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Who runs the Whitefield Christian Trust?
The Trust is administered by five trustees:
Margaret Gould,BA. Chairman. Margaret is a former missionary who served in Nepal with her husband Bill.
Dr Pam Dodson has worked as a missionary in India and Nepal for many years. It was her vision which led to the establishment of the trust in 1992.
Alastair Watson,MA,LLM,TEP. Alastair is a solicitor with the Christian practice Lewis and Dick. He has experience as a Trust and Estate Practitioner .
Dawn Weston has worked with her husband Paul in Pakistan. She is now involved in a ministry to children of mission workers who have returned to the UK.
Peter Hellawell FCA,ATII. Peter is a Christian accountant with Petersons of Witney, Oxon. He specialises in tax and charity issues.
The Trustees do not receive any financial benefit from the Trust. All donations go to help applicants apart from the cost of publicity materials.
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When mission workers retire – many of them don’t have a home to return to. They went off to serve God at an early age and probably weren’t earning enough for a mortgage. Instead, they were more concerned with the needs of others, than with their own future security.
The problem
Unless they inherit property, a home for most long-serving missionaries is just a dream. The mission allowance is just enough to live on and today’s pension does not cover current rents. It can take many years to get to the top of a housing list.
Our response
The Whitefield Christian Trust was formed to provide a solution to this problem – offering a way for returning missionaries to have somewhere to live.
The mission partners choose the location and we come in to help. Occasionally we buy the house in the name of the Trust and they pay a reasonable rent and can continue to live there for the rest of their lives. More often the Trust helps through an Equity Share Agreement. The Trust adds to capital available and the share will remain the property of the Trust. When the mission partner dies or circumstances alter, the property is sold and the money from the equity share is made available for further investment in new accommodation.
Who will we help?
We are as flexible as possible in providing homes for those who fit our criteria and who have been engaged in long-term service which is usually defined as between 20 and 30 years. Since the Trust was established, we have helped a total of over 20 mission partners, including families, couples and single people. Most have worked overseas, but some have been involved in mission in the UK.
Case studies
 VALERIE is somebody we have helped. She began her work in a mountain hospital in Nepal in 1960 and, since then, has worked in community health projects across the country, while also training others to do similar work. When retirement approached, she had nowhere to call home – but The Whitefield Christian Trust was able to help her. Today she lives in a small flat on the south coast of England, partly bought with her own funds.
 ANNA is from Scotland and has worked in Nepal, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan and Cyprus in the course of 24 years of mission service. She inherited a property in the north of Scotland that needed major renovations. We were able to help Anna with the costs, providing her with a lovely home in the place where she wanted to settle.
 MOONYEEN worked for many years in mission. She started her work in London, before moving to Bombay to edit a Christian magazine. Then spent time in Cyprus and Egypt, where pollution levels affected her health adversely. She had some funds available and, combined with generous donations, we were able to buy a small house for her.
These are just three examples of some people The Whitefield Christian Trust has been able to help. |
