First UCC Richmond

We wish a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the following members and friends who are celebrating their Maybirthdays:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the children of our church who celebrate a birthday this month:

We also wish a HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to the following members whose wedding anniversary is in May:

Help Keep our Church
Lawn Beautiful…

If you can lend a hand by mowing the church lawn, please write your name on the schedule that is on the oval table in the narthex for the week or weeks that you would like to mow the lawn.
Thank you.

Eastern Association Spring Meeting

On Saturday, May 19th I represented our church at the Eastern Association meeting held at St. John’s UCC in Port Huron. For those of you who don’t know, our church is part of the nine churches that make up the Eastern Association. Those UCC churches are located in Romeo, Armada, Imlay City, Port Huron, St. Clair, Adair, New Baltimore, Casco and Richmond.

The Association tries to meet twice a year to gather people of all the churches to listen, learn and worship together. The spring meeting was titled, Faith & the Climate Crisis? We listened to Rev. Dr. Terry Gallagher, an ordained UCC minister, who took us on an uncomfortable journey about
climate change and what is happening to our earth and God’s creation. The reality is that God has put the earth in our care and we are not taking good care of it.

The 16 people in attendance enjoyed our time together and left the meeting feeling hopeful and challenged to make a difference.

In October our denomination will gather for the State conference meeting. It is a great time to gather with people from our denomination. I highly suggest that members from our congregation go to this meeting. It is well worth your time!

Submitted by: Kathi Miller

Yard Sale Update

Please Support the Horseback Riding Therapy for Keith

Leave a Note on our White Board

Dear Church Family, 

Even though the weather isn’t cooperating, it is spring and many plans are being made to keep our church in good shape inside and out. That means all of us have a responsibility to communicate with each other if we spot a problem that needs to be addressed. Please let Shelley or Helen (or me!) know. To that end we have a new white board installed in the office. Please leave any concerns written down on it. Please don’t assume because you have had a conversation at coffee hour, that the person responsible for fixing the problem knows! For instance, we had a horrible mouse infestation in the kitchen before our annual Easter Egg Hunt. It almost caused the event to be cancelled. It was only with the hours and hours of cleaning by Sharlene Haws and Rich Weinert that we were able to go forward. 

Our kitchen is now clean and all the utensils saved are in closed totes. But unfortunately when I opened the fellowship hall for the Quilt Guild meeting on April 14, I found dirty dishes in the sink, greasy dish water and a few bugs. This was very disheartening after all that work. 

Please, if you use the kitchen, clean up, wipe down the counter and put away your dishes and utensils. I am hoping that the building and grounds committee can come up with a plan to stop the mice from getting in, but we need your help with not leaving any bait! Thank you so much for your consideration. 

Sue Weinert,
council president 

Lost and Found Box

If you’ve left anything behind after worship, look in our Lost & Found Box which is in the furnace room next to the refrigerator. 

Are you signed up for our Kroger Community Rewards Program? If not, here’s how to join and start earning rewards for our church:

Register online at krogercommunityrewards.com

• Be sure to have your Kroger Plus card handy and register your card with your organization after you sign up. 

• Don’t have a Kroger Plus card? The cards are available at the customer service desk at any Kroger. 

• Click on “Sign In/Register.” 

• If you are a new online customer, click on “SIGN UP TODAY” in the “New Customer?” box. 

• Sign up for a Kroger Rewards Account: enter zip code, click on favorite store, enter your email address, create a password and agree to the terms and conditions. 

• You will then get a message to check your email inbox and click on the link within the body of the email. 

• Click on “My Account” and use your email address and password to proceed to the next step. 

• Click on “Edit Kroger Community Rewards information” and input your Kroger Plus card number. 

• Update or confirm your information. 

• Enter NPO number (97155) or name of organization, select organization from list and click on confirm. 

• To verify you are enrolled correctly, you will see your organization’s name on the right side of your information page. 

• REMEMBER, purchases will not count for your group until after you register your card. 

• Do you use your phone number at the register?  Call 877-576-7587 to get your Kroger Plus card number. 

• You must swipe your registered Kroger Plus card or use the phone number that is related to your registered Kroger Plus card when shopping for each purchase to count. 

Thank you,

The Community Programs Staff 

Our church now offers to “Text” or “Call” UCC members and friends who may not have email to receive important news from our church.

We are working on a new way to keep all our members and friends informed about important news such as the death of someone in our church family. We can continue to communicate such news by email, or we can call or send a text message to your phone.

If you would like to receive text messages regarding church news, please fill out the form below, cut it out and place it on the offering plate or mail it to the church office. Be sure to include the name of your cell phone service provider (ATT, Verizon, Sprint, etc.). If you would rather get an old fashioned phone call, fill in your home phone number and we will relay church announcements with a phone call.

If we do not have your email address, and you would like to receive our church announcements, please fill out the form below, cut and place it on the offering plate or mail it to the church office.

Equal Exchange:

Justice in every cup. Compassion in every bite.

Small Farmers! Big Change!

New products are in!!

Try some honey from Guatemala. Try the new K-cups for your Keurig coffee maker! Try the chocolate chips in your favorite recipe! Try the new chocolate raspberry bar! It is amazing. All products are in the basement of the church. Make your choices and put your money in the silver tin. If you have questions about prices, contact Shelley Champion (248-804-6915).

Equal Exchange's mission is to build long-term trade partnerships that are economically just and environmentally sound, to foster mutually beneficial relationships between farmers and consumers and to demonstrate, through our success, the contribution of worker co-operatives and Fair Trade to a more equitable, democratic and sustainable world.

Coffee

At Equal Exchange, our longstanding relationships with coffee co-ops allow us to source the best beans from each harvest. Then we carefully bring out the finest characteristics in these amazing coffee beans with each batch we roast.

Chocolate & Cocoa

Equal Exchange chocolates and cocoas are crafted using only the purest ingredients, grown with care by small farmer co-ops. We source from these small farmer organizations because we believe they are the heart and soul of the Fair Trade movement.

Tea

Our Fair Trade and organic teas come from our small farmer partners in India, Sri Lanka and South Africa. Most teas on the shelf - even Fair Trade teas - come from plantations where tea workers have little say. Join us in supporting a tea model in which farmers control their futures.