In the early 1920s, Martha Berry, founder of Berry College in Rome, attended a fundraising dinner in New York City. There she met Henry Ford, and she appealed to him to financially support the work of her small, country school back in Georgia. Ford dug around in his pocket, pulled out a coin, and handed it to Berry: “Here’s a dime. See what you can do with that.”

Martha got to work. She returned to Rome and used the dime to buy peanut seeds. Each year, she’d reinvest the proceeds from the peanut harvest into growing the crop, and she’d send Ford a detailed annual accounting of the income generated by his small gift. Eventually, when they’d earned enough from the peanuts to buy a piano for the school, Ford was impressed enough to come to campus for a visit. He drove by the field of peanuts his dime planted, he square-danced to the piano’s music, and he donated a million dollars to the school. Together, Martha Berry and Henry Ford transformed the donation of a single dime into significant profitable enterprise and the start of a wonderful partnership and relationship.

Next Sunday, November 3, our congregation will partner together in our annual Procession of Commitment, as we place our commitment cards in the little model church at the altar. Some of us will offer our dime, while others will be able to commit to more. Each one of these gifts will matter.

So dig around in your pockets and see what you can come up with. Your dimes and dollars will plant the seeds for what we can do as a congregation over this next year. With good soil, hard work, faithful attention, and God’s help, we can grow these small gifts into a meaningful harvest that continues to make a difference in the life of our community.

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