Indiana—When Angela and Laurel McPherson returned from their mission trip to India, they shared their many blessings and personal experiences from the trip in a special meeting at the Martinsville Seventh-day Adventist Church, where their parents are members. As a result, Martinsville Church members decided spontaneously to begin a program to raise $3,500, the amount needed to build a church in India.

In Apr. 2005, all the Martinsville Church members collected every item they could find for a two-day "yard sale," held in the church fellowship hall. Baked “goodies” were also donated for the sale. At the sale's conclusion, items not sold were donated to a local community organization, which forwarded them to the coastal regions recently devastated by hurricanes.

Even the children of the Martinsville Church wanted to be involved in helping build the church in India. The Primary Sabbath school class collected aluminum cans to sell and raised more than $100 to add to the fund.

Martinsville Church members held another sale in Fall 2005. It took the Martinsville Church, with 61 members, just a little over a year to collect all of the funds to reach their goal of $3,500. This was accomplished not only by yard sales and selling aluminum cans, but also with members' donations.

When Gary Thurber, Indiana Conference president, visited the Martinsville Church on Sabbath, June 10, 2006, he was presented with a check for $3,500 for the India church project. Thurber was excited to learn of the members' unselfish decision to build a church in India. He remarked later, "Despite the members' desire to build a new sanctuary for their own church family, they decided to build one for a new congregation in India first."

The Martinsville Church members have also pledged to provide $600 annually to finance a pastor or a lay person for the new India church. God’s blessings are wonderful, and to be part of His work is a joy.

Martinsville Seventh-day Adventist Church Release