Author Archives: Anna Kozak

Easter Services

Join us this Sunday for our Easter Services. Our Sunrise Service will be at 7:00 a.m., followed by a potluck brunch. Our regular service will be at 10:30 a.m., followed by a children’s Easter egg hunt. All are welcome.

Candy for Easter Egg Hunt

The CAUMC Family & Friendship Commission is requesting candy donations for the Easter Egg Hunt on Sunday, April 9. Please make sure that all donations will fit into a plastic easter egg. Donations can be dropped off to the church office at your convenience. 

Thank you so much in advance!

Temporary Office Hours

Starting Tuesday, March 21, the College Avenue UMC offices will be open from 8:00 a.m. until noon and will be closed in the afternoon until further notice while our Administrative Assistant, Anna Kozak, continues to recover from knee surgery. The phones will be forwarded to her, as she will be working from home and will also still be accessible via email at caumc.info@gmail.com. In case of emergency, you may reach Pastor John at 620-252-9622. Thank you for your understanding.

Lenten Soup Luncheon/Baby Shower

March 26, 2023, will be our Lenten Soup Luncheon. Please bring a crockpot of soup to share. If you are not a soup maker, bring crackers, cheese, bread, or any other side that will complement the meal! During our Luncheon, we will also celebrate Catherine Troy’s baby boy, due April 22. Catherine is registered at Target if you would like to bring a gift.

Mission Trip to Panama

Sandy Procter and Susie Shaw will be traveling to Panama March 10-19 to work alongside United Methodist missionaries David and Cindy Ceballos as part of a team with eight others from Ohio. The Ceballos have dedicated their lives to serving the poor in rural areas of Panama, who have little or no access to medical, dental, or optical health care. Government-sponsored medical clinics in rural Panama are rare and generally ill-equipped to meet their medical needs, and even less the stress and suffering resulting from poverty and social marginalization. More important than the medical benefits our week-long clinic provides is building friendships with the people we serve and their children. We share coloring books, crafts, and games with the children, treating them and their families with respect and love. After receiving medical care and medications (from a small pharmacy of U.S.-donated medications we bring with us each day), their first question is, “when are you coming back?” They understand that God has sent us to serve them as brothers and sisters in Christ.

David and Cindy have requested that we bring certain items that are greatly needed there: hydrocortisone cream, muscle rub cream, wrist splints, knee braces, compression stockings, ball caps, sunglasses (non-prescription), reading glasses (1, 1+, 2, 2+, etc.), gently used bras no larger than “C”, children’s summer clothing, adult summer clothing no larger than “L”, and infant vitamins. If you can donate any of these items, it would be greatly appreciated. Susie will pick them up, or you can leave them on her porch at 2917 Roma Terrace, just a few blocks north and west of the intersection of Kimball & Browning. To get everything packed and ready, she needs to have all donations by March 7. 

Thank you!
Sandy and Susie

Youth Grants

The College Avenue UMC Youth Group has over $17,000 in grant money from football parking to share with other non-profit organizations. If you are associated with an organization that would benefit from a monetary grant, please download the application form from the website, or contact the church office at 785-539-4191. Grant applications are now being accepted through February 20, 2023.

Human Relations Day Next Sunday

This Sunday, January 15, we will have a special offering for Human Relations Day. What is Human Relations Day? Human Relations Day is a denomination-wide Special Sunday designed to celebrate and raise awareness to further the development of better human relations by involving congregations in community and youth outreach.

A special offering is taken the Sunday before Dr. Martin Luther King Day. Gifts received for the offering build King’s vision of “the beloved community” through programs such as Community Developers, United Methodist Voluntary Services, and Youth Offender Rehabilitation Programs.

Fifty-seven percent of the funds received support community development programs that strive to build, maintain, promote and strengthen racial-ethnic minority congregations through local UMC congregations. Thirty-three percent of the funds received support The United Methodist Voluntary Services (UMVS), which serves as a resource to congregations, volunteer-based groups, and programs that challenge unjust political, social, and economic systems which threaten the livelihoods of people.
Ten percent of the funds received support rehabilitation programs. These programs work to strengthen youth empowerment programs that provide positive avenues for youth participation in their communities through churches, mentoring programs, and boys/girls clubs.

For more than half a century, United Methodists have observed this church-wide special Sunday in recognition of the message Jesus demonstrated during his life: all of God’s children are important.

One of the wonderful aspects of The United Methodist Church is that we can do so much more together than we ever could do on our own. Our gifts are part of building “the beloved community.”

2022 Christmas Offering Results

The College Avenue UMC Christmas Offering this year (2022) went to the Flint Hills Breadbasket, a non-profit food pantry. Together, we raised $1052.04 to help further their cause. Please see their mission statement below.

Flint Hills Breadbasket – Our dream is that there is no one in need among us. Our mission is to provide reliable access to healthy food, build connections with community partners, and empower neighbors to meet their basic needs.

You can learn more about them at: https://www.flinthillsbreadbasket.org/

Friday Office Hours

The College Avenue offices will be closed tomorrow morning (Friday, December 23, 2022), but we will be open from 1:00 until 4:00 in the afternoon. Please plan accordingly.

  • Our Christmas Eve Service will be on Saturday, December 24, at 7:30 p.m.
  • Our Christmas Day Service will be on Sunday, December 25, at 10:30 a.m. There will be no Sunday School.

Please remember that there will be no childcare for either service, but the service will be available via Closed Circuit TV in the comfort room just north of the Sanctuary.

Additions to the Nativity Scene

The beautiful outdoor Nativity has three new pieces that were added this year in memory of Ramona Woodhouse. The standing Wiseman, the oxen, and the camel were purchased using funds from the Woodhouse Memorial Account. Ramona loved Christmas and was instrumental in starting many of the decorating traditions here at College Avenue that are still in use today. She worked closely with Mildred Odom Bradley to design and coordinate the decorations for the very first Service of Decoration. The Chrismons used on our tree were all made by Ramona and other volunteers. We are pleased to be able to add these new figures to the Nativity in her honor.