In the Newsletter this Month
Tai Chi at FCC
Garden of Forgiveness Update
A Note from the Garden Team
2026 Cape Cod Crop Hunger Walk
Pastor’s Musings
Grace in All Its Forms
TAI CHI at FCC
Discover how Tai Chi can help improve your balance, flexibility, and overall health by helping to lower blood pressure and reduce stress. This 6-week course will introduce the basic exercises and concepts of Tai Chi in a safe and supportive environment; no prior experience is required. Sessions will be held on Thursdays at 6 pm in Fellowship Hall starting on September 10th.
For those who have already completed the Intro to Tai Chi course, a second session will continue on Thursday mornings. This series will also begin on Thursday September 10th, and will be held at 8:30am. If you have previous experience with Tai Chi, but have not attended the Intro session, please speak to Pastor Jon.
GARDEN OF FORGIVENESS 2026 UPDATE
In 2025, we began breaking ground for our church’s “Garden of Forgiveness.” When entering the Grove, go straight back, staying on the left side of the Grove. Susan Eenigenburg and Tomi Ziobro initiated the Garden, following viewing a documentary film that Pastor Jon showed, that Gardens of Forgiveness often were created following traumatic situations. Susan and Tomi brought the idea to the Board of Deacons, which approved the Garden of Forgiveness.
We would like to acknowledge all the gifts of time and donations of 2025 to the Garden:
Susan Eenigenburg, Tomi & Jim Ziobro, Paul & Tracy Cassidy, Rick & Gerry Nolin, Christine Cook, Richard Robicheau, Jon & Jen Elsensohn, Thom Dutton, Betty Steele, Jeremy Young, and Wellfleet Gardeners
Following a long winter, we will gradually prepare the Garden of Forgiveness for the summer of 2026 in preparation for familiar and new visitors.
A NOTE FROM THE GARDEN TEAM
Last year, we asked you to donate as best you could to the Garden Fund. Your response was so generous that we bought and used all the nutrients we needed for our garden’s autumn and spring growth. As a result, our church gardens gave us quite the show this year! Phlox, daffodils, and hyacinth welcomed the spring. Pansies in the front seasonal pots gave way to geraniums, superbells, and petunias. Dozens of donated daylilies dotted the front, sometimes in lines, sometimes scattered between shrubs and succulents. Shasta daisies finished the beds by Fellowship Hall, while more daisies and coreopsis, along with wild strawberry ground cover, framed the parking lot. Your contributions funded completely new sets of soaker hoses, mulch, more perennials, and annuals to brighten borders. This healthy, vibrant display simply could not have happened without support. Thank you again!
Many, many thanks also go to those who designed and transformed the gardens from half-hearted maintenance to eye-catching display: Dot Oberding, Charlotte Hands, Rick Nolin, Cyndy Van Hook, Nancy and George Vitek, Ron Boyles, Judie Palleschi- and… please forgive me if I have left anyone out. Thanks also to Jeff Kemprecos, who takes charge of the perimeter areas and to Ron Spinks, our newest volunteer garden helper.
We want to keep up our momentum. “To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow”— and tomorrow is just around the corner. Once again, we will need your help. We are hoping to raise $1200 to keep the Garden Fund solvent and keep our gardens flourishing. We will use these funds this fall as well as this coming spring for planting and feeding supplies, and for some needed equipment replacements here and there. The Church Operating Budget has no provision for Garden Expenses, so your donations are the only way to keep our garden growing. Please help. Whether you donate by check or credit card (on the church website), make sure that you note “Garden Fund” as your gift’s destination.
We thank you kindly, with spades and clippers ready for what is to come.
Dan Wexman,
On behalf of the Garden Team, past and present
2026 CAPE COD HUNGER WALK
This is the seventh year that we are holding a CROP Hunger Walk. The money we raise supports local food pantries and the work of Church World Service.
Let me introduce you to Victorine. Victorine overcame years of conflict-related hardship and food insecurity by rebuilding her livelihood with the support of Church World Service. She lives in the Democratic Republic of Congo where she lived through the Kamwina Nsapu conflict losing both her husband and her brother. She was left alone with her nine children and her brother’s five children. When she returned home to damaged crops and abandoned fields hunger took hold quickly. Malnutrition left her feeling overwhelmed.
With the help of Church World Service and Alongside Hope she was able to buy enough food for her children. She received seeds from CWS and began growing her own food. She joined other women working in one another’s fields. With part of her assistance, she was able to clear a large field and grow more crops to ensure a stable food supply.
Her household now enjoys sufficient and diverse food. With her strength restored, Victorine now participates actively in community life and her children are back in school. Victorine’s journey shows that even in the hardest moments, hope can grow again with the right support.
This is just one story that shows how the work of Church World Service brings hope and transformation to communities around the world. Please consider supporting our CROP Hunger Walk. With your help we can truly change the world.
You can support us by helping with our Restaurant Raffle and by making a donation. You can make a donation in three ways:
1. Online go to our website, crophungerwalk.org/capecod, and scroll down to our church team.
2. Use the QR code to get to the website.
3. Donate by making a check out to CWS/Crop Walk and place it in the offering or drop it off at the church office.
