How one couple's covenant giving has transformed lives worldwide

“God is no man’s debtor.” 

This line is repeated several times throughout our conversation, and I can tell it’s a living truth. Over several decades, Caleb and Rebecca* have given more than £3 million in support of 163 projects in over 25 countries around the world. Wow! 

But let’s start at the beginning…

From the time they were first married, Caleb and Rebecca were very intentional about their giving. 

“When we were first married, we discussed how we’d go about our Christian giving. Both of us had been givers before we married, so we now wanted to go forward as a couple.” They discussed questions such as whether tithing be done before or after tax, or if it should it be done before or after they’d accounted for the fixed monthly expenses.

“In the end, we felt the biblical principle of giving of our ‘first fruits’ meant before tax and any other expenses, so we’ve followed this principle throughout our 62 years of marriage. The Lord has always honoured what we’ve done.” 

Caleb’s vocational life was largely spent in the printing business. His boss was Jewish and knew that Caleb was a Christian. As Caleb progressed in the company, his boss saw that he could trust him and gave him more responsibility, eventually asking him to take over the business when it was time for him to retire.

After much prayer and consideration, Caleb decided to go ahead and the momentousness of his decision didn’t hit him until his lawyers advised him to make up a will because he was going to be rich – something that had never occurred to him!

“But I did indeed end up becoming rich through expanding the business and then selling it. It was beyond my imagination that I would ever be this wealthy. At the point of selling the business in 2014 I told the other shareholders that it was my intention to set up a charity and channel the majority of the proceeds into this.” 

Why Stewardship?

After the sale of his business, Caleb invested the charitable funds with a specialist company in London, and he and his wife continued to give from personal funds as well. 

“The reason we went to Stewardship was that the Trust was not a registered charity, and the situation in the UK began to tighten up as HMRC started looking for more of an audit trail. It was going to cost so much money to maintain the trust and we didn’t think it was worth paying this money to something that wasn’t going to produce anything.

I’d heard of Stewardship, contacted them and found that the 3% admin fee on their Donor Advised Fund was far less than it was going to be if we’d gone down the route of setting up a charitable trust. It’s been such a positive experience: everyone is so helpful and it’s good to chat with other Christians about our giving. It takes away the anxiety about making sure we’ve done everything correctly in claiming Gift Aid and managing other paperwork.”

The giving journey 

From the £5.7 million they invested for charitable giving, they’ve been able to support 163 projects around the world. They set up the trust to have as wide a remit as possible – but it had to be for Christian work. With mostly unrestricted funds, they support children, schools, youth work, vocational training, hospitals, famine relief and humanitarian aid following tragic events (natural or otherwise). 

They support projects in many different nations, but Zambia, where they’ve got about a dozen projects, is one that holds a special place for them. “We’ve made friends with the people we’re supporting and we keep in touch with them. We travelled there 18 months ago to introduce our eldest son to those projects so that he can carry on the work as we step back. Zambia is dear to our hearts as my wife and I were both giving to Christian work there since we were teenagers.” 

Covenant giving

Something that shaped his thinking early on in his giving journey was his friendship with a retired banker who had set up a charitable trust. He spoke about making a commitment – a ‘covenant’ – with a project or a cause for a period of seven years. 

Caleb and Rebecca decided to do that as well and after seven years they were able to increase their giving even more. When they became parents, the Lord continued to bless them, and they’ve followed this idea of ‘covenant’ giving throughout their lives. “A number of the charities we support, including in the UK, we’ve supported since the very beginning when they were just starting. Many then grew to the point of being well established and financially robust, allowing us to step back and move on to a new charity in need of support.” 

When asked about what advice he would give to someone who wants to be more generous but isn’t sure where to start, he said, “I would always encourage people to commit to long-term support, because people living by faith are also in fact living by other people’s faith as well. Trying to raise support shouldn’t be a major function of those in service for the Lord, thus committing ongoing support eases that burden so that they can focus on the important work they’ve set out to do. If someone is looking to give, make it a firm commitment and make it regular.”

Looking back, Caleb says that tithing at 10% was only the start, not the full extent of giving that the Bible teaches. “I struggle with the term generosity. The Lord is generous, we’re grateful, and we in turn give out of what the Lord has entrusted to us. The Lord is no man’s debtor; you can’t outgive God.”

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* Names changed for anonymity. Photo is for illustration only, not the real people in this case study.