Featured at www.kswestumc.org:

Back to School advertising survey
The conference Marketing and Communications Council has an online survey to determine the effectiveness of the Back to School advertising campaign. Church pastors, lay leaders and other church representatives are encouraged to take the survey, which asks simple questions on attendance figures and similar information.

Participation in the survey helps ensure continued matching-grant funding for the Kansas West Conference.

The survey is available at http://www.kswestumc.org/surveys/TakeSurvey.aspx?SurveyID=l8KM582.

God’s call brings couple to mission clinic
Drs. Lynn and Sharon Fogleman never planned to become medical missionaries. Their goals were to be doctors. In fact, it was unlikely their paths would ever have crossed each other’s. But they believe God had another plan for them.

Lynn is the son of a Kansas West Conference pastor, lived in several locations in the state during his childhood and went to the University of Kansas School of Medicine. Sharon grew up in Iowa and attended medical school at the University of Iowa.

Yet, the couple has been serving as a medical missionary team for 12 years at Red Bird Mission in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky.

Read more at http://www.kswestumc.org/news_detail.asp?PKValue=664.

Kansas Area youth elected to serve
Tyler Ward, a youth from the Kansas West Conference, is among Kansas Area youth and young adults elected to serve as representatives of the United Methodist Church.

Find out more at http://www.kswestumc.org/news_detail.asp?PKValue=674.

New Connectional Ministries newsletter online
The Connectional Ministries e-newsletter is posted on the conference Web site. Find out the latest news from the e-newsletter archive at www.kswestumc.org/newsletter_find.asp.

Featured at other sites:

Extending the welcome
“Open Hearts. Open Minds. Open Doors.” is the tagline of the United Methodist Church. On the heels of Open House Month, the United Methodist Reporter’s article, “Greeters, ushers serve critical role,” offers many practical ideas for extending the welcome.

• Make sure greeters and ushers are visible and recognizable to newcomers. White gloves, corsages or nametags can make it easier for visitors to find the “go-to” people.
• Maintain diversity among the greeters, not only with people of different ages and backgrounds, but also new members as well as long-time members.
• Acknowledge visitors on their second visit, maybe even more so than the first. Those who come a second time saw something they liked.
• Remember to greet people when they leave as well as when they arrive.
• Utilize youth to help the elderly and disabled get from their cars into the church and back to their cars.

Get more information about greeting and welcoming at http://www.umportal.org/article.asp?id=5885.

Participate in the ‘Reverse Trick-or-Treating’
On Halloween night, schoolchildren, youth and adults across the U.S. and Canada can help:

• End poverty among cocoa farmers,
• End abusive child labor in the cocoa industry,
• Promote Fair Trade, and
• Protect the environment,

by giving Fair Trade chocolate to adults while trick-or-treating.

The chocolate is attached to a card with information about social and environmental justice issues in the cocoa industry and how buying Fair Trade certified chocolate provides a solution.

The deadlines to request kits are:

• Oct. 5 for groups (congregations, youth groups, etc.)
• Oct. 13 for individuals

To order, go to www.reversetrickortreating.org.

For Fair Trade Halloween candy to distribute to children at your door, visit https://www.globalexchangestore.org/SearchResults.asp?Cat=263 or http://www.globalexchangestore.org/Fair-Trade-Trick-or-Treat-Action-Kit-p/gp5400.htm.

NCC Governing Board issues a call for civil discourse
Alarmed by the intensity of angry and sometimes violent language coming out of public meetings on healthcare and other issues, the National Council of Churches Governing Board has called for “civility in public discourse.”

Citing God's call in Isaiah 1:18 to “reason together,” the NCC letter affirms the value of “vigorous, principled debate” but insists that the arguments “be tempered with a profound sense of the dignity and worth of each person.”

Read the letter at http://www.ncccusa.org/news/090925civility.html.