This week's story is from Richard "Rad" Finch, gift planning counselor for The LCMS Foundation in the Iowa East District of The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod. Rad says he often tells others this story about Tillie. "It is a story about the faith of a woman who truly wants to do the Lord’s work and to show her thanks and appreciation for all that He has done for her during her lifetime."
Tillie was almost 91 when she heard a gift planning counselor speak at her church. She was particularly interested when she heard that church members could turn low-interest or low-yielding assets into higher-yielding assets, increasing their income so that they could, in turn, increase their giving for ministry. When she heard that a person at age 90 could receive a 12 percent payout from a gift annuity, she decided to ask her Aid Association for Lutherans representative about it.
Her representative gave me a call and set up a time when we could both meet with Tillie. She wanted to increase her income so that she could help with her congregation's capital fund drive. But she was also concerned that she would not deplete her money because she needed the income from it to support her standard of living. Simple mathematics told her that 12 percent was far better than the four percent the bank was paying her, but she wanted to know the "catch," if there was one.
I prepared an illustration and reviewed it with her and her AAL representative, showing them just how it works. Tillie said that she had committed a gift of $50,000 to the congregation in her will, but she had been worrying that she might have to go into a nursing home, which would decrease her estate rapidly. Since, at her age, she could not qualify for long-term care insurance, she wanted to make sure that the congregation received at least half of the original amount. In addition to making a gift that was guaranteed to go to ministry, she wanted to increase her income and thus increase her current support for the Lord's work at her church.
After she saw the illustration, Tillie signed the application and wrote out her check for the gift annuity. I closed our meeting with a prayer of thanks to God for the gift and for sharing with me His dedicated servant, Tillie. I then asked her if she would like to visit her attorney and change her will, perhaps decreasing or removing the gift to her congregation. After all, she had guaranteed her gift through the gift annuity. "No," she said, I don’t think I want to take it out of my will. If God shows His mercy on me and I don’t end up in a nursing home, then it will just be bonus money to ministry. It will be a good way to thank God for me not going into a nursing home and having to spend my savings on taking care of me while I was there.”