First Congregational to Participate in Leadership Transformation Program with KO Conference4/19/2021
The Kansas-Oklahoma Conference of the UCC is honored to be one of the recipients of a 2021 Leadership Transformation Grant from the Kansas Leadership Center. The KLC is a non-profit founded by the Kansas Health Foundation. KLC provides training to foster leadership for stronger, healthier and more prosperous Kansas communities. Through the Leadership Transformation Grant, KLC partners with organizations to help them create a culture of leadership that embraces change, tackles problems and seizes opportunities. As a part of this grant, the KO Conference is sending 50 participants to participate in a two-day training with KLC. Our congregation was invited to put together our own delegation and we welcome your prayers as we prepare to learn and grow this summer. Janet George and Cassidy Moreau will participate in the KLC leadership training on May 5-6. Deane Lehmann, Jeff Watson, Craig Weston, and Pastor Caela will be attending the same training on June 2-3. You can learn more about the training here. Grow Green Match Day Thursday, April 22, 2021
12 am -11:59 pm NO LIVE EVENT – Due to COVID-19 Online Gifts or Mailed Checks only Grow Green Match Day is a community fundraising event that offers a 50% match on gifts given on April 22! This year donations made to the Church will help offset costs related to HVAC improvements and sanitizer stations so that we may gather together safely and in person in the (hopefully) near future, and for media equipment so that we can provide a high-quality stream of our services. Please help us return to our building by supporting this great event! Here's how it works: Gifts can be made online from 12:00 a.m. -11:59 p.m. on April 22. Simply visit https://www.growgreenmanhattan.com on the day of the event. If you prefer to give by check: • Download the 2021 Grow Green Giving Form from the website, print, and complete. • Write ONE check for the entire donation made out to GMCF • Mail the check and donation form (postmarked on or before 4/22/21) to GMCF, P.O. Box 1127, Manhattan, KS 66505-1127 Your donation goes to the Church, PLUS contributions ranging from $25 to $1,000 will receive a local match at $.50 per $1, so a $1,000 gift can receive a $500 local match. The match amount will go into the Church's endowment account at the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation. Please note that your gift is considered over and above any pledged giving. If you miss the April 22 event and would still like to support this campaign, you may send a gift to the Church and note that it is for the "Return to the building." Get outdoors this spring and summer and enjoy making new friends or visiting with longtime friends you haven't seen in a while! Text your name and the name(s) of the group(s) you're interested in to 785-380-7772. We'll sign you up for a GroupMe and the group organizer will text you updates and when/where to meet up. You do not have to have the GroupMe app to participate, just a phone that can text. If you don't have the ability to text, please contact the church office so we can make other arrangements. All groups take place outdoors and participants agree to follow our congregation's COVID safety measures. You can read full details at uccmanhattan.org/covid. The highlights are: don't come if you're sick/quarantined, wear a mask, maintain at least six feet distance from those outside your household, keep track of who attends in case we need to complete contact tracing. CURRENT GROUPS Easy Riders - Join us for easy bike rides in and around town. (And if you want to coordinate some more challenging rides, that's okay, too). This group is facilitated by Chad Moreau and Brent Maner. Playground Meet Ups - Meet up at local playgrounds and the kids can play while the adults visit on the sidelines. You don't have to be a parent/guardian to join the group. You can also just come and visit with others in a comfy seat. BYOC (bring your own chair - and mask, of course). This group is facilitated by Brandy McDonald. Chat & Craft (or just visit!) - You don't have to be a crafter to join. That's just a fun name. If you have any craft projects you like to do with your hands OR you just want to enjoy a comfy seat while visiting with friends, join us. BYOC (bring your own chair - and mask, of course). This group is facilitated by Deane Lehmann. Walk & Talk - Stroll with friends and enjoy conversation while you walk. We will meet up at City Park or other easy-to-walk places with sidewalks (i.e. not strenuous hikes). This group is facilitated by Greg Eiselein. Have an idea for another group? Great! Please let Pastor Caela know. One Great Hour of Sharing – Let Love Flow Nobody hungry, nobody thirsty, shade from the sun, shelter from the wind, For the Compassionate One guides them, takes them to the best springs.” – Isaiah 49:10 Every day and every week, we see our congregation giving tirelessly to reach out to meet critical needs of neighbors in our community. Less visible to most of us, but equally important, is to work with Our Church’s Wider Mission to allow congregations and individuals to meet people at points of critical need in their lives. During the month of March, we encourage our church members to support the UCC Special Mission Offerings for One Great Hour of Sharing which provides resources to reach out in places lacking health and educational resources and/or where disaster has struck. Here are a few examples of how your support can make such a difference in peoples’ lives. Water is life, water is love - Access to clean fresh water is vital for all of humanity, but for women in particular, water access means the difference between life and death for them and their families. The United Nations International Observance of World Water Day (March 22) reflects on the importance of water in our daily lives and remembers those who lack access to adequate drinking water supplies. For women and girls around the world, it can be a 12 hour walk to the nearest water source to collect water to maintain basic needs and crucial hygiene practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. With your support,100 families will benefit from the Water Well project, sponsored by the United Church of Christ in Mozambique (UCCM). When you give to One Great Hour of Sharing, you invest in the hopeful future of women and girls around the world and serve as co-workers with God to build a just world for all. Food security – Imagine not knowing where your next meal will come from, living in constant fear of political unrest, battling climate change, farmers battling obstacles to get crops to harvest. For many people in the world, this is their reality. In Nicaragua, families find it harder to believe that food security can be an attainable goal. Several of the families there have lost several harvests to the effects of climate change. Farmers in their community found that when it rains too much, the crops die from disease or are washed away. When it doesn’t rain enough, they dry up. Either way, farmers lose everything. Through One Great Hour of Sharing programs, farmers and their families are finding new ways to earn a living and secure their food supply, such as raising stingless Melipona bees, which produce medicinal honey to sell or raising poultry that produce eggs, plus another 140 chickens to sell! Your Board of Mission urges you to join in Our Church’s Wider Mission give generously to One Great Hour of Prayer which helps people in such need to imagine and attain a better life, with clean water, better sanitation, and secure food systems. You may make your gift any time during the month of March by indicating "OGHS" in the memo line of your check or online gift. For more information about how to give to and through First Congregational, please click here. As we move into the new year, we invite you to join us for Living Room Worship Online! LRW is an informal experience for those who desire to connect more with each other and with God through small group discussion, prayer, and singing. While we can't yet be together in person, we hope you'll join us virtually via your own living room! For more information, you can contact Kerry Priest (kerry.priest@gmail.com).
