LAWTON (KFDX/KJTL) — A total of 1,660 residents of 13 Oklahoma counties, including Comanche County, will receive unexpected letters within the next couple of weeks telling them they no longer owe a combined $1,625,828.61 in medical debt.

Debt forgiveness for these 1,660 Oklahoma families burdened by unpayable medical debt means these families will have their credit cleared and will receive no more bills, dunning letters, or telephone calls seeking payment for the medical services they received months or years ago.

According to Senior Pastor Don Barnes, “This no-strings-attached gift of medical debt forgiveness is the result of a total of $15,000 in donations of all sizes given in less than a month’s time by a large number of our congregants. We truly believe that sometimes the greatest gift of all is when you do something for people that you’ll never meet.”

In order to erase this medical debt, Lawton First Assembly partnered with RIP Medical Debt, a New York-based nonprofit, that allows generous donors and organizations to erase the medical debt of Americans whose paralyzing medical debt has turned into a sea of hopelessness for them.

RIP Medical Debt buys and forgives medical debt by allowing organizations to purchase the debt for pennies on the dollar. To learn more, click here.