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.