Hello, I'm Shelley Quinn and welcome again to 00:00:30.74\00:00:33.58 Issues and Answers. I'm glad that you could join us 00:00:33.62\00:00:36.25 today and I think you're going to be glad too because we have 00:00:36.29\00:00:39.30 a very interesting program. We're going to be talking about 00:00:39.34\00:00:42.32 pastors and money and you'll 00:00:42.35\00:00:44.39 enjoy this. First though let me 00:00:44.43\00:00:46.16 open the program with one of my 00:00:46.19\00:00:48.00 favorite scriptures. This is a 00:00:48.03\00:00:49.77 beautiful exaltation of God. Something that David prayed to 00:00:49.81\00:00:53.79 the Lord and it's found in 1 Chronicles 29:11-13. 00:00:53.82\00:00:59.12 Here's what David said: Yours O Lord is the greatness and the 00:00:59.16\00:01:04.00 power and the glory and the victory and the majesty. For all 00:01:04.04\00:01:08.42 that is in the heavens and the earth is yours. Yours is the 00:01:08.45\00:01:12.76 kingdom, O Lord, and yours it is to be exalted as head over all. 00:01:12.80\00:01:17.56 Both riches and honor come from you and you reign over all. 00:01:17.59\00:01:22.91 In your hands are power and might. In your hands it is to 00:01:22.95\00:01:27.69 make great and to give strength to all. Now therefore our God 00:01:27.73\00:01:32.44 we thank you and praise your glorious name and all the 00:01:32.47\00:01:36.85 attributes which that name denotes. Isn't that a beautiful 00:01:36.89\00:01:41.27 praise to the Lord. You're going to see how this connects with 00:01:41.31\00:01:45.11 our program in just a moment. But first let me introduce our 00:01:45.15\00:01:48.99 very special guests to you. We have returning from the General 00:01:49.03\00:01:52.67 Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church Jeff Wilson and 00:01:52.71\00:01:56.32 Jeff you are the director of planned giving and trust 00:01:56.35\00:02:00.36 services. That's right. Tell us just briefly how did you come 00:02:00.40\00:02:03.70 to the General Conference? 00:02:03.73\00:02:05.52 Well it started about 38 years 00:02:05.56\00:02:07.28 ago when I began as a pastor in the Arizona conference and went 00:02:07.32\00:02:12.05 on to be youth director in 00:02:12.08\00:02:13.40 Arizona and here in Illinois and 00:02:13.44\00:02:16.25 the got involved in development work at the media center where 00:02:16.29\00:02:19.41 I met Leonard Westfall and in Ohio and then at Andrews 00:02:19.44\00:02:25.13 University before coming to the General Conference in 1999. 00:02:25.17\00:02:28.66 Praise the Lord. Well we thank you for all the work that you do 00:02:28.69\00:02:32.51 for the Lord. Then a good friend of yours sitting next to you and 00:02:32.55\00:02:36.34 no stranger to us is Leonard Westfall. Leonard it's always a 00:02:36.37\00:02:40.64 pleasure. A pleasure meeting you again. 00:02:40.67\00:02:42.84 I just wanted to mention that Jeff is a good friend of mine 00:02:42.88\00:02:46.80 and I've known him for many years, over 20 years, and I'd 00:02:46.83\00:02:50.72 like to thank him again for 00:02:50.75\00:02:52.72 here. He is in charge of the 00:02:52.76\00:02:54.33 trust service department with 00:02:54.36\00:02:55.97 the general conference which comprehends 00:02:55.98\00:02:57.20 205 countries. Now Jeff could be 00:02:57.21\00:03:00.52 all over the planet right now you know and yet he chose to be 00:03:00.82\00:03:04.29 here and I really just don't know how to thank him, but I am 00:03:04.33\00:03:09.57 so grateful you are here, Jeff. I began this work actually 28 00:03:09.60\00:03:15.39 years ago. I was a pastor evangelist before in New England 00:03:15.42\00:03:20.19 and then I was in Colorado and the I was in Omaha, Nebraska. 