Jack Turner created the Jack and Sandy Turner Endowed Mission Internship Fund at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary for several reasons. To begin with, he wanted to honor his late wife, Sandy Turner, who spent her adult life helping and inspiring others through her work as a math teacher and later a professor.
Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary is one of the 13 United Methodist seminaries supported by the Ministerial Education Fund apportionment of the United Methodist Church.
Secondly, he wanted to encourage Garrett-Evangelical students to grow and fulfill their vocations, the same way he and Sandy did. The money from the fund will help Garrett-Evangelical students who would like to experience how it feels to be in mission beyond the local congregation. It may also be used to help African and international students afford seminary.
Turner created the fund through outright gifts and gift annuities. He decided to take out three gift annuities with Garrett-Evangelical because he said they were beneficial to both the seminary and the donor. "Additionally, I saw it as a way to build the endowment of our mission internship because the initial gift value and the remainder become added endowment principal," he said.
Turner's call to mission emerged while he was in high school and junior college. "I felt a call to Christian vocation, but not as a pastor," he explained. Instead, he was active in the United Methodist Youth Fellowship (UMYF) at his church, First United Methodist Church in Clearwater, Florida.
After graduating from the University of Florida, he returned to Clearwater, where he worked in his parents' printing business, taught Sunday school, and served as one of the adult advisors to the UMYF.
When one of his students, who had been in his Sunday school class, was killed in Viet Nam, Turner said he "felt it was time to answer his call by doing something constructive overseas." He conferred with his wife, Sandy, whom he had met and married at his church in Clearwater, and she encouraged him to pursue the idea. Together, they applied to the UMC Board of Global Ministries, asking for an assignment to do development work.
When Sandy finished her master's degree in mathematics she taught math at a Tampa high school. In 1983, Sandy earned her PhD in math education at the University of South Florida and entered the emerging field of educational technology. She accepted a position at the National College of Education (now National Louis University) in Evanston, Illinois to start a new program in educational technology.
At the end of 1988, Sandy took a sabbatical from the National College of Education and traveled back to Botswana, where she worked at the University of Botswana in Gaborone. There, she met and worked with faculty from Ohio University's College of Education. When the time came for her to take a sabbatical leave from Ohio University in 2003, Sandy and Jack conferred again and agreed that Ghana would be a good choice for both of them. Jack already knew the Ghanaian relatives of a Garrett-Evangelical colleague, so Sandy accepted a Fulbright Scholarship to teach and do research.
Upon her return to Ohio University, Sandy set up a program where students in Ghana could earn a joint master's degree in educational technology from Ohio University and the University of Education.
Sadly, in 2008, Sandy learned she had stomach cancer. She died in October 2009, shortly after her 64th birthday.
"Sandy's work touched the lives of many people, both at home and abroad," Turner said. "She was a pioneer in her field and a remarkable role model to students, colleagues and family. Her work as a faculty member was in a very real sense an extension of our understanding of what it meant to be in mission."
After Sandy passed away, Jack established two scholarships, one at Ohio University and one at Garrett-Evangelical. "Through these scholarships my family and I can encourage others to follow Sandy's example of service to others," he said.
excerpt from a story by David Heetland, Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary
If you would like more information on gift annuities, please contact David Heetland at [email protected].
One of seven apportioned giving opportunities of The United Methodist Church, the Ministerial Education Fund is at the heart of preparing people for making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. The 13 United Methodist seminaries help students to discover their calling through the challenging curriculum. The fund enables the church to increase financial support for recruiting and educating ordained and diaconal ministers and to equip annual conferences to meet increased demands. Please encourage your leaders and congregations to support the Ministerial Education Fund apportionment at 100 percent.
