A CHURCH FOR 57 CENTS
It was 1938 when a little girl went to church for the first time. She was found sobbing loudly by the pastor and he asked her what the problem was. She said, "I can't go in the class because there's no more room."
Pastor Larry picked the little shabby dressed, unkepted girl into his arms and took her back to the class and found a spot for her in the corner of the classroom. Later that day she told her parents how wonderful it was that the Pastor found a place for her in the little corner of the room. She was saying to her mom how terrible it must be for kids to not be able to go Bible study with so small classrooms.
Two years later, this child was found dead in one of poor sections of Philadelphia. Her parents called the Pastor of the church she went to for two years as he had become her friend, they asked him to do the funeral for their daughter. The parents told Pastor Larry about the day her body as found in the streets across from the playground, they told him about a small worn out purple purse that was found next to her body, and in it was 57 cents and a note. (The police figured that she was going to church that day with the note.) They gave the note to Pastor Larry and he read it with tears going down his face. The little girl had wrote, "This 57 cents is all I have right now, Pastor Larry, but use it to build a bigger church."
So the next Sunday Pastor told the church about the 57 cents. Then the newspaper Philadelphia Gazette got wind of the story and the 57 cents in the girl's purple purse. And a wealthy realtor in Philadelphia read it and offered a huge lot in the heart of the city to the church for 57 cents!
So the church got on fire, and within five years raised thousands of dollars to build a new sanctuary and one building with 57 classrooms in it. By the way, if you are ever in Philadelphia, stop by Temple Baptist Church that has a seating capacity of 3,300 and is home of Temple University, where hundreds of students are trained for the ministry!