00:03:20.22\00:03:25.12 Then Elder Wally Coe, president of the Mid-America Union called 00:03:25.15\00:03:30.39 me to this work. I didn't know if I could do it. I said how can 00:03:30.43\00:03:35.16 I do this because I'm a pastor. I like to preach and so on, but 00:03:35.20\00:03:39.35 they allowed me to come in and they said well if you don't like 00:03:39.38\00:03:43.53 it we'll get you another job. So I said well this is good news. 00:03:43.56\00:03:48.10 I have been in it ever since. The last place I was was Voice 00:03:48.13\00:03:53.36 of Prophecy. I was there 10 years and then 3ABN. The board 00:03:53.40\00:03:58.55 here invited me to join 10 years ago and it has been a very 00:03:58.59\00:04:03.10 delightful time in my life and my wife's too because she joined 00:04:03.13\00:04:07.46 five years later. We both are a good team working for the Lord 00:04:07.49\00:04:12.07 and we enjoy every minute of it. We believe that what we do is a 00:04:12.10\00:04:16.65 miraculous work for the Lord. Every day we have calls from 00:04:16.68\00:04:19.90 people who want to share what they have with the Lord. 00:04:19.93\00:04:23.08 So we thank God in heaven that we are part of this ministry. 00:04:23.12\00:04:28.82 It is really wonderful and actually I try to walk every 00:04:28.85\00:04:33.64 day one hour and I think God for four things in life. First that 00:04:33.68\00:04:38.56 I didn't die last night. I understand 150,000 people die 00:04:38.59\00:04:43.41 every day in America. Secondly I thank God for my family and 00:04:43.45\00:04:48.24 third I thank God for 3ABN because I believe God called 00:04:48.27\00:04:52.43 me to this ministry; I have absolutely no doubts about it. 00:04:52.47\00:04:56.01 Then fourthly I thank God because I live in a good place 00:04:56.04\00:05:00.79 where we have good climate. So I thank God for it. So that's 00:05:00.83\00:05:05.48 about it. Sometimes I wonder is the Lord 00:05:05.52\00:05:08.04 tired of hearing my prayers, you know. 00:05:08.05\00:05:10.20 I repeat this every day but I'm sure he is not. 00:05:10.21\00:05:14.73 I'm sure he's not either and Leonard I just want to thank you 00:05:14.77\00:05:17.86 for the work you do as the director for the trust services 00:05:17.89\00:05:20.91 for 3ABN for the last 10 years. You've been a very dedicated and 00:05:20.95\00:05:27.54 wonderful part of the staff of 3ABN. Well this scripture is so 00:05:27.57\00:05:34.13 beautiful but I thought it really tied in to what we're 00:05:34.16\00:05:37.53 going to be discussing today. Why don't you, Jeff, tell us a 00:05:37.56\00:05:41.53 little of the story of why David was praying this scripture. 00:05:41.56\00:05:46.20 Well the prayers of the Bible first of all are always amazing 00:05:46.24\00:05:50.85 prayers. We just finished studying the book of Daniel, 00:05:50.88\00:05:54.34 for example, which we think of as a book of prophecy. But it is 00:05:54.38\00:05:58.17 also a wonderful book of prayer. Daniel was a wonderful pray-er 00:05:58.20\00:06:02.29 and even Nebuchadnezzar has a prayer in there. But this prayer 00:06:02.32\00:06:07.70 of David's in 1 Chronicles 29... David woke up one morning and 00:06:07.74\00:06:11.80 realized that he lived in a palace and the Lord had no home 00:06:11.84\00:06:16.86 at all and that really bothered him. It bothered him big time. 00:06:16.90\00:06:22.46 I wish it would bother more people these days. So David went 00:06:22.49\00:06:27.45 to prayer and he thought sure the Lord would say yes because 00:06:27.49\00:06:31.86 he said Lord I want to build you a temple. But the Lord said no. 00:06:31.90\00:06:36.44 It's interesting sometimes when the Lord's answer is 180 degrees 00:06:36.47\00:06:40.98 around from where we want an answer to be. David went back 00:06:41.01\00:06:44.76 to the Lord again and finally when David said Lord please 00:06:44.80\00:06:48.48 could I just raise the money for the temple and the Lord said yes 00:06:48.52\00:06:52.52 you can raise the money for the temple. 00:06:52.55\00:06:55.16 That's not a job that too many people volunteer to do. 00:06:55.20\00:06:57.79 Not too many people volunteer for that job. They'd rather lay 00:06:57.83\00:06:59.75 bricks than to raise the money to buy the bricks. 