A Nebraska church has raised more than $520,000 to pay off the medical bills of residents in its neighborhood, ending the 14-month-campaign on Easter Sunday.
An estimated 10,000 people contributed to the First-Plymouth Congregational Church effort, The Lincoln Journal Star reports.
“In my mind, it was a straight-on spiritual thing, you know, Jesus says, ‘love your neighbor,’” the Rev. Jim Keck said. “What erupted was just generosity.”
The effort came about after the Rev. Juan Carlos Huertas took on outreach efforts at the Lincoln church, starting something called justNeighbors. The ministry centered around community connection, helping neighbors with laundry, filling their gas tanks and providing health care to those without insurance.
He and Keck then set their sights on medical bills. By acquiring debt profiles anonymously through collection agencies, Huertas had determined how to absolve Lincolnites’ medical debt without incurring a tax burden on those receiving the aid.