[08.03.08] Two weeks ago, the Ministry Report highlighted a Florida congregation that turned down a $600,000 donation that came from lottery winnings. This week a Long Island-based church had the opposite response when a church member gave his entire $3 million winning lottery ticket to the 3-year-old congregation. True North Community Church in Port Jefferson Station, N.Y., will receive more than $100,000 (after taxes) each year for the next 20 years. In an interview with ABC’s Good Morning America, senior pastor Bert Crabbe indicated the fortuitous donation was teaching him and his congregation the importance of valuing the act of giving over receiving. Although the windfall is an answer to prayer for expanding True North’s facilities to house its ever-growing congregation, the pastor reiterated that starting next year at least 20 percent will go to charity. In fact, the bulk of the first year’s proceeds have already been allocated to a nonprofit abolitionist organization dedicated to ending child sex slavery, trafficking and exploitation. [newsday.com; foxnews.com]