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Penny Power

Penny Power: A community involved                                                                 A testimony from Menno Mennonite Church
As told by Diane Gering in Ritzville, WA

Every year, about four or five weeks prior to our MCC Relief Sale (Mennonite Country Auction), we start another Penny Power project. This year we chose to send our monies to the MCC project, Menno-Sante (Mennonite Health – a multi-year campaign to revitalize Mennonite hospitals in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.)    Each Sunday we shared a children’s story about our project and the need for our pennies. To make our Penny Power project exciting I designed ‘matching funds.’ I called 38 people from the congregation and asked them if they would be willing to have their names in a basket and each Sunday one to four names would be drawn from the basket. The first Sunday one name was drawn to match the $113 offering. The next Sunday, two names were drawn, one for a full match of $139, and the second name for a half-match. The next two Sundays the children drew four names. I made a percentage basket containing four one-fourths, four one-thirds, four halves, and one full match. 

 
The children then drew a percentage slip for each name drawn. What fun everyone had waiting to see how much they would owe! The last Sunday I gave the four names drawn the opportunity to redraw for a different percentage.   Everyone kept their percentage—the ‘full match’ was still in the basket! Everyone got involved in the game, some even expressed disappointment after church for not having their name drawn! Five more families volunteered to draw out of the percentage basket so they, too, could share in the fun. How God blessed this Penny Power Project. A total of nearly $1,700 was collected in five weeks!!
 
In addition to Penny Power, the children’s story time is used for educational purposes. This year, Cleon Claassen shared two MCC children’s stories. He downloaded videos and information from MCC about the Menno Sante MCC project so the children were able to see the need and learn more about what pennies really do in the Congo.

MORE ABOUT PENNY POWER
The Penny Power Project raises funds for MCC’s Global Ministries. Coin collecting and larger donations are a year-round intergenerational activity. Many creative ways of fund raising have been used in this project, as noted in the above article. Matching fund donations are especially helpful in ‘growing’ Penny Power dollars.
In 2008 Penny Power donations totaled $460,850. The 2009 Goal is $500,000. Totals for 2009 will not be available until the end of the MCC fiscal year, which is March, 30, 2010.

http://www.pennypower.org