Reverse Offering

During the morning services of Sunday, November 22nd, a "reverse offering" was handed out at the end of the service. An anonymous couple has generously donated $10,000 to Heartland to be given away in envelopes containing random denominations of $100, $50, $20, $10, $5 and $1 bills. Lead Pastor, Dan Deeble, explained the "rules" of the reverse offering.

1. You can't spend it on yourself.
2. You can't give it to the church
3. You have to give an account.

So, give your money away and submit your story below. All submissions will be screened for appropriate content prior to posting, so there may be a delay prior to seeing your submission.

Submit your own reverse offering story:

Name

Email

Story

Submitted by: Scott Dunkley
My family received a total of $18 from the reverse offering. We initially elected to spread out the money we received. We gave $3 in tips and topped up our giving tree gift by $5. After hearing about a local boy (Nathan Lux) in Olathe who is struggling to beat a form of brain cancer, we decided to donate the rest of the money (indirectly through Houlihan's after we found out that they were donating a portion of their proceeds to the Lux family and a bake sale) plus some of our own money to his family to help out with medical and transportation costs.

Submitted by: Dan and Andrea Goodhope
We combined our $15 with the $2 that we pulled out of the basket from the last reverse offering. We gave our $17 to fellow Heartland member, Mario Orelus, for his "Helping Homeless James" project. He spends money that he collects to help feed and clothe a homeless man in Lawrence.

Submitted by: Matt Lenahan
We received $10.00 in the reverse offering. We were already planning on sending money to Toys for Tots and we thought we would just add the 10 bucks to what we were already going to send. While this was an easy donation, we had a second opportunity to give that allowed us to experience what we believe we were supposed to experience. That same weekend my family went to Union Station to see the train exhibit around the holidays. We had walked down to the area where the children could ride a train for 5 dollars a person. We had around 12 dollars cash on us and we were asking our 4 year old if he was ready to ride the train. He said no. We were shocked because he is all about riding things that move on their own. We walked back to the main entrance of the lobby where we saw a homeless man sitting at a table hunched over, scribbling on a napkin. I told my wife to take the money we had and go buy the man something to eat. She took my son with her to ask the man if he wanted something to eat. She wanted our son to hear what she was asking the man and be a part of helping someone. The man was very humble and almost apologetic as he replied "a Coke would be nice." We walked him over to a food stand and bought a hotdog and a drink. We asked if he wanted anything else and he replied "I'll be alright." We gave the hotdog and drink to the man and the rest of the cash that we had. My wife told my son to tell the man Merry Christmas and God Bless you. To hear the words come from my child's mouth and to see the man gently wave to my son was quite overwhelming. All I could do was choke back tears and kiss my son on his head. We took two steps away and I asked my wife if she saw the man get any ketchup or napkins because they were located in a wierd place. I turned around to show the man where the condiments were and he was no where to be found. What an experience this was.

Submitted by: Heather
Several years ago I struggled with an eating disorder and spent some time in and out of hospitals. My sister was a huge support and came back to Kansas City for several months during my recovery. She is now a struggling artist in Chicago. I gave her the $100 that I recieved from the reverse offering as a thank you for all that she has done for me. I also matched the money and gave it to the National Eating Disorder Association.

Submitted by: Aaron W
I held onto my $20.00 longer than expected. It turned out to be a good thing. The Haiti earthquake tragedy happened right when I was going to decide who to give the $20. At work, there was a collection of funds for Haiti and what ever the employees raised was going to be matched by our company. I thought my giving was going to be too late, it turned out to be great timing.

Submitted by: Jim and Layla Houser
Story 1: Jim's $50...I picked a bunch of tags off the Angel Tree at work and basically quadrupled everything they asked for...I was "in the zone" and decided to cover the over-run beyond $50. My shopping cart was full of mens, women's, and boys socks and underwear. The cashier looked at me a little weird. A family member even decided to kick-in a brand new pair of men's dress shoes...also on an Angel Tree tag. Story 2: Layla's $50...We just had several new windows installed...this man worked hard and in the cold weather...said he had a family to support and hadn't made a paycheck for over two weeks due to the winter storm...he was even thinking how he could afford diesel to get to the next job...fifty bucks probably went a long way to filling his tank...he was grateful. We explained about the reverse offering and it wasn't our money, it was God's. That was a big step for me, I'm not typically like that around strangers.

Submitted by: Abby
I'm terrible at making quick decisions. It's been 7.5 weeks since I received $5 in the Reverse Offering and I've been sitting on it ever since. Well, actually it's been on a bookshelf in our kitchen. Today when I received a link to a blog from a missionary family living in Haiti, I knew that was the right place for my money to go. Such a terrible tragedy and even though I added my own contribution to the $5, I know it will not be anywhere near enough. However, maybe others will be inspired to give after reading the accounts that the Livesay family are posting regularly. http://livesayhaiti.blogspot.com/ Thanks for the giving me the opportunity to give. Abby

Submitted by: Jennie Martin
I received $1.00 in my envelope for the reverse offering, so I added it to my money that was set aside for the Salvation Army angel tree recipient that my office had picked out. I bought a booster seat, socks and underwear for a needy toddler in the area. Every little bit helps! Thank you!

Submitted by: Michelle Shankel
What an amazing gift this has been. The $5 I was given has meant so much to me. What I did with the money I feel is not so amazing which was pay the bill of the lady behind me at starbucks. However the amazing part is now I have been convicted of tithing. What a blessing to know that I matter.

Submitted by: Neil and Dana
My husband and I were first-time visitors to your church on the Sunday of Reverse Offering. Imagine our surprise when the reverse offering was discussed - it was something we've certainly not seen at any of the other churches we've been visiting recently! We (like all) had a long discussion about what to do with the $15 we had received, and other than deciding to match it, we really didn’t come up with anything. It was still in the back of my mind when I got a frantic email from a colleague discussing a cancer patient who needed some very basic things during this cold Christmas season – socks, shirts, grocery store cards, movies, etc. I called my husband and we both felt this was a perfect person with whom we could share our gift.

Submitted by: Amy Merchant
The service on November 22nd was our first time attending Heartland. We have decided to find a church for our family. My husband and I have very different family backgrounds and as you can imagine have different opions on church. However, we do agree on the importance of attending church and introducing our children as well. As you can imagine, being our first and only time attending Heartland, I was extemly suprised by the reverse offering. The timing however, was perfect for us. My son attends a day care facility in which 2/3rd's of the children are on scholarships that are provided 100% by the other families at the program. It is a wonderful program and one we too have benefited from. I received a $1 in the offering, of which I gave to the school and matched it with a second dollar and in so doing I enabled another family to attend the Thanksgiving lunch at the school with their child. While it does not seem like much, the fact that $2 enabled a parent to have a traditional Thanksgiving lunch with their child was a blessing, as that lunch for many of the children and families was the only Thanksgiving meal they were able to have. At this point, we have not yet found a church that fits our complete family, but our experience at Heartland will forever leave a memory. Thank you.

Submitted by: Annette Kaiser
I gave our reverse offering to our youngest for her preschool donation. Students were asked to bring a Christmas toy for children who's basic needs are barely met. We talked a lot about what we were doing, why, and where/how we received the money to pay for the toy. Sophie liked the idea and understood on her level. And after just one reminder she understood that we weren't buying a toy to donate, and one to take home :)

Submitted by: Bridget Johnson
I waited and waited for the right moment to give this offering to someone and the time finally came on Monday Jan. 4th. My father and I were in downtown Kansas City. While trying to find our destination we came across a sweet, older man who was standing out in the freezing cold collecting money or whatever he could get. I usually dont give money to people on the street since I have always heard they were scammers but something just told me to give him the two dollars that my fiance and I had received in the envelopes. The man's face lit up. He had the biggest smile on his face. Right then I knew I had waited for the right moment! Thank God and Heartland for giving me the experience.

Submitted by: Chuck & Bonnie
We visited the church for a second time the morning we recieved $51 for the reverse offering. We thought about it alot, but held the money, waiting for an opportunity to present itself. My son's 1st grade class was supporting a local family for Christmas. We took the $51 and added $150 of our own money to purchase Christmas gifts and food for this family who would have otherwise had almost nothing for Christmas. Thanks for the opportunity!

Submitted by: Rachel Butler
Hello! On November 22, I was given $5 in the reverse offering. Despite the amount only being $5, I had great visions for this gift and began seeking the perfect recipient. I didn't find it for some time and I could feel the $5 burning a hole in my purse. With my family, I went to see the Off-Broadway musical, Wicked. At the curtain call, the cast members made a request for the audience to donate to the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids Organization. I decided to donate my $5 following the show. While it wasn't how I'd envisioned using the money, it felt good to be able to donate and I know it will be well-used. Thank you for the opportunity to give to others, and I continue to seek out opportunities to use my gifts for the sake of those in need. Rachel :)

Submitted by: Ryan
The day of the reverse offering I received $10. As the holidays drew near, I knew I wanted to use it to spread the Christmas spirit. I wasn’t sure at first how I was going to do this until I saw a Salvation Army bell ringer. I then gladly slipped my ten dollar bill into their red kettle.

Submitted by: Jessica
My 2 year old son gave our $20 to the Salvation Army ringer at HyVee. I believe in the work of the Salvation Army and am trying to instill in my son the love of giving. So, by giving him money to put in the bucket, hopefully it is helping out the needy and inspiring my son towards a life long love of giving.

Submitted by: Jerry
Sue and I got $21. The one dollar we put in a Salvation army kettle. We waited until we felt led to do something with the $20. While waiting at the airport on Christmas Eve, we noticed several service men. I spoke to one in particular who had just came back from Iraq and was on his way to Seattle. Sue and I both felt led to give him the $20. He seemed to need it as he immediately went to the snack bar and bought something to eat. We thought we made the right decision.

Submitted by: John
As lame as it sounds, I donated my $1 to the Salvation Army that was in front of the Wal-Mart that I went to just after service. I know it will go to a good cause but my true passion is to donate to Harvesters. The fact that $1 dollar can make 7 meals is increadible. To whomever donated the funds for a reverse offering, thank you! My goal in 2010 is to walk in your shoes and help make a difference for the people that really need it. I was born and raised a Catholic. K through 12 I was in Catholic school. To be honest, the whole thing burned me out on religion. It is not to say that I ever lost my faith but Heartland and my girlfriend "dragging me to church," has renewed my relationship with God. Thank you for the past 2 months Heartland! Thank you for making the un-churched want to hear "The Word" again. It is something that I will give back to. Thank you so much! -John P.S.- The podcasts are great but if there is anyway to get the video that would be better.. and do not forget to include the opening and closing music. :)... just in case the "great KS weather" forces me in (I was trying to catch up on some older conversations Pastor Dan had) Thank you again Heartland!

Submitted by: K
I was a visitor the morning of the reverse offering. I was also the recipient of $100. I carried the $100 bill around with me for almost 2 months, knowing the right opportunity would present itself. On a recent trip to the Caribbean, I visited Dominica. Dominica is a beautiful island with lots of tourists, however the people of Dominica are very poor. We walked around to several churches in the area. I donated the $100 to a church that needed many stuctural repairs but lacked the funding to repair them. The church had a termite problem and needed a new roof to name a few issues.

Submitted by: d.d.
I took my $5 (err, the $5 I was so graciously entrusted with) and stuffed it in the pocket of the jacket I donated to our winter clothes drive. I also took another $20 from my food budget and stuffed it in another pocket. Getting into the spirit, I then threw in one of my favorite winter hats for good measure. It's funny - or, interesting - how one act of kindness can be catalyst for another. I'm really not sure that I would've participated whatsoever in the coat drive if I weren't challenged to think generously. Love it.

Submitted by: Kelly Wilkening
My fiance and I pooled our $2 together and gave $100 to a dear friend of ours that has seen some tough life changes. Her husband of 5 years left her and her 6 month old boy. She couldn't afford to live in her house anymore and lost her job 2 weeks ago due to downsizing and the economy. She moved in with her mom which wasn't the healthiest living arrangement, but she had no where else to go. Opportunities looked bleak and with the holidays approaching, she was having a hard time seeing any hope in the future. It truly amazes me how it seemed that the Heartland family knew just how to inspire us to spread our love and treasures with someone who desperately needed someone to love her and remind her that God is still looking out for her. Enclosed is her email response to the gift; it is truly meant for the generous Reverse Offering Heartland Family: i opened my mail on christmas day, i am not sure when your card arrived; but i have to say, when i opened it, it brought tears to my eyes for several different reasons....i do not remember the last time i felt that someone really understood what i have been going through and just how difficult this has been, i do not remember the last time i felt appreciated like that. your thoughtfulness and sincerity made me feel so grateful for your friendship. i was so touched...it made this severe burden i have been carrying lighten because my efforts and determination seemed to be acknowledged and recognized. anyway kelly, i cannot thank you enough for thinking of me...i will use the money for something very well deserving of the generosity that made it possible. there are things that little lalo needs, it will come in so handy. you really made this christmas very special. please give my thanks to todd also.

