Church gives free gas to first-timers

IRMO, S.C., March 9 (UPI) -- A South Carolina pastor said her church is offering free gas cards to new visitors as a means of helping out worshipers hit by the faltering economy.

Pastor Gert Thompson said her church, ATC Life Changing Ministries in Irmo, S.C., gave the free gas cards to first-time visitors Sunday and will continue to give out the free cards on Sundays until the supply runs out, WIS-TV, Columbia, S.C., reported.

"We want people to know that just because the economic system is the way it is right now does not mean that all is lost," Thompson said. "We want to free their minds of being worried about how they are going to survive because God is really the one that is going to provide for them."

Donna Coleman, who visited the church for the first time Sunday, said the gas card was an unexpected benefit of finding a new place of worship.

"With today's economy, this gas card will really be beneficial to me," she said. "I think that the way the economy is today is God's trying to get our attention. Because a lot of us do need God, but we depend on other things when we really should be depending on him."