In Apirl 2015, Pastor Sara Nelson of Watertown First United Methodist Church (UMC) challenged each member of the congregation to pray for 21 days at either 6:25 am or 6:25 pm. During the 21-day prayer challenge people were asked to dedicate prayers to four areas: a loved one, a personal goal or dream, the church, or the city of Watertown.

Photo: Lots and lots of bookbags ready for the school supply giveaway at Watertown First UMC. Photo courtesy of Watertown First UMC.

Each day at 6:25 this prayer was lifted--"Almighty God, we ask you to break through and do bold, new things at First Church. Empower us to make new disciples of Jesus Christ and change the world. Amen."

The result of the focused prayer was a breakthrough for the city of Watertown and over 123 children and their families. 

It all began with prayer and then momentum grew when the Missions Committee for First UMC in Watertown, South Dakota decided the July/August project would be a school supply drive. 

About that same time Jeanne Paulson, a member of the Missions Committee, stopped at a garage sale and was visiting with a woman about the Free Sale that she had just been a part of at First UMC. Paulson explained that the group took donated clothes and wares, and set it up like a rummage sale.  At the Free Sale, people from the community are invited to come and take whatever they can use. The woman running the rummage sale said, “I have a box of new bookbags. Could you use them for your next Free Sale?” 

Paulson shared news of the donation with Sandra Weidner and Sandee Cole who also had been involved with the Free Sale. The three were also on the planning committee for Vacation Bible School (VBS) and decided that the offering for VBS would be to have the children bring school supplies.

The Missions Committee heard about this and said—“Let’s join forces!”  The Missions Committee collected school supplies from the congregation and children donated school supplies through VBS.

The second Free Sale was held on August 8th. The donated book bags and school supplies from both VBS and the congregation were a part of this sale. They were given out in 45 minutes.

On August 10th, a church member came to both Weidner and Sue Togel, members of the Mission committee, and said—“Our Kiwanis group has money it would like to donate before the end of the year." Togel said, "The school supplies at the Free Sale were gone in 45 minutes." The church member replied, "Could you use $1500 for more school supplies?”

Photo: A successful day of shopping for school supplies by Sandra Weidner and Sue Togel, Watertown First UMC Mission Committee members. Photo courtesy of Watertown First UMC.

Weidner and Togel started texting each other that evening. At midnight Togel texted Weidner and said—“Are you up? I can’t sleep! Call me!” They were both thinking the same thing—let’s have a school supply give-away.

The Missions Team voted to chip in an additional $1000 to go with the $1500 from the Kiwanis group for the school supply give-away. Then Togel and Weidner went shopping. The two shoppers had worked and re-worked lists to make the most of the donated funds. The store managers knew about the venture and helped the two shoppers for over two hours.

Even though the day of shopping was successful, the stores ran out of some items. So Togel returned to the stores the next day hoping that more supplies had come in. God was at work as the  items that were sold out the day before were now in stock. 

But God had more surprises. Togel describes, "I was shopping at a local grocery store and saw $8 bookbags. I talked to a department manager asking if I could buy out their whole supply. She called me later and said if you take all of them she would sell them for $5 each."

Prayer had led the group to this moment. The word was getting out and people were donating money and supplies.

"When we were setting up I kept thinking, there hadn’t been one glitch all week. Could this really be happening? We had bought enough supplies for 150 kids and still had money left over," stated Togel. Weidner couldn’t stand it. She went out and bought more supplies!

On Saturday, August 22nd, from 10:00 am-12:00 pm members of First UMC gave out school supplies to 123 children. After the families registered at a welcome table, the first stop was at the bookbags.  "As they walked toward me, I saw apprehension on their faces. As I welcomed them I said, 'You can pick out any bookbag you want.' There were instant smiles," said Togel. 

Photo: Volunteers of First UMC in Waterown set up for the school supply give away. Photo courtesy of Watertown First UMC.

Then the children and parents proceeded down the line and ended up with a bookbag full. Each child had all the necessary supplies for the first day of school. Weidner and Paulson were at the end of the line and could see the joy on the children's and parents'  faces. They also heard the stories—“I was driving into town and didn’t know how I was going to pay for both my kids’ school supplies and shoes. Then my sister called and told me about your giveaway," said one parent.

Pastor Sara Nelson shared the story of the school supply giveaway with the entire congreagation.  Nelson reminded everyone that they had been praying for the Watertown community since the spring. "God was answering our prayers," said Pastor Sara.

Togel said, "'Oh my gosh!', I thought! I had forgotten all about that! God heard our prayers and saw this need in our community! Look at how He intertwined us all together! And during the process of it all—we were not even aware of it."