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'Serving others before you serve yourself' | Elk Grove's E2 Church donates $50,000 to community

“I felt like God really gave me a vision to give $50,000 away this Easter season,” Lead Pastor Jared Ellis said.

ELK GROVE, Calif. — Some families got to enjoy a surprise financial boost this Easter thanks to a huge donation from an Elk Grove church.

E2 Church expected this Easter to be the first in their new building, but the need to stay socially distant during the coronavirus pandemic kept that from happening. So, the church went out into the community showing that it’s better to give than receive.

“We were thinking this year, everybody’s been so on board and they’ve been giving to our building fund, what can we do to give back?” the church’s lead pastor Jared Ellis said.

It didn’t take long for Ellis to come up with an answer.

“I felt like God really gave me a vision to give $50,000 away this Easter season,” Ellis said.

Ellis said $26,000 is going to non-profits impacted by the coronavirus outbreak. Some of that money also went to bringing food trucks to healthcare workers, providing 600 meals.

The other $24,000 is going to what the church calls the "E2 Stimulus Package," giving $2,000 to struggling families.

“I asked my team, I said find out some incredible stories of people in our church and even outside of our church that have lost their jobs, they’re about to lose their home, their car’s going to be repossessed,” Ellis said. “Maybe we can do something to help them stay afloat for one more month.”

So, practicing social distancing, the church reached out to those families via Zoom to give them the surprising, overwhelming news. That news drawing gasps and tears from the families and also the non-profit organizations who also heard from the church via Zoom.

E2 Church says that though it is a large amount of money to give away and the future is uncertain, they have always practiced generosity and it has always worked out.

Their plan now is to see how they can support schools in the area.

“Practice giving and serving others before you serve yourself, I think that this is what it's all about,” Ellis said. “I think that's what the church is supposed to be -- not just having church, but being the church.”

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