Churches located in different states have been making waves all across the country by using their donation money in a refreshingly different manner, for the benefit of everyone in need.
Indiana and Texas churches have used their donations in order to pay off medical debt of thousands of families throughout their counties.
A church in North Texas has helped 2,400 families in Dallas and Rockwall by paying off their debt amounting to $2.6 million.
Josh Howerton, Lake Pointe Church’s pastor told ABC News last September 24 that this donation project is a part of the “Pay It Forward” campaign which was made to encourage their community members to do acts of kindness in celebration of their 40th anniversary as a church.
“We wanted to celebrate our 40th anniversary by passing forward the generosity that has been given to us, to people in our communities,” Howerton said.
Other contributions made by the church to celebrate their milestone anniversary was to local organizations that combat human trafficking, poverty, and domestic violence.
Another church located in Indiana has raised the bar of community service even higher, when it cleared $7.8 million worth of medical debt for almost 6,000 families in their state. They originally announced that they would shoulder $2 million total in debt for 2,500 families, and when other churches heard about this, they chipped in to help increase the donated amount. According to IndyStar, The Northview Church in Carmel, Indiana – which has seven campuses across the state, started this campaign by eliminating $40,000 of unpaid medical bills in ten communities with the help of RIP Medical debt.
New York-based RIP helps families that are on the poverty line and suffering from debt that totals to five percent or more of their income. They wipe out this debt with no strings attached. When people are unable to pay their medical bills, it automatically gets transferred to collection agencies where their debt grows. When RIP Medical Debt takes over, they speak to the doctors, hospitals and investors to buy off the debt at a lower price.
“The debt is then paid off forever, with no adverse consequences to those who benefit.”
In some cases, entire cities’ medical debts were completely wiped out, thanks to all these churches that teamed up to help the public. This isn’t a closed case of only helping those members of the church, and according to the church leaders, many of those debts that were cleared are not connected in any way to the churches and will get a wonderful surprise once they find out that their debt has officially been cancelled.
“This is a great example of churches meeting people’s needs in practical ways as a demonstration of God’s love,” said Senior Pastor of Northview, Steve Poe.
This all began when church leaders focused on the statistics of a study published in the American Journal of Public Health last February 2019 that showed more than 60% of bankruptcies in the U.S. all attributed to medical debt.
Co-founder and chief operating officer of RIP Medical Debt, Craig Antico told ABC News that the church reached out to their organization for collaboration in May 2019 and more than 200 churches have either inquired or raised money to eliminate debt since 2014.
“We really felt that medical debt was something that was inordinately hurting the people that are most vulnerable,” Antico said. “The problem is getting worse and worse, and we’re just recognizing that we have a way to stop the hardship of this medical debt.”
Lake Pointe’s Pastor Howerton in Texas said that he hopes this project will inspire the 12,000 members of his church to give back to their communities as well.
“We want our people to do one act of kindness per day for the next 40 days,” Howerton said. “So, if you do the math, that’s 40 days times 12,000 people and half-a-million needs met. That’s the vision we have for this campaign.”
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