The letters will soon be in the mail.

As they open their mailboxes, many individuals in western Oklahoma will discover their medical debt has been erased.

Almost $5 million no longer owed and wiped from the books.

Through a campaign to “Do All The Good You Can,” members of the Kingfisher First United Methodist Church partnered with RIP Medical Debt to abolish $5 million of medical debt for the western half of Oklahoma.

It all started when the church celebrated paying off the mortgage on its new building after only 3 1/2 years, FUMC Rev. Dr. Jennifer Long said.

“We started dreaming about what’s next,” she said.

Some of the desires and needs being lifted up as possibilities were a big kids’ playground, a storage building with room for the church van and even phase two of the church building, Long said.

All of those things, however, were focused on the church building, Long observed.

“We knew we needed to also look at how to make a difference in the community and beyond,” she said. “We wanted to help our neighbor and do something that was even bigger than we thought we could do.”

As they began to consider their options, Long said she recalled an article she had seen about RIP Medical Debt, a nonprofit organization which purchases portfolios of medical debt from the secondary debt market and health care providers for pennies on the dollar.

Through the generosity of donors, the organization is then able to eliminate large amounts of debt for those who earn at or less than four times the federal poverty level or have medical debts that are 5 percent or more of their annual income.

After contacting the organization, Long said the church began a four-month campaign in May to raise the $27,000 needed to erase the medical debt the organization was able to purchase in western Oklahoma.

Money quickly began pouring in through the church and online donations and even the youngest members of the church got involved during Vacation Bible School, Long said.

With a VBS theme expressing “the power of something small,” Long said they connected the stories from the Bible of the mustard seed and miracle of the loaves and fishes, pointing out how Jesus makes big things happen from even the smallest things.

As the children would bring their coins and dollar bills, Long said they learned how every dollar they contributed was equivalent to $100 in medical debt, which would help their neighbors.

By the end of the week they had raised $473.83.

As funds steadily grew, Long said Rev. Trina Bose North of Crown Heights United Methodist Church in Oklahoma City contacted her about joining the effort.

Their goal was to raise $2,000 and they surpassed it by adding $3,900 to the campaign.

Fast forward to August, the campaign had raised a generous amount of approximately $14,000, but began to stall, Long said.

Wondering if they would make their goal, a last-minute anonymous donation of $10,000 as well as a few other donations brought the total to $30,000, surpassing their goal at the close of the campaign.

“They don’t know this is happening and they’re just continuing to try to deal with this debt that’s hanging over their heads and then one day they will get a letter saying your debt has been abolished,” she said.

Pointing out how debt can be a constant burden that affects all aspects of a person’s life from financial, emotional, physical and spiritual, Long said, like many things in life, there comes a point where you can’t handle it anymore and can’t do it by yourself.

“This allows someone to come in and help you to start fresh.”

During this process, Long said she was reminded that, “As much as we came together to help people we don’t know, we couldn’t have done it just as this church.”

“It takes everybody to make a difference and God worked in people’s hearts to make this difference,” she said.

“This is grace, beautiful tangible grace…and it wouldn’t have been possible without everyone who shared what they had to help their neighbor.”

As the congregation continues to celebrate paying off the mortgage to a beautiful building where people are able to worship God in and come and be spiritually fed, Long said that it’s also a place from which to go out and do the work of God… not shuttering in, but the hub to go out and do good.

“We want everyone to know they’re loved and beloved children of God, whether we know them or not, in our community or not and maybe people will feel that when they get a letter that says your debt has been paid,” Long said.

Quoting John Wesley, Long said as a church their desire is to: “Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all people you can. As long as ever you can.”