ANN ARBOR, MI - It’s Christmas in July for thousands of Southeast Michigan residents. Or, perhaps more accurately, Easter.

The Vineyard Church of Ann Arbor used this year’s Easter donations to wipe out $2.9 million in medical debt for 2,120 people in Washtenaw, Jackson, Hillsdale, Ingham, Livingston, Monroe, Oakland and Wayne counties.

Notification letters went out this week, and church leaders want to get the word out that it isn’t a scam, said Pastor Donnell Wyche.

Each year, the church donates its collections from Easter Sunday to various causes, Wyche said. They’ve previously made donations to Food Gatherers and Habitat for Humanity, and helped create housing for the formerly incarcerated through the group Religious Action for Affordable Housing.

But this year, Wyche proposed a new cause.

He was inspired by a story in The New York Times about two women eliminating medical debt for more than a thousand New Yorkers, as well as a segment on “Last Week Tonight” with John Oliver about the nonprofit charity RIP Medical Debt. The organization buys debt portfolios, but, rather than acting as a debt collector, forgives the debt.

The idea of medical debt relief was a great fit for Easter, because it marks the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Wyche said.

"When we learned about this medical debt, we realized there is probably no better way to help people experience new life than to help them get free from debt," he said. "Debt - and especially this kind of debt - it can devastate people because it sits on their credit, it affects their housing, it affects their jobs, whether or not they can get car loans."

The Easter holiday typically draws nearly 20% more people to the church, which has roughly 350 to 400 active members, though about 700 that consider the church theirs, Wyche said. So, the church alerted parishioners to the cause during the Lenten season, then collected.

Between leftover 2018 Easter donations and new donations and gifts, the congregation raised $18,113, said church board member Danyelle Reynolds.

By partnering with RIP Medical Debt, which negotiates lower prices for debt portfolios, Vineyard was able to use that money to buy and forgive nearly $3 million in medical debt. Beneficiaries won’t have to pay taxes on it and the debt will come off their credit report, according to the church.

RIP Medical Debt targets people earning less than two times the federal poverty level, those with out-of-pocket expenses 5% or more of their annual income and people facing insolvency, according to a release from the nonprofit.

Congregants - some who currently have or previously had their own medical debt - loved the idea, as well as the chance to help those in neighboring counties, Reynolds said.

Due to health care law, the church doesn’t know the specific people they helped. But that, too, is an exciting prospect, Reynolds said. In charitable giving, some might question a beneficiary’s financial situation or worthiness. There’s no room for that here.

"We're not trying to create parameters on who deserves help or who deserves service or who deserves justice, but we're trying to engage in the intention," she said.

Another great aspect - the beneficiaries don’t have to do a thing, said Wyche. Their debt will be eliminated whether they believe their notification letter or not.

“I’m grateful as a church we decided to do this, because it’s going to help so many people,” he said. “It’s going to change so many people’s lives.”