Church Challenge Raises $11,500 for Cause

The following article was printed in the Sioux Falls Argus on Feb. 17th.

Church challenge raises $11,500 for cause

Worshippers had $100 to build on for good deeds
STEVE YOUNG • syoung@argusleader.com • February 17, 2009

A church's challenge to its members to use $100 bills to benefit humanity has turned into an inspirational exercise in stewardship for one Sioux Falls congregation, where one member parlayed her bill into more than $11,000 to help needy students.

Ten members came forward during services Nov. 16 when the Rev. Kip Roozen offered $100 bills to anyone who would take the money, multiply it "and invest it in God's kingdom."
On Sunday, the results were shared with the congregation.

With bake sales and silent auctions, speeches given and contributions accepted, the 10 raised thousands of dollars to benefit a variety of causes.

One man doubled the $100 and donated it to the fire department in honor of a father who had been a fireman. Another raised $400 for a Sunday night feeding program provided by area United Methodist churches.

One woman turned the $100 into more than $1,600 through bake sales to meet the basic needs of homeless schoolchildren in Sioux Falls. A father whose son died almost seven years ago combined the $100 with other donations to provide books on grieving to families who had lost loved ones.

Connie Kolbrek, a counselor in the public school system, came forward to take a $100 bill and turned it into more than $11,500 to benefit the Community Food Banks of South Dakota's BackPack Program. It sends a food package home in the backpacks of needy children at the end of each school week.

At the middle school where she works, Kolbrek would see children rushing to the auditorium at week's end to see if any backpacks were left.

"You really feel bad because we don't have more food packages to give out to them," Kolbrek said. "It costs $125 per backpack per child for a year. I decided I would put the $100 to one backpack and see if I could get others to match me."

She did more than that.

Kolbrek wanted to raise enough to fill 25 more backpacks. But in talking to other teachers and speaking in neighborhood sanctuaries, she witnessed a movement of kindness and generosity that "spread like wildfire."

They ended up with enough money to finance 92 additional backpacks that are given out at two middle schools and nearby elementary schools.

"The food packages were important," Kolbrek said. "But the lessons in love and helping others were just as valuable."

The idea for the project came out of the biblical parable of the talents, Roozen said, where a master leaves money with three servants before leaving on a trip, then asks for an accounting when he returns.

For the Asbury participants, there were three requirements: to understand it was God's money and not their own, to try to multiply it, and to invest outside the church's walls.

From his perspective, Roozen said it's an exercise worth doing again. It not only affects the community, he said, but his congregation as well.

Kolbrek agreed. "There was a message in what Pastor Kip was doing, and that is, 'It's not a one-time effort,' " she said. "Hopefully, it becomes a lifestyle."


Reach Steve Young at (605) 331-2306.