Submitted by: Charlie Ray
I received a dollar in the reverse offering and wondered what I could really do with just a dollar. I held on to it for some time until I felt led to use it and do something. I am a substance abuse counselor and see a wide variety of clients in different areas of need. I am not supposed to give things to clients and wondered how I could help with one of my clients that lived alone and did not have any heat other than a small space heater. I discussed this situation with my supervisor and he agreed that this was a different situation and that we could provide some type of gift under the direction of being a non profit agency. I used my dollar along with 50.00 of my own and purchased a new heater that would heat two rooms and also donated two heavy blankets. God is good and the client was very much appreciative of the gifts.

Submitted by: Emily
I put my reverse offering into my gift for this years Angel Tree and Heartland Hearts. Each one of my gifts were doubled, therefore, hopefully granting each recipient a greater Christmas than could have been imagined.

Submitted by: Lynnae Terrill
My husband Matt and I each received a dollar, and we decided to contribute to help a close friend and mentor. She has been incredibly generous to us in the past, and has been one of the biggest influences on my spiritual life and growth. She recently lost her job and would only be able to work until the end of the year, and was told that she would only be receiving a partial paycheck for that time. Some of the girls that were in the bible study my friend led (she led us from our 9th grade years until our high school graduations) felt that we should all pitch in to help cover the cost of what would be her outstanding utility bills. Matt and I decided to contribute our $2 to this group collection, as well as round the amount up to $100. All in all, the group--which included one other Heartland attender--collected a little over $300 to give to our friend. She told us when we presented the money to her that between our donation and a gift from her sister, it was the exact amount she was going to be short for that month. She was in tears by the end of our conversation. In addition to the blessing from God that our gift was to her, she just received news this week that she got a new job that fits her exact skill set and career desires and will make enough for her to quit her other part-time jobs. God is good!!!

Submitted by: Tami Pratt
Upon walking into church, on that Sunday, November 22, I was desperately seeking answers from Jesus to calm my soul. I had just experienced the death and cremation of my closest grandfather only two days prior and while his death was expected after a long, hard battle with Parkinson's disease, it still overwhelmed my heart with sorrow and grief. I had questions about death, cremation, heaven, and I was hopeful church would provide some sort of solace in hearing God's word on any topic; except the topic of money. As many might experience, I writhe in my seat, and tension fills my heart as I battle with this topic of conversation with God during a sermon such as this. You see, money enslaves me in many ways. I hold on to it tightly and work hard to be responsible with it. I hate spending money, thinking this will provide me with security whereas it only causes me heartache and stress. It also robs me of joy. Yet my experience with money goes even deeper. It has been the source of painful separation within my family. My grandmother, recently deceased grandfather, mother, and aunt have all become estranged over money's very tight grip on their souls. There has been some sense of entitlement to the life savings left to my grandmother by her very wealthy father many years ago. Knowing the death of my grandfather was close, my prayers for God's glory and love to wash over my family and bring unity among them were the first to be prayed. I was hoping that in some way his death would offer the opportunity for reconciliation between my aunt, grandmother and my mother. In the hour of his death, I was amazed to witness that even through the painful years of unforgiveness and greed, the love for one another still resonated as each worried about the other in their grieving over my grandfather. This love was only expressed to me and through me to one another. It was something. And two days later, as I sat in the blue seat at Heartland overwhelmed by the anxiety of unanswered questions and the stress money holds in my life (not to mention the added stress of Christmas gift buying season just around the corner), I began to feel God's nudging as the reverse offering was introduced. My heart began to flutter as I brainstormed possible ways to bless someone else. You see, I love to give to others and desire to do it more often, but I find that the stronghold money has on me keeps me from giving and sometimes even enjoying the act of giving. Yet, this was my chance. A chance to begin chipping away at the wall that not only surrounds me, but that stands between my family. A chance to glorify God by loving others through the act of giving. And my grandfather's death would play a big part. Not only did this reverse offering completely change my outlook on the Christmas season as I gave money and gifts to a homeless person, a child in an orphanage, Heartland Hearts, and the fellow teachers I work with, but it also taught me how to rely on God for my every need. I realized He has always provided for me in my struggles to just get by, and therefore I trusted His provision as I gave away my money freely. I didn’t have the money to give away, but I didn’t think twice about it. When I felt nudged to give, I just did. And the biggest nudge of all was to bring my family into the giving. The day we spread my grandfather's ashes my aunt, sister, and three younger cousins sat in the car sharing our hearts and thoughts about his death. I took the opportunity to share about the reverse offering. Not only was this a time for me to share about a neat opportunity provided by my church, but also the chance to share about God whom my family believes in, but doesn't share in a personal relationship with Him as I do. I shared my idea of all of us putting together some money and purchasing ingredients to bake cookies and goodies to give to the families who have to spend Christmas at the Hospice house where my grandfather passed. And that we did. My cousins and I rolled the cart around the store thinking of baking ideas. When we were knee deep into the sugar, we shared a bite of warm rice krispie treat off a spatula together. Our fingers dripped with gooey, chocolate as we laughed at our struggle to find a system to cover the oreos completely. We took a break on the couch only to dog pile one another, tickle each other and even cuddle, our eyes becoming heavy, ready for a nap. It was the closest I have ever felt with my cousins. It was a time to not only show them my love for them, but I was astounded at the sisterly love they had for each other. The house was not only filled with the aroma of sugar and sweets, but of God's peace and joy. I could sense my grandfather's presence and the "Ho, Ho, Ho" he always had for us at Christmas time. And I recognized that the act of giving my money was nothing compared to the experience we shared. That the amount we spent at the grocery store was not even worth the cost of spending time together, loving one another, and preparing to love others together. God provided us with more than what money could ever buy. And on this day God's word rang true: "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.'" Hebrews 13:5.

Submitted by: Donna B.
After the service I stopped by the grocery. Standing at the check out, I noticed that by purchasing a ticket, I could make a donation to supply meals through a local charity. I was impressed at the numbers that could be fed for such a small donation. I took out my $5, ripped off the coupon, and gave. Through Heartland, God gives me opportunity to be used by Him in many ways and I rejoice in His love, His charity, and His faith in us to be His servants, as we give, pray, and reach out.

Submitted by: Anonymous
My wife & I received $1 each, and as we exited the service that day we ran into a young couple that we had not seen in a while. They have been struggling with legal problems with the adoption of one of their children. The $2 were added to another $203 to help make their monthly car payment.

Submitted by: Bill Cardell
The amount that was "reversed" to me kind of had a "waterfall effect" in me. I decided to double the money and donate it to City Union Mission. But there are a couple other charities that I find worthy so I took that doubled amount and gave to those charities in the name of HCC. So thanks to the generous HCC donor, that $10 has tumbled over the waterfall and turned into $60. I just pray that those charities continue the "Waterfall".

Submitted by: Mark & Jacque Cork
We were visiting the day of the reverse offering. Even though we felt a little odd taking money, we did it and received a total of $30 between the two of us. We weren't sure what we would do with it but we knew we wanted to somehow multiply it. After a lot of thinking we decided to present the employees at the company where Mark works with the idea of assembling and distributing hygiene kits to homeless people in Kansas City as a Christmas service project and gift for the company's owner, using our $30 as seed money. We told the employees how we received the $30 and asked them to contribute their own money so we could multiply what we were able to do. The response was incredible! The employees turned our $30 into $585!!! We would have been able to purchase products for only 4 hygiene kits with our $30, but we assembled 85 kits! We got the products at Wal-Mart (and I must say we've never had so much fun shopping at Wal-Mart). The employees gathered after work one Friday night to assemble the kits. Some took a few to distribute themselves and a group from the company went downtown last week to hand out the rest. All 85 kits were presented as a Christmas gift to the company owners and they were moved beyond belief. It was simply amazing - thanks for the opportunity you gave us to make a difference! (By the way, the company is a marketing firm that produces creative, so we made a short video of the project. If you are interested in seeing it, please let us know.)

Submitted by: Lindsey
Thank you for the newsletter it has reminded me to share my reverse offering. I received $1 in my envelope. I was overwhelmed on what I should do for this offering but it all came to me when I was buying a pretzel. I enjoy Wetzel Preztels in the Great Mall and let myself enjoy one from time to time on the weekends. I was ordering my pretezel after the Nov. 22nd service and noticed that the tip jar was completely empty. I have been in the service industry my whole working career and understand that an extra dollar goes a long way. I gave my $1 to the crew plus an additional $3 to make my tip 100%. I am a newcomer to Heartland and love everything that you do for this community. Thank you for being a great place to worship:) Happy Holidays.

Submitted by: mike and brenda farmer
My reverse offering envelope had $50 and my wife's had $1. We pooled our money in a gift to Jacob's Well Prison Ministries. Each year Jacob's Well Prison Ministries gives two large gift baskets, of goodies,food and soft drinks, to the inmates of JCCC in Gardner and their families for a Christmas celebration. The baskets are the only food allowed into the Johnson County Correction Center for the party. We gathered last Saturday night for a praise worship service for the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. There were guest singers, a jazz trio and a guest pastor for the gathering. God blessed us with his presence in an awesome spirit filled time of fellowship. Thank you for the reverse offering. Mike and Brenda Farmer

Submitted by: Tina
When our family opened our envelopes, we got $31 total. My husband had already promised God, before opening them, that he would double whatever we got. So we now had $62. We went out to lunch that day after Church and tried to decide what to do with it. We had a crazy idea to leave a big tip, so we left a $25 tip for our waiter. We decided that we would give our 4yr old son about $12 and he could pick what to do with it, and the rest we still weren’t sure about. Well, our son was so excited to buy toys for kids that didn’t have any that he just kept throwing things in the cart. We were so proud of him we couldn’t tell him “no”, so he more than doubled “his” money. About a week ago we heard of a little Church in Argentine that had many needy families. It just so happened that it was also $5 bag day at Children’s Orchard, so we spent the rest of the money on clothes for kids and took them to that Church. Of course, we went overboard again, so the original donation of $31 turned into over $115! Thank you “anonymous Heartlander” for jumpstarting our Christmas giving!

Submitted by: Kelly
Once the reverse offering was announced my husband and I knew right away who we would give the money to. My best friend since kindergarten is currently working as a missionary through World Gospel Outreach in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. She teaches orphans on a ranch called Rancho Ebenezer. They take abandoned and abused children off of the streets and place them in Christian homes. While there, they are given an education and opportunities to grow physically, emotionally, academically and spiritually. She absolutely loves being there and the children have really taken to her. I know she will have a great impact on their lives. The funds she raised prior to flying over there are running low and we knew she could really use the support. We ended up with $1 each and decided to add $50 to it. She is in town for Christmas so we were able to personally hand her the money and explain the reverse offering. She was very grateful and thought a reverse offering was a great idea. If you would like to read more about her experience in Honduras you can visit her website at www.rachelhonduras.com.

Submitted by: Molly
I received a one dollar bill. I decided to accumulate my single dollar bills and five dollar bills over one week. At the end of the week, I had $15.00 in my envelope. I decided to leave it for the janitor at work who comes after hours to clean. I left it with a note that simply said, "The Lord has been generous to me, lately, and I wanted to share that generosity with you." I trust he was blessed by this small amount of money. And it's true...generosity is contagious!

Submitted by: Ted Ingalls & Tami Pratt
Tami and I used our money to go to the thrift store, buy a backpack, and fill it with a warm coat, a thick blanket, and lots of snacks and drinks. On Christmas, we'll drive around and give it to whatever homeless person God leads us to. One side note.....while we were shopping at the thrift store, a 12 year old boy gave us a Christmas card and wished us a merry Christmas (he and his dad were giving these cards out to everyone in the store)....in the card was a five dollar bill! We stuck that in the backpack too:)

Submitted by: Diane Hinton
I'm a high school counselor and I had prayed about what to do with my reverse offering. Of course I have many needy students I could hand the money to at any time, but I wanted this to be special. To be honest I carried it around in my purse until the middle of December. On December 16 I enrolled a young lady from Springfield, Missouri that was homeless. Her mom kicked her out of the house and she had come to our area to move in with a friend she knew. She is 17. I've done this counseling thing for a long, long time. I don't bend or break easily, I've seen and heard just about everything, and I've never really oozed empathy. Anyway, I enrolled her under the homeless act on Wed. Dec. 16 in a partial schedule. She was in class one day, then had to take finals but that was all I could do in an attempt to help her earn even one credit. She came into my office on Friday and asked me when she would be eligible for her free lunches. She said she had picked up a lunch the day before but when she came to the register they told her that her name wasn't in the computer yet so she would have to eat a peanut butter sandwich instead. That may sound cold, but we are told many different stories by different people all of the time. Our cook feeds the kids free sandwiches until they get things straightened out. She asked me if I thought her lunches would be available by Monday. I checked it out for her again and told her they would be available. She thanked me and started to leave. About that time I opened my bottom drawer on my desk to get a pencil and the money from the church, still in the white envelope, was sticking out of the top of my purse. It had been in the bottom of my purse the day before. It hit me like a lightening bolt. I stopped her as she left my office and said here is money I received at church. I have been praying about who should receive it. You use it for lunch and some day you help someone else when you can - it was $5. Tears came out of her eyes and she thanked me as she left. She comes by my office to speak to me everyday.

