[09.02.08] The leader of a youthful Long Island-based church was recently stunned when a donor, who asked to remain anonymous, summoned the young pastor to his home and informed him he’d like to donate a $3 million “Ba Da Bling” winning lottery ticket to the church.

 

“This crazy donation” is how Bert Crabbe, senior pastor of True North Community Church in Port Jefferson Station, N.Y., is describing the gigantic windfall of cash, which, according to ABC News, will splash his parish with about $100,000 a year for the next 20 years.

 

“The weirdness has reached what I sincerely hope is it's climax,” Crabbe wrote on his blog last Thursday, one day before an interview on ABC’s Good Morning America. “I keep telling myself this will all be over soon. I'm speechless and I can honestly say I have never been this nervous in my life. Truthfully, I'd really like to just get back to work.”

 

In the interview, Crabbe indicated the fortuitous donation was teaching him and his congregation the importance of valuing the act of giving over receiving. He said the money came at a perfect time, because True North needs to expand its facilities to house an ever-growing congregation. But the pastor announced early on that the first check was already allocated to a non-profit abolitionist organization dedicated to ending child sex slavery, trafficking and exploitation.

 

True North’s homepage is stating that since Crabbe received the winning lottery ticket the story has received widespread, national, media attention.

 

“We are getting bombarded with requests and solicitations,” the Web site states. “[But] the funds we are expecting have already been allocated, and we are distributing the funds to charities and non-profit organizations.

 

“We are being made aware of the needs of hundreds of people, more and more every minute, and it's not our desire to be insensitive, but 100 percent of what we are giving away has already been spoken for.”

 

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