Did you vote already? If so, you've done what you can do. No amount of doom-scrolling or refreshing your preferred news site will effect the outcome of the election. You can not single-handedly will the votes to be counted any faster by watching cable news. (No. Really.)

We will have the church building open 
Tuesday:  8:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m., 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Wednesday: from 8:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. 
Wednesday there is also a KIFA prayer vigil over the noon hour, see details below. 

You're invited to drop in on Tuesday or Wednesday to center yourself, find some peace, pray, journal, keep your hands busy, or whatever else your spirit might need. You can also join the live Zoom room, if coming down to the building isn't an option. 

This is open to the public - no need to be a member of our congregation. 

Possibilities for quieting your inner anxiety monster:

• You can sit and enjoy silence in our sanctuary. 
• We have a box of books that might help guide your time: devotionals, poetry, etc. Or bring your own favorite
• Consider bringing earbuds and music if you'd like to relax in that way. No news podcasts allowed. 🫣
• We will have a prayer journal if you'd like to write a prayer or read prayers that other's have left. 
• We will have an origami station where you can make a peace dove or heart. Or you can make 100 of them if you really need to keep your hands off your phone. Put them around your home to remind you to seek peace in the coming days or give to a friend who might need a little love. Level up: give your peace dove or heart to an enemy and say a prayer for their well-being. 
• We will have a group art project where you're invited to write or draw your answer to this question: "Regardless of the outcome of the election, what goodness will remain constant and present in your life? 
• If you choose to stop in via Zoom, you'll have a silent view of our sanctuary. You can light a candle at home and share any of your prayers in the chat for others to read. 

Please enter our building through the double-doors located near the bike rack on the west side of the building. And please invite a friend who might also need space to find some peace. 

On Wednesday, Nov. 6th we are also encouraging people to join Kansas Interfaith Action from 12-1pm for an interfaith time of prayer, song, and holding space as we celebrate, lament, and reflect prayerfully on the outcomes of this historic election season.

You can attend the KIFA event via Zoom by registering here.
- OR - 
Come down to the church building at Noon on Wednesday and we'll log into the Zoom gathering together. 

Our church fellowship area is filled with good food smells and visiting voices every Sunday evening.  And we’ve been especially busy this summer at Second Helping.  Total number of meals served (counting second helpings and sack lunches) for June, July and August was 1,944, with an average of more than 150 meals per Sunday.  First helpings (the number of people) totaled 967, about 76 per evening. Last year the average was about 64 first helpings per meal.  We have been blessed with the generosity of cooks, crew, greeters, and dessert makers every Sunday this summer.  Fresh produce (i.e. 200 pounds of tomatoes, 2 crates of fresh corn and other items from the Breadbasket; ten-gallon buckets of cucumbers, green beans and apples from community members; eggplants, beans, and other produce from church members) have enhanced our healthy meals and have provided items for the Free Table for our guests to take home.  
Linda Thurston, 2H meal coordinator



A little something to help…

A couple of weeks ago, after the meal, one of our regulars came up to me to thank us for the meal.  They also said – I know these meals cost a lot and I would like to help.  A shaky hand reached out and gave me four crumbled $1 bills.  I offered thanks and said it was our honor to serve the meals….”see you next week; we’re having chicken!” 
Linda



Ready to pitch in - again?

In the past several years every member of our church has helped with our Sunday community meals in some way – cash and food donations, preparing and serving the meals, making sack lunches and desserts, picking up groceries, coordinating lunches and volunteers.  There are many ways you can continue to pitch in.  First, we always need volunteers – talk to Les or go to the sign-up page on the church website.  We also need donations of cash and food.  Despite the blessings of Flint Hills Food Recovery, the Breadbasket, and USDA Food Bank and Soup Kitchen commodities, we still need dollars.  Our biggest expenses are the sack lunches (we don’t get sandwich bread and lunch meat from any of our sources) and the recyclable/compostable items we use for serving Dine-In meals and To Go meals.  Costs for these items usually runs more than $500 a month – significantly more that several years ago.  Thank you for your prayers, your time and your cash.





If you’re headed to Sam’s or Cosco….

