Alice Clemmons was a widow with six children in 1950. She worked as a nursery school teacher in the day and as a janitor in the evening while also attending church on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings. One week a couple named Paul and Audrey Reed came to her church’s Wednesday night service raising support to become missionaries to China. Even though Alice was extremely poor she pledged one dollar a month to Paul and Audrey as they were trying to raise enough support to be sent out as missionaries.[1] It did not appear to be a large gift, but Alice would later learn about the significant impact her pledge would make.
Like the Macedonians that Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 8:1-5, Alice gave even though she did not have much money. Second Corinthians 8:1-9 is a great section to study when we want to learn about giving in the New Testament. In this passage Paul writes about the Macedonian example of giving (vv. 1-5), he gives his own exhortation of giving (vv. 6-8), and explains Jesus’ example of giving (v. 9).
So what do we know about the response of the Corinthians? Did they give? Did they ignore Paul’s warnings? Did they give to someone else instead of the collection for poor Christians in Jerusalem that had begun (1 Cor 16:1-4)?
Five months after Paul writes 2 Corinthians he wrote to the Christians in Rome. We now call this the book of Romans. Paul wrote that letter while visiting the believers in Corinth in his third and final visit to the city.[2]
Paul writes to the believers in Rome, “For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. Yes, they were pleased to do so, and they are indebted to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual things, they are indebted to minister to them also in material things” (Romans 15:26–27).[3] The word “Achaia”[4] describes the southern region of Greece in which the city of Corinth was located. Based on Romans 15:26-27 the Corinthian believers heeded Paul’s exhortation. They followed through. They gave because of the grace they received.
In 1980 Paul and Audrey Reed returned to Alice’s town on furlough. It had been thirty years since they were there raising support to become missionaries to China. Alice was sick, so they visited her in her home. In that visit Paul and Audrey told Alice they had trouble raising money back in 1950. They were discouraged and wondered if it was God’s will that they should be missionaries to China. But what they told Alice was important. Paul and Audrey told Alice that the one dollar a month pledge was what encouraged them to keep raising funds to go to China![5] If Alice had not pledged that one dollar a month, Paul and Audrey might have decided not to be missionaries to China. This is an important story because it shows the sizable impact we can make even if we don’t have much money. We never know how God is going to reach others through our giving even if we think it is small.
[1] As told by Dr. Thomas Constable, “Acts & Pauline Epistles,” unpublished class notes for BE106 (Dallas Theological Seminary, Online Course Unit 7, video 10).
[2] 2 Cor 12:14; 13:1-2; cf. Acts 20:2-3; Rom 16:23; 1 Cor 1:14.
[3] Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission.
[4] Greece was conquered by the Romans in 168 BC, and later in 27 BC the Romans divided Greece up into two provinces called “Macedonia” in the north and “Achaia” in the south.
[5] As told by Dr. Thomas Constable, “Acts & Pauline Epistles,” unpublished class notes for BE106 (Dallas Theological Seminary, Online Course Unit 7, video 10).