00:06:59.78\00:07:01.84 So the amazing thing is that mostly in modern times and in 00:07:01.88\00:07:07.04 ancient times kings don't tax themselves, they tax the common 00:07:07.08\00:07:11.80 people. But David didn't do that. David reached deep into 00:07:11.84\00:07:16.49 his own pocket first and gave of his income. Then he made some 00:07:16.53\00:07:20.08 planned gifts, Leonard, because he made some gifts that would 00:07:20.11\00:07:24.78 be given in the future even after his death. And his army, 00:07:24.82\00:07:29.42 his political colleagues in his kingdom were so astounded by the 00:07:29.46\00:07:35.18 generosity of the king that they laid their treasure on the table 00:07:35.22\00:07:40.91 and then the Bible says all the common people with great joy 00:07:40.94\00:07:45.00 came and they said couldn't we give a little something too. 00:07:45.03\00:07:49.11 So everyone gave what they could give, but it was top down 00:07:49.14\00:07:53.22 leadership. It was sacrifice from the top down, not from the 00:07:53.26\00:07:58.35 bottom to the top. So in this matter of encouraging people to 00:07:58.38\00:08:03.44 think about something that's kind of scary, doing estate 00:08:03.47\00:08:07.35 planning, we've looked at leaders and looked at some of 00:08:07.39\00:08:11.20 our pastors and said maybe if they would share their stories 00:08:11.24\00:08:14.50 maybe that would make it a little less scary for the people 00:08:14.54\00:08:17.99 in the pew. So we've interviewed some pastors and we tell some 00:08:18.03\00:08:21.15 stories; you might see some of these in the Adventist Review, 00:08:21.19\00:08:24.46 Ministry Magazine, Women of Spirit and other publications. 00:08:24.50\00:08:28.40 You can see just part of that story but today we'd tell a 00:08:28.43\00:08:32.30 little bit behind some of those stories. 00:08:32.33\00:08:34.24 I'm looking forward to hearing this, but let me ask you a 00:08:34.25\00:08:37.80 question. Many of our viewers are not Adventist and these 00:08:37.84\00:08:42.13 names may be new to many, but why do you believe that so many 00:08:42.16\00:08:46.35 people find it frightening to think about estate planning? 00:08:46.39\00:08:50.55 Is it just the idea of recognizing our own mortality 00:08:50.58\00:08:55.77 or what is it? That's a hard question so I'll 00:08:55.80\00:08:58.69 let Leonard answer that one. 00:08:58.72\00:09:00.07 Well thank you. It is interesting. I put on seminars 00:09:00.11\00:09:05.64 here in campmeeting twice a year and we have a large number of 00:09:05.68\00:09:09.95 people coming to the campmeeting but normally we have about 20-30 00:09:09.99\00:09:14.23 people coming to listen to a very, very important subject. 00:09:14.26\00:09:19.95 The subject is estate planning. Now I was wondering why do so 00:09:19.98\00:09:24.45 few people come and all of them are going to die one day you 00:09:24.48\00:09:29.43 know. The thing that strikes me is this people don't want to 00:09:29.47\00:09:34.00 talk about death and dying. That's why they don't want to 00:09:34.03\00:09:38.25 come because if they postpone talking about a trust or an 00:09:38.28\00:09:42.96 annuity or a gift or a gift annuity or a will they may live 00:09:43.00\00:09:47.58 longer. Secondly they do not really want to part with their 00:09:47.62\00:09:52.76 estate. It's mine. Why should I give it away now. I'd like to 00:09:52.80\00:09:58.08 accumulate more. So they don't like to talk about it. But you 00:09:58.12\00:10:03.71 know what I usually tell people is this. Now you do not live in 00:10:03.74\00:10:09.30 a home without insurance. You don't drive a car without 00:10:09.33\00:10:13.59 insurance and yet you have accumulated a sizable estate and 00:10:13.62\00:10:17.61 you have no insurance for your estate. If you suddenly die what 00:10:17.65\00:10:22.09 will happen to your estate? It can go down the drain and your 00:10:22.13\00:10:26.73 children or loved ones will have very little left for them and 00:10:26.76\00:10:31.59 the Lord's work will not get a dime. Unless you plan right the 00:10:31.62\00:10:35.64 Lord's work will not, as Jeff has pointed this 00:10:35.68\00:10:39.34 out over and over again 00:10:39.35\00:10:40.32 the Lord's work will not get a dime. 00:10:40.33\00:10:43.16 You know it's just so amazing because you would think anyone 00:10:43.20\00:10:46.49 who has amassed anything would certainly want to make sure that 00:10:46.52\00:10:49.53 it was well taken care of. But as we have said, you've been 