Sam’s and Cosco have the large size cans and containers we love at 2nd helping.  (How long do you think it takes to open 36 #300 cans of green beans?)  Next time you head to one of the big stores, consider bringing home one or two of these items for Second Helping:
Ranch dressing
Baked beans
Instant oatmeal
Breakfast bars
Snack crackers
Mushroom soup



Where does 2nd Helping food come from?

We are blessed with regular donations and deliveries that provide much of the goods that go into our weekly Sunday suppers for 2nd Helping.  Have you wondered where the items come from that the cooks and crew prepare every week?  Here’s a list:

1. USDA commodities from the Kansas Food Bank and Soup Kitchen program based in DFC.  We send in a monthly inventory and order, although we don’t always need to order – the items they offer vary from chicken drummies to dried cranberries.  Most of the meat and canned veggies we serve comes from commodities.  
2. Flint Hills Food Recovery is part of the Farm and Food Council in Riley County.  They manage the pick-up and delivery of catered food such as the prepared food we get from the K-State training table caterers (Sudexo). They also recover items like 20# boxes of bacon (we took 3!), cases of frozen bread dough, and fresh produce.  We signed up for this program and I get alerts or a phone call from Vickie James, the coordinator, when food is available and will be delivered. We love recovered catered food – our 2H cooks just need to heat it up!
3. Panera Bread is delivered almost every Friday by Larry from First Lutheran.  We usually get loaves and baguettes, but sometimes we get fancy muffins.  Extra goes in the freezer or is packaged and put on the Free Table for our Sunday supper guests.
4. Hy-Vee gives us a discount for our weekly orders, which are usually fresh items such as salad materials and items for the sack lunches.  The order goes in on Monday and Jackie picks up our order every Wednesday.
5. Pastor Sue orders bulk items when we need them – such as the butter and jelly packets for meals, breakfast bars and, of course, the service items we need.
6. The MHK Community Chest, organized by the Manhattan Community Foundation and staffed by volunteers, sometimes has food items we can use with our meals or can put on the Free Table.  They also have personal items such as toothpaste.  You never know what is available, and Stephanie checks for us weekly to see if there are items we can use.
7. Flint Hills Breadbasket sometimes has fresh items that they need to move before the items spoil. A call to Ryan will let us know if there’s anything available and I’ll go pick up what is available if we can use it.  I usually check with Ryan the end of the week so we’ll have something for Sunday.  This summer:  200# tomatoes; 2 bushels of corn (husked by my neighbor, Thom); a case of summer squash; and zucchini, kale, lettuce, bananas, and more.
8. Church members, neighbors, and community members provide cookies, desserts, garden produce and more!  If we can’t use items like a 10-gallon bucket of apples right away, we put them on the Free Table for our guests.  A friend brought 60 zip-lock bags of washed green beans for us to put on the Free Table.  Church members bring oatmeal packets and breakfast bars as well as garden produce.  ESA collects items for us at some of their state-wide meetings.  

There are other sources of items that are essential is helping us provide a weekly hot meal and sack lunch for those in need of food and community.   We are blessed with this abundance. 

Tuesday, September 17: 7:00 pm KIFA Faith and Public Policy Forum at the UUFM building on Zeandale Road (click for more info)

We've invited experts and passionate advocates from across the state. Panelists include Jayme Morris-Hardeman, an elected member of the USD 383 School Board, who will discuss the state of public education in Kansas; Emily Wagner of Kansas Housing Advocacy Network, who will discuss homelessness and housing policy; Micah Kubic of the ACLU of KS, who will discuss civil rights; and Heather Braum of Kansas Action for Children, who will discuss work and family supports.

Saturday, September 28: 10 am to 2 pm Climate Justice Revival Event at the UUFM building on Zeandale Road

As many of you know, our Justice and Witness committee at First Congregational UCC has joined with our Unitarian and Mennonite sister congregations to create a combined team, called the Manhattan Interfaith Justice Team. Since January, we have been meeting together to discuss how we can combine our witness for local justice issues. Support of KIFA is part of this, but we are discussing other activities to bear witness to our faith that God calls us to work for justice in our world.

