“For me, Anglican Financial Care is probably a very good anchor for me. That’s probably a day in my life that I won’t forget.”
In 2010, or thereabouts, I was working in Taranaki at Te Wānanga o Raukawa and had been travelling from Wainuiomata to Ōtaki every day. I hadn’t witnessed any of the major accidents that happened on the road there but our children decided it was just a bit too dangerous to be continually driving there and back each day, so we decided to buy a house there and the loan came through Anglican Financial Care (AFC) and that was very easy.
I have to say I felt very nurtured through that whole process organising the loan and then later, when I came home I moved back to Wainuiomata without a salary, Jo (Funds and Mortgage Administrator at AFC) was very good in working with me and making it possible so I could still manage the mortgage. So, it was sort of painless really. I think the process of getting the loan and managing the mortgage was done very carefully by AFC and I felt very nurtured by it all.
They were very caring because during that time I went through some pretty difficult times and I went into the office to talk about the mortgage (and also my pension) and all of the staff were very very caring. I felt that somebody was really caring for me that day. So, for me, AFC is probably a very good anchor for me. That’s probably a day in my life that I won’t forget. Just, that personal visit to the office and talking with the staff, having a time of prayer with them was great.
I have still got a retirement fund with AFC and I’m quite happy with the way its being handled. So, I think in today’s world where everything’s changing, banks are changing and we don’t know what’s going on, it’s quite nice to have that security of knowing that Anglican Financial Care and the financial side is still solid and caring and safe.
I must admit I’ve been present at our Hui Amorangi when Bruce (Manager of Member Services at AFC) and other people have come to talk about finances of AFC and I was always intrigued and really interested in what they were saying but never imagined that I would be at stage that I would be talking finance in terms of mortgage. So, that initial introduction in terms of ringing and saying, “is it possible for me to get a mortgage?” was great. It was an easy and welcoming approach unlike going to, you know, an accountant’s office or a lawyer’s office. It just felt like ‘this is not going to be hard, it’s going to be okay’. I guess that reassurance so when things did fall apart, I felt that I could go into the office and talk about what I wanted in terms of keeping our mortgage paid and also what to do with my pension. So, that face-to-face, I’m really pleased that I made that judgement and it all really came as result of that initial dealing with Jo around the mortgage.
When those talks happen between AFC and the Hui Amorangi, I always feel like “oh, this should be easy” to do the things that, for example checking out the health stuff, and I was really heartened to find that what I had been thinking about was actually true. I mean I have had dealings with AFC before that with my job just making sure that our priests had glasses or had access to purchasing glasses and things like that, so I did most of that contact with our clergy just to make sure they understood they could get help to get glasses but I’ve never been someone who goes in and checks out what I can get out of an organisation.
I feel very good about knowing there is a group of people there who make an extra effort to look after the priests. Having been a member of the Church for a long time working with our priests in the past I know how little they got paid and how much work they did. I think for them, having AFC there must’ve been a real support as it is for many today.
