Don’t forget those who are suffering, but imagine you are there with them.
Hebrews 13:3b (CEV)
Photo: LWF Kenya
What a blessing you are!
In a world where so many people are hurt by poverty, conflict and disaster …
… and so many people in the wealthy world seem only to think about themselves
… your kindness and compassion have brought you here to see how you might use a gift in your Will to keep on helping people through ALWS.
This booklet shows you the lives you can touch.
You’ll meet Ayen in South Sudan. She was forced to drop out of school by war and poverty
… but has built a restaurant from a bag of sugar!
You’ll celebrate Nu Say Tar’s girls at school, and dance with Stanislav from Burundi!
What you’ll see is the joy you bring to people’s lives, as you support them to build a better future for their families.
You’ll also see the joy you can feel, as musicians Robin and Dorothy Mann from Adelaide share why they are leaving a gift in their Will to keep helping people through ALWS.
Once you have taken care of your family, a gift in your Will to help people through ALWS is a wonderful way to show your loved ones the values you hold precious.
You can dedicate your gift to go to work straightaway where help is needed most.
If you prefer, you can place the gift in your Will in the ALWS Living Water Legacy Fund. Here, the Principal is preserved, and only the proceeds allocated each year – so you can keep on helping people for life!
Whatever you decide, those you love can celebrate your life as they see the transformed lives of those you help. So many lives touched by your kindness.
“My
cooking started small, but it is growing. Now I have a restaurant and have hired four women to help me!” Ayen, South Sudan
Photo: ALWS
“You upgraded my life”
“I went to school, but had to leave when I was 14 years old.
I was taken out to care for the cattle at the cattle camps. I wish that I could have learned more, but I did not have that choice.
Many of us dropped out because we did not have any food and it was hard to be at school without food. Sometimes we would hear fighting and hear the guns. We would run away to hide. It was frightening, especially to see people being killed. Remembering these days makes me feel very sad.
I saved a little money to buy a bag of sugar. I started making tea to sell. After a short time, I had some money from selling the tea and could get ingredients to cook some food.
What encouraged me was that people would come and eat, and then bring others back. I started small, but then it was growing.
“I was dreaming I could start some sort of business, but I have no skills.”
Now, I collect firewood to sell. It was hard work. I would have to walk many hours. It is very heavy. I was afraid going into the bush because of the bad men.
Then a woman told me about the training for cooking, I was very excited. I couldn’t wait!
We learned so many things. I wanted to start straight away!
Now I have a restaurant and hired four women to help me!
I am getting to know my regular customers so I can cook ahead for them. This means I can be at home with the children for some of the day.
Now I can buy food for the children and pay the school fees. I will encourage them to complete school. I feel so happy with the knowledge I now have. And I feel happy I OWN something. I didn’t get to finish school, but now I feel as confident as those who did.
I feel good to those who have offered to help. Thank you for upgrading my life.”
Ayen, South Sudan
Those who were lame will leap around like deer; tongues once silent will begin to shout.
Isaiah 35:6 (CEV)
Photo: ALWS / Magdalena Vogt
What makes me happy
“We have been living here for seven years. We had to come here because the Government burned our house. We do not have enough food for the children. We could not take anything, only the clothes we wear.
My husband is jobless. He is a fisherman but being forced to live here makes it hard to get work. This makes life in the camp very difficult.
My parents were very poor. My mother was a widow. So, I could not go to school. I can only go to work in another person’s house, like a servant.
I may have to stop one child from going to school. This will make very sad. I will feel very downcast if this happens.
That is why I am happy to see you provide materials and everything children need to go to school. We are so happy that people in Australia help us.”
“The children were crying. They did not want to come here.”
This is why I want my children to have an education. If a child does not have education, they will not be able to get a job, and will be like me.
I would like my children to have a job like a shop.
One thing that may stop my children achieving this is I cannot afford to buy their school uniform.
Nu Say Tar Rar, Myanmar
Nu Say Tar Rar was forced by war to live with her family in a Displaced Persons Camp in Myanmar. With a gift in your Will through ALWS, you can help make sure children like her daughters aren’t forgotten, and can still go to school!
Photo: ALWS / Magdalena Vogt
“ALWS
is ‘prayer in action’ - not just expecting God to fix it, it’s His Spirit empowering us to be a part of His work. We are God’s hands and feet.”
Robin and Dorothy Mann, Adelaide
Blessed to bless
“We came from fairly ordinary Lutheran families and neither of our families had any money.
Dorothy’s mum very much had the spirit of helping others. Robin was one of eleven, so things were more family focused. We can’t really remember when we started supporting ALWS, which I guess means that it just became part of our lifestyle.
ALWS feels personal, and not a big corporation.
We are God’s hands and feet. It’s important to us that all are supported, and not just tied to people being religious. We are passionate about education for girls, including the Muslim girls and the refugees who might be forgotten.
We made Wills ages ago and included ALWS then.
“With ALWS we love seeing that this little community here is supporting a community over where we are needed.”
We knew ALWS was a worthwhile charity, and that lots of money wasn’t being ‘sucked up’ in administration. We know our help gets to the people who need it.
It’s ‘prayer in action’ stuff - not just expecting God to fix it, it’s His Spirit empowering us to be a part of His work.
A couple of years ago we redid parts of our Will to make it more specific. We had help from our solicitor. We have this house, and our super, and realised our children don’t need that much money, as they are well established.
So now we are leaving a third of our Will to ALWS. We know ALWS does great work and we are happy we can help that work continue.
We’ve been blessed and so we hope that our money can bless others.”
Robin has MS … but that didn’t stop him completing the 26 kms of Walk My Way –and writing the event’s theme song!
Photo: ALWS
“Beforecameyouhere …
… there was no development.