00:10:49.57\00:10:52.55 with us twice before here at 3ABN and both times we've 00:10:52.58\00:10:56.12 touched on the importance of having a will and so we are here 00:10:56.16\00:11:00.70 today to share the stories of pastors who are leading by 00:11:00.73\00:11:04.03 example and as you said we're going to share their stories 00:11:04.06\00:11:08.02 with their permission so that people can begin to think of 00:11:08.06\00:11:12.68 why it is scripturally sound and just good advice to be good 00:11:12.71\00:11:16.70 stewards of those things that you have in your life whether 00:11:16.74\00:11:21.11 they are children with no assets or assets with no children. 00:11:21.14\00:11:25.48 One couple that I interviewed was Jimmy and Shireen 00:11:25.51\00:11:28.74 Ferguson. They live in Baltimore Maryland. They are a young 00:11:28.78\00:11:34.02 African-American couple. After they got married before the 00:11:34.06\00:11:39.33 children came along especially Shireen as a prospective mother 00:11:39.37\00:11:44.61 had the concern what would happen to my children should 00:11:44.64\00:11:47.60 something happen to Jimmy and me. So she went, interestingly 00:11:47.64\00:11:51.29 enough, to her insurance agent. She thought well I need an 00:11:51.33\00:11:54.91 insurance policy to protect the children, to take care of their 00:11:54.95\00:11:59.14 needs should something happen to Jimmy and me. The insurance 00:11:59.18\00:12:03.34 asked her an interesting question. The insurance agent 00:12:03.37\00:12:06.49 said do you have wills? Well Shireen had never thought about 00:12:06.53\00:12:11.58 that. About the same time camp meeting was going on and Jimmy 00:12:11.61\00:12:16.58 had a concern for an elderly woman that was sort of like his 00:12:16.62\00:12:21.56 god mother. He knew she was getting older and that she 00:12:21.59\00:12:26.09 didn't have an estate plan so he went to the trust services 00:12:26.13\00:12:30.48 director of the conference there, Danny Davis, to seek his 00:12:30.52\00:12:34.99 advice. And Danny gave him some suggestions but then Danny 00:12:35.02\00:12:39.12 looked him right in the eye and said Jimmy do you have a will? 00:12:39.16\00:12:43.49 And Jimmy said, I'm a young man, I'm still in my 20s. I just got 00:12:43.53\00:12:47.83 married. I don't need a will. Danny said, Yes you do need a 00:12:47.86\00:12:51.73 will. Well since then they've gotten their estate plan in 00:12:51.77\00:12:55.57 order and they have two precious little kids now; they're four 00:12:55.61\00:13:00.28 and two. They both told me that the most difficult question they 00:13:00.32\00:13:04.60 had to solve, and it took them a long time to solve it, was who 00:13:04.64\00:13:08.96 would be the guardians, who would be the surrogate parents, 00:13:08.99\00:13:12.54 who would take our children if something happened to us? 00:13:12.58\00:13:16.06 For both of them their immediate siblings are not believers in 00:13:16.10\00:13:20.65 the Lord, they're not in the church and they wouldn't want 00:13:20.69\00:13:24.73 them to go that direction and be lost for the kingdom. So what 00:13:24.77\00:13:28.86 they finally settled on was to pick a young couple in their 00:13:28.90\00:13:33.20 church with children about the same age. They know they'd be in 00:13:33.24\00:13:36.49 church school, they'd be in Sabbath School, they'd have the 00:13:36.52\00:13:41.08 diet and they also would not be ripped out of their comfortable 00:13:41.11\00:13:45.24 environment that way. And what they've done for their friends 00:13:45.27\00:13:49.23 is to say and we would accept the responsibility to be parents 00:13:49.26\00:13:53.24 for your children if something happened to you. It's a big 00:13:53.27\00:13:56.97 thing to say to somebody would you take my kids. But if I said 00:13:57.00\00:14:00.19 would you take my kids and if something happened to you we 00:14:00.23\00:14:04.14 would take your kids. It worked for them. Again a young couple 00:14:04.17\00:14:07.86 thinking about this issue and young people don't often think 00:14:07.90\00:14:11.82 unfortunately of this issue. But Jimmy says that as a pastor 00:14:11.86\00:14:15.81 he has a lot of older members in his church in Baltimore and 00:14:15.85\00:14:19.18 he feels a real concern for them and he goes around and talks to 00:14:19.21\00:14:22.36 them about the importance of estate planning. I think Leonard 00:14:22.39\00:14:25.89 you said that as a young pastor you encouraged this in your 00:14:25.92\00:14:29.39 church. Yes right, that is correct. 