Submitted by: Jackie
During the reverse offering service my husband and I recieved a total of $11 we took the money and decided we would wait for that perfect opportunity. We took it home and discussed this with our 4 yr. old daughter who told us that we needed to give it away to another child, so we saved it trying to decide who would need it the most, but it just sat on the counter. Then the Sunday came in which there was the opportunity to take a heart from the Christmas tree and we recieved the name of a little boy who wanted a gift card for $10 so we got him one with our money, since then we have decided to keep it going and have been talking more about how we were going to having a giving spirit rather than a recieving spirit for Christmas. Thank you so much for the opportunity to share a very special moment with our family and hopefully to others.

Submitted by: Adrienne Young
I struggled at first as to what to do with my $5 I received from the reverse offering. I actually took it with me to visit my sister in Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving thinking that I would have an opportunity there. But no, I brought it all the way back here to Kansas...leaving it in the envelope in my purse the entire time so I wouldn't spend it. I even asked my friend what I should do with it. And we came up with this big plan that I could pay for someone's coffee at Starbucks or something...but nothing ever quite worked out. Then, a few weeks later I was at Sonic and it was one of those REALLY cold days that we had about a week or two ago...and I decided that I would give the girl the change from my meal. When I told her to keep the change, which ended up being about $4.49...she actually thought I literally meant just the change ($0.49)! Then I corrected her saying, "No, it's too cold for you guys to be working out here so keep it." She looked at me stunned and smiled saying thank you. It felt so good to make her day. Now, for you math majors out there, you can see that I was still 51 cents short from the full 5 dollars. So the following weekend, I went to breakfast with a friend of mine and tipped the fellow waiting on us 5 dollars because I just couldn't stop! :-) Thank you for the opportunity to brighten someone else's day...AND my own in the process.

Submitted by: Dave
I received $5 in the reverse offering. Having no idea what to do with it I folded it neatly and put it in my wallet with my credit card and ID - hoping for a God moment that would tell me how to best use the money. After a couple of weeks the moment hadn't happened and I was beginning to burn a hole in my pocket. Driving home from church one day there was a young man panhandling at a stop light. I thought this was the opportunity I had been waiting for. Calling the young man over the the car I pulled out my wallet and looked for the $5, but it wasn't there. In the passenger seat my wife sheepishly admitted she had taken a credit card out of my wallet and in the process left the $5 on the our counter. Now I was in a quandary - I couldn't tell the young man, after calling him to the car, that I was sorry - the money I intended to give him was at home. Looking thru my wallet, the only thing I had was a $10 bill so I gave him the $10. Thru circumstance I wasn't aware of God doubled the $5 and helped a young man in need.

Submitted by: Steve Sanks
I got $1, and I thought of a local jazz musician that I have established a friendship with. I saw him perform last night (12/19), and told him the story about the reverse offering repeat, and how I saw that same thought being present in his performances, telling him that God blessed him with many talents, and he brings smiles to many faces when he performs. So I dropped the envelope with $1 in it. I wanted to bless him also, so I dropped some other money in there. I was initially puzzled, for he didn't seem to notice "my" money, but after reflection, I am even more encouraged, because it wasn't the $ amount that touched him, but he had a special "moment" - I pray God would work in that. He's been distant from God, but always enjoys my God/church stories. I pray that God would continue to work in his life and protect him. I've invited him here many times, but he's yet to visit. Perhaps one day he'll visit and/or perform here. He's a top notch entertainer. And if he does, I feel we'd all be really blessed. Steve

Submitted by: Mary Brown
I received $10. I waited a minute after praying, and immediately knew how to pass it on. I gave it to a mom of three, struggling to make ends meet. She bought baby food. God is good.

Submitted by: Lee
My family had a hard time coming up with ideas for how to give away our $50. I continued to mull it over and was working on a few schemes when Maria came back into my life. Last year I'd met Maria, a single mom who needed a little help at Christmas time. When she moved to KCMO, months later, we lost contact. Well, last week Maria moved back to Olathe. She had found my phone number while packing for the move! When she told me she had spent everything getting back to a safe place to live, I immediately thought of the $50 in the envelope on our mantel. A few days later I went to visit her. Before I left I told her about the reverse offering and that I wanted her to have it. Maria said she thinks the money was sitting on our mantel so long because it was waiting for her. I agree.

Submitted by: Ashley Pratt
The day before the reverse offering I was at work in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. I was taking care of a baby and the mother was in a shelter. The mother didnt have transportation to come see her baby. I was telling her of how good her baby was doing and how I had dressed her in clothes that morning. (She was a sick baby so when they finally get to wear clothes it is an exciting moment for the parents...it usually makes it reality that their baby is going to be okay.) The mother asked if there was anyway that I could take some pictures of her, but we didnt have a camera that worked on the unit. I told her that I would try and figure something out for her. The next day I went to church and we had the reverse offering, I knew that it was in Gods plan for me to help out this mother. With my $5 I bought a camera and a little baby book that the mother could use for when the baby graduated from the NICU. I drove it straight up to the NICU and left it at the bedside. Everyday I worked I would walk by her room and still saw the present there. Finally a few weeks later I walked by her room and her mother was in there and I saw that she had the album opened and was using the camera. I stopped by and introduced myself and told her that God has been good to me this year and she couldn't stop thanking me. I think that the best part of my story is that I could share with my co-workers about my experience at church that day. I think it helped open lots of converstions about God that I normally don't have with my co-workers. I heard lots of stories about how God has been good to people this year. It was a great experience that I will never forget and helped me open my eyes to giving...even just something small. Thank you to the family who did the reverse offering!

Submitted by: Beth Kisling
My husband and I don't come to church every other Sunday due to my hectic work schedule and were not there the day you did the reverse offering. We were there the following Sunday however. I always leave church feeling moved and inspired in so many ways. Hearing about the donation and the 'pay it forward' idea was no exception. I asked my husband what he would do if he were to recieve $100.00. His responce was 'I wouldn't keep it,I would probably give it away'. well duh!! Anywho, I said I would probably give it to a women's shelter, and that's what I did! As I said, we weren't there the day of the reverse offering, but I took your idea and ran with it acting as though I recieved $100.00 that day. My family and I are blessed in many ways,I don't always have a lot of money to spare, but I just acted as though I was given a financial gift, saw a need at Rose Brooks Center and I filled it on Heartlands behalf! Thank you Thank you Thank you

Submitted by: Lori McQuigg and family
Thank you so much for the opportunity to give this gift! Between my 2 kids and I we had a total of $40.00 to give away. It was such a blessing to hear my kids brainstorm about what to do with the money. There is an employee that I have had the pleasure of working with for the past 6 years. When she came to our office she was a high school student investigating a career in business. Over time I have seen her become an integral part of our team and change her career from business to becoming a doctor of optometry. Through the years she has worked full time and also put herself through college full time. She has sacrificed free time with her friends on many occasions in order to work toward creating a better life for herself. It is my belief that she has done all of this without any financial support from her family. It has been such an honor to assist her in completing her college of optometry applications. The dedication and determination that she has shown is unlike anyone I have ever known. She is such an inspriation to me. Well she recently received notification from her school of choice that they wanted an interview with her. This school is in Oklahoma and would require travel. She was concerned about spending the money to stay in a hotel overnight and the gas money. She was planning to drive 5 hours to get to the school just in time to arrive for her interview. My kids and I discussed our $40. We decided to give it to her to spend on gas and maybe even a hotel. She was so greatful and it brought tears to her eyes! Well I am not sure exactly how she chose to spend the money, but I do know that the interview went well. Our prayers go out to her as she applies to these schools. I hope the interviewers realize what an exceptional person she is. She WILL be a fabulous eye doctor someday. Thank you again for such a wonderful opportunity to bless someone. It actually blessed us more!

Submitted by: Vanessa Nyhus
My husband and I pooled our money together for a total of $15 plus we added $5 and bought a $20 gas card for my cousin. My cousin is going to seminary to be a youth pastor and is raising his younger brother who is a sophomore in high school. My aunt, their mom, died in May of this year after battling cancer for 4 years. Their dad is on the road most of the time because he drives a tour bus and they are left to fend for themselves most of the time. My cousin goes to school, leads a Jr. high and High school youth group, and sees to it that his younger brother gets to school, is fed and attends his activities. He has had to grow up too fast and we just hope that the gas card helps out over the holidays. We enjoy reading this site and learning how many people in so many different ways were blessed because of one family’s generosity. Thank you.

Submitted by: Debbie Kirk
I work at Olathe South High School and decided to take my one dollar bill and explain to my co-workers, how my church, Heartland Community, gave everyone at least one dollar. I told them that we were encouraged to be creative and use it in a way that would be a blessing to someone in need. I called my dollar, "the living dollar" and gave them the opportunity to match my dollar with one of theirs and then watch it grow! Many staff and students alike contributed to this cause and in 2 days we ended up with $168.25 and 2 $10 gift cards to Jimmy Johns! At the very time I began this process, I was made aware of 3 families from our Olathe South community that are in need of help. This money will be used to meet the needs of these 3 families and hopefully lighten their loads and hearts. It has been a blessing to get to witness firsthand, one lone dollar bill grow and grow and become a living example of generousity. The cool thing is, each "little" bit makes a difference and will make a difference in someone's life this Christmas! Thanks for the challenge! Deb Kirk :)

Submitted by: Susan
It took me several weeks of praying to decide what to do with my $1. I decided to add $29 to the $1 I received so I could give all of it to my friend, who is a single mom with 3 kids. Things have been tough financially for her and I wanted to help her in some small way. When I told her that her family was the recipient of my reverse offering, she was overjoyed and I could hear her appreciation and some relief in her voice.

Submitted by: Cindy Smith
In Johnson County, going to a public school where it seems so many have so much, it's hard to realize that a child can't afford basketball shoes. When we heard of a girl on my daughters high school basketball team, who could not afford basketball shoes, we decided to give her our money. Our family received a total of $16.00. At one of the basketball games, we collected money from some of the parents and turned our $16.00 into $75.00. She now has new shoes! The girl does not know where the money came from, but others who donated heard the story of Heartlands reverse offering. What a blessing!

Submitted by: Abby & Jay Chugden
It's taken me a little while to actually sit down and do this! My husband Jay received $1 and I received $5. We thought "OK, what now?" We both matched turning the $6 into $18. My father-in-law matched that, turning it into $36. Then a few co-workers chipped in a few dollars to bring it up to $50. Again, I thought "What now?". Inspired by my company's request for donations for the Rose Brooks Center (to be brought to our Childrens' Christmas party), I decided to donate the money to them (they are a shelter for domestically abused women and children). In addition, I was inspired to purchase not only the socks and gloves requested, but toys and clothing as well! This whole "reverse offering" set me on a path of giving back more this year. A very difficult thing for me to originally conceive doing, since my husband has been jobless for the last year. However, knowing that little ones needed hope in their lives weighed far greater in my heart than our own financial woes. I hope others can find it in their hearts to do the same....

Submitted by: Michele
I received $1 in the reverse offering and was pretty bummed about it. I lived with my elderly grandfather and work in a copy center. Not alot of opportunity for excitement. I used $0.44 to get a stamp for a co-worker of mine, and the other $0.56 for a taco for another co-worker. It wasn't much, but I never lend/give any amount of money, and now I am- somewhat. I also heard the sermon on being out of tune and have arranged my finances to now give tithe. I've never understood things better.

Submitted by: Charlie Louvau
Our giving was pooled as a family in the following manner: all was directed toward Samaritan's Purse. One part went to giving sports equipment to a village. Another Portion went to Blankets. The third portion went toward feeding a child for a week. We were encouraged beyond measure. It placed our last few years into perspective. The love that has been extended to us was now in ways beyond our kin extended toward others.

Submitted by: Tyler and Sarah Whetstine
Sarah and I received a $20 and a $10 in our envelopes for the reverse offering. We decided to double our $30 and give $60 to the Dominguez family in Troy,KS (my hometown)that had just found out that the father was diagnosed with a brain tumor (don't want to mis-state the stage/prognosis, but it is serious). It's obviously not enough to cover all of the medical expenses and costs of travel, being out of work, etc, but we hoped that it helped a little, and was more the message behind the gift that was accepted. The father (JD)just recently started chemo and radiation treatments, so his wife Jana wrote Sarah and I an amazing letter in return. Here is a portion of the letter: "Dear Tyler and Sarah, I'm not sure how to express our gratitude, because "thank you" certainly does not seem adequate. When I opened the card that your mom had written, Tyler, I felt overwhelmed. And every time I have shared the story with someone, I start crying. Our family is struggling right now, but we are clinging to our faith. And when people like you touch us with your thoughtfulness and generosity, we know the lord is at work! We thank you so very much for thinking of us and sharing - it is so very appreciated. Sincerely, Jana & JD, Andrew & Daniel Dominguez" Receiving a hand-written letter like this one in return, it makes you realize the impact you can have on someone's life, any given day. It also makes you ask yourself, why don't I do this every day?

Submitted by: Laurie
I recieved $10.00 in the reverse offering envelope. After a few weeks of falling into the "over thinker's catagory" I recently released the money. I kept thinking 10 x 10 so I matched the $10.00 and sent $100.00 to Olive Branch Ministeries (www.olivebranchministries.org) This past summer my husband and son went to The mision Para Cristo ( www.misionparacristo.com) in Nicaragua on a medical and construction mission. Recently my son applied to med school and on his application he shared about how that experience was valuable in his personal development. I know our lives have been blessed already by the opportunity to serve mision para cristo. I wanted to give what I could to continue.

