BROOKINGS, S.D.--Before Christmas each member of the Brookings First UMC was given $10 by an anonymous donor. The congregation was instructed to take the gifts and touch someone's heart by December 25.
After the service one member went to a local restaurant for lunch where he met an acquaintance who had recently lost his wife. “I knew he had bills to pay and two children to support,” the member said. “His manufacturing job had reduced hours, so money was tight. When I finished lunch, I went to pay for my bill, and then mentioned to the manager of this restaurant of the gift from the church, and that I wanted to give him this gift plus $10 of my own to help pay this family’s bill. The manager said he would also pay the remainder of the bill so the family would not owe anything. I then began to pay my own bill, and the manager said that mine was also free courtesy of the restaurant because of what I did for this family.”
Other members gave gifts to the pastor’s “emergency fund,” the Abbott House in Mitchell, S.D., Heifer International, the Salvation Army, and a family in Meckling, S.D., who lost their home in a fire.