00:14:29.42\00:14:31.17 I began my ministry in Southern New England Conference in 1963 00:14:31.21\00:14:37.75 right after Reese Jenkins began the trust work in that union and 00:14:37.78\00:14:43.44 I guess they never heard of it before. He was a pioneer and he 00:14:43.47\00:14:47.65 came to our church. We didn't even know what it was, what he 00:14:47.69\00:14:51.84 was talking about, the terminology and all of that. 00:14:51.87\00:14:54.33 But the fact is when he educated us in our church we accepted 00:14:54.37\00:15:00.62 these suggestions and we promoted our trust department 00:15:00.65\00:15:05.16 in our church and he came and held seminars and taught our 00:15:05.20\00:15:09.29 people and we all benefitted and of course we developed our 00:15:09.33\00:15:13.67 estate plan, planning for the future. That is what I do today; 00:15:13.70\00:15:18.01 I educate people in this field wherever I go. 00:15:18.04\00:15:20.76 Some people, if you say you want to come and talk to them about 00:15:20.80\00:15:24.84 estate planning, may take offense but particularly if 00:15:24.87\00:15:28.65 you're married and you have children, as soon as you have a 00:15:28.69\00:15:33.37 child... This pastor and his wife, look at what they went 00:15:33.40\00:15:37.35 through trying to decide who they wanted their child to go 00:15:37.38\00:15:41.33 to. But if you were suddenly killed in an accident, you'd 00:15:41.37\00:15:45.27 leave your child as an instant orphan and then you'd have no 00:15:45.31\00:15:49.68 say. What you would agonize over in life, you'd have absolutely 00:15:49.71\00:15:55.12 no say. It's just amazing to think that so few people have a 00:15:55.16\00:16:00.54 will. Well you now these days we have 00:16:00.57\00:16:02.70 to warn our children don't talk to strangers. You know what I'm 00:16:02.74\00:16:06.79 saying. But if a young couple dies without a will, then a 00:16:06.82\00:16:14.37 total stranger, in this case a probate judge, but still a total 00:16:14.41\00:16:18.00 stranger, is going to be the one who is going to have to make 00:16:18.03\00:16:21.76 that decision. And I think any mother, any father, would say I 00:16:21.79\00:16:26.02 want to have some say in that because I know my child better 00:16:26.06\00:16:29.77 than anyone else knows them. I know where they would fit in, 00:16:29.80\00:16:33.08 where they wouldn't. I know the values I want my child to grow 00:16:33.11\00:16:36.93 up to believe and to do and to be, you see. So I can't think of 00:16:36.97\00:16:40.76 any more important stewardship issue than planning for 00:16:40.79\00:16:45.22 succession of parenthood, God forbid, and we hope it never 00:16:45.26\00:16:49.14 happens. But the point is planning for it is not going to 00:16:49.17\00:16:53.47 make it happen but planning for it is going to give me my 00:16:53.50\00:16:57.77 wishes, should something happen down the road. 00:16:57.80\00:17:02.19 So what are some of the other stories? 00:17:02.22\00:17:04.20 There's another neat couple, Lynn and Lana Schleisner. 00:17:04.23\00:17:07.27 Lynn is the pastor of the Madison campus church in 00:17:07.30\00:17:10.64 Nashville, Tennessee. Lana works in the conference office there. 00:17:10.67\00:17:15.73 Lynn and Lana told me that they've pastored all around the 00:17:15.77\00:17:19.82 country from North Dakota and Oklahoma and several places. 00:17:19.86\00:17:23.34 When they first got married just as a young couple, they were 00:17:23.38\00:17:26.82 going over, Leonard, to Palestine for a trip and of 00:17:26.86\00:17:32.07 course it was dangerous then and it's just as dangerous today. 