There was no road to join our communities. People would die in their houses because there was no way to take them to hospital.
The adults could not read or write.
Many of the people were living in small huts, just covered in the grasses.
We were drinking bad water from the streams.
We could produce some food crops, but could not preserve the harvest. We also had a problem with erosion. We could not fight the erosion.
There were no trees left. The women had to walk five kilometres to collect the firewood.
I felt ignorant in my heart, and felt God had forsaken us.”
Photo:
“You
came to us…
… and asked us how we are living. You started with the most poor. You helped them to have some land and build simple houses.
Then you built the road. We now had a way to the hospital.
You trained us to grow rice in the swamps, and supported us with goats, cows, pigs and hens. We learnt how to use the manure for fertiliser, and how to add things to it correctly.
You showed us how to grow bananas and pineapple. You brought us a different sweet potato which is more productive. You gave us new banana plants which are disease-resistant.
You taught us about Savings and Loans groups.
You helped us in the fight against malaria, with mosquito nets and recognising the symptoms. This has reduced malaria dramatically.
You taught us to live in peaceful relations, even in our own households!
“Stanislav was so excited about your ALWS help to his community, he insisted we dance! When Jonathan and I married, and made new Wills, we felt blessed we could dedicate the largest gift of our lives to ALWS to create more joy like this!” Julie Krause
Photo: ALWS / Helene Wikstrom
You helped with the building of a school, and teachers’ houses so they can stay. Men can now read, our children go to school, our women work together with us and we listen to their ideas.
We are so thankful that our life is improved through so many, many teachings. We pray you help us keep growing. I feel very joyful.”
Stanislav, Burundi
Your love can grow
The blessing of dedicating a gift in your Will to keep helping people through ALWS is that your love lives on.
Your gift can help people straightaway, where help is needed most, or you can place your gift in the ALWS Living Water Legacy Fund.
This Fund is a simple idea, where only the proceeds of the Fund are used each year, while the Principal remains, so your love can keep growing – for life. The Fund is inspired by an incident from Jesus’ life, found in John 4:4-21 …
… Jesus goes into a hostile environment to give care to people in need. The person Jesus helps is someone forgotten by the world – a Samaritan woman, a person rejected by their community. Jesus makes no judgment, but instead offers her life-giving water for her soul.
In the same way, through ALWS you welcome and care for people regardless of their religion, gender or politics. You offer physical lifegiving ‘water’ – the practical care that can transform life.
Whether you dedicate a gift in your Will to help straightaway, or to help for life through the Living Water Legacy Fund, you witness to the Love that you are inspired to bring to life.
The ALWS Living Water Legacy Fund is invested to grow ethically, with the Principal of the Fund intended to be preserved, and proceeds each year allocated to help people through ALWS-supported projects. If you’d like to know more, simply contact ALWS on 1300 763 407 or alws@alws.org.au
They are like trees growing beside a stream, trees that produce fruit in season and always have leaves. Those people succeed in everything they do.
Psalm 1:3
How do you want to be remembered?
A gift in your Will to help others through ALWS is a wonderful way to show the people you care about the values you hold most dear.
Talk to your family about your plans now, so they can see why your ALWS work matters to you.
ALWS understands this is a sensitive subject, but you can be reassured that planning your Will carefully and clearly, with professional guidance, will relieve your family of worry, and free them to celebrate your life in the way you’d wish them to.
When the time comes for your gift to go to work to transform lives, ALWS will prepare a Commemorative Book for your family.
They will meet the kind of people you help, hear their stories, and see the lives you transform. It’s our prayer this will bring your loved ones a special joy as they see your kindness live on in the lives of others.
Thank you for thinking of others at this important time in your life. You bless the many lives you touch. Thank you!
Photo: ALWS
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What to do now
Consult a legal practitioner about your Will. Consider dedicating a gift in your Will to help others through ALWS, after you have taken care of your family.
Talk to your family about your plans, so they can share your joy in what you will do to help others.
Choose to use your gift in your Will to help NOW where you are most needed OR invest it in the ALWS Living Water Legacy Fund, where only the proceeds are used to help people, so your gift keeps on giving.
Your legal practitioner can then use the wording that follows to express your wishes:
“I give to Australian Lutheran World Service Limited ACN 679 042 169 of Somerset Drive, Albury New South Wales (“ALWS”) (insert your bequest here - the whole of my estate / the residue of my estate / % of my estate / sum of $.... / description of property) free of all duties and deductions, to be used by ALWS for (general purposes in its mission of mercy to people who are the most vulnerable, and in danger of being forgotten in the world’s developing countries / the ALWS Living Water Legacy Fund) . The receipt of an authorised officer of ALWS will be a sufficient discharge for the executor(s) without seeing to the final distribution of the funds.”
Tell ALWS you have dedicated a gift in your Will to keep on helping people. This means we can thank you properly, and update you on what your future gift will do for the people you help.
When the time comes, ALWS will prepare Commemorative Book for your family so they can see the life-transforming work your gift in Will carries on, and share in the joy as they honour your memory.
We’ve included a postcard with this wording you can take to your legal practitioner!
“Robyn and I have been passionate about the work of ALWS for many years, especially the life-transforming ministry to people with disabilities.
Right now we can support this work through actions like Walk My Way and Gifts of Grace, but it’s a joy to know we can keep touching lives through ALWS with a gift in our Will too. I spent my working life in banks, so I know that wise careful planning can increase what we do for others using the blessings God has given us.
That’s why our Wills are so important. As we take care of our families, we can take care of others too, and give glory to God as our values live on in the lives of the people we help through ALWS.”
Peter and Robyn Renner, Melbourne
You have turned my sorrow into joyful dancing. No longer am I sad and wearing sackcloth. Psalm 30:11
