Becoming one through education
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SALT LAKE CITY
The Perpetual Education Fund provides the opportunity for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to obey the scriptural mandate to help the poor and needy, Elder John K. Carmack said during a Church News interview Monday, Jan. 11.
President Gordon B. Hinckley announced in April 2001 general conference that a perpetual education fund would be instituted to provide loans for Church members suffering in poverty in foreign lands so they could get an education, be lifted out of poverty and be able to have the time and resources to take their places as strong leaders and members of the Church.
To date, more than 40,000 individuals have received PEF loans. The loans are provided from an endowment funded by contributions from individuals, businesses, foundations and others. Approved applicants, during and after their education, pay back the loans so others can be blessed.
In his opening remarks of the April 2009 general conference, President Thomas S. Monson stated that the Perpetual Education Fund continues to move forward and commented on the young men and young women enrolled in the program.
He said, "On average, with the 2.7 years of education they are now receiving, they are increasing their income by three to four times. What a blessing this is in their lives! This is indeed an inspired program."
Elder Carmack, an emeritus General Authority, went on an exploratory trip to Mexico shortly after his call from President Gordon B. Hinckley to start the PEF program. He and his assistants, Rex Allen and Chad Evans, a former mission president, sought scriptural guidance during the trip.
"We were reading the scriptures with new thoughts, because we were given a new assignment. And that's a good thing to do with any new assignment," he said.
They found, he continued, in Doctrine and Covenants 38, a rich background for the PEF, particularly verses 24-27. The verses speak of esteeming others, and include the parable asking if a man has 12 obedient sons, would he dress some in robes and others in rags. Then verse 27 says, "Be one; and if ye are not one, ye are not mine."
That was President Hinckley's concern, Elder Carmack said, as he looked at places where some members had to work hard just to subsist and had little chance to get an education and improve themselves.
Then Elder Carmack said, "You have a prophet who looks at that and he says we're not really the Lord's if we don't do something about this situation of inequality."
Elder Carmack showed other scriptures that guide the PEF program. (See, for example, Doctrine and Covenants 104:12-18, Moses 7:18.)
"Wouldn't it be great if one day we could look back and say here is the kingdom of God … and the great thing about it is there are no poor among those people?" Elder Carmack asked. "And why is it? Because they share and they have opened opportunities for everyone to receive education, knowledge and training so that they can become self reliant and eradicate poverty among themselves.
"Sure we have a long way to go. But some steps have been taken in that direction through the Perpetual Education Fund."
He continued, "We often say there is a ripple effect. … We have 40,000 recipients now. But how many people are touched by those 40,000? Maybe it's 500,000. We don't know how many are touched, but we know that there is a tremendous impact that goes way beyond helping one individual."
Those PEF recipients' blessings can touch family members, ward and branch members and others, he said.
"It has such a broad potential beyond what is apparent with 40,000 loans," he added.
Elder Carmack, who works with a minimal staff, mostly volunteers, in PEF's Salt Lake City headquarters, said that those in need go through an application procedure including a month of training on obtaining and benefiting from a PEF loan. They are assisted in making application by local priesthood leaders, employment specialists, Church Educational System employees and others. Each geographical area of the Church has a PEF committee that ultimately screens applications before they are submitted to Elder Carmack's office.
"People continue to be very generous, amazingly generous" in making contributions to the PEF fund, Elder Carmack said. Not only individuals, but also businesses, foundations and other organizations contribute, he noted.
Brother Allen said, "We've never had to turn down an application because of lack of funds."
Citing 2 Corinthians 8:13-14, Elder Carmack explained, "We don't have to go out and be poor to help others, but should give to them of our abundance. [The PEF] gives a tremendous practical opportunity for the Latter-day Saints to share what they have so they can lift up other people."
That abundance is returned, Elder Carmack continued. Many members of Latin America, for example, though living in poverty, are willing to give everything they have to missionaries, he said. Then those missionaries return home possessing the abundance of humility, purity, simplicity and faith of the people they served among.
Elder Carmack turned to Doctrine and Covenants 104:17, quoting, "Men are to be agents unto themselves."
"President Hinckley understood that," Elder Carmack said. "He didn't tax the saints. He didn't say [the Church] was going to take 5 percent from every member of the Church [for the PEF]. It's all done voluntarily through moral agency. But he asked people to exercise their agency to give and to assist the people who are in need, in poverty. He made it clear that it is going to be done the Lord's way, and the Lord's way is through agency."
From a beginning in 2001 when about six applications were in the first batch to arrive by mail, more than a thousand arrived electronically to be considered in the last PEF committee meeting of 2009, Elder Carmack said.
PEF loans are split almost evenly between young men and young women, and 80 percent of the men are returned missionaries, Elder Carmack said.
"We're astounded at the integrity of these young people and their effort and their sacrifice," Brother Allen said.
As the loans continue to bless lives in poor countries by allowing members to be lifted out of poverty and take their places as strong members of their wards and branches, PEF is supporting the internationalization of the Church, Elder Carmack said.
"The people of the Church sense all this and they want to be a part of it. They want to give," he added, noting that most of the money enabling members of the Church to better live the charge to "be one" comes from the wards and branches of the Church in small amounts.
