“What’s the name of this country?” eight-year-old Alyssa asked as she pointed to a picture of girls her own age in a charitable gift catalog.
“Afghanistan,” her grandmother answered.
“Is it really cold there?”
“Well, in some places it’s really cold.”
“What do they need scarves for? Is it because of the cold?”
Alyssa loves scarves and has a lot of them herself. Her questions gave her grandmother, Pat Penrose, the opportunity to explain the predicament of girls in Afghanistan and their need for scarves.
Having grown up frugally herself, Pat is thankful that her three grandchildren are well taken care of, but wants to make sure they appreciate their blessings. “I did not feel that they really understood the way the majority of the world lives,” she explains.
Pat’s sister and brother in law, Susan and Dennis Malone, have been a major influence in Pat’s life. When the Malones began serving as literacy workers with Wycliffe over thirty years ago, Pat and her husband began supporting them financially. When her husband died in 2008, Pat found herself able to expand her support of Wycliffe and other Christian ministries. It was then that she decided to leave her entire IRA to charity—with Wycliffe receiving a major portion.
Wanting to get her grandchildren involved in giving, Pat set up a donor-advised fund with the Wycliffe Foundation. She calls it the Penrose Intergenerational Charity Fund, and it’s been a great way to teach them how to care for others who don’t have even their basic needs met.
“I asked them if they would like to be on the board of directors, and of course that was pretty intriguing for them. I told them we were going to use the fund to help other people and I wanted them to help me decide where the money should go.”
Pat started with a charitable gift catalog, asking her grandchildren to look through it and select the projects that interested them most. Her twenty-one-year-old grandson (a business major) thought that micro-lending was the best solution, while her fifteen-year-old granddaughter considered local projects a priority. The process has started many conversations about poverty and its effects on children throughout the world. And between all three grandchildren, it seems they want to support almost every project.
“My job, as I see it, is to raise their awareness, to talk honestly, to share with them my deep convictions, and then to let the Holy Spirit do the rest,” she explains.
- By Angela Nelson