Submitted by: Steve and Jamie Hultgren
Ever since we were given the reverse offering we have been keeping our eyes and heart open to the possibility of giving a smile to someone and making that day a little better for them. The opportunity became a reality when we selected a Heartland Family in need this Christmas. In addition to purchasing off of their wishlist we increased our reverse offering and purchased a gift card for the family in hopes that they would be able to buy something they could use or even treat themselves and buy something they otherwise would not have the resources to buy. What a great feeling to be able to help others.

Submitted by: Brenda Becker
I received $10 in the offering, added just a couple of my own, and bought some new, very thick, very long, and very warm-looking socks for Bob, a homeless man who often sleeps on the sidewalk near my office building. I met Bob last year one day when I noticed him huddled under a warm vent, I introduced myself, and ever since then I like to surprise him occasionally with little gifts, especially in the winter time. It never seems like enough... but I do hope it helps. Thank you, Heartland.

Submitted by: adam moore & sheena castro
Sorry our story is a bit late. But here it is. I received $1.00 and Adam received $20.00, which we put together to make $21.00. Immediately we were thinking of ways to add our own money into the pot, but unfortunately we didn't have much. I don't have a job, but i did cut someone's hair the week before and decided to put my $20.00 in the pot. Adam took his $8.00 from his wallet. So in total we had $49.00. We decided to just make it an even $50.00! But then i remembered that Adam had a jar of coins that he never cashed, so i asked him if we could use it, and without hesitation he agreed! So we sat on our floor counting all the change we had out of the jar. To our amazement we had about $46.00. And i just remembered that i had change in my purses, so i looked there and found another couple dollars. The total was close to $100.00, so we just decided to make it an even $100.00. So then we were thinking of who we could help, and Adam and I just decided to pray over the money and ask God to let us know who the right person was. Then the day came. My best friend who lives in California has been struggling with her family for the past couple months. Her husband lost her job. I spoke to her on the phone and she was telling me how they cant pay for T.v., phone, and how she lost her car. So we wrote a short note saying "This money has been given to bless you and your family". Then we mailed it out. We didn't tell her we did. Adam, his mom and I were heading out to have dinner for his birthday, when i received a call from my friend. At first i couldn't understand her on the phone as she was crying. Then i realized she had received the money. She said to me, " Thank you so much, i was praying last night so hard for God to help us, because our lights were going to get shut off today, and they are $80, that gives me enough to keep them on. I didn't think there was anyone out there to help us, but now I see that God has shown me that we are not alone. I hope God blesses you 50 times more. I love you guys!!!" Adam tells my friend, "This is such a wonderful birthday gift, for you to have received our gift to you". Its amazing how we sent the money to my friend and she received it on Adam's birthday, which in turn was a gift for him and myself. Thank you for giving us this opportunity to give, we hope we can do this again.

Submitted by: Bailey & John Woller
My boyfriend and I both got $1 and used it to buy a pair of long underwear and a bundle of socks. When we lived in Nashville we spent some time volunteering in the homeless community and found that they always need extra pairs of socks and underwear because there is nothing less comfortable than walking around in wet under garments. This is particularly important for wet winters. My mother then dropped these gifts off at the Salvation Army.

Submitted by: Darin Baugher
I received $1 in the reverse offering, and initially did exactly what I wasn't supposed to do...... I tried to get clever and as a result started to over analyze the situation. However, this week I was in Las Vegas for a conference. One evening a couple of colleagues and I visited one the the city's fine casinos for some (responsible) fun. I'm not much of a gambler, so I pulled up a chair at one of the bars, bought a beverage and enjoyed a basketball game on the big screen while my colleagues enjoyed the blackjack tables. As I prepared to leave, I noticed a waitress at a nearby computer monitor processing some of her customer's payments. She wasn't my waitress, but she caught my eye because she was VERY, VERY pregnant (is it possible to be 10 months pregnant?). In her state she was really lumbering under the "load". I didn't notice a wedding ring, which given the environment, made her seem all the more vulnerable. No more analysis was necessary! As I walked past, I put the dollar bill on the counter next to her. She looked up at me and gave me a full-faced smile and "thank you" that I'll never forget. I smiled back knowing that it was I that was truly blessed by this event.

Submitted by: Tara and Brett Payton
Brett and I both received a $1 in our enevelopes and decided we would combine our efforts. There is a teacher at my school whose son was diagnosed with stage 4 Neuroblastoma in August of 2007, at the time he was 3. He is now 5 and the cancer has returned. Gabe spends 6-8 hours at clinic receiving his chemo treatments. We decided that we would give our 2 dollars to him so that he could have whatever he wanted from the vending machine on the days that he is at clinic. Brett also designed a flier to promote a fundraiser at our school in honor of Gabe and I helped put together a staff money drive to help with the many costs they our encountering once again. Trisha, Gabe's mom is a part time teacher and her husband, Josh is a minster at their church. Please join Brett and I as we continue to pray for Gabe's health, he is such a brave little boy!

Submitted by: Kenyon Anderson
I took a trip to St. Louis last weekend and donated my $1 (along with my own money) to Trinity Church of the Nazarene. This was no ordinary trip and no ordinary church. I went to St. Louis to meet my little brother from my biological father's second marriage, a brother I had never met. I found Brandon and his wife through a social networking site in November, and a visit to meet them was the next logical step in our relationship. What a blessing the trip was - we connected immediately! He's everything a baby brother could be and I so look forward to building a lasting relationship with him. They took me to their church, Trinity, on Sunday and introduced me as Brandon's sister to all their friends. What a gift from God this holiday season!

Submitted by: Dale Erickson
I blessed others in the form of sugary glazed goodness. With the $5 I received along with $2.96 of my own I purchased one dozen donuts for some of my employees at work. The cool thing about this is when I got the donuts from K.C. Donuts the box said "Heaven by the Dozen". Coincidence? I think not!

Submitted by: Melissa
I knew immediately that I would give the contents of my envelope to my good friend Zach. Zach went to church for the first time only about a year ago and since then has made tremendous strides towards living like Jesus. Zach went on his first week long mission trip to Nicaragua in July. The following Monday he made a bold decision to quit his job with a professional sports team to serve as the "hands and feet" of Jesus. He is currently back in Nicaragua working at Campo Alegria which was built to bring hope to children living in the town dump. Zach sold all of his earthly posessions to finance his time in Nicaragua. I added $80 to the $20 in my envelope which will enable Zach to stay even longer than he anticipated. Thank you for the opportunity to share.

Submitted by: Mark Barone
I do volunteer work as a chaplain at the VA Hospital. I mentioned to the other Chaplains about the concept of reverse giving presented at Heartland Community Church and how I had received a $1. One of the other Chaplain’s matched my $1. On Saturday Morning 12/5 while working at the VA Hospital a Veteran in the starting stages of ALS disease (Lou Gehrig's disease) came in from the cold. He didn’t have enough money to take the bus home. I asked how much is the bus fare? He said $1.75. I had the $2 in an envelope in my back pocket. I explained the story behind the $2 gift and gave it to him. Tears welled up in his eyes as he expressed thankfulness for the gift of grace and took the bus home.

Submitted by: Sean and Jamie Mayes
Upon hearing the announcement of the reverse offering again by Pastor Dan on that Sunday morning service, I was excited. Jamie on the other hand was cautiously awaiting to see how it all pans out. Already my mind was racing on what to do with the money! Last time this was done, I recieved a humble amount. But, I was able to add to it and buy art supplies for some of my really talented, yet needy kids in my school distrcit so they could keep doing artwork! The basket was hastily passed down our aisle as the song from Kevin was running out. I could tell because Kevin went into another guitar solo. We picked out our envelopes and opened, awaiting to see what challenges this offering bring us. We opened ours, and received 40 bucks total. Again, I was already thinking of what to do with it! Well, turns out we didn't know what to do with it at first. Lots of ideas came through, but nothing that seemed like "BAM!" You know like the chef would say. Finally we thought we could give the money as a gift to the highway toll worker on our way to visit the folks in Oklahoma. To our dismay, we couldn't do that! They weren't allow to recieve gifts. So, we went back to the drawing board. We let the money slide, and took time away from it to think of what to do about it. But, the other day, I happened to read my morning emails at work. One of our teachers had targeted a few very needy families. She started taking up donations to supply them with food gift cards, Christmas trees, coats and toys for the kids. It just so turns out they were lacking 1 last Price Chopper gift card to make sure all the families were provided for. I instantly texted Jamie about it, and Jamie loved the idea. I informed the teacher we would love to fill in the "missing piece." The teacher was very surprised and excited. She shared with me that b/c of the lack of funds, they were going to cut back on what they wanted to give each family. But, since our money was being used, it worked out perfectly! We are eager to see what will happen with these families! We are happy we could provide a little holiday cheer, by the grace of God to help out these families in the spirit of Christmas.

Submitted by: Daryl, Susie & Matthew Hediger
Our family recieved a total of $35 in this great event! There are 2 places close to our hearts, since God is Good, and it's all his anyway, we decided to give $35 to each. First is to "Bongo Barry's" family. Barry Bernstein is a musical genius to say the least. Our son went to K-6 with his youngest daughter Sydney. Barry came to Bonjour Elem every year to play fun songs for the kids, he is also very active in the Blue Valley School Dist. and KC, MO & Jo Co libraries. He has a wife and 2 daughters. He passed away suddenly at home in Aug. I found out by chance while reading the Sun paper a couple weeks ago, the KC MO library was having a tribute concert for him. Mr. Stinky Feet was playing, along with many other fun folks. It was so nice to see his family, yet the reason was sad. Anyway, we decided to send God's money to them, along with a note explaining why and how.(please see "bongo barry" on youtube) Next...we sent God's money to Youthfront Camps. Our son Matthew has attended camp the last 2 years through Heartland, and had the time of his life. He said he felt the closest to Jesus at camp. We hope this offering will enable another teen to experience God in this way. 3 years ago, the reverse offering was the first time I ever gave selflessly. Thank you to the family who so generously gives, and to God who so generously loves.

Submitted by: Clay Meyer
I had lots of ideas of who I could bless with the dollar I received, but each time I felt God leading me back to my friends Joe and Emily Arnone and there new baby girl, Maiya. Maiya was born 17 weeks premature on August 30, weighing just 1.9 lbs. The doctors struggled to get her to stable levels for the first few hours, days and weeks, and even told her parents on one occasion that she may not make it through the night. But the entire time, her parents, family and friends clung to their faith in the Lord and the power of prayer. God was holding her and taking care of her the entire time as Joe and Emily were only able to watch and pray. And now, three months later, Maiya is almost tipping the scales at six pounds and will soon be going home with her parents. Looking back on the past few months, they understand that Maiya's story is already one displaying God's power and ability to work miracles -- her life is a miracle. And looking forward to the road that is ahead, it will be challenging, but one that God will use again and again to touch lives as Maiya's life already has on her Caringbridge website: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/maiyaarnone Considering the financial burden that Maiya's medical expenses will be, I am giving my dollar from the reverse offering (as well as more of my own dollars) to the Arnones. Little Maiya will have quite the story to tell as she grows up. Thanks for the opportunity to do this.

Submitted by: Anthony
I gave the gift to my "aunt" who lost her job earlier in the year. She has only recently found part-time work. She's a single mom of three kids. Her car at the time was out of commission. She had recently purchased over $200 worth of parts to have her car repaired by a friend. She then learned after the repair began that she need an additional part. So the gift enabled her to buy the final part to get the car going again. She's up and going now. She was very grateful. I should also mention that the reverse offering jumpstarted my giving. I had fleeting thoughts of helping my aunt before, but I rarely make it a priority, sadly, to give in my busy life. I contributed an amount equal to the reverse offering to my aunt. I also plan, with intention this time, to help brighten the kids Christmas.

Submitted by: Ed, Stephanie, Jon, Rita, Dean, Shelly, Joy & Bria
One person in our small group suggested that we pool the money we received at church together to give away. We all thought that was a great idea, so while eating dinner together the week of Thanksgiving, we added up what we had - $47! (This included $10 that one of the women in our group still had from the last reverse offering we did!) The same guy who suggested we pool our money then said, "What if we double it?" So we decided to double it. And then we decided that we couldn't just leave it at $94 - so we rounded it up to $100. After a little discussion about what to use it for, we decided that we wanted to give it to Hillcrest Transitional Housing - which is a ministry in KCK that helps move families from homelessness to self-sufficiency through a 90-day program (and has a 95% success rate). We first learned about Hillcrest when serving there together at the What If The Church? Serve Day earlier this year. Our group then did a cookout in July for the families going through the program. So using our reverse offering money to help out Hillcrest just seemed like a good fit. As the appointed "keeper of the money", I have to admit that I was thinking we'd just send them a check and that would be it. But when I called Hillcrest and talked to one of their staff, explaining about the reverse offering, her excitement about finding a way to bless the families going through their program was contagious. She suggested that we use our money to buy a frozen lasagna for each of the 10 families or buy them a pie. Either would be a real treat for the families because of their very tight food budget, and the ministry's food pantry only provides non-perishable foods for them. I quickly emailed the rest of the group and told them the idea. We decided that we wanted to get each of the 10 families a frozen lasagna and a Tippins pie - meaning it would cost us a little more than our $100. So some of us priced the items, another couple bought the lasagnas, I ordered the pies, and then we all got together at church this past Sunday and signed Christmas cards to each of the families so they would know that the gifts were given in the name of Christ. We dropped the lasagnas, pies and cards off tonight so they could be distributed to the families at their weekly meeting. The staff said this will be a great surprise for them. And doing this has been a real blessing for us as a small group to be able to serve together and have the joy of knowing we are helping out families in need. Thank you for giving us the opportunity! Here are the names of the families at Hillcrest who need our prayers for their success: Barbara-Billy-Cody Dorothene LaToya-Keishawn-Kevon LaToya-Datorrey-Torrence-Terron Iris-Khyrezma-Symphani Brandy-Kalyn-Dallas Tricia Craig Brandie Nicole-Mayra-Kennith-Johnathan

Submitted by: Kurt
I received $5. Living in midtown it is rare that you go more than a day or two without someone asking for money, so I was surprised when a week almost went by and nothing had happened. Not a single request and not one inspirational moment where I could help. As I sat there eating my lunch I thought, "Does someone have to ask for money to receive it?" I decided the answer was no and that my waitress should be the recipient. So along with my tip, she got the $5 in the little white envelop. She probably thought I was nuts giving her a ripped envelop that was well worn by being in my pocket all week. In any case, I trust it is in better hands.

