Reverse Robbery: We FIND money IN the offering plate!

I was waiting to preach Sunday morning when I noticed our song leader was unhappy. He found a letter in the offering plate from someone who stopped going to our church about 6 months ago. No one knew how it got there.

Apparently The ex-church member had a key to our church that he never returned and just let himself in, leaving a letter where we would find it during the service. The idea that someone had access to the building upset a few of our members.

After the service, the song leader and I opened the letter in private and were surprised. Inside were two money orders for $200! We had forgotten but, over a year ago during a time of need, our church had lent the individual $400 to repair his refrigerator and for some other needs he had.

He decided to pay us back, the note said, because he had just been robbed at gunpoint by someone and had to testify against them in court. It seems this convinced that he didn't want to owe God's church anything, so he made the effort to paid off his debt as fast as he could.

When I got in the car to drive home, Tina was talking about changing the church lock and was still upset about the "break in," and asked what nasty thing the gentlemen said to us in the letter.

I said, "Well, he just gave us $400!"

Tina exclaimed, "Well, if that's how it's going to be, let's make sure he keeps that key!"