OPEN TO GOD'S POSSIBILITIES

MEANS & MEANING

George & Evelyn Widdicombe’s Landmark Will & the Mamawi Atosketan Centre

George and Evelyn made several gifts to the Church during their lifetimes. Some were for specific church projects, but some were gifts of faith — faith that God would direct their use. The “unrestricted” gift was their choice for the gift in their wills. They never dreamed that part of that gift that would become the first and founding gift of the Community Bridge Campaign to build the Mamawi Atosketan Centre (MAC).

“My dad would be thrilled beyond words at how this has gone,” says George and Evelyn’s daughter Leslie Price, one of the co-executors of their estate, shortly after the Camp Meeting launch of the campaign. When her parents made their wills, there was no hint that a church in Maskwacis was even a possibility but here it was — plans and enthusiasm for a building that George and Evelyn would have rejoiced to see. God had indeed directed the use of her parent’s gift and gone beyond what they’d imagined: George and Evelyn’s gift was the first contribution to MAC!

George and Evelyn’s “Selfie” When Evelyn took this picture with her Brownie box camera at her nursing graduation prom, the young engaged couple had not yet heard of Adventism. Shortly thereafter and living in rural Manitoba, George heard the Voice of Prophecy. They were baptized on January 14, 1951 in Winnipeg and married the next day. George and Evelyn in Alberta To ensure the best Christian education for their children, the couple moved to the Lacombe area. Leslie and all her siblings attended College Heights Adventist Elementary and high school at Canadian University College (now PAA).

Faithfulness Pays

As an executor, Leslie recognized her duty to faithfully carry out the wishes exactly as expressed in her parents’ “mirror wills” when her mother passed away. There was no rationalizing about “Well, there’s another Church entity that my parents would be fine with” or “It’s all God’s work.” Leslie realized that her parents meant what they said, and the law required the executor to honour that. Leslie’s mother had never changed the wills she and her husband had worked on together, and nothing else mattered. Leslie and her husband, Don Price, brought in the cheque representing the unrestricted gift to the Alberta Conference.

At the time, planning for MAC was in the beginning stages, and the Director of Planned Giving and Treasurer asked Leslie how she would feel about applying the gift to the MAC to advance the work in Maskwacis. Though the money could have been used for any of the many good church projects in Alberta, the Director and Treasurer wanted the family to feel good about the use of the gift. Leslie was surprised but pleased: Her father in particular had always had a heart for Indigenous people and had gone with Ed Desjarlais, who pioneered the Adventist presence in Maskwacis, distributing literature there. George remembered his parents, who farmed in the Foxwarren, Manitoba area, helping starving residents of the local reserve through the winter—an example he never forgot.

His daughter has the same passion. Leslie has befriended Indigenous people in her home area of Whitecourt and sees how a greater Adventist presence in Maskwacis and a strong Indigenous congregation there will have ripple effects throughout Indigenous communities across Canada. She hopes the new Whitecourt church can help strengthen the local Indigenous community as well.

“This Centre shows the people [of Maskwacis] that our heart is with them,” says Leslie, then adds a thoughtful, personal observation about the use of her parent’s unrestricted gift and the fulfilment of their deep desire: “We can see the connection between giving and blessing.”

DID YOU KNOW?

The Alberta Conference works with families on unrestricted will gifts to help ensure children feel the gift is well-used.

By Lynn McDowell, JD, CSPG Director of Planned Giving | Philanthropy Alberta Conference (403) 342-5044, ext. 233