that you have to carry your cross one day at a time [Luke 9:23],” Watson said. “To me, that means that I don’t have to plan out my whole life. I don’t have to worry about what yesterday was, but today, I have to carry my cross and I have to do what God tells me to do today. I think that people, when they think about doing His will, it’s like, ‘Well, I have to worry about tomorrow.’ But it’s like, no—today.
“I think that we try to go too fast, and God just wants us to slow down. It’s like God [says], ‘You’re on a journey. I just need you to follow me today step by step. You don’t have to know the big plan.”
excerpt from a story on General Board of Higher Education and Ministry website
One of seven apportioned giving opportunities of The United Methodist Church, the Black College Fund provides financial support to maintain solid, challenging academic programs; strong faculties; and well-equipped facilities at 11 United Methodist-related historically black colleges and universities. Please encourage your leaders and congregations to support the Black College Fund apportionment at 100 percent.
