She was fourteeen years old in the story. She had two sisters one older and the other younger.  They lived with their mother.  Her father died five years earlier and her other four siblings had moved away.

A month before Easter in 1946, the minister of her church announced that a special offering would be taken to help a poor family. He asked everyone to save and give sacrificially.

When they got home from church they discussed what they could do.  They decided to buy fifty pounds of potatoes and live on them for a month.  This would allow them to save $20 of their grocery money for the offering.  They decided that they would keep the lights turned off as much as possible and that they would not listen to the radio.  This would mean a saving of $10 on their electric bill.  The oldest daughter got as many house and yard cleaning jobs as possible, and the two younger girls baby sat.  With the money they raised they bought material, made pot holders and sold them, making a profit of $20.

It seemed that every day they would count the money they had saved and talk about how much joy the poor family would have from the church’s offering.  They wondered what other church families were doing to save money for this special offering.

The Saturday before Easter, when the offering was to be received, the three girls went to the bank and exchanged all their loose change and wrinkled dollars for three brand new $20s and one $10.  They couldn’t wait for church the next morning.

Sunday morning came and the rain was pouring.  They didn’t have an umbrella, and the church was a little over a mile away.  But it didn’t seem to matter.  Darlene, the oldest daughter had cardboard in her shoes to fill the holes.  The cardboard had come apart, and her feet were wet.  Unlike the other children they didn’t have new Easter outfits but, she sat in church feeling so rich.

When it was time for the offering, the mother placed the $10 bill in the plate and each of the girls put a $20 bill.

As they walked home from church they were so happy.  At lunch. Mother had a surprise. She had a dozen eggs, so they had hard boiled eggs with their fried potatoes.

Later that afternoon they were surprised when the minister paid them a visit.  The mother went to the door, talked with him a moment and returned to the kitchen with an envelope in her hand.  She opened the envelope to find three crisp $20 bills, one $10 bill and seventeen $1 bills.  Her mother put the money back in the envelope and left it on the table.

No one said anything.

Edie wrote, "I knew we didn’t have a lot of things that other people had, but I hadn’t thought we were poor.  We kids had such a happy life.  We felt sorry for kids who didn’t have a Mom like ours.  We thought it was fun to share silverware.

On that Easter Day I found out we were poor. The minister had brought us the money for the poor family, so we must be poor."

It wasn’t until the next Saturday, that her mother asked the girls, "What do we want to do with the money?"

What did poor people do with money?  We didn’t know.  We hadn’t known we were poor.

At church the next day a missionary spoke. He talked about how churches in Africa made buildings out of sun-dried bricks, but that they needed $100 to buy a roof.  The minister said, "Can’t we all sacrifice to help these poor people?"

We looked at each other and smiled for the first time all week.  Mom reached into her purse and pulled out the envelope.  It was passed down the aisle from girl to girl until the youngest girl placed it in the offering plate.

When the offering was counted the minister announced that it was a little over $100.  The missionary was excited.  He hadn’t expected such a large offering from a church of eighty people.  He stood up and thanked the congregation.  You must have some rich people in this church.

Suddenly it struck them.  They had given $87 of the little over $100.  They were the rich family in the church.

The story of "The Rich Family in Our Church", captures the essence of Jesus’ words.

Unfortunately, in modern day society, the spirit of serving ones neighbor has greatly diminished.  If, children are wet cement, I fear as a society in general that we have allowed the cement to dry, before putting the imprint of serving in their lives.

Serving our neighbor is the practical way of fulfilling God’s command, Love Your neighbor as yourself.

As a teenager I loved to play tennis.  My weakness was my serve.  I double faulted way too much.  I knew if I was going to be a good player, I had to practice my serving.

Nothing is more true of life.  If you and I truly want to be faithful to God, then we need to constantly practice our serving.

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