Sunday, January 24 7:00 pm Zoom link: https://ksu.zoom.us/j/96711977572?pwd=WmlLZnllRlpVRUdYQXlEbUdDTnR5QT09 Or call 1-669-900-6833 and enter Meeting ID: 967 1197 7572 Passcode: 364255 (Note: long-distance charges may apply when using the call-in option.) Join us on Zoom at 11:45 a.m. on Sunday, Jan. 24th for our January Congregational Meeting. All are welcome to attend and members will also be invited to vote. We will be approving the 2021 budget for our ministry. Documents for the meeting will be e-mailed to all members no later than Sunday, Jan. 17th. If you are a member and you have not received your documents by that date, please check your junk mail folder and then e-mail Sandy if you still cannot find the documents.
ZOOM INFORMATION FOR THE MEETING: Zoom room opens at 11:35 a.m. Meeting begins at 11:45 a.m. Click to Zoom or call 1-669-900-6833 and dial meeting ID 849 7636 0960# at the prompt. Meeting password is 66502. Please note: long distance charges may apply if you use the call-in option. The meeting will open at 11:35 a.m. Upon signing into Zoom for the meeting, you will be directed to type the names of all voting members in the chat so that we have a record of the meeting. Those members who call in will be able to state their names, which can then be entered manually into the record by a host. All members of our boards and committees are invited to attend the 2021 Leadership Kick Off on Wednesday, Jan. 13th at 7:00 p.m. via Zoom. We will gather as a full group to share some tips and wisdom for the upcoming year and then break into individual boards/committees for meetings. For most boards and committees this will replace your regular January meeting. We look forward to gathering with you and if you have any questions, please reach out to Jeff Watson, 2021 Moderator, or the church office. Zoom information: Click to Zoom or call 1-669-900-6833 and dial meeting ID 881 5142 0923# at the prompt. Meeting password is 66502. Note: long-distance charges may apply if you use the call-in option. Put Saturday, December 19 on your calendar! On that day you can drop by the church between 10:00 a.m. and Noon to pick up any donated poinsettias as well as candles for the Christmas Eve service. You can also spread some Christmas cheer to our Second Helping friends by dropping off cookies for distribution. Linda Thurston suggests that the cookies be bagged in threes. Gayle Doll will be sitting in the lobby watching for you to come to the South lobby door and will come outside to make the exchange. You can also text her at 785-456-4903 if you would like her to come out to your car. Please wear your mask! Looking for something special to give a loved one for Christmas? A gift to Second Helping in the name of your loved one will provide hot meals for members of the Manhattan community who may be experiencing hardship and hunger. Our meals cost about $2.50 per person per night; and that includes a hot meal (to go, at this time), a bottle of water, and a lunch sack that also contains breakfast items. You will receive a special card recognizing the gift that you can send to your loved one. A gift of $25 will provide meals for 10 people for one day (3 meals). Fifty dollars will feed 20 people for one day. And you can feed 40 people for a day with a $100 donation. To make your donation online, click the button below to donate via PayPal. You can also mail a check with a note that includes what it's for and your name/address to 700 Poyntz, Manhattan, KS 66502. P.S. You could also tell others this is a gift you would like, if you happen to be asked! We have a tradition on Christmas Eve of writing down our prayers on small slips of paper and placing them in the manger in our Sanctuary. This year we’ve moved the nativity scene outdoors and are inviting anyone in the community to join us throughout December. Please stop by the church lawn anytime after December 1st and before Christmas to leave your prayer. You can come as many times as you’d like! There is a plastic box with slips of paper, writing utensils, and a small stapler. After you write your prayer, link it to the other prayers and staple it to create a prayer chain. Together, our prayers will decorate the creche as we await Christ’s arrival. A big thank you to Bert Allen for creating our gorgeous prayer station!
|
News Archives
January 2024
Categories
All
ConnectPrint
|