Owaneco UMC

10/27/2026

Please join us in prayer for communities across the Four Corners region of the Southwest U.S.

Since Oct. 21, severe flash flooding has damaged homes and roads and displaced families across the region, with several areas under evacuation notices and without power. With flood warnings and advisories remaining active today, we pray especially for the first responders assisting evacuees and those needing rescue.

UMCOR has reached out to regional conference United Methodist disaster response leaders to offer assistance as needed.

10/26/2026

Mark your calendars!!!!!

10/19/2026

Here is the video for this past Sunday 10/18/2026 with guest speaker, Rev. Kevin Little

10/19/2026

Sorry for the delay, here is our video from 10/11/2026

10/19/2026

October 18–24 is Invisible Disabilities Week.

Not every disability is visible. Some people live with chronic illness, chronic pain, fatigue, neurological conditions, and other disabilities that may not be obvious to the people around them.

Invisible Disabilities Week is an opportunity to raise awareness, challenge assumptions, and help people understand that you cannot determine someone’s health, abilities, or struggles by looking at them.

Someone may look fine and still be managing pain, brain fog, exhaustion, or symptoms that affect every part of their day. They may be working hard to do things that others take for granted, or using every bit of energy they have just to get through the day.

And because their disability isn’t always visible, they may also have to explain themselves, justify their limitations, or deal with the assumption that they’re doing better than they really are.

This week is about making space for those experiences. It’s about listening without judgment, believing people when they tell you what they’re going through, and remembering that looking healthy isn’t the same as being healthy.

You don’t have to see someone’s disability to respect its impact.

If you’ve ever been told you look fine… you belong here. 🤍

10/17/2026

A Prayer for the Children, Families, and Community in Oregon at Silver Rail Elementary School

Heavenly Father,

Today, our hearts are heavy, and Lord, we struggle to find the words.
We cannot begin to understand how something so terrible could happen in a place where children should feel safe, loved, and protected.

We lift up to you the children, families, teachers, and staff whose lives have been forever changed by this tragedy.
For the families grieving the loss of their precious children and loved ones, Lord, wrap your loving arms around them. There are no words that can take away their pain. Be near to them in the moments when their grief feels unbearable.

For those who were injured, we pray for healing. Be with the doctors, nurses, and caregivers tending to them. Give them strength, comfort, and the reassurance that they are not alone.
For the children who witnessed this violence, and for the teachers and staff who love and care for them, we pray for peace in the days ahead. Help them find safety and comfort again.

Lord, we also lift up the family of the person responsible for this violence. They, too, have lost someone they love. They, too, may be carrying unimaginable grief, confusion, and questions that have no easy answers. Surround them with compassion rather than judgment, and remind them that they are not alone.
God, every life lost is a tragedy. Every life represents someone who was loved, someone who mattered, someone created in your image. We can grieve the innocent lives taken, recognize the terrible harm that was done, and still mourn the loss of another young life.

Because Lord, no family should have to bury their child.

And God, help us do more than simply offer our prayers. Give us the courage, wisdom, and compassion to work toward a world where children can go to school without fear, where families can send their children off in the morning knowing they will come home safely.

Help us remember that every child matters. Every child deserves to be safe, to be loved, and to have the opportunity to grow, learn, and become who you created them to be.

We don’t have all the answers, Lord. But we know that you are a God of love, and that you call us to love one another, even when it is difficult.

Be close to the brokenhearted today. Hold these families when they cannot find the strength to stand. Be with a community that is hurting, and help us be your hands and feet in a world that desperately needs your love.

In the name of Jesus, who welcomed the children, loved the brokenhearted, and taught us to love even when it is hard, Amen.

Rev. Emily Jo Little

10/14/2026

A message from Bishop Bingham-Tsai

October 14, 2026

Let Love Lead—and Vote

“You shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord” — Leviticus 19:18b

Early voting in Iowa opens on October 14. Early voting in Illinois opened on September 24. I encourage all United Methodists to vote. Voting is a right that we cannot take for granted. Some of our ancestors fought and died for the right to vote. Voting is our way of having a voice and supporting democratic governance for the people and by the people.

Friends, in line with our Social Principles and Scripture, I implore you to let love lead our actions and our thinking during this election season. Letting love lead is about acting for the common good of our neighbors. It is also about doing what we can to heal the divisions in our nation. While we act out of our own conscience and faith experience, we must also respect those who differ. We can do this by turning down the rhetoric and going out of our way to be kind.

And today, our individual votes are crucial, especially in an age of unlimited money in our political processes. Indeed, we live at a time where individual donors, families or corporate lobbies have unprecedented power in elections. That kind of lopsided influence diminishes our democracy.

Yet, we are not powerless. We can vote in numbers that can help strengthen our democracy and make our voices heard. We also can exercise our vote in ways that are in line with our faith. And the heart of our faith is love.

Scripture affirms this. Leviticus 19 is a restatement of the Law. And it is specific about what it means to love. It tells the Israelites that they shall not strip every grape from their vineyards. “…you shall leave them for the poor and the alien,” (v.10)

It forbids the Israelites from stealing, lying, hating, defrauding or bearing false witness against a neighbor. It warns them against seeking vengeance or holding a grudge. And it directs them to pay fair wages and to respect the differently abled. “You shall not revile the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind,” it says (v. 14). It sums up all these commandments with the call to love. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord” (v. 18b).

Passages like Leviticus 19 were what Jesus was thinking about when a lawyer asked him about the greatest commandments. Jesus responded, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind...You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matt 22: 37-40).

The call to love was at the center of Jesus’ ministry and is at the heart of the Gospel. And that Gospel call to love has shaped the guidance from our Social Principles about how to engage in civic life. As the preface to the section on the Political Community states, "Our involvement in political systems is rooted in the gospel imperative to love our neighbors, to do justice, and to care for the vulnerable. [1]"

Please make a plan to vote in the next weeks. Please make a plan to share Christian love every day. And please pray with me for this election cycle that love, civility and the common good would prevail.

PRAYER
Loving God, help us to let love lead in our lives this election season. Help us to love our neighbors more deeply and to look out for the vulnerable. Help us to be agents of civility and compassion so that we might be a healing balm for our nation. In Christ we pray. Amen.
Yours in Christ,

Bishop Kennetha J. Bigham-Tsai
Episcopal Leader of the
Iowa and Illinois Great Rivers Conferences

[1] Preface, The Political Community, The United Methodist Social Principles, The 2020/2024 Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church, ¶163.

10/12/2026