From Pennies to Golden Opportunity

OR

Give to this and other
Mennonite Women Canada projects

Download the Brochure

Pennies & Prayer Inheritance Fund Brochure [1,580 KB PDF file - Help with PDF files]

A golden opportunity has been presented to Mennonite Women Canada (MW Canada) with the inheritance of $70,000. This inheritance is a legacy from our mothers and grandmothers who regularly donated pennies, and prayed for a common cause. We have reason to be thankful for the gift, to remember those who made it possible, and to consider our own vision. Gladys Goering, in her book Women in Search of Mission, recounts the history of this fund as follows:

• In 1935, the Women’s Missionary Association (WMA) adopted the Missionaries Pension Fund of the Mission Board as one of their projects. The intent was to create an endowment, with the trustees of the Board investing the funds at the then current rate of 2 to 4 percent, with interest to be paid to the pension fund. All WMA members were asked to contribute “2 cents a week and a prayer” for missions.
• By 1945 the penny contributions had added up to an endowment of $22,600.61 and over two-thirds of the receipts for the Pension Fund came from the WMA.

All seemed fine until mission board trustees grew impatient with having these funds managed separately. In 1952 they asked the WMA to give them complete control. WMA leadership was not convinced by their arguments. Says Goering:

WMA President Lohrentz wrote, “As far as Mr. D_____’s letter takes it they are ready to start ‘giving away’ the Pension Fund right now… Mr. E______has asked quite pointedly several times to turn the whole fund over to his committee. The WMA secretary, torn with indecision, responded, “I don’t know whether it is wise to put up a protest of this nature, or whether to meekly leave it up to them, trusting in the Lord’s leading. Lohrentz wasn’t about to give up without a fight, as she answered, “This thing of a policy for Pension Fund is getting nowhere fast, for they do not seem to understand just what we want and simply treat it as a matter over which they have the say-so. It seems to me that it would be best to get a com. of women to formulate a policy and then if we want to bring that before the conf. (1953) it could be included in the agenda there (p.70).

Rather than turning the endowment over, the WMA in 1953 adopted a motion that the fund be built up to $80,000. At that time it stood at $65,000. These funds continued to gather interest. With separation into two national conferences, and division of finances, Mennonite Women also divided the principal proportionately between Canada and the US.

The vision of our mothers was one of how small gifts could make a difference. It is a legacy that calls us to dream again.

Sustaining the Vision

This past spring, the Mennonite Women Canada (MW Canada) Executive presented to all MW Canada groups a recommendation for using and growing the "Pennies & Prayer Inheritance Fund". Women responded overwhelmingly (99%) in favour of the recommendation that all annual interest from the $70,000., and enough capital to total $5000. be used each year to support women doing Mennonite Church Canada Witness work, and that the Fund be replenished with undesignated donations made in honour/memory of loved ones (97%).

A subsequent recommendation that Anne Garber Kompaore, consultant in linguistics and Bible translations in Burkina Faso, and Cheryl Woelk, facilitator in peace education programs through English education classes at the Korea Anabaptist Center, South Korea, be supported for the first 3 year committment, received a positive response of 98%.

Erna L. Neufeldt
President
Mennonite Women Canada March 13, 2006

Updated "Sustaining the Vision" results, October 12, 2006

Original logo design by Veronica Thiessen

Tributes to:

• Tribute to Edith Marie Peters Kool
• Tribute to Mary Dyck Fransen