This story takes place in Texas where in the town of Waller "God's Mercy Store," a unique general store, was opened in 1918. Goods were marked at cost, and customers paid cost plus whatever profit percentage they felt was appropriate. Owner Mr A. D. Purvis an ex-farmer claimed that the store was established "by the spirit of Christ which is love, mercy, and self denial." The store always showed a tidy profit and was still operating in the 1930s.

To trace the beginnings of this unique enterprise one must go back to the time when Purvis was a poor Texas farmer who was shunned by his God-fearing neighbours as a heathen, though never an actual atheist. At that time Mr Purvis never attended church nor professed to believe in God, tiny doubts about his Creator had started to creep into his mind because many religious people he knew, after attending revival meetings would announce that they had been ‘born again,’ and then continue to live the same old way as they had always done.

Yet Purvis, desperately eager to believe, strove with all his might against the doubts he had. Because of his extreme poverty and the necessity of working hard to make a bare living, he had very little leisure time yet devoted every moment he could spare to reading the Bible and tried to grasp its meaning. It was a painfully hard task for, having had little schooling, he was all but illiterate.

One Sunday evening he came across the following quotation from St Mathew:

“And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold and shall inherit everlasting life.”

He read it over and over again, and all next day whilst working in his tiny cotton field he kept thinking about it. “If the Bible is true,” he reasoned, “I should live according to its teachings because there is a hereafter. If the Bible is not true, then there is no hereafter and only my life here on earth matters. Would I gain or lose by accepting the Bible?” Finally, Purvis was determined to spend the rest of his life following the dictates of his well-thumbed Bible. But this proved less simple than it appeared at first. Where did one begin serving the Lord and how?

When farmer Purvis told his neighbours that he wanted to serve the Lord and asked them for advice, they smiled incredulously. Disappointed in their reaction he sadly went home. Then one day a miracle happened he had a vision in which he was ordered to sell his tiny farm and open a store in which goods would be sold without profit. The next day Purvis started searching for a buyer of his farm and equipment and succeeded in disposing of them. With the money from the sale he built and stocked a small general store in the little town of Waller.

The legend he placed above the door read:

‘Jesus Christ the Same, Yesterday and Today and Forever. Heb. Xlll, 8.’

Inside was a sign that announced: “All goods in this store are sold at cost, nothing is added for profit. The store is kept by free-will offerings. Any thing you may add to your purchase will be received with many thanks.”

At first the people of Waller and the surrounding countryside came to the new store only out of curiosity. The idea of associating religion with business made them sceptical. But the great faith of the man who kept the store as his way of serving the Lord, and the fact that the merchandise there actually was being sold at cost soon won them over. There were few who did not leave a free-will offering before departing.

After a year or so, trade became so brisk that Mr Purvis had to employ extra help, as time passed more room was needed until the store covered a floor area of 7,500 sq ft; also a hairdressing saloon and petrol station were later added.

As with farmer Purvis and his store; from a tiny seed of love and faith has grown a great ministry. And in all of this only the Lord has done the work. We have but followed where He directed, for we of ourselves are nothing.