00:17:32.11\00:17:35.88 They had just one little baby son and they were leaving him 00:17:35.92\00:17:39.62 at home and Lana said I want to make sure we have a will so that 00:17:39.65\00:17:43.85 who we want would raise our son should something happen to us. 00:17:43.89\00:17:48.05 Well, so we did wills, but wherever they've moved around 00:17:48.08\00:17:52.35 in God's work they've had a new will prepared in that state in 00:17:52.38\00:17:56.70 that vicinity where they are living. They've remembered God's 00:17:56.73\00:18:00.49 work in the area where they're pastoring at that particular 00:18:00.53\00:18:04.25 point. There at Madison... So excuse me just a second. 00:18:04.28\00:18:10.02 What you're saying is that if they were for example, I don't 00:18:10.05\00:18:13.07 know where they've lived, but say if they had been California 00:18:13.10\00:18:16.48 their wills would have said that a portion of their estate would 00:18:16.52\00:18:19.81 go to the church that they were pastoring at that time, but then 00:18:19.85\00:18:23.13 if they moved to Vermont, they would change that will because 00:18:23.16\00:18:26.41 where they are involved in the work of the Lord there in 00:18:26.45\00:18:29.50 Vermont they would have changed it to say a portion of their 00:18:29.53\00:18:32.55 money would go to help the church in Vermont. 00:18:32.58\00:18:34.46 That's what they did. That's very nice. There's another 00:18:34.50\00:18:36.84 reason. Wills and trusts are based on state law and attorneys 00:18:36.87\00:18:41.10 are licensed to practice law in a particular state; some are in 00:18:41.14\00:18:45.33 more than one state, but they have to pass the bar in each 00:18:45.37\00:18:48.56 state. So if I move to a different state I should do a 00:18:48.60\00:18:51.89 new will to make sure that my will conforms to the new state 00:18:51.90\00:18:58.09 where I live. That was part of their reason, but the other 00:18:58.10\00:19:00.89 reason, as you point out so clearly was to remember God's 00:19:00.92\00:19:04.78 work where they were ministering at that point. My will now 00:19:04.81\00:19:07.99 remembers entities of the General Conference because that 00:19:08.02\00:19:11.02 is where I'm working along with my local conference and other 00:19:11.05\00:19:14.22 things. I would think folk involved at 3ABN would want to 00:19:14.26\00:19:17.36 remember this ministry if they are giving their life and their 00:19:17.39\00:19:20.59 time to it, they would want to remember it with their money as 00:19:20.62\00:19:23.78 well. It's very interesting; there in their church school 00:19:23.81\00:19:28.82 a third and fourth grade teacher who taught there for many, many 00:19:28.86\00:19:34.44 years recently passed away and in her will she left $98,000 for 00:19:34.48\00:19:39.20 her church school. It was just at the time they were remodeling 00:19:39.24\00:19:43.50 the church school. Now there's a room there that has her name 00:19:43.54\00:19:47.85 on it. Her ministry at teaching young children goes on. She gave 00:19:47.89\00:19:51.90 her time and her talents but she also gave through her will to 00:19:51.94\00:19:56.70 her local church. Lynn recently was diagnosed with brain cancer 00:19:56.73\00:20:01.74 and all the doctors in Nashville said that there was no cure for 00:20:01.78\00:20:06.75 him. So his church went to prayer and his wife went to 00:20:06.79\00:20:11.22 prayer and he sought alternate opinion. By God's grace today, 00:20:11.25\00:20:16.68 I just met him about a month ago, he has no hair on his head 00:20:16.71\00:20:20.62 at the moment, it probably will grow back. I said, well you're 00:20:20.66\00:20:25.37 right in style now Lynn. But he is cancer free by God's grace. 