It was not a good year for Steve back in 1986.  That was the year he wound up in the hospital with a heart attack.  It was also the year he got divorced.  But God was at work in Steve’s life, although at the time you could not have convinced him of that fact.

Because of his heart attack, Steve had to end a very bad habit, his two-pack-a-day cigarette addiction.  He succeeded and a thought popped into his head.  Why not save the money he was not spending on cigarettes?  Although he gave no thought to what he would save the money for, he figured it was a neat idea.  So he got a cookie tin.  Each week he would toss in the cost of a carton and a half of cigarettes.  He placed the cookie tin under his bed.

Living alone after the divorce, Steve had to do his own grocery shopping.  A frugal and conservative guy, he soon found out about food manufacturers coupons.  He began clipping them from newspapers, magazines and circulars.  He loved the weeks when the store promoted “double coupons!”  At the grocery store, the register tape would print out how much was deducted from the bill as a result of the coupons.  So Steve decided to toss those savings into the cookie tin along with his cigarette savings.

Soon, the tin became full, so off to the bank he went to turn the cash into U.S. savings bonds.  He placed the bonds in his bank safety deposit box.  And he continued tossing the money into the now empty cookie tin.  Week after week, month after month, then year after year, he kept it up, all the while exchanging the cash into bonds.

It was in 1990 that Steve met Barb.  That must have been a good thing, because they were married in 1992.  Just imagine Barb’s surprise when, shortly after their marriage, she discovered a cookie tin, stuffed with money, under their bed.  Steve explained to her what he was doing.  The first thing Barb wanted to know was what his plans were for the money.  “I haven’t really given it much thought,” Steve told her.  “I just like saving money this way.”  And he just kept tossing money into the tin and then buying more bonds with it.

Finally, in November of 2001, Steve sought out Barb’s thoughts about the money.  He had an idea.  West Park United Methodist Church had developed plans for a $1.5 million addition and was to vote on it in December.  “If the building vote passes,” Steve told Barb, “I would like to use the bonds to really kick off the fund drive for a down payment.”  Since 1986, they had kept adding money to the cookie tin.  With interest from the bonds, they now had $50,000.

“I cried for two days,” Barb recalls.  Not about giving the money away, but how deeply her husband felt about the church building project.  “It has really touched him,” Barb says.

On December 9^th the congregation voted for the building project (by a 3 to 1 vote) thus beginning a campaign that will try to accumulate $500,000 by December of 2003 to make a down payment.  Within a week, an anonymous gift arrived at the church - $50,000 to go to the building fund.

Now we know where it came from.  “We can celebrate how God is always at work,” Barb says.  “How He started something in a cookie tin in 1986 that will help build a new building in 2003.”

And with a smile Barb says the cookie tin is still there – and still producing bonds.