Submitted by: Michael Maybee
Terri & I received a total of $15 in the Reverse Offering. We asked our 16 year-old daughter what she thought we should do with it and she did not hesitate. "I want to buy new bibles for my Club 121 at Shawnee Mission South." (Club 121 is a student led Christian high school club.) She decided to match the $15 with another $15 of her own; mom & dad added a little of their money and the order was placed. Today the bibles arrived via UPS and our daughter was elated. She can't wait to take them to school so every club member can not only have a bible, but be reading from the same version. Seeing her so excited to share God's word with her friends was worth every penny.

Submitted by: John
I received $1 in my envelope, and I decided to send my Grandma a "thinking-of-you" card, and thanked her for all of the love she has shown me over the years. Thank you for making me stop and think about doing even the simple things.

Submitted by: Matt Luckenbach
Together my wife and I received six dollars. Every Saturday on my way to work I would drive by a panhandler on the highway exit in downtown KC. We purchased some breakfast from Panera and gave it to him as he stood there with his cardboard sign. We also placed a Bible in the bag to demonstrate that God in fact does love him. This is something we will also consider doing in the future. A very neat experience that helped me tell my parents the about the grace of God and his work through this reverse offering. They have bad stigmas based on personal experience with large churches and money. This provided a great opportunity to witness that not all churches are about receiving money. Thanks so much for this opportunity.

Submitted by: Liz Scheibler
I received a $1 envelope and donated $20 to EWB (Engineers Without Borders). EWB is a group of professionals and students with engineering, health, business, and athropology backgrounds. They provide clean water, power, sanitation, and education to over 45 developing countries in the world. My brother is a part of this organization and got to travel with them to the Dominican Republic last Spring. Seeing the effects on the community through teaching sanitation and drilling wells made a lasting impression on him and inspired me to want to be a part of it. Thank you for the opportunity!

Submitted by: dan and elise
This giving thing can really get into your head. We hit the road at 4:15AM on Monday morning, bound for Colorado. Our 3 girls were snugly snapped into their car seats, half asleep. The minivan was meticulously packed for our 12 hour drive. We had good coffee steaming right below command center. As we pulled onto the highway, I whispered to Elise, "Can you pull out some money for tolls?" "I don't have any cash," she whispered back. "Don't you?" I shook my head. The car fell silent. The thought of turning back for toll change and losing another 20 minutes felt like a sucker punch (we have since learned that, like the rest of the modern world, toll booths also take plastic). Then, Elise began rummaging through her diaper bag. Minutes passed. Finally, a pronounced and deliberate sigh came from the passenger side seat: "Well, we do have this..." she said, dramatically stretching her arm across the console, her hand holding up a little white envelope. "No!" I grimaced. "We have to," she replied. "We can't," I whispered. "We have no options," she said. I stared out the windshield, my already tired eyes blurring the white lines in the road. I envisioned the day that lay before us – 9 diaper changes, potty runs, McDonald's stops in Western Kansas, then in Eastern Colorado, altitude spikes, wind, snow, fog, and Veggie Tales. Lots of Veggie Tales. But the money in that little white envelope came with rules, I thought – you can't spend it on yourself, you can't give it to the church, and you have to give an account. To complicate matters, they were rules that I made up. But my wife was right. There were no options – other than turning around at great personal sacrifice or robbing a convenience store. Minutes later, I concluded that both options would cost us too much time. Then I began to work "generosity ethics" in my head. I began to ask whether it was the literal money in the envelope or whether it was the amount that mattered. I questioned what the true spirit of this law that I had implemented really was. I wondered how all this would read on our church's blog. I turned to Elise. "It's only okay if we double the money." "Okay." She said. "Okay." I said. "No, we'll triple it." "Triple it?" she said. "Yes. We'll quadruple it." "Whatever," she said. -------------- note: we did quadruple our $5 and then made cookies together as a family for some neighbors that we've wanted to reach out to for far too long now. This would not have happened if I hadn't been challenged to intentionally think about who to bless. We're so thankful for this opportunity.

Submitted by: Brian and Cathy Hogan
Our envelopes contained $25. Knowing that we would do something special was a given but figuring out what that special 'thing' was going to be took a little time. Last week my wife asked me to consider us giving our reverse offering to Lisa. Lisa is someone we both know professionally who had lost her job about three months ago. I thought Cathy had chosen well and was happy to agree when she asked it we'd of course match the money. Having come to that agreement my wife went to work and was able to raise another $250 in cash and the extra donation of clothing for Lisa's son. Yesterday Cathy went and visited Lisa to give her the gift. She told me she explained that the gift wasn't from us but was in fact a special gift from all of Heartland Church and the community. As of this writing Lisa and Cathy visited again yesterday evening and we learned that Lisa's son was so thrilled for the new clothes as he had a job interview scheduled for today. Lisa was very touched for the gift of money, as well. Thank you Heartland for allowing us this opportunity and to the family who made the cash offering I wish you to know your gift has done so much good. Thank you.

Submitted by: Bob Jones
I have seen a homeless man for monthts as I pass his corner and I have never stopped to give him anything. I only had the one dollar but but as I handed him the envelope he looked me in the eye and said "May God bless you" That was worth more than a buck! May God bless him during this Christmas Season.

Submitted by: Lisa
I received $20 at the reverse offering service and gave it to a waitress as a tip on a $13 lunch check with a note telling her how much God had blessed my daughter and I this year. I finished graduate school and just bought our first home! I was a waitress for many years (including when I was in undergraduate school and when I was pregnant) and during the holidays the extra money was always greatly appreciated!

Submitted by: Bree Young
I simply used my $5.00 to write a letter to a friend. I stated that I am thankful to God for our friendship and gave the suggestion of using it for something fun, like her and her roommate go have a coffee!

Submitted by: Lori Underwood
We were guests of our son and daughter-in-law, Patrick and Makenna Underwood, on November 22nd when we attended your wonderful church service. We're from Great Bend, out in the center of Kansas, and were in town for a KU game and several days of fun with our KC/Lawrence children. They were very excited to show us their new church - and we were very excited to see that they'd found an awesome place to worship! We had a wonderful time and are so happy for you all and the accomplishments you've seen in the growth of Heartland Church. We were happy to take part in the reverse offering. It didn't take us long to decide what we wanted to do with the money, it's just taken us awhile to report! My husband was the recipient of $50, and my younger son, his girlfriend and I each received $1. We combined the money and donated it to the Military Moms group in Great Bend. Several times a year, the Military Moms put together gift boxes and send them to men and women who are currently serving over seas. The boxes contain a wide assortment of goodies and personal items to let them know they are being thought of and cared for. Anyone can submit names to the list, so the list continues to grow. My niece and her husband are both in the Army. Tara grew up in Leavenworth and her parents (my brother and his wife) still teach and live there. Tara and Trent have a 2-year-old son. This month, Tara will be deployed for the first time since having Hunter. Trent will be deployed before she returns home, so Hunter will be without his mommy and daddy for a short period of time. Both sets of grandparents will head out to North Carolina to be with him until Tara's safe return home. The Military Moms and their on-going project just seemed to be the perfect way to use the money from the reverse offering. We were blessed to have been in your church on that Sunday and were grateful for the opportunity to share the blessing. God Bless you all and have a Merry Christmas!! Lori Underwood "Great Bend Military Moms" have a group on Facebook. This is how it's organizer describes the project: "We are a non-profit organization that sends care packages to soldiers serving in war zones. I started the project with a friend in November of 2003. We had planned this "one-time-shipment" for a few soldiers we knew who were deployed for Christmas that year. Now, almost 6 years later - through the wonderful support of small financial donations from hundreds of caring people - and the help of local volunteers - we have shipped nearly 2000 boxes to soldiers who are serving in the Iraq and Afghanistan areas. Every box is filled with food, snacks, gum, drink mixes, nuts, books, DVDs, CDs, personal care items, toys, games, and lots of love and support from "home." Each care package costs about $50.00 to purchase, pack, and ship. It is our hope that each and every one of these brave men and women know they are appreciated and loved!"

Submitted by: Marie-Pierre Braswell
I received $1 at the reverse offering service. I went to the store and increased the amount a bit and bought a few hot wheels cars and dropped them in the Toys for Tots bin at my office. I thought this was a great idea to motivate people to share and do "good" .

Submitted by: Rick and Heidi Maggio
We both revieved one dollar bills. After taking Dan's challenge to not try to make it a "perfect" situation of giving, we decided to put both of our dollars in the Salvation Army Kettles at Wal-Mart. That brought up some questions that my almost 3 year old had, and we discovered how difficult it is to explain the monetary concept of giving. God gave me the words: "God gives us so many good things, so we need to give to others just like God gives to us."

Submitted by: Christopher
I had spent over a week thinking about what I should do with the five dollars I had gotten. It was the day after thanksgiving and I had been smitten with the bad luck of trying to work on my jeep that day. My travels eventually lead me to Sears grand. As I went inside there was a bell ringer for the salvation army that I gave a couple dollars to. We had a short conversation and she mentioned that she was scheduled for sixteen hours. The first thing I thought was, you must be hungry. I offered to get her something and she accepted. When I returned with the food we talked again at which point I found out she had recovered from drug abuse and had been saved by the blood of Christ. She was taking the days in stride and walked to her job to make ends meet for her and her kids. I told her what heartland was doing and gave her my envelope. It wasn't much to me but it was a lot to her.

Submitted by: Randy
The envelope I selected contained 5 dollars. My company participates in the Angel Tree program through the Salvation Army. I took that 5 dollars, added 25 of my own and selected an angel from the tree. The result is the 5 dollar 'nudge' allowed a child that may not have otherwise received a Christmas present, get his wish of a baseball glove and baseball.

Submitted by: Crystal
I received a $1 bill again this year and wanted to do something different. After volunteering for the Johnson County Christmas Bureau holiday shop last week I decided to add some of my own money to purchase a toy to help out a family in need.

Submitted by: Julie
When I realized Heartland was doing another reverse offering, I decided to multiply whatever was in my envelope by ten and find a way to get it to a woman I recently came to know. She is a refugee from South Sudan. A beautiful woman, inside and out. She has told me stories of people taking advantage of her lack of knowledge about consumer rights. I thought she could use a God-gift. "My" envelope contained $10.oo After the tenfold increase she recieved $110.oo She didn't even open it and began crying and said "No matter the amount, I'm very grateful."I told her it was a gift from God. She said, "Sometimes I forget about God, but He never forgets about me!"

Submitted by: Jeff & Mary Grieb
We received a total of $25 and we both knew exactly how the gift would be put to use before the service was even over. We had been made aware through "a little birdie" that our oldest daughter and her husband were going to be making a dramatic change in their lives. They live in the Seattle area where he is a youth pastor and she teaches high school math. Together with 2 other couples they have decided to pursue a lifestyle that they refer to as communal living. The basis is from the same Acts scripture Pastor Dan referred to on this very Sunday of the reverse offering. I had a peace prior to the message that day, but Mary was more than a little concerned of how this new pursuit would impact our baby girl. God spoke so clearly through Dan that morning that Mary literally came to tears and felt a peace like no other that the "kids" were absolutely in God's loving arms with this new endeavor of working, serving and ministering in their community in much the same way the apostles did. Over Thanksgiving, the kids came home and we blessed them with the $25 as "seed" money for their new venture and were able to fully give them our blessing as a result of hearing from God through Dan that blessed day. We are so thankful for the faithfulness of the anonymous family for their generosity and the clarity of God's message that day.