00:20:25.40\00:20:29.98 But what Lana said to me was, when this happened to Lynn and 00:20:30.01\00:20:34.23 I had to face his cancer, the one thing I didn't have to worry 00:20:34.27\00:20:38.45 about was our estate plan because we had all that done 00:20:38.49\00:20:42.36 ahead of time. She said, I could just focus on prayer and helping 00:20:42.39\00:20:46.63 my husband get well. You know, when you have times of crisis 00:20:46.66\00:20:49.96 it's not the time to be thinking well what do I want to do with 00:20:50.00\00:20:53.98 my money here and there. Have it done ahead of time so that if 00:20:54.02\00:20:57.48 you're in a crisis you can just deal with that crisis. She said 00:20:57.51\00:21:01.38 this just took such a load off of me. I said, Lana, can I tell 00:21:01.42\00:21:05.25 that story to other people because other people need to 00:21:05.29\00:21:07.95 know that too. I had a woman once tell me that 00:21:07.98\00:21:11.68 when her husband was in the hospital and she knew it was a 00:21:11.72\00:21:15.53 critical situation, she said, I didn't want to talk to him about 00:21:15.57\00:21:19.43 a will because I didn't want to depress him any further because 00:21:19.46\00:21:23.29 he was already about dying, but 00:21:23.32\00:21:25.34 then he did die without a will 00:21:25.38\00:21:27.33 and it was a mess. So the lesson is do not 00:21:27.36\00:21:31.35 procrastinate. I had a case of a lady who had no relatives in 00:21:31.38\00:21:39.22 the state where I worked. She was a senior and she finally 00:21:39.25\00:21:46.49 decided to have a will and a trust and she said I have a 00:21:46.52\00:21:53.69 burden for education because I have had no children in my life 00:21:53.72\00:21:58.43 and I would like to help educate some children. So she left her 00:21:58.47\00:22:03.32 estate to one of our academies and when she died our academy 00:22:03.35\00:22:07.88 was about to go broke. This was a large estate and that estate 00:22:07.91\00:22:12.51 saved the academy. That was a miracle of God. It could have 00:22:12.55\00:22:17.09 gone down the drain and the state would wind up getting it 00:22:17.12\00:22:21.26 because if no relatives are around then the state gets it. 00:22:21.30\00:22:25.93 I have so many people who will say to me that their children 00:22:25.96\00:22:29.84 are getting to the point where they are spending their money 00:22:29.88\00:22:34.08 so frivolously. They are so materialistic. Many have said 00:22:34.12\00:22:37.75 I want to make sure that I don't give everything that I 00:22:37.79\00:22:41.35 have worked for all my life to my children. I want to make sure 00:22:41.38\00:22:44.07 that the church gets some because I know my children won't 00:22:44.11\00:22:46.50 give it. It's also a different age, 00:22:46.54\00:22:49.70 obviously. You have the different generations here but 00:22:49.74\00:22:52.55 you also have a situation where in previous generations on the 00:22:52.59\00:22:58.13 farm the children were assets to mom and dad. Every child that 00:22:58.17\00:23:02.76 was born was money in mom and dad's pocket on the farm. Today 00:23:02.80\00:23:07.56 they are a liability. By age 17 by government figures you've 00:23:07.59\00:23:11.27 spent about a quarter million dollars on each child and you 00:23:11.31\00:23:15.10 still have college to go. So we essentially are giving our 00:23:15.13\00:23:18.85 children their inheritance up front. We're helping them get 00:23:18.88\00:23:22.46 an education and a career and in many cases kids start out 00:23:22.50\00:23:27.16 making more money than mom and dad after 30 or 40 years. So I 00:23:27.20\00:23:31.82 think we don't have the obligation that we once had 00:23:31.86\00:23:34.68 to give absolutely everything over to the kids. We need to 00:23:34.72\00:23:37.48 look at what their needs are and what we need to do for them, but 00:23:37.52\00:23:41.09 we also need to look at the larger family and what we want 00:23:41.12\00:23:44.14 to do for them as well. 00:23:44.18\00:23:45.92 For the single person do you have any examples of a single 00:23:45.95\00:23:50.50 person who has done something with their estate? 