Small Rock Hill church surprises agency with $15K check

Pam Kerrin was hopeful that Forward Church of God would be able to raise enough money to help a water-deprived village in Central America dig a well. But until the end of Sunday’s worship service at the small church on Glasscock Road, she didn’t know how quickly they would reach that goal.

Kerrin, speaking for the charity organization World Help, spoke to the church about the impact donations from the fewer than 100 members who make up its congregation could have on the lives of deprived people elsewhere, if and when they raised the full $15,000 needed for the project.

That goal seemed much further off, given that Forward’s small children’s group just started raising funds from scratch less than a year ago, having launched the effort last Oct. 12. But when David McClain led the church’s youngest members out to sing a rendition of “Jesus Loves Me,” he surprised her with a check for the full amount right then and there.

“There are no words,” a teary Kerrin said afterward. “This is not on me. This is God’s work.”

That was the sense of the members at Forward as well. They set themselves a high goal, opting to pass over some of the smaller donation packages offered by World Help to go for the full $15,000 package to provide a deep-ground well and access to clean drinking water to a needy corner of the world.

David and his wife, Rhonda, the church’s financial secretary, got the idea for the fundraiser years earlier when they discovered World Help’s well-digging program while attending KidFest in Charlotte. Rhonda said, “the Lord laid it on our hearts” to go for the biggest package offered by the agency. David McClain remembers sharing that feeling with one of the children tasked with raising the donations when they first started the program.

“He said, ‘Do you think we could raise $1,000, Mr. Dave? Because $15,000 is a lot of money,’” McClain said. “And I said, ‘through Christ, all things are possible.’”

Little more than a dozen youngsters between the ages of 5 and 12 took it upon themselves to collect the money without so much as a car wash to serve as a formal fundraiser. Every Sunday, the kids would scramble toward the altar to fill a plastic water jug with the children’s offering, and not small ones either. Rhonda McClain said they would occasionally pull $100 bills or signed checks out of the jug.

Each child took a coin holder to collect spare change from relatives, friends and strangers. Church member Ann Smith said her 7-year-old granddaughter Loraly pulled “pennies from her piggy bank” to fund the project.

“If she were here right now, she’d ask you if you have any quarters,” she said.

One girl placed a pill bottle on the pharmacy counter at Bi-Lo and came by every Friday to collect her donations, usually around $30 a week.

Rhonda McClain said the kids averaged a few hundred dollars every month, all individually raised except for one $400 donation from a business. Forward Church’s Pastor Clarence “Gil” Bailey estimates between 80 and 90 percent of the money came from those sitting in the pews.

“We’ve done a lot in this little body of Christ, because we’ve been faithful to God,” Bailey said. “If you’re faithful to God, God will be faithful to you.”

The money will likely go to serve a village somewhere in Guatemala, but World Help operates services in many countries and the money will go to “wherever has the greatest need at the time.” It will likely take 12 to 18 months for its local operatives to scope out an appropriate site and begin work. Once they do, the money will not only develop a drinking well, but could also go to improve a church, school building or other community amenities the area may be lacking.

In the meantime, Forward’s children still scrambled from their seats to make an offering this Sunday morning. Only now the money will go toward flying Pastor Bailey and his wife down for the groundbreaking ceremony.

This story was originally published September 27, 2015 at 5:17 PM with the headline "Small Rock Hill church surprises agency with $15K check."