Submitted by: Elizabeth Brown
As I was thinking..."what will I do with this money?" I kept coming back to the thought of Jack, the wal-mart greeter in our neighborhood. My daughter has heard me say hello to Jack so often that when we go there she asks "Where's Jack?" We found out our door greeters name last year because there was a buzz around the store that day as we were shopping; it was Jack's birthday. He is just one of those people that reminds me of my own grandpa. When we approached him to wish him a happy birthday, he looked like he was going to cry and began to tell us his family had forgotten his birthday. I will never forget that moment. So we make it a point to always say hi to Jack when we see him and we usually look for him if he isn't there. With our $5 donation, we bought Jack a card to let him know we were thinking of him during this Christmas season. And thanked him for being in our lives. He said thank you to us three times before we left the store and he had not opened the card yet. If you are ever at the Wal-mart south of 151st on Metcalf; be sure to tell him hello.

Submitted by: David Groves
I was driving home, saw a fella on the side of the road trying to start his broken down older rusted out vehicle. He said it was probably his catalytic converter, if anything, if I could call the police for him to send a tow truck. I was happy to help, said good luck to him and began to drive off. As I pulled away I glanced down at my white envelope on my center console with my $10 I received for the reverse offering. I immediately backed up my truck told him about why I had this envelope and handed it to him. He seemed very gracious. I was glad to help in this way, and was reminded how powerful a little gesture of kindness can be.

Submitted by: Mark Murfield
My story from the first reverse offering came a year afterwards and too late to relate at that time, so I'm doing it now. On a trip to Guatemala, I gave the dollar to Piedad to give to her mother Patty. On my next trip a year later, Piedad brought me a note from Patty. She wrote, "About the dollar you sent us once through Piedad, I would like to inform you, that we invested it on a very poor girl who sometimes attends our church. Here name is Rocio. Her father is an alcoholic. Her mother suffers from some abuse and she also has many siblings. Last year, she fell from a 2nd story floor, so she had a very serious cornea surgery. She was very ill for awhile. As church teachers, we vist her. Her father doesn't allow her to go to church, but one of her uncles takes her to our church every once in awhile. Rocio didn't have any church clothes, so with "THE DOLLAR", I bought her 2 very nice, second hand dresses. Now whenever she has a chance, she comes to church dressed appropriately. Some of the ladies from the church knew about the dollar and decided to give her some other new dresses, some everyday clothes and groceries. Thank God, Rocio is doing almost find. She gets fiber sometimes. Her hair is longer and she has gained some weight. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to help someone. It is true. With a little money well invested, you can cheer up some lonely life."

Submitted by: Mindy
As part of the reverse offering I was given $5. As I left the service I was praying about all the ways I could give it away and asking for God's wisdom. I have been taking a couple of middle school students to church with me this fall, and one of them asked me what my plans for the money were. I told her I was not sure and asked how she thought I should give it away. She said, "You should spend it on something simple that a person needs like socks, milk or bread. It's often the simple things that people appreciate and treasure the most." We continued to have a good talk about giving. I thought and prayed over what she had said. The next day at work I had a parent come into my office and share with me that a family member had been shot and that she would be taking her children to the hospital, so that they could go visit their relative. This mother told me she was not sure if her children would be able to be at school the next day because she did not have enough money for the bus fare to get them back and forth from the hospital. I then reached into my purse and gave her the envelope with the $5 in it and told her that, "God has so graciously blessed me and I would like to pass a portion of this blessing to you. I pray this helps and I am praying for your family." With out even looking in the envelop she embraced me and started to cry and thanked me for the blessing. I told her again that it was from God, not me. The next day the children were able to come to school after visiting their family member. Since that day, every time I see that mother she grabs my hand and whispers, "Thank you for the blessing". The middle school girl was right, it is the simple things in life that we often treasure the most.

Submitted by: Debra K. Nixon
I received $10 in the offering. I added $15 to that and sent it to missionaries in Honduras who are currently drilling for good water in their community.

Submitted by: Aaron and Sarah
My husband and I each drew one dollar bills and gave them to the Salvation Army guy standing outside Hy-Vee. Although only two dollars, we hope God blesses someone's life with the donation.

Submitted by: Patty Heeren
I received $5.00 in my envelope. I felt that I should match the $5.00 which would give me $10.00 to give away. I wanted to help a child in need, but I wasn't quite sure how to find the right child to give to. I was doing some Christmas shopping at the Family Christian Bookstore by Oak Park Mall. When the cashier was finished ringing up my purchases, she asked me if I would like to donate $10.00 to purchase a teddy bear to give to a child in need. These kids are sometimes abused, very poor, a foster child, or one of their parents is in prison, and they give them a teddy bear (very cute, I might add!) at Christmas time to encourage them. So even though I won't get to meet the child, God sent me the child in need. I felt that this was the right place to give to help "bless someone." Thanks to the anonymous givers who started this. It's great!

Submitted by: Kirk
I received a $5 bill in the reverse offering, added a 0 and donated this to KIVA, a microfinance organization helping people all over the world. I then took $1000 and funded 10 different people. It had been on my heart do this for some time and this is just what it took to get me going!

Submitted by: Norman & Ivelis Bauman
We both recieved $1. We decided to turn the combined $2 into $20 and gave to Kansas School for the Deaf Christmas Fund which help students' families who need during Holiday season. Thank you and God bless this.

Submitted by: Stacy
I received $1 and then kind of forgot about it. A few weeks later, I read all the give stories. They were all touching, but when I read Jenny Buck's story I knew. I asked my husband to make my Christmas gift a bag of gloves for her students. God bless all the teachers out there. You are on the front line of protecting our greatest gifts.

Submitted by: Amy Booth
I want to thank you so much for your gifts of gloves and hats for our students at Comanche. I was so surprised when you came in that I didn't get your name. I know that I felt much better at the end of the day when I was able to send kids home with hats and gloves and know that they would be warm and toasty. Thanks again for your generosity to our kids. God bless.

Submitted by: Barb Pulliam
My first visit to Heartland and I left feeling like I had just been to the Oprah show! I thought of so many people that could use this money but I kept thinking about this young man on my son's soccer team. He is a Sudan refugee, whose parents were killed and now lives with relatives and lots of cousins in a small townhome in the inner city of KC. My friend gave me her money she received so I was able to give him $40. He was very grateful. My son shared with me that at practice the young man told him with a great big smile that "he bought some food." That really touched our hearts and was a great lesson for both of us. We decided that we would continue to help him in some way. Thank you for the Church's teaching of generosity, the blessing of the family's donation, for my friend who shared, and the lessons from our Heavenly Father. God is good!

Submitted by: Debbie Guthrie
I gave the $5 bill to an elderly lady who comes in to our store monthly to purchase supplies for her invalid sister for whom she has cared for 14 years. Our store sells medical items. Putting my arm around her shoulder, I handed the folded bill to her and told her because God has been so good to me, I wanted her to have this little something and to spend it on something for herself. Told her also that I appreciated her business over the years and see you next time. Her lower lip quivered and some wet stuff welled up in her eyes as she said Thank you and walked on out the door. Boy did that feel great for me and boy do I hope it did her even more good!

Submitted by: shelly
I gave my $10 to Harvestors but I forgot to mention that I had been thinking about meeting my 10% tithe for 2009 for weeks. The reverse offering was like a personal invitation from God to get up to date. (thump, thump). I committed to myself in January that I would give a 10% tithe and then consider other giving beyond that (thank you Jim Gum for teaching the financial peace class!!). Well...I checked my heartland site and saw that I was only 50% of the way to my goal. I have completed my annual tithe today and I feel great about it! Its amazing how I did that and maintained most of my other charitable activities without feeling any pain. Go figure!!!

Submitted by: shelly
I had $10 and I gave it to Harvesters. Feeding families is one of my passions. Nutrition is such a fundamental and once someone's family is fed well they can focus on work, education, etc. I think it is a great way to make a "small" gift go a long way!! Thanks for the opportunity.

Submitted by: Mike & Becca Parisi
We both received $5. We decided to turn the combined $10 into $100 and gave it to New Jerusalem Missions to sponsor an AIDS victim's medication & family's transportation to get care for the next five months. We were excited because we have been wanting to do this but just needed the nudge to get started. Thanks so much for the nudge! (My aunt Penny started New Jerusalem Missions in the U.S. after my uncle died from AIDS in the 90s... New Jerusalem Missions began building relationship and taking outreaches to Ntuzuma, (Durban), South Africa at the invitation of Good News Ministries to help them develop a hospice. In 2007 Ukukhanya Life Care Centre was formed, to show the love of Jesus to those affected by AIDS through a hospice and homebased care. With vision to Show the Love of Jesus to people affected by AIDS by providing Physical, Emotional and Spiritual Support.)

Submitted by: Adam
I received $10 in the reverse offering. Not knowing what to do with it I held onto it for several days thinking of different things I could do with it. I had so many ideas and I was really set on coming up with something that would make for a cool story (even though Dan warned against this). After thinking about this for awhile I finally realized that this was not about me, but about God and decided to let God choose what to do with the money. I was so excited to see what God would do, but still had a bit of skepticism that something would just pop up. On Thanksgiving Day I had stopped at a gas station near my home in Lee's Summit to fill up before leaving to see my family in Iowa. While putting gas into my car I noticed a guy walking around. He looked to be in need. In the 6+ months I have lived in Lee's Summit this is the first time I have seen anything like this. I thought "Oh my gosh, could this be it? Is this what God wanted me to do with the money? This doesn't seem to be all that cool. I was hoping to go by the bank and have more money to give. This isn't what I planned." After stopping to talk to a few people, the guy finally approached me. I simply said “Hello” and he responded with “Spiritually I am great, but I am physically in need. I accepted Christ June 12, 1985 and that was the greatest day of my life. My wife and I are in need though.” I simply handed him the envelope with the $10 and said “This is for you.” And he responded with “This is a gift from God?” And I said “Yes!” I shook his hand and then went along my way. This isn’t some sort of miracle story, but as I drove away it dawned on me that this simple little interaction was God’s plan. Not only was God using the money to take care of the man and his wife, but He was teaching me in the same moment. I had hoped to add more money to the $10 to give, but the opportunity came before I could make it to the ATM. I was disappointed because I could have provided more for the man and his wife in need. And while feeling disappointed I realized my disappointment was in that “I” did not do more. I realized that this was never an “I”, “me” or “we” thing, it is a “God” thing.. God provided the exact amount of $10 for this man in need. I received a priceless lesson from the $10 I received in the reverse offering.

Submitted by: Mark
I received $5 in my envelope. I wasn't sure how to distribute it, and then came into work the next morning and found that a janitor in our office had been killed that weekend in an auto accident. We didn't know each other by name, but always said hi to each other in passing. Our Department was sending the family (a wife and two or three small children) money as a gesture of sympathy, so I took the $5, add a "0" and gave $50. If not for the generosity of Heartland's anonymous donors, I would have still contributed, but not as much. Hopefully it will help them, if even just a little bit.

Submitted by: The Meurs Family
John and I received 1$. Immediately, John made it 2$ and by the end of the day we ended up with 3$(thanks to a believing friend). While we had visions of grandeur to multiply our funds, we settled with the final sum. We contemplated and contemplated what to do with our cash. We thought we'd put it towards the foster child who we are buying for, cans of food for a food drive, or dumping it into the bell ringer's bucket. But it came to be that our money went towards another person's mission and their family's tradition of paying it forward. A chance meeting with an old friend in your church's parking lot (thanks to the lot also acting as a park and ride for The Jo) ended not only with two long time friends reconnecting after a year, but enabled the two to share in the spirit of paying it forward. A coincidence? We think not. It was meant to be that the Holy Spirit brought us together and enabled our family to build someone else's mission! Awesome how that works. Thank you, thank you, thank you! PS. The other family will be donating their ususal funds spent on Christmas entirely to City Union Mission downtown Kansas City.

Submitted by: Gina
I slipped the five dollar bill I was given in the pocket of a jacket of a friend of mine whose husband has been unemployed for several months.

Submitted by: Paul, Maria & Pierce
My wife and I drew envelopes with a dollar each and pooled our lonely "George Washigton's"- I wish they had more friends. After talking it over with our son Pierce, he and I decided that we'd give to the lady walker. Each morning on the drive to his school,Pierce and I usually see a woman walking briskly along 83rd St carrying a briefcase. We try to predict each morning where we will cross her path along her one mile journey. East of Lee Blvd? West of Lee Blvd? Why is she walking? Necessity? Exercise? Thrift? Environmentalist? We decided that we'd get up early & go to Starbuck's and purchase a hot chocolate for our walker. So, with our purchase in hand, we set out to share joy and were met with disappointment. She was nowhere to be found. We had to give it to someone before it got cold.I asked Pierce who we could give it to and he said I could drink it. No way-if it were a Pepsi, maybe. Who then? I suggested his Pre-Algebra teacher as it was 7:00 am and she was the only teacher in the building at that hour. As she is a particularly tough teacher, he was very uncomfortable with the idea and bolted out of the car and into school without the warm beverage. My determination in high gear, I swept silently into the building and caught up with him in the front hallway. We could not waste our gift and thus began our new search for another beneficiary. "Would you give it to the custodian?" Pierce marched over and easily offered it to him and the custodian gladly accepted. End of story or so we thought... Later that day, the custodian sought to repay the kind act and suggested to the lunch lady that his new friend over there in line could use an extra milk. The well intentioned lunch lady then mistakenly offered the extra milk to the boy standing next to Pierce. Bammm a 2fer!! We bagged a custodian and a fellow 6th grader. We bought the hot chocolate and God threw in a milk at no extra charge.

