The church will also fund three foster homes
Stetson Baptist Church in Florida ended up collecting offerings and tithes from its members for 53 weeks instead of 52 in the fiscal year spanning 2018-19.[/tweetit] The senior pastor Dan Glenn then came up with the idea of starting a “53rd Sunday.” The campaign would use the added week to raise money for two charity causes.
Stetson Baptist Church Clears Over $7M in Medical Debt for 6,500 Families[/tweetthis]
The entire amount of $153,867 raised in the extra week was split between the two community initiatives. The first half went to the Florida Baptist Children Homes, which supports local foster care, and the other half went to RIP Medical Debt.
The latter organization works to purchase debt from families drowning amongst a sea of liabilities. It sometimes buys these debts for pennies on the dollar and may forgive the debts altogether, once purchased. The church in DeLand, Florida was able to cancel upwards of a whopping $7 million in debt for close to around 6,500 families.
The pastor explained why the Church narrowed down on these two causes; “Medical debt is something that I think everyone can get behind. But our church is unique in that we have an undercurrent in our church of fostering and adoption, both from the perspective of families that have fostered kids and adopted children but also through adults who were foster children or adoptees.”
On the other hand, Pastor Glenn referenced the Bible and said that is what our Lord, Jesus Christ did when he walked the Earth too. He used the resources at his disposal to help those in need. Pastor Glenn believes it is our moral duty to do the same and be generous and giving.
In case you missed an awesome story this week– an SBC church in North Central Florida paid off the medical debts of 6500 people in their community.https://t.co/v5NPCm038T
— Zack Jones (@ZksJones) July 14, 2019
The church had decided on an initial goal of raising $48,000, which was exceeded by a considerable margin. As a result, the church could fund to save people from medical debt. Also, they were aiming to fund one foster home for the year, but the funds they collected enabled them to sponsor three.