Anonymous donor gives 50 envelopes with $50 to Lutheran Church
members
An extraordinary thing happened during the regular worship services at the Morgan Hill Advent Lutheran Church a week ago Sunday. Fifty envelopes, each containing $50 were handed to members of the congregation as a gift of kindness to bring goodness to the community.
During the offering time, baskets containing the envelopes were placed on a table in the front aisle of the church. Members were free to take one.
Advent members may not think that it was a coincidence when Pastor Anita Warner’s sermon was about bringing good tidings to the poor. An anonymous donor had given the church a $2,500 gift with only the wish that the church make it known how each member uses the money to make a difference in someone’s life.
It seems that a family who attends another church in the area met with Warner to hand over the gift and the request.
The donor told Warner that the gift was to give the Advent congregation the opportunity to work within its Christ ministries and mission of sharing and caring for others because of Advent’s active involvement in the community.
Because Advent has two worship services on Sundays, during each service, 25 envelopes were issued to church members who were surprised and excited over the unusual approach for receiving a gift that challenges them to share their blessings.
Warner said that the donor was moved by an article read in a past issue of the San Jose Mercury about how someone gave money to a church in Indiana for its members to go into the community to help others.
As a part of Warner’s sermon that Sunday, she shared a story told to her a month ago by a congregation member who became aware of a family in the community whose child mentioned to a schoolmate that her family did not have heat, lights or water for Christmas.
The congregation member shared this story with a few friends and together they were able to help this family have heat, lights and water for Christmas.
“I shared this story to give the members an idea as well as to open their eyes to the needs and opportunities in the community,” Warner said.
Warner believes that this gift is a good starter resource for the congregation to use to help others in the community.
“The focus of the gift is on what the congregation does with the money as part of the church ministries to show care for others,” Warner said.
Warner connected the gift to a scripture describing how everyone in the church is a part of the body of Christ and that all of the parts have different functions where one part is no more valuable than the other.
“I think that the thinking behind this gift is something that we try to practice at Advent, which is that everyone who is a part of the church has an important part to play in the world and that God gives each one of us a unique opportunity to care for others as well as unique talents and skills to bring to the world,” Warner said.
“So, it was a wonderful gift for us to receive out of the blue,” Warner said.
Warner asked each member who took an envelope to sow some seeds of kindness, the only directions she gave.
“I asked each member to pray about how they are going to use the money, that they talk about it within their households and to involve any children or youth in that conversation as well,” Warner said.
Members can also consider pooling their money to make larger contributions or, if a member is already involved or working with an agency, it is possible that the money can be used to help agencies.
“Anything is possible,” Warner said.“
Over the next few weeks, Warner will collect and share stories the church members were told to tell or write about how they made their decision to use the money, what is was like for them and how a person benefited from the gift.
Warner said that she expects that some members will use the money right away and that others will ponder for some time.
“There is no end to the possibilities of how people might use this money,” Warner said. “We see this as an adventure in faith and another opportunity to engage with the local community on a deeper level,” she said.
By Monday, Warner said she hadn’t heard that any parishioners have distributed their gift. They are still praying over how best to use the money for others, she said.
Advent Lutheran Church, 16870 Murphy Ave., www.advent-lutheran.org or 779-3551.