Submitted by: Kayla Kuhl
Our family received $2 in the reverse offerring. Kayla and a friend held a bake sale and took donations at her Pi Phi sorority at KU which brought in about $100. Kayla and her friends will be helping to build houses on an "Alternative Break" in New Orleans. The money will go toward the St. Bernard Project to purchase power tools for the building of houses in New Orleans.

Submitted by: Tim
My wife and I donated our $1 to the Salvation Army!

Submitted by: Elise DiCarlo, Jeff, Jacob, Will and Nick Metzner
Thank you God for this incredible blessing. I will tell you that the last time this was done I got an envelope with $1. It was amazing. This time I let my two oldest sons, Will (5ys.) and Jacob (6yrs.) each pick and envelope. They each got $20. We were blown away imagining what God might do with this. On the way to the car I asked what they thought we should do with the money. They said two names, Beguma and Noah. Beguma is a boy in Ethiopia that we sponsor and Noah is a five year old with terminal cancer who probably will not live until Christmas. I contact a friend of Noah's family and found out that he had entered hospice care. We had joined with many families to help him celebrate Christmas in early November. The family requested no further gifts at this time. Then we focused on Beguma. We had already given funds for him for the year and additional funds for him for Christmas. We were told we could donate to the fund for other children in his country. We accepted this idea and began to look at options. $25 would deworm 500 children. $40 would buy medical insurance for a family. $15 would buy a sanitation kit for a family. All of these could be life saving. I would like to mention that when we got in the car after the service we had prayed that God would show us what he would have us do with this money. I had privately asked God to help me make it into so much more. I could not come up with a way to do this and I felt the timing to give it was impending. I let God know I wanted to do so much more. I think I was asking for his help without knowing it. But God is ready to do more than we can think or ever imagine. He is ready to answer our unspoken prayers. At about 2:30 pm today I discussed with my sons the final choices for the money, since they had picked the envelopes. A short time later the phone rang and a man asked for my husband Jeff, who was at work. I asked if I could help with anything. He said he was calling from Food for the Hungry - the very organization we just decided to give the money too- He thanked us for our support and said that if we planned on doing any further giving that today would be a perfect time. They have a generous donor who is willing to match every dollar given with $20. That meant our $40 would be $800. We added $10 - I hope that is within the rules- to make it an even $1000. This goes to spread God's word, provide food and clean water, and provide sanitation and health care to children in Ethiopia, Uganda, and Rwanda just to name a few. We feel so personally touched by the hand of God in all this. We were so excited to see God work. We thank Heartland for it's love, trust and openness to this process and the people who have now touched so many lives around the globe with their generosity. Your willingness to give freely is a testimony to all of us. I am humbled by your kindness. I hope the joy of this touches you as deeply as it has our family. Many thanks and blessings, elise, Jeff, Jacob, Will and Nick

Submitted by: Linda Sinnett
I received $5.00 in my envelope. I know a woman who owns a christian day care that she just started about a year ago. The business is not quite up to speed and they have had some financial challenges. In addition, her husband is ill and not working right now. She does not want to lay off any of her staff and is doing the best she can to make ends meet. In addition to dealing with her financial hardship, she is emotionally dealing with the fact that her youngest son has joined the marines and after infantry training will come home for Christmas and then leave for Iraq. I decided to put some of my own money with the $5.00 and purchased a turkey and 10 pounds of potatoes and delivered it to her the day before Thanksgiving. I shared with her the story of the pay it forward project at Heartland. She is a very generous giving person and it felt great to give something back to someone that does so much for others. She was quite touched that our family chose her although she said she knew others that were more deserving, she felt blessed that we had chose her and her family to share this with.

Submitted by: Brandon, Gloria - Bradyden & Madison
Combined Brandon and I received $30. We matched that to make $60. We purchased $30 in grocery's and put it in the harvest basket. The other $30. we will use to buy needed supplies for P.R.A.Y.(Project Rescue Amazon Youth in Jacunda, Brazil)We discussed what we would like to do with the kids over lunch, read scripture and they were able to help make the decision on how to use the money. It was a great learning experience for them as well!

Submitted by: Ken & Elinor Westphal
We drew envelopes with a $1 & $5. Having just read the blog of Jonathan Taussig (he, his wife Hannah & their 4 kids live and minister in inner city Arlington, TX), Elinor suggested we send it to them. Being in ministry to the poor they are always strapped for cash themselves. So, we supplemented the amount with $50 and sent it off. We just got this note from them: Got your card yesterday. Wow. Thank you for blessing us. Our car inspection sticker expired yesterday and so I had to get a new one. Price: $50 A neighbor lady frantically knocked on our door late at night needing money to buy medicine for her sick son. Price: $5 A special drink at 7/11 on Caleb's special "day with dad". Price $1 Seeing a tangible picture of God love and care for us in the big and the little things. Truly Priceless. Thanks allowing Him to use you to paint a powerful picture for us of His love. Love you guys! jonathan, for us

Submitted by: Derek
I received $1 envelope and I decided the next store I went into that had a Bell Ringer I would double my normal donation. The really cool thing is that my wife and I have been praying a lot lately and asking God to help us feel in our hearts the desire to give more. She lost her job last year and with a new baby, we kept finding excuses to put off giving until another day. Well we felt the reverse offering was the "coincidence" we had been praying for and knew it was God working on us to give more. So, that very same evening of the reverse offering we signed up through our My Heartland account to give each week.

Submitted by: Misty
I received $10 in my envelope. I prayed for about 7 days about how God wants me to use it. My family has adopted a family this year for Christmas and although my husband and I had already bought a doll for the little girl, I decided to purchase a $10 Price Chopper gift card. I put it inside a Christmas card and explained that although I am currently unemployed that God had been so good to me this past year in so many ways so I wanted to give the family this gift card to buy a nice dinner for Christmas night. This reverse offering meant more to my husband and I than to give the money away. It helped us to open our hands and to start giving back to the church. We have started out small since I am unemployed but at least we have started. May God continue to bless you and touch peoples lives as you have touched ours.

Submitted by: Christina Alexander
I struggled with how to spend my $1 and as I prepared to leave town for Thanksgiving, it came to me. I put in several of my own dollars and used it to pay tolls on the turnpike for random strangers. The best part was seeing the face of the toll booth operator as I told her what I wanted to do. I have no idea who got the money, but it was so fun to do something so simple and to see someone who wouldn't even benefit get so much joy out of it! She asked me, "But why would you do that?" I simply said, "It's Thanksgiving. What better time to share what God has shared with me!"

Submitted by: Jill Normile
I received a $1 and donated toward a group that is helping a single family that the mother lost her job due to being at the hospital too much to be with her very sick daughter (brain surgery) and at this point does not even know if she will make it. My sister is a nurse and their group were getting together to help this mother out. I thought my dollar would go further in a group. Jill

Submitted by: Hilary
As soon as we were told that there was going to be a reverse offering, there was a college student who immediately came to mind that I knew the money would bless. I knew that whatever was in the envelope, I was going to double. How amazing that there was a $50 bill in the envelope. I had recently heard that she had been struggling with paying her bills, paying for graduate school application fees, as well as not having enough money to go home to Colorado for Thanksgiving. After giving her the envelope, I received a thank you letter from her that I wanted to share. "Thank you so much for your very generous gift. For weeks I have been praying that things would work out and that I would be able to go home for the holidays. I honestly had no idea how I was going to be able to take the time from work. Thank you so much for helping to make this possible. Thank you for being an answer to my prayer. It means a lot to me, and I know it will mean a lot to my mom to be able to have all her girls home for Thanksgiving." Prior to the reverse offering, I felt the Lord was prompting me to help her in some way. This just provided me with the extra motivation to be obedient to what the Lord had already impressed on my heart! Thank you!

Submitted by: Andy
I received $20 in the reverse offering. I decided to support someone I know who is a hard-working auto mechanic here in Kansas City. He and his 31 year old wife had been married for 11 years when she died suddenly in August this year after a minor surgical procedure. The father was left with four young children ages 11, 7, 4, and just 21 months. He is a very caring and loving father who gives 100% of his non-working time to the care and well-being of his children. He works ten hours per day, six days per week, and has had to absorb the cost of child care for the three younger children into his budget since his wife had been a stay-at-home mom. I took the $20, and matched it up to $200 so he could have a ease some of the financial pressures and have a good Christmas with his kids. Personally, it felt good to ease some suffering in this guys' life.

Submitted by: Jen
My envelope had $5 in it - so I added a few bucks to that and gave my waitress a 150% tip at lunch yesterday! :)

Submitted by: Eric
I received 1$ and my wife 10$, we pooled our money together and sent it to a friend in Chicago who is in the process of losing their house. We added 89$ of our own money to make it an even 100$. We wanted to do more but at this time it was all we could do. We are hoping the 100$ will help our friends and their 4 children have a Merry Christmas and help them see God's love for them.

Submitted by: Dennis Hoff
I received 5$. My mind immediately went to the 'big splash' story. It would be a stellar pay it forward epic that would span the globe. Why, I asked myself? To be someone? To do the best, have the best story? Then I reflected on the words that were spoken when I was given this 5$.I was reminded this 5$, or the paycheck I got on Friday, it is all Gods. So why is this 5$ any different than my other possessions? So, this 5 Dollar bill has found its home taped to the mirror in my bathroom. What a glorious destination. The side inscribed with In God We Trust looks at me every-time I look at myself in the mirror. It reminds me that today God might provide me with an opportunity to give away 5 dollars. Another day it might be giving away "my" time to another. Yes, in God I will trust. A few days ago a worker I had hired came to my door for his wages. I recalled what he had done for me and his hard work. The work he did for me was of more value than the invoice he gave me. He is a hard working man. He took home more money that day than the invoice indicated. Every day I will be reminded,In God I will trust. The giving will not end with this 5 dollar bill, it will be the beginning of every day.

Submitted by: Kerry
The war on terror hit home to my parents' small town of Laredo in northern Missouri on August 25th of this year, when SFC Ronald W. Sawyer, age 38, and three other soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. I had the opportunity to attend his memorial service in Laredo a couple of weeks ago and can attest to how proud his family and friends were of him and of his service to our country. His family has requested that memorial contributions be made to a baseball scholarship set up in his honor at North Central Missouri College in Trenton. My parents and I are contributing $50, including the $20 from my envelope.

Submitted by: Anonymous
I put the $5 in the donation can at AA to buy alcoholism recovery literature for inmates of the Johnson County correctional facilities. Thank you.

Submitted by: melba mueller
My envelope contained a $20.00 bill. Trusted God would bring the right person. Didn't have anyone in mind. The very next day a woman who used to work with me and has been unemployed for a year called me to ask if I knew of anyone who would help her with simple things such as tooth paste, soap, etc... I knew where the money would go with some extra.

Submitted by: Tony Hatler
I received a dollar in the reverse offering. I thought for a while on how to make my dollar grow and came up with a plan that I have already heard thru the grapevine(email) that it is working. I have a best friend whose dad has Primary Lateral Sclorosis or PLS. This is a disease that attacks your nervous system that has taken away his ability to walk, move his body very well, and is making it hard for him to even talk. He can no longer work, and his wife has had to quit her job to take care of him. Since neither can work, she spends all of her time taking care of him and putting together fundraisers to make just enough money to get by. Between paying regular bills and now a constant medical bill, coming up with enough money is just another constant challenge for them. My friend and his brother are both adopted by these wonderful people. It has been horrible to see my buddy's dad deteriorate so badly. I sent out a mass email to everyone in my email address book letting them know that i was sending my dollar to this family anonymously and challenged them to do the same if not better. Than, I asked them to forward the email to everyone in their address book. It was a struggle at first because alot of people called telling me it looked like a pyramid scheme or spam. I had another friend help me add a message at the top of my email letting people know that this is a true story and not just another chain letter or spam. I also included in the second email my phone number. Since that second email, I have received numerous emails and phone calls from people telling me they sent their money off and forwarded the email. Some sending off more than a dollar. I cannot begin to describe the feelings and emotions that I am feeling. I am so grateful that Heartland and their anonymous donor helped inspire me to start this chain reaction. Thank you Heartland, and Mr. and Mrs. Anonymous.

Submitted by: Fred & Sheila Lanier
My wife, Sheila, and I have a friend that has a ministry that he wants to freely give Bibles to anyone who wants one free of charge. He was sharing with me recently that God has put it on his heart to mail a Bible to every household in the Kansas City metro area. Sheila and I both received $5 in our envelopes. We prayed about it for over a week and thought it would be great to give the money to his ministry. It's not much, but it will get about 10 bibles into the hands of someone in our community. If you want to donate or are interested in finding out more about the ministry, please visit the website, www.myfreebible.org.

Submitted by: Mercedez
Before we opened the envelopes my aunt and uncle and I had decided as a family that we were going to double whatever was in there. We opened them and I only had one dollar in it. At first I thought "Whew, what a relief! I don't even have $100 to my name. How could I double a hundred dollar bill?" But then I realized that God does provide! So I decided right then and their how I was going to spend it. I was heading to Topeka on Wednesday evening for Thanksgiving and I had driven up to the toll booth and not only did I double the dollar, but I of course, paid for mine and I had told the tollman that I didn't know who they were but I was going to pay for the car behind me and the car behind them. I also said that if the other cars were to ask to tell them that it's God's work. The rest of the weekend and even still today, I feel so much better. Yes, it's only $2.50 but if you think about it, it could be another gallon of gas. You never know what they person even sitting next to you has been going through and to come up to the toll booth and not even realize what someone else has done can really make a world of difference!

