Vern & Susan

Greetings, In a few weeks we will have been married 27 years and it's over twenty years ago that we were invited to hear Pastor Bruce McDonald speak about Liberty Trust. Pastor Bruce gave a great presentation that really reverberated with us, but we had our mortgage arrangements in place and we didn't do anything immediately. 

That was our first mistake. We just failed to make the connection that an early start opens up options and allows us to increase our commitment to keep up with inflation in the economy and increasing needs in the family. We failed to fully realise just how important it is to commence straight away, it gives you way more options. We did eventually start and we are glad we did.

Our second mistake was for us not to start a second membership as Parents, much earlier, to make sure our kids have their own best chance to get a start in the property owning market and not be regulated to being renters all their lives, especially not to be renters in their retirement. We wanted to make sure that our kids didn't make the same mistake of delaying that we did.

That is why when we sold our house and moved district (to downsize in our retirement), we released some of the sale price and divided it up between our three children and our niece. 

We took out four new sponsored memberships in Liberty Trust and prepaid an initial three year period upfront (this covers the period when the boys will be at college or starting a career). Importantly this early start to membership covers the first third of the eligibility period and really gives these youngsters a jump start towards their own home ownership. In this age of uncertainty the biggest thing a parent or grandparent can bestow on their children after principles, commonsense and understanding, is the opportunity to enjoy their own security, by having a home they own.

The Christian obligations of parents and indeed grandparents, don't just stop at the Ten Commandments and Sunday School, and we refer to that very well detailed Scripture archive on the Liberty Trust website, that collects this wisdom that few parishes bother to publish. It is our obligation not only to teach Christian Values, but to also lead by example and lead our children into prudent and sound ways.

The only way an ordinary New Zealand family like ours can unleash the shackles of the modern political economy is to invest in faith in Liberty Trust and employ their system to our family's advantage. We teach our children to work hard, evaluate risk and be prepared to accept calculated risk, avoid foolish activity and foolish risk, to respect the value of work and to consolidate value.

In that respect Liberty Trust is a most treasured tool to enable families to lift themselves out of the trench of impoverishment (which sadly today is not just the poorest of the poor, but reaches well into middle class incomes), not just to secure the essence of the family, but to be in a position to be able to extend charity to others, especially other members of our wider family.

Thank you to all those people who give to ensuring Liberty Trust runs as smoothly and honestly as it has done these last twenty-eight years, we are indebted to your services. By Liberty Trust our family are all blessed. Long may this continue to reveal these blessings to the next generation.

Vernon and Susan Wall, Lake Hawea, Otago.

16 May 2017