The grass withers, the flower fades; But the word
of our God will stand forever.”
(Isaiah
40:8 – NRSV)
Pastor Phil suggested she make her gift available
to provide seed money to start new ministries that might emerge during the
program year, outside of the normal budget cycle. He pointed out that often there’s no money
to even try some new and creative ideas for reaching out to children and youth,
when they come up in the middle of the year.
Edna was excited about that possibility and included a paragraph in her
will stating that a percentage of her estate would be sent to First Church to
establish a Ministries Fund. When she
died in 1997, $20,000 came to the church and an account was established with
the Wisconsin United Methodist Foundation.
Every year 4% of the market value of the fund is sent to the church to
be used for developing program ministries.
Shortly after Edna’s gift established the
Ministries Fund, another estate gift came to First Church from her friend, Mae
and was added to the fund. Mae and her
husband, Bill, were also committed to caring for the children and youth of the
church. Before he died 10 years
earlier, Bill had named the church as the beneficiary of a Certificate of
Deposit. He knew that if Mae needed it
after he died, the money would be available to her first. But, if she didn’t need it, they both had the
assurance that a significant gift would be given to the church at the time of
her death.
If you have questions about how you might leave a
legacy gift to your church, please call us or visit our website listed below.
-- WI Annual Conference Stewardship Message
God Is Still In Control!
Miss Lladale Carey
Web Content Producer
www.umcgiving.org
lcarey@umcom.org
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