Submitted by: Ryan
I went through a tough time about five years ago and I found myself a single parent of three. (Two in diapers) Indian Creek Community Church had a scholarship fund for their daycare that paid a part to reduce my burden. I have been now contributing as much as I can back to this scholarship fund to help others. I included my dollar with my monthly contribution.

Submitted by: Elizabeth Gilmore
Our envelope contained a $1 bill. I know Dan said not to think about it to much and to just follow the rules. So when I decided to keep it simple, my husband and I decided to put it in our daughters make shift plastic water bottle "piggy bank". Her preschool is collecting money to go buy food to donate to Operation Breakthrough. Our daughter normally puts all the money that she finds around the house in her personal piggy bank. Since she has be asked to donate to this most worthy cause, all the money she finds has been going into this donation piggy bank. We are so excited to be able to tell her this story. We are excited to be able to match it. We are also going to share the story with her preschool teachers and administrators. Thank you so much for your generosity and for the teaching moment. God bless your family.

Submitted by: Lynelle
I received $5 during the reverse offering on Sunday. I'm the type of person Dan mentioned that would "overthink" what to do with my money in order to make it perfect. My boyfriend and I brainstormed that afternoon, and I finally decided what to do. On my way home to Wichita for Thanksgiving, I handed my $5 to the woman at the toll and told her to use it to pay for the person behind me and to tell them "Happy Thanksgiving." She smiled really big. It was a simple act, but it felt so good to bless not only the carload of people behind me, but also the woman working at the toll booth. Thank you so much for this opportunity!

Submitted by: Kelly Dold
I recieved $20 from the reverse offering. I knew immediately what I wanted to do with the money. I wanted to give the money to my brother because he has been having health troubles for the last 3 months. He has been in and out of the hospital and is starting to accumulate many medical bills. He is getting better but is having such financial hardships he hasn't been able to by the special food for the new diet he is on and can't afford gas to drive to his home in Lawrence. He has been staying with my parents living on their couch for a few months, and feeling very guilty putting the hardship on the family. I doubled the amount from the envelope that I recieved and gave it to him and told him that God wanted him to have this. He was very grateful and couldn't believe that he was getting this blessing. Thank you for letting me bless my brother.

Submitted by: Erin
When I was 2 I was diagnosed with cancer. I went through chemo and radiation and have now been cancer free for 21 years. My envelope had $20, so I matched it and went to the Children's Mercy website where they have a wish list for kids going through the same thing that I did. With the money I bought miscellaneous things from that list to fill care packages for kids ages 1-18. THANK YOU to the family that donated the money! You are touching SO many lives with your generous gift.

Submitted by: Tom
I knew exactly where this money needed to go before I even had the envelope in my hand, before Pastor Dan was even done giving the rules of this event I knew. About three weeks ago I received an e-mail at my work about a gentlemen who was diagnosed with cancer in the Fall and shortly thereafter lost his job because he could not return to work. My company had set up a disability account for him and I meant to make a donation three weeks ago, but of course other things got in the way, I put it off and just never got around to it. I think the sermon on the 22nd was God's way of saying to me "Get off your butt and go do it!" I was a little dismayed when my envelope only contained $1, but then I realized that that's not what this was about. It was about creating an opportunity to give and give more, so I took the dollar, added 49 of my own dollars and finally made my donation. So that one dollar turned in to 50 for a family that really needs it.

Submitted by: Lisa
I am a teacher at a Title 1 school (59% of our population qualifies for free/reduced lunch). I knew before I even opened my envelope that I wanted to match the money (I ended up with $20). I decided to donate it to our program at school that helps our needy families with Christmas. I hope to be part of the committee that buys things from the wish list for the students (one of the students is in my class). This was a wonderful idea!

Submitted by: Jessica
I was shocked to find $100 in the envelope I received. I went to my parents' house for lunch, and when I arrived, I found them talking about a need for money for a program their church had become involved in. The program is called Samaritan's Purse. People from their church had come together and packed shoe boxes full of gifts that would be sent to children all over the world. A group from the church was getting ready to deliver the gifts, and found that they were short $133 for postage. They were just waiting there at the church trying to figure out how they would get the rest of the money. I wrote them a check for the amount they needed. It was amazing to be used by God in this way. I didn't realize an opportunity would come up so fast!

Submitted by: Anonymous Kansas
I got a dollar, and used it as a motivator to finally setup an account at Kiva.org They help make micro-loans to real people across the world. Their pay back rate is 98%. Munkhtuya Regzen needed more supplies for her store in Mongolia. A dollar goes a long way in Mongolia. So with a small investment we finished her fundraising today. She can now get the supplies, and continue growing her store. If you like to know more about her and her family. Here's a link, http://bit.ly/Munkhtuya Thank you to the family that gave us ten thousand little motivators.

Submitted by: Kristin and Dan
My husband and I both opened our envelopes together on the way home from church. We both received $20. My husband and I clearly felt we were suppose to give all of it to a family we know that is currently going through some tough financial times to purchase groceries. My husband suggested that we match what we received from our own grocery budget. My original response was, "Ouch...no...we can't...not the sacred grocery budget that I work really hard at stretching each month!" But God continues to grow and strengthen the giving part of my heart, and when I dropped off the grocery card I was reminded of just how much God provides for our real needs. Thank you Heartland for the opportunity to draw me closer to Jesus and bless someone else along the way.

Submitted by: Kellie
I really enjoyed this opportunity to bless others. I received $1 in my envelope and did a lot of thinking about how I was going to use this to bless others. I was at Aldi the other day and it came to me! I changed my $1 for four quarters. I put the quarters in 4 shopping carts along with a little post-it note that said "God bless! Pass it on!". I stuck around in the parking lot to see a couple of people walk up, see the note and put their quarter in the next cart for the next person! It was a fun way to bless four people with a small amount of money! Thank you for the experience!

Submitted by: Scott Barth
I received $5. My mom has been in the hospital since September and has been through several surgeries. Weeks went by where she was in an induced coma and could not hear our voices. A couple times, we were told that she may not make it through the night. She is making progress and is now alert and able to communicate despite not being able to talk yet. Throughout all this, one occupational therapist has stood out, even doing my mom’s hair and nails on her own time last week prior to the holiday. I used my $5 for a thank you card for the therapist and a chess and checkers set for the ICU family room for the families that spend many hours in waiting like we have in the past few months. Thank you for all of you that have prayed for Sharon and her recovery.

Submitted by: Christa Jenkins
Chad and I considered many options for this special offering. Finally, we decided on something that usually wouldn't be considered "charitable giving." We left our $10 bill at the admissions table during the Luminary Walk event at the Arboretum. We simply asked the cashier to use the funds for a family that didn't have enough with them. Anyone who has ever experienced a stranger paying their toll or drive-thru charges knows the feeling of surprise and thankfulness. We trust that God blessed someone tonight with this generous gift from the anonymous Heartland family.

Submitted by: Laura & Bryon
We each received a dollar in our envelopes, we pooled our money together to buy crayons. We are both teachers at a usually well off elementary school. At the beginning of the year, I had a first grader who kept taking his school box (crayons, pencils,etc) home at night. When I saw what he was doing, I kindly explained to him that he needed to keep them at school - I thought he just didn't understand that school supplies stayed at school (first graders:). The next day, his dad sent me a note explaining that they were going through some rough times and couldn't afford to buy crayons and pencils for him to do his homework with at night as well as for school. Before Thanksgiving break, I put the crayons in his backpack knowing that when he got home, he would see them. His parents reply was full of joy as the crayons I gave him in August, were on their final days.

Submitted by: Jenny Buck
I received $5 in my envelope and new right away what I would do with it. I teach kindergarten at Comanche Elementary, a low income school in the Shawnee Mission School district. 75% of our students qualify for free/reduce breakfast and lunch. Every winter I have students who's hands are exposed to the cold winter wind and they become so dry they bleed. My guess is, we will have a lot more sore hands this year due to all the extra hand washing we are doing because of the H1N1 virus. I took my $5, along with my own money that I usually spend each year, and bought gloves for the nurse and social worker to hand out to those students that can not afford or do not have gloves. One of my own students received a pair of the gloves that had been bought last year, just this past week. He was so excited to have received the gloves and the fact that they were his now and he did not need to return them. He wore them with pride out on the playground that day, even though the temperature outside was around 60 degrees. :)

Submitted by: John T
On Monday 11/23 I went out to look at a vehicle that was damaged when it struck a coyote on I-35 outside of Ottawa. I work for an insurance company as an auto damage adjuster. The insured was driving from out of state on Friday to get to a funeral for a family member. She struck the coyote & there was enough damage to her vehicle she had to have it towed to a body shop and she was stranded till the vehicle was repaired. After we completed the business on the insurance claim I explained the Reverse Offering and offered the cash to her. I did not tell her the amount that was in the envelope. She laid her hand on the envelope before opening it and prayed that God would bless the family that gave it tenfold. She went on to explain that she was having a hard time paying for the motel room & has been going to the gas station across the street & buying $2 - $3 worth of food for lunch & dinner so she has money to get back home. She also said that she is a licensed minister and that her son is retired from the military and is has been serving that last two years in Iraq as an independent contractor.

Submitted by: Karen Flower
Several Singles of the Baby Boomers age group had lunch after our reverse offering Sunday, we discussed how to spend our reverse offerings, several of us decided to pull our money together to buy coats the homeless for Decembers Days of Mercy. (Ana Grobe, Mary Brown, Mitchell Jungewaelter, Rich Steffen, Doug Steffen, Dave Cantril and myself, together we had $37 in cash to purchase coats.) Dave Cantril offered to shop with me on Black Friday. So off we went to see how many thick warm coats we could purchase. At the 1st stop (second hand store) we were able to purchase 4 coats for $19 (2 children’s & 2 adults), at the 2nd stop we were only able to find 1 good coat for a child at $6. The 3rd stop we were able to find 4 coats of men’s sizes. One coat was higher priced at $25 (of very good condition & very thick for someone outdoors and another didn't have a price tag). Now at this point we only had $12 left in cash. We went to the register and asked for a price on the 1 coat, I explained to the cashier what we were doing. She was touched and said since we were buying the coats for a cause she took $10 off the unpriced coat that should have been priced at $20. Dave and I discussed earlier that according to the prices we would pitch in a little of our own money in order to help others that needed it more. For only $85 total we were able to purchase 9 coats in very good condition ranging in sizes from children’s to men’s 2xx. We are all thankful for what God has provided us; however, the generosity of 1 couple has helped us to realize how any one of us could be homeless at any time. It felt good to be shopping for someone else on Black Friday instead of ourselves. Thank you for this opportunity!

Submitted by: Gretchen Hembree
I was lucky enough to receive $5 to give away. As a mom of young children my instinct was to pass it on to a child in need. I knew Kohl's has a program where for $5 you can buy a classic children's book. 100% of the net proceeds support health and educational opportunities for kids. My mom assisted in my shopping and she decided we also needed to get the matching stuffed animal for the book. With the book and stuffed animal in hand I donated them to Toys For Tots. This $5 worked really hard. First it was duplicated by my mom to $10. Second the profit from the items purchased go to charity AND a child will receive the gift of literacy this Christmas season with an animal to snuggle! Thanks for helping me move beyond my everyday giving. I have already adopted a child for Christmas and sent off their gifts, toys, and clothes earlier this month. This was a bonus giving to yet another child!

Submitted by: Nicole
I have been going to Heartland a few years now and Sunday was definitely an awesome thing to be part of! I received $10 on Sunday and the first thing that popped into my head was a story I heard about on Oprah a few months ago, a couple in South Dakota owns a local motel and they let people in need stay for free or for what they can give back, one lady cleans for them and lives there for free. They make meals for the people staying there everyday. They are not wealthy, they are just ordinary people who give everything they have to others. After praying, this one thing just kept coming back to me so I sent them my ten dollars today!

Submitted by: Heather and Mike
My boyfriend and I both live up north on the Missouri side. He is about 38 miles from Heartland and I am about 45. Needless to say there are a few Sundays when the 40 minute drive seems too much. But with a service and message like Sunday we are reminded of why we make that drive every Sunday. We feel so blessed that God put us at Heartland so when we found out about the reverse offering we were immediately excited to share God’s grace and giving with others. Mike and I both received $5 in our envelopes. We sat it aside and spend the drive home talking and praying about the message we just heard. We both wanted to use the money for something really special but every idea we had seemed to fall short. Tuesday morning on my drive to work I was talking to God and asking him to help guide us to where He wanted His money to go. Just as I said “amen” KLOVE came back from song and started talking about their “Hope to the Hungry” campaign drive. My heart felt instantly full and my whole body was covered in goose bumps! I knew that this money was supposed to go to help give hope to the hungry! After a quick call to Mike we both agreed that this is where the money we received would go. The best thing about it is that only $2 helps feed one person – so our $10 feeds 5 people! This experience was such a blessing and on Thursday when we celebrate Thanksgiving with our families we will be giving thanks to our Lord!