"Fertile Soil Growth Fund"
The "Fertile Soil Growth Fund" was established with the United Methodist Foundation of Western Pennsylvania in December, 2000, as a permanent endowment fund for HZUMC. The purpose of the "Fertile Soil Growth Fund" is twofold:
- To encourage teams of all ages from HZUMC to "go and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19) through short-term mission trips.
- To provide camperships to help teenagers attend outreach and discipleship retreats and camps.
The name for the fund comes from Luke 8:1-15, Jesus' parable of the Sower...
A farmer went out to sow his seed...some of the seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop a hundred times more than was sown. - Luke 8:8
The "Fertile Soil Growth Fund" wants to invest in the lives of people so they might be disciples of Jesus Christ and make disciples of Jesus Christ.
MISSION STATEMENT
The "Fertile Soil Growth Fund" seeks to bring glory and honor to God by growing His kingdom through the wise investment of designated gift funds. The "Fund" shall provide "seed money" to encourage teams from HZUMC to serve on short-term missions. Additionally, a portion of the fund has been designated as the Charles Shipton Memorial Fund and will be used to grow teenage servant hearts through camperships to help teenagers attend outreach and discipleship retreats and camps.
HOW AND WHEN WILL THE MONEY BE DISTRIBUTED?
The invested money (the principle and all gifts to the Fund ) shall not be invaded but the earnings of the Fund will become the "seed" money and will be distributed semi-annually. Grant requests will be reviewed by the FSGF Committee in January and June of each calendar year. The first distribution based upon the December, 2000, original investment is expected to be in June of 2002.
WHO WILL DETERMINE THE DISTRIBUTION?
A committee of five members appointed by and accountable to the HZUMC Administrative Leadership Team and composed of representatives of the Leadership, Youth, Mission and Trustee teams and one member at large will have the responsibility of distributing the earnings. The committee presently is made up of Nancy Staible (Chairperson), Brad Ziegler, Jame Price, Judy McQueen and Bill Collier. They are developing the application and specific policy and procedures pertaining to the distribution of the funds.
MEMORIAL GIFTS
Gifts and memorials may be made to the "Fertile Soil Growth Fund" by sending a check to HZUMC-FSGF and designating who it is in honor of or in memory of. Families will be notified of your generosity with your permission.
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