The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Manhattan is hosting a Climate Justice Revival on September 28. The September event is part of a national Unitarian Universalist effort to address the specific topic of climate justice, an issue literally heating up in many parts of Kansas and our local community. There will be classes/activities for children, youth and adults, and we will all be invited to participate.

Tentative agenda
Collective Visioning
Making Connections
Building Capacity
Nourishing Relationships
Charting a Course

Snacks, drinks, and regular breaks will be provided during the event, and we'll have a potluck lunch to facilitate the fellowship aspects of the occasion.

You can sign up for the Climate Justice Revival here. 

Sunday, Oct. 15 is our celebration of Second Helping volunteers. Join us as we give thanks for the hard work of the many volunteers who make Second Helping possible. Linda Thurston will present a history and current state of Second Helping as the sermon. The Mission Board is organizing a reception to follow during the Fellowship Hour. We would love to have you join us!

Wow! ECM at K-State is celebrating 101 years of ministry! Join us on Sunday, May 8th at Long's Park as we welcome guests from ECM and celebrate with them. And then on Sunday, May 15th we'll have guests from ECM with us at 9:30 a.m. (church basement or via Zoom) to share about what ECM is up to and answer our questions. We're excited to welcome these partners in campus ministry and deepen our relationship with them.

You can learn more about ECM on their website (https://www.ecmatkstate.org/) and you're encouraged to sign up for their e-mail list and/or follow them on social media. ​

It's time for our annual Blessing of the Animals and Worship in the Park. Join us at (shady) Long's Park on Sunday, May 8th at 10:45 a.m. for this special service. Childcare staff will be on hand to care for young kids who want to explore the playground or the rest of the park.

After worship we'll have a good ol' fashioned potluck and friends from ECM at K-State (our campus ministry) are coming to visit with us so we can help them celebrate 101 years in ministry.

Things to bring to the park:
- your own lawn chair, if you have one
- a potluck dish to share
- your own tableservice, to reduce our use of disposable dishes
- your pet (or stuffed animal!) for a blessing
***If you have any questions about accessibility at the park, please let us know.

For those worshiping at home, please use the regular Zoom link. If you have an animal you'd like blessed at home, please reach out to Pastor Caela so she can arrange a visit.
​

With gratitude to our local educators, the School Staff Appreciation Committee wrote a letter that was shared with all administrators and board members in USD 383. 

When Jesus's friend Lazarus died, he wept. Our faith compels us to mourn and bear witness to the pain that the COVID pandemic has caused. As the United States approaches one million deaths from COVID and the Deacons would like to invite you to join us in installing a temporary memorial on our church lawn. We have purchased 1,000 white utility flags (each flag represents 1,000 lives lost). When the U.S. reaches one million deaths - likely sometime in the next few weeks - we will invite people to stay after worship one Sunday to place the flags in the church yard, along with signs explaining the memorial. In doing so, we invite the community to join us as we remember, grieve, and bear witness to the image of God in every life lost. ​

We all know that those who work in our local schools have been under an incredible amount of stress lately and we would like to show them some love. You are invited to join us for a School Staff Appreciation Week, March 7-10. We will be hand-delivering small gifts of appreciation to USD 383 middle and high schools and writing thank you notes to school staff.

Here’s how you can participate:

1. If you’d like to help offset the costs of purchasing items for the goodie baskets, please make a special donation no later than Feb. 27th. You can write a memo on your check OR put a note in the “special instructions” box if you donate via PayPal. Checks can be mailed, dropped off at the office, or put in the offering plate. 

2. If you are interested in shopping for gifts or hand-delivering the gifts, please contact the church office no later than Feb. 27th.

3. We encourage EVERYONE to think of a teacher, staff member, former teacher, neighbor who works in the schools, etc. and commit to sending them an email or handwritten note during the week of Mar. 7-10. These notes mean more than you can know. 

4. Please continue to stay informed about actions in our local school board and in the state legislature that affect our schools. Contact your elected officials and/or consider writing letters to the editor to speak up about how much we appreciate our local school staff and encouraging them to create policies that support all educators.