Dear Friends,

It is good to be back at work!  I am grateful for all of your prayers and generosity to my family while I was in the hospital and recovering.  Everything was greatly appreciated.  My body  is telling me that with age, I must slow down, and let it heal. But there is such positive with a more simplified, slower pace that it adds to instead of taking away from my life.  I read the minutes from the last monthly meeting for business, and they ended with a wonderful quote from Thomas Kelly, a Quaker Mystic: “In the immediate experience of the Presence, the Now is no mere modal point between past and the future.  It is the seat and region of the Divine Presence itself.”  I am getting to experience this firsthand as I take it slow and easy getting back into the swing of things.

This Friday with Friends  is full of many announcements of many different varieties, so please make note as you read along.  But know that all are not mandatory.  Participating in a fun and free way adds to the sense of community that we feel at KFFC.  Bring your op

Tonight, an important movie, No Address, begins showing here in town at the Pelican.  Maybe we can get a group together to watch it.  While serving last week at the Warming Center several of our volunteers were encouraged to go and see this movie.  The film is about homelessness and has a star-studded cast. The film, No Address, starts tonight at the Pelican Theaters at 7 PM and is here for only a short stint, until Wednesday with only 7:00 PM showings.  Half of the ticket sales go to homelessness assistance programs nationwide. Here is the official trailer with more information: https://youtu.be/PJtwlllynjg?si=1fzvzBauxd1ffyV_

Among other announcements we will have two cleaning days for the Meeting House this month, March 14 (upstairs) and March 28 (downstairs). People will begin around 9 AM and will open the building.  Come enjoy the camaraderie as we spiff up the Meeting House.

On March 23 we will have a potluck here at the Meeting House.  I’m looking forward to it. We always have so much fun!

On April 5 at 11:30 we will have a luncheon from 11:30 until 1:30.  This will be our Earth Day Celebration as we hear from Mary Ann Percy, who will help us discern how Spirit is asking us to act during “the on-going and accelerating threats to the Web of Life on Earth, a truly fundamental spiritual crisis of our time on Earth.”  She is planning to do this in a community-building and joyful way.  Please come even if you don’t come to church often, and please tell your friends.  This is a wonderful Peace Luncheon in the manner of Peace Suppers of the past.

The volunteer days at the Food Pantry this month are the 18^th and the 25^th. If you want to volunteer, please call Linda at (541) 281-5535. You can join volunteers in feeling the grace and acceptance that permeates these nights of welcome. The Interfaith Food Pantry is made up of volunteers from four local churches: Unitarian Fellowship, Klamath Lutheran Church, Grace Lutheran Church and Klamath Falls Friends who meet the last two Tuesdays of each month from 5:30- 7:30.  This past month was astounding in its outreach:  81 households, a total of 198 people–155 adults and 43 children were served. The 29 volunteers donated 153 hours. Other donations included 32 pounds of food, $112 in bread purchases, a $378 donation from the Unitarian Fellowship, a huge donation of blankets from the Assistance League as part of their Share the Love Program, as well as dozens of hand-knitted stocking caps from Bernie Wood and her fellow knitters. Nearly all the blankets and most of the hats were distributed to clients during the last February pantry. Cold weather is not over, so more donations of blankets and cold-weather outerwear for adults are very much needed. The pantry is also in need of basic toiletries and toilet paper, and as always, donations of shelf-stable food and cash are very much appreciated.

And we have acknowledged the two minutes (attached below) of the Sierra Cascades Yearly Meeting on honoring people who are transgender or who are refugees/immigrants.  Our co-clerk of the Yearly Meeting, Norma Stillman has suggested using the minutes in these ways, and shares with us what she has done because of these minutes:

WHAT YOU CAN DO

• Become familiar with the details in the minutes.
• Share with friends and family, neighbors, other organizations to raise awareness about the suffering our government’s policies are creating. 
• Plan a meeting to discuss how you will use these minutes to advocate for immigrants and refugees, and for trans* and gender-expansive people who are all living with the very real threats to their freedom, bodily autonomy, and pursuit of living fulfilling lives. 
• Write your lawmakers, send a copy of the minute.
• Follow through, get it done!

WHAT I’VE DONE (Norma Stillman)

I have written to both of my senators and to my representative. It did take me some time but it was done in one evening. I’ve received one personal response, one automatic response, and from the third, no response yet. 

Here are some tips:

• Email is more effective than physical letters for safety and efficiency for staff. 
• Find your Congress person’s website and use “contact” or “email” to create your message. You will need to select the issue from a pull-down menu. I found LGBTQ+, and Immigration as issues on their lists.
• Limit your email to one topic—lawmakers tally the issues their constituents are speaking out about 
• Tell why this issue is important to you at a personal level.
• I cut and pasted the minute into the email, after writing a brief intro. My representative’s email limited the total characters, so I had to chose which part of the minute to copy and paste, then added the link so they could read the whole minute if they wanted to. 
• Ask to be on their newsletter list if you hope to remain up-dated on your Congress person’s actions and votes.

Blessings to you as we navigate these sometimes-churning waters of this time in our world.

Leigh