00:23:50.53\00:23:54.10 Yes. Pastor Casanova from the Belize mission field 00:23:54.13\00:23:59.12 wrote me recently. Belize is a little country off of 00:23:59.15\00:24:03.69 Mexico. It's an interesting country because about one out of 00:24:03.73\00:24:07.59 ten people in that country are Seventh-day Adventists. It's one 00:24:07.62\00:24:11.45 of the highest concentrations in the world. Well they were 00:24:11.49\00:24:16.51 moving vigorously in evangelism and moving ahead to move from 00:24:16.55\00:24:20.57 mission status to conference status. In other words, to be 00:24:20.60\00:24:24.61 totally self-sufficient. Well just at that time they received 00:24:24.64\00:24:28.82 a message from an executor of a woman by the name of Lydia 00:24:28.85\00:24:33.31 Smith, her will. It said that everything was going to come 00:24:33.35\00:24:37.74 to the Belize mission. Well that included her assets plus a home 00:24:37.77\00:24:43.97 that ended up being around $168,000 U.S. At that very time 00:24:44.00\00:24:48.46 they were looking for property where they could have a mission 00:24:48.49\00:24:53.07 headquarters. They were able to find a property that had an 00:24:53.11\00:24:57.07 asking price and then they came down to a price that they could 00:24:57.10\00:25:02.90 use Ms. Smith's inheritance, her bequest to purchase that office. 00:25:02.93\00:25:08.69 I have a picture of that beautiful conference office. 00:25:08.73\00:25:11.16 The President Slusher says that that was the biggest move to 00:25:11.20\00:25:17.56 help them move from mission status to self-supporting 00:25:17.59\00:25:20.57 conference status; the gift of just one person. What a joy it 00:25:20.60\00:25:24.59 will be for her someday to see what her little gift and her 00:25:24.62\00:25:28.53 bequest did for God's work in a whole country, pushed it forward 00:25:28.57\00:25:34.70 So as David gave us the example, David who is a man after God's 00:25:34.74\00:25:40.84 own heart, as he gave us an example in the Bible that 00:25:40.87\00:25:44.64 leaders should stand up, invest their money in the church, 00:25:44.68\00:25:49.95 be good stewards. It's all just about good stewardship. 00:25:49.98\00:25:57.00 What to you, personally in your own life, was the easiest 00:25:57.04\00:26:03.98 decision that you made and what was the most difficult decision, 00:26:04.02\00:26:06.73 if you can just give us a brief synopsis, whey you were planning 00:26:06.77\00:26:09.44 your own estate. Well the easiest was that God 00:26:09.48\00:26:13.81 would be involved in it even with three children. 00:26:13.85\00:26:18.11 The hardest was who would be the guardians for our children. 00:26:18.14\00:26:22.21 That was absolutely hardest and that was when we had to change 00:26:22.24\00:26:26.26 over the years as people grew older, circumstances changed. 00:26:26.29\00:26:30.34 So I feel for young couples in finding who would be the best 00:26:30.38\00:26:34.24 to be the guardians of children. I say leave it with the Lord, 00:26:34.28\00:26:37.79 put it before the Lord, talk to your friends about it. Talk with 00:26:37.82\00:26:41.82 each other about it, pray about it and God will give you an 00:26:41.86\00:26:45.79 answer. For those who just push it off, it's too hard a question 00:26:45.82\00:26:48.04 to answer and don't put their minds and their prayer bones 00:26:48.08\00:26:51.76 together on it, they won't find the answer. But everyone I've 00:26:51.80\00:26:55.16 worked with, I know Leonard has seen the same situation, if they 00:26:55.20\00:26:58.28 pray about it and work with it over a period of time, it may 00:26:58.32\00:27:01.37 take even a few months, God will give them the answer. 00:27:01.40\00:27:05.48 Jeff, thank you so much. Jeff Wilson with the General 00:27:05.51\00:27:09.51 Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and Leonard, 00:27:09.55\00:27:12.92 thank you for joining us because these are serious topics 00:27:12.95\00:27:16.48 serious issues that we really do need to think about. I hope 00:27:16.51\00:27:20.28 that you're taking this to heart. We want to leave you with 00:27:20.32\00:27:24.02 one thought. As these gentlemen have said, You need professional 00:27:24.05\00:27:29.13 help which is the best. Spend the $50, $75 or $100, get a will 00:27:29.16\00:27:33.32 make some kind of a provision for your family and for your 00:27:33.36\00:27:38.15 estate. Until we meet again, actually always, I pray that the 00:27:38.19\00:27:42.49 love of the Father, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the 00:27:42.53\00:27:46.80 fellowship of the Holy Spirit will be with you moment by 00:27:46.84\00:27:49.82 moment throughout each day. God Bless You So Much. 00:27:49.86\00:27:55.79