Drs. Manfred Hoffmann and Elisabeth Lunz - A Planned Giving Testimony
Drs. Manfred Hoffmann and Elisabeth (Betsy) Lunz of Decatur, Georgia established a charitable gift annuity with the Georgia United Methodist Foundation in 2012. This significant future gift designates the Atlanta-based Foundation of Wesley Woods as the beneficiary.
Manfred Hoffmann is a theologian, minister and professor who served as a pastor in Heidelberg after earning his doctorate in theology there. In 1960, he was invited to join the faculty at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University. Since his retirement as professor of historical theology in 1997, Manfred has served as Theologian in Residence at Peachtree Road UMC in Atlanta. Betsy Lunz, after a career as a professor of literature, was ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1980. She joined her husband at Peachtree Road UMC in 1998, where she served as minister of education and pastoral care. After retiring in 2010, she continues there as part-time minister of visitation.
Manfred and Betsy first learned about the generosity of planned giving through the witness of Peachtree Road members. After Betsy attended a Torch Bearers’ Society luncheon sponsored by the Foundation of Wesley Woods, they began to think about making a charitable gift to benefit the Wesley Woods Center. They then shared their thoughts with a Georgia United Methodist Foundation board member. She suggested they talk to Chuck Savage, Georgia United Methodist Foundation president, about setting up a gift annuity.
With the Peachtree Road congregation, they had given annually to the Mother’s Day Offering, but wanted to do something more. Betsy said. “We already knew about Wesley Woods because family and church members have been blessed by the expert nursing care provided in their facilities.” Manfred, who had taught and supervised students in the chaplaincy at Wesley Woods, adds “We are proud of our colleagues who serve as chaplains at Wesley Woods through the Emory Center for Pastoral Services.”
Betsy said, “We were delighted to discover we would receive a fixed guaranteed income for life, while supporting Wesley Woods and a Methodist ministry in Georgia. The charitable gift annuity gave us the opportunity to give more generously than we thought we were able to do because of the tax benefits.”
“Each of us has the opportunity to plant and to water, but it is God who always brings the increase,” Chuck said. “We do know that the seed that Manfred and Betsy have planted will provide an increase for the ministry at Wesley Woods.”
Manfred and Betsy agree that they have a new sense of peace and comfort in knowing that their gift will be distributed to benefit a worthy ministry, which will continue after their deaths. Wesley Woods partners with Emory Healthcare to help people age in healthy, affordable and ethical ways. The Foundation of Wesley Woods provides vital support for specific Wesley Woods programs including care and research in health issues such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington ’s Disease.
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SUPPORTER COMMENT
As a retired pastor, I am familiar with the tragedy of people afflicted with behavior like Jim Ed Avery's, but have never experienced before such prolonged neglect of his mental illness, his safety, and that of an entire neighborhood. Intervention has been needed and legally appropriate for years. His aggressive and threatening stance is a clear harbinger of violence, with signs of actual domestic terrorism. May God deliver him and us from such an outcome, with the hoped for aid of Dekalb County.
Elisabeth Lunz, Decatur, GA
2 months ago
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PRAYERS
Art of Postponing a Decision
Until No Longer Relevant
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