Many years ago (in the early 1960s) the Houston Central Seventh-day Adventist Church was involved with Business Ingathering. The pastor and lay leaders would make appointments with business leaders in Houston to share with them the humanitarian work of Seventh-day Adventists throughout Texas and the world and invite them to donate to help others.
One of the many business contacts was a couple in their late 30s named George & Barbara Bush. The Bushes expressed interest in the work of Seventh-day Adventists and became regular annual contributors to the Ingathering program.
After a few years some in the church became troubled that the Business Ingathering program was bothering some business people and decided to discontinue it. But they were surprised when Barbara Bush called the church office and asked why no one had come by to pick up their annual donation. She was more willing to give than some were to receive!
(This story was told many years ago by Emmit Padon, a longtime Seventh-day Adventist lay leader in the Houston area when he served on the Texas Conference Executive Committee in the 1990s.)
What lessons do you think we can learn from this experience?
Dan Serns 