wfn.org | Children donate piggy bank and birthday money to bishops' initiative

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

June 16, 1999	New media contact: Linda Green*(615)742-5470*Nashville,
Tenn.     10-71B{335}

By Cathy Farmer*

JACKSON, Tenn. (UMNS)--The hearts of many attending the Memphis Annual
Conference were captured as five children gave $1,035 of their tooth fairy
and piggy bank money to the Bishops' Initiative on Children and Poverty.

The five children from Pickwick and Pisgah United Methodist Churches near
Counce, Tenn., made their presentation to Bishop Kenneth Carder June 6,
during the conference's opening worship service.  

Bailie Johnson, 8, Anna Jenkins, 8, Megan Jenkins, 6, Grant  Johnson, 6, and
Rebecca Byrd, 2, asked the bishop if they could give him the money they had
saved all year "so other kids can be as blessed as we have been."
	
The children, the smallest one scooting carefully down the Civic Center
stairs on her bottom, hurried to the bishop with the money clutched in
their hands. It was tooth fairy money, piggy bank money, and money given on
their birthdays. 
	
Every Sunday for a year, Bailie, Anna, Megan, Grant, Rebecca and six  more
children had brought their money to church, hoping to show other kids
through their donations that God is love. They had learned about the
Bishops' Initiative for Children during a children's sermon by their pastor,
the Rev. Bill Franklin. 
	
"It all started when Bailie asked me during that children's sermon if  the
bishop is like Jesus," Franklin said. "I told her he was a man,  but that he
certainly tries to be like Jesus... and then I asked if she would  like to
meet him."    All responded affirmatively and started to save their money to
help other children.  
	
Carder  hugged each child as he  accepted their offering, a delighted smile
on his face. 
	
# # #
* Farmer is director of communications for the Memphis Conference and editor
of the Memphis Conference United Methodist Reporter.

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