I was very young when my mother opened a building society savings account in my name. I felt very grown up when we stood in the queue to deposit my savings. I didn’t understand why but I thought the lady at the counter was very generous to give me interest. So I have been interested in interest for a long time.
Kerry tells me that she can remember school banking days in New Zealand.
As adults we wrestle with mortgages and retirement savings and so we become more acutely interested in interest. In recent times, many New Zealanders have become victims of unscrupulous business practices and instead of earning a little extra interest, they lost everything.
The Global Mission Office is very interested in interest. The income derived from our trust portfolio, which is held in the Presbyterian Investment Fund, rises and falls with wholesale interest rates. The annual interest rate has declined from 8 percent to 5 percent since October 2008. Many of our donors are retired folks who make donations from annual interest payments. So the current economic down-turn may well affect our ability to engage in mission. Of course, the recent 30-cent drop in the value of the NZ dollar against the US dollar has suddenly made any objective overseas much more expensive too.
For many of our partners overseas, this economic crisis is a matter of life and death itself. Food and fuel prices soar beyond the reach of their meagre incomes and the churches are expected to help alleviate the plight of the people. So their reliance on people like us is intensified, whether they like it or not.
Let us continue to commit ourselves to not lose interest in their plight just because we have lost interest on our savings. The fact that we have trust funds and savings at all is a sign of God’s abundant blessing and obligation. Read again the words of the Levitical law, Chapter 25 (TNIV)
35 If any of your own people become poor and are unable to support themselves among you, help them as you would a foreigner and stranger, so they can continue to live among you. 36 Do not take interest or any profit from them, but fear your God, so that your poor neighbours may continue to live among you. 37 You must not lend them money at interest or sell them food at a profit. 38 I am the LORD your God.
In hope,
Andrew