10 Jan Christmas at Our Church: South Cumberland, Md.

As a result of a local congregation exceeding its goal for a special Christmas Eve offering, a Christian school of nearly 2000 students in Sierra Leone, West Africa, will be provided safe drinking water and sanitation for the first time in years.

Bethany House of the Lord is a congregation of 50 people in South Cumberland, Md. In an attempt to get the congregation into a less commercial and more spiritual frame-of-mind, the elders approved a “Big Christmas Challenge” for the Advent Season. The challenge was to intentionally spend less money on Christmas gifts and to give more gifts of time and relationship instead…in order to give a sacrificial offering on Christmas Eve to meet a real need for truly poor people.

The elders announced on the first Sunday of Advent that whatever was collected on Christmas Eve would be matched 3-to-1 out of the congregational savings account. They set a goal of a $5,000 offering with a maximum match of $15,000.

The project they selected to receive the offering was the “Centennial School Clean Water and Sanitation Project,” a project designed by Engineers Without Borders in 2009 and left undone while awaiting contributions towards the $20,000 cost.

Sierra Leone, the poorest nation on earth, suffered a brutal civil war from 1991 to 2002. During the war, rebels raided the village of Mattru Jong, nearly destroying the hospital and Christian school that have been owned and operated there by the United Brethren in Christ since the 1950s. The buildings were stripped of roofing, electrical wiring, plumbing, and all fixtures.

Since the civil war ended, the hospital and school have re-opened. School enrollment has increased since 2009 from 1500 to nearly 2000, but the students have no safe drinking water and no toilet facilities.

President of the “Centennial Old Students’ Association” (alumni) is Pastor Joe Abu, a United Brethren pastor serving the Mount Zion United African Church in Philadelphia, Pa. Pastor Joe grew up in a Muslim home and became a Christian while a student at Centennial. In August, he and his wife and another member of the Philadelphia congregation traveled to speak in Cumberland to the people of Bethany House of the Lord. He shared the needs of the school, and mentioned the water project then.

In November, Michael Allen Mudge (right), pastor of Bethany House of the Lord, remembered Joe’s passion for the needs in Sierra Leone, and decided to ask the elders to challenge the congregation. With an Advent theme of “Spend Less, Give More, Love All, Worship Fully,” the congregation was encouraged to reflect on the fact that the average American spends $1000 each year on Christmas gifts, while 60% of the world’s population lives on less than $2000 per year.

“Could you imagine our board of education combining Allegany and Fort Hill High Schools, together but not providing safe drinking water and functioning toilets for our children?” asked Pastor Mudge. “We are so blessed and so abundantly able to meet real needs. Allegheny County, Md., is the poorest county in the state, but still we are able to meet a need in the poorest country in the world. If our congregation of 50 people here is able to meet a dire need of 2000 students there, why shouldn’t we do it?”

On Christmas Eve, at the end of the traditional service of Scriptures and carols, and just before the darkened sanctuary was illuminated by candlelight, two young men passed the offering baskets. The offering collected came to $6,357, far exceeding the announced goal of $5,000 and winning the full match of $15,000 from the savings account.

A check for $21,357 has been sent to United Brethren Global Ministries in Huntington, Ind., to be administered for the water project. The Lehigh Valley (Pennsylvania) Chapter of Engineers Without Borders will schedule the work to be done in the spring of 2012. The work will involve drilling a well and installing plumbing and toilet facilities.

Donna Hollopeter (right), a staff member with United Brethren Global Ministries, visited Mattru in April 2011 and found that the Christian school has some students right now who were scarred for life as children. During the civil war, rebels terrorized villages by forming people, even infants, into lines, and hacking-off limbs–ears, hands, arms, legs. Many such mutilated children were left orphaned by the civil war, and United Brethren congregations have worked to find families to look after these children.

The most unusual part of Bethany’s Christmas Eve offering was not the size, but the fact that two baskets were passed through the congregation at all. It’s the first time–and perhaps only time–in the life of the seven-year-old congregation that money has ever been requested or a collection made. Each Sunday, a small basket is available in the rear of the sanctuary for tithes and offerings, but no mention is ever made about it.

In announcing the offering results on Christmas morning, Pastor Mudge quoted from 2 Corinthians: “Their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity….They gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability” (8:2-3).

“Our congregation is not wealthy but generous,” he said. “When I telephoned Pastor Joe Abu at 10:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve to give him a long-distance Christmas gift, he screamed with joy.” To those who were astonished by the results, he added a quote from the Nativity story, a line from the angel Gabriel to Mary: “For nothing is impossible with God” (Luke 1:37).