Calling All Pennies
Jimmy PorterThe one-cent coin, commonly known as the penny, was the first currency authorized by the United States. Benjamin Franklin suggested the first design. The penny derives its name from its British counterpart, the pence.
Pennies are plentiful. Since 1787, well over 300 billion pennies have been minted with eleven different designs. The first coins were one hundred percent copper. Paul Revere, the famous blacksmith, supplied some of the copper for the coins minted in the early 1790’s. Now due to the rising price of copper, the composition is 97.5 percent zinc and 2.5 percent copper.
Pennies are powerful. On December 10, 2006, the Boston Globe ran an article entitled “Powerful Pennies.” The article highlighted a high school that waged a “penny war,” collecting monies for a food pantry. For years charitable organizations have used the collection of pennies to fund projects aimed at helping alleviate human need.
Pennies are precious. If you can visualize a penny being symbolic of a child, then you know what I mean. Since the Mississippi Baptist Convention began collecting pennies, I see them differently! When I see one on the ground, I stop and pick it up because to me it represents a life.
In our Memorial to the Missing there are approximately 40 million pennies now. Our goal is to collect 50 million pennies because each penny represents one of the fifty million aborted children since the 1973 Supreme Court Roe vs. Wade court decision.
Our aim here at the Baptist Convention is to reach our goal by the time of the Mississippi Baptist Convention in October. To do this, we MUST have your help.
First, those of you who have pennies but have not gotten them to us, please do so by July 31st. If you need help transporting them, call us at the Christian Action Commission at 601-292-3329, and we will have someone drop by to pick them up. If you can’t get them to us but can get them to your associational office, that will be helpful.
Secondly, if you would like to make a monetary contribution, you can do so by sending your check to Mississippi Baptist Convention Board, PO Box 530, Jackson, MS 39205. The Mississippi Baptist Convention Board is a 501c organization, and your gifts are tax deductible. Your dollars will be changed into pennies and placed in the memorial.
This visual aid has already had an impact on those who have stopped to see it. Time and time again visitors stop by to see it, and then they go through their pockets and purses looking for pennies to add to the Memorial. God has blessed and will continue to bless this effort.
Once again I want to emphasize that eventually 50 million pennies will be turned into dollars and placed in a trust with the Mississippi Baptist Foundation. The principal will stay intact, but the interest each year will help support pro-life causes within the Mississippi Baptist Convention. Your gifts will not only help today but will continue the battle to preserve life.
Months ago fifty million pennies was a dream, an idea, but you are making it a reality. I wish we could show and tell you all the creative ways churches have utilized to collect pennies. The First Baptist Church of Shannon allowed their children to put their pennies in makeshift parking meters. Many of you have been very creative, and we would like for you to send pictures of this to us at the Christian Action Commission.
Pennies are plentiful, pennies are powerful, and pennies are precious. We need ten million more of them — yes, we are “Calling all pennies.”