A lesson in hope

the long version

Sam Gardner has been pastor of Hope Friends Meeting for just four months when ninety-eight-year-old member Olive Charles passes away. What's more shocking news is that Olive has left her entire estate--worth nearly one million dollars--to the meeting. At first the gift sounds to Sam like a godsend. Yet as word of the unexpected windfall spreads, it stirs up a storm of conflicting opinions among the church members as to how the money would best be used.