WYOMING, MI – Almost 2,000 West Michigan families will receive a letter next week notifying them of a once-in-a-lifetime gift: Their medical debt is being paid off in full, thanks to the work of a Wyoming church.

Grand Rapids First Church announced it will pay off a total of $1,832,439.26 worth of local medical debt for 1,899 families randomly selected from Kent, Ottawa, Allegan and Ionia counties.

The church, located at 2100 44th St., partnered with RIP Medical Debt, a New York-based nonprofit organization that buys up medical debt from collection agencies to forgive the debt of families.

Through a donation of $15,000 from the church, RIP Medical Debt purchased the medical debt of the West Michigan families for pennies on the dollar, making financial freedom possible for those steeped in debt.

The debt forgiveness is a no-strings-attached gift, and families won’t have to pay taxes on the cancellation of debt income.

Because of the privacy rules set forth in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the church doesn’t know which families will have their debt forgiven.

Eligible families were randomly selected by RIP Medical Debt from around West Michigan based on their debt levels. The families do not need to be members of the church.

“We don’t know who these people are,” said Sam Rijfkogel, the church’s lead pastor. “They may be a God-lover or a God-hater, we don’t know what their race is, we don’t know what their socioeconomic status is, we don’t know what their degree is. But none of that matters. Here is this debt forgiveness, it’s free. No strings attached.”

The largest debt eliminated by the gift was $75,581, which was paid to three different debt accounts owed by one individual.

Although the recipients of the gift are complete strangers to Rijfkogel, he wants them to know they’re not alone.

“I want people to realize that someone cares,” he said. “So many with debt feel like nobody cares about them. We want to show them, ‘God loves you and we love you.’”

Rijfkogel came up with the idea for the gift a year ago, after a trip to Dallas, Texas where he saw another church eliminating medical debt for people in its community.

He brought that idea back to West Michigan, contacting RIP Medical Debt to see if they could forgive the local medical debt.

The nonprofit organization was able to transform Grand Rapids First’s donation of $15,000 to relieve more than $1.8 million of medical debt in the four counties.

“Medical debt is an indiscriminate peril for Americans, and we feel fortunate to bring relief to West Michigan," said Craig Antico, RIP Medical Debt co-founder and director of debt operations. “RIP is always extremely grateful to partner with faith-based organizations on debt relief initiatives for those in need. Working on the community level means RIP’s outsized impact is felt even more acutely. "

RIP Medical Debt purchases the majority of debt from various debt collections agencies, but it also occasionally buys directly from the hospitals or doctors that families owe.

People with medical debt can qualify for RIP Medical Debt’s services if they are: two times or below the federal poverty level, have more debts than assets, or have debts more than 5 percent of their gross annual income.

The letter being sent to families by RIP Medical Debt next week will read: “We are pleased to inform you that you no longer owe the balance on the debt referred above to the above provider... This debt has been canceled and eradicated with funds donated by Grand Rapids First church in Wyoming Michigan. Our forgiveness of the amount you owe is a no-strings-attached gift. You no longer have any obligation to pay this debt to anyone at any further time. Because this debt has been canceled as a gift by a nonprofit organization, you do not owe any taxes on the cancellation of debt income.”