Recently I heard this story related by Don Denyes during a sermon: A small church in southern California was preparing for their missions conference. They decided that they would like to build a hospital in Africa. Offerings for missionary projects in this church usually totaled around $25,000, but they were told that they would need to raise $160,000 to build the hospital. There were those who said why even try, we could never raise that much, let’s try something else.
They began very early to challenge their people towards this African hospital project and the people took it to heart. The kids would have lemonade stands during the summer to make a little bit of money to give towards the project. It was interesting in this small community that this project grabbed hold of the psyche of even those who didn’t know Christ. The Christians were talking about it at work and they were talking about it in their neighborhoods. Soon people who had no interest in the gospel of Christ, but who were interested in helping people in general, began to give to this hospital in Africa, and they gave, and they gave. When the mission conference came they didn’t raise $25,000, they didn’t raise $160,000, they raised over a half million dollars. The pastor said that the amazing thing wasn’t the way the funds came in, but the way it affected the people in the community. He said, “Generosity is the new evangelism.”
As we begin the summer we are working to raise funds, not for a hospital in Africa, but to fund scholarships for children in our own community. Many children at Kimball Camp YMCA depend on the generosity of others to assist them as they learn more about Jesus Christ and become salt and light to our community. Would you be able to help by donating to our scholarship fund? Contact us at 4444 Long Lake Road, Reading, MI 49274.
