Mystic Congregational Church joined with 121 other churches to abolish $26.2 million in medical debt for families, medical workers and first responders.

The churches, along with four association and more than 100 families in the Southern New England Conference, which covers Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, raised more than $200,000 to give to RIP Medical Debt, a New York-based nonprofit. The money was distributed to 7,175 families in New England and New York and 12,144 healthcare workers and first responders throughout the country who qualified based on income or financial hardship.

“It is like Jesus feeding five thousand people with two fish and a few loaves of bread, multiplying the resources we have into the resources that are needed,” the Rev. Christa Swenson, senior pastor at Mystic Congregational Church, said in a release.

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