Mennonite
Central
Committee

Up on the rooftop for Penny Power

Marla Pierson Lester
September 6, 2006

Don Hamsher and Keith Yoder's dedication to Penny Power took them to the roof.

The pastor and assistant pastor of Kaufman Mennonite Church near Johnstown spent nearly 20 hours on the church roof in late August — capping off the church's annual push to raise funds for Penny Power and bringing the congregation's total donation to more than $10,000.

The year-long effort was fueled by a competition between the men and women to see who could raise more money for Penny Power, an initiative to collect spare coins for Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) projects. Every fourth Sunday, children walked through the aisles of the congregation collecting coins, the girls carrying pink galvanized metal buckets and the boys carrying blue buckets.

If the women's totals topped the men's, the pastors vowed to spend an hour on the church roof for every $100 raised. If the men won, the pastors' wives would spend time on the roof.

Last month, members learned the church, which has about 120 members, had raised $4,200, with the women's totals topping the men's by some $300. Yoder's wife Diana, who had watched in concern on the weeks when men's donations outstripped the women's, was "more than elated."

But Yoder and Hamsher also had an out. The pair could subtract an hour from their 42 hours on the roof for each $100 raised while they were up there. They called television stations and newspapers, spreading the word about Penny Power and the work of MCC. Yoder compiled a list of family and friends to call from the roof to ask for donations.

On the evening of Aug. 26, after the annual church picnic, the pair climbed a ladder to an 8-foot by 8-foot platform church members had built to make their stay on the sloping roof more comfortable and safe. They brought lawn chairs, umbrellas and plenty of Mountain Dew.

And the fund-raising began.

Yoder's 5-year-old daughter passed a coffee can to collect money while they were on the roof. Already, she had sold lemonade at a garage sale, telling people she was earning money to get her daddy down from a roof. Donations were passed up to the roof in a bucket. Meanwhile, pastors used cell phones to make calls for additional funds, recording amounts on a white board on their rooftop platform.

As church members below cleaned up from the picnic, announcements began coming from the pastors above — $1,000 had been raised, now $2,000. "It was just amazing," Diana said.

They had gone up at 8 p.m. By 9 p.m. the pair had raised more than $4,200.

"We decided after they had given that much money, we needed to stick it out up there," Hamsher said.

They remained on the roof — except for bathroom breaks and the hour and a half they came down to worship and preach in the Sunday morning service — until 5 p.m. Sunday. "We slept up there and everything," Yoder said.

Whatever hardships they had on the roof, he noted, pale in comparison to what many people live with every day.

"We're fortunate that we ever have a roof to sleep on," Yoder said, noting there are many people who do not have a sturdy home or church building. "We have so much in the United States, and we take that so for granted."

Yoder said he and Hamsher were amazed that what they had viewed as punishment for the men losing to the women in the Penny Power competition had turned out to be so lucrative. He expected to raise maybe $1,000 or $2,000. Instead, their time on the roof brought in more than $6,000 additional dollars, bringing the church's total to more than $10,000.

"It just proves how great God is and we shouldn't limit him because he can far exceed our own expectations," Yoder said.

And how, exactly, are they going to top this?

"Everyone's asking us that. All I can say is the sky's the limit — and we got closer this year," Yoder said. "Who knows what will happen?"

 

pennypower.org