The heavy package arrived at our bottle and can drop-off table while I was inside the church attending second service. It was wrapped in a small, folded over yellow manila style envelope held closed with a rubber band.
Today (April 28th) was the date of our first bottle and can drive for the Spain Summer Mission Outreach of 2013, and we were taking turns manning the drop off station near the baseball field, and going into service. Kathy and Art were working the table when it arrived and Kathy mentioned it to me when I got back. She said a young man had dropped this weighty bundle of pennies and some other coins off as a donation and that they had come from his grandmother.
Kathy was immediately intrigued, and suggested we look through them in case there were any old pennies in the bunch. I opened the packet, but quickly decided it was too big a project to tackle at that moment and set the whole thing aside.
Carla arrived about that time, and so she and I took our turn manning the table to allow Art and Kathy the opportunity to go in to the Third Service. Bottle drop off was pretty slow by that point, so after chatting for a while, I mentioned that I was going to count the donation money we had received this morning. Counting the bills, and silver change went very quickly, and Carla willingly double checked my totals. We moved on to open the envelope and count out the weighty change. I am a little "Adrian Monk-ish" with counting pennies -- I create piles of ten pennies, and line them up in rows with ten piles in each, so I can figure out how many dollars in copper pieces I have before I roll, or package them again -- and Carla joined me. There were ninety piles, a few extra Canadian pennies, and a few stray wheat pennies, all totaling up to nine dollars and about ten cents. We wrote our totals down on paper and began cleaning up the whole things shortly thereafter.
It was also the day of the Spanish Ministry Luncheon, and Carla, Art, Kathy, and I went in for that. Once inside I was chatting with the Nunez family, and learned that the pennies were delivered by their son, Daniel, and had come from his grandmother, Aura, who passed away last July. Those pennies took on a whole new meaning for me as I remembered a godly woman, who tirelessly served others, and poured herself out for her family. One who, though she spoke no more than a couple of words of English, insisted that I come out for the Spanish Ministry luncheons the past two years and when I arrived, made sure that I did not leave without getting more than enough to eat. She was strong as an ox, walking miles each day and surviving stage 4 cancer for years before the Lord called her home last July. She was a lady who also saved pennies and bottles for her church. When she passed away, she left a pile of pennies and other coins on her dresser for her family and some deposit bottles in their shed. They decided to donate the bottles and pennies toward the Spain outreach. It touches me so much to think that Aura is still giving to the Lord's work through the pennies and bottles she left behind, and of her heritage, demonstrated in the generosity of her family.
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