Debt is a big issue facing modern society. Especially medical debt. Fortunately, thousands of St. Louis families will wake up medical debt-free this week, and it’s all because of grassroots efforts made by local churches.

Reverend Traci Blackmon has been at the forefront of the project that has included the teamwork of 14 United Church of Christ congregations, the Deaconess Foundation, and New York-based nonprofit RIP Medical Debt.

They all joined forced to raise enough funds to purchase $12.9 million worth of medical debt from collectors at pennies on the dollar.

“We hope this will be a shot of hope into our region, a shot of hope into our neighborhoods; we hope it will challenge and spur other denominations and other churches.” Blackmon said at Christ the King United Church of Christ.

She added that she is planning to work on more medical debt-forgiveness endeavors with churches in the Northeast and Deep South.

Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, the United Church of Christ is a Protestant denomination that has almost 900,000 members and 5,000 congregations throughout the US.