Gift of Corn

Roy and Mary Jobst are faithful members of their congregation. They actively farm 360 acres on their century farm near Earlham, Iowa. In addition to working the farm, they also own an auto repair shop.

Roy and Mary have been very good stewards of the blessings God has given them. Over the years, this couple has been very supportive of various ministries and charities.

Recently, Roy and Mary were blessed with a bountiful harvest of corn. Having gifted grain in the past to their congregation, Mary approached the LCMS Mission Advancement Gift Planning team to determine how they could gift this corn to support various ministries. In 2022 arrangements were made by LCMS Gift Planning to gift the corn through their local co-op directly to the LCMS Foundation. The Foundation sold the corn and proceeds were distributed by the Foundation to the named ministries listed in Roy and Mary's Letter of Direction (LOD). This past summer, Roy and Mary gave more corn to be gifted to ministry. Gifting unsold grain directly to a ministry is a tax strategy that excludes this grain from gross farm income. This causes adjusted gross income (AGI) and taxable income to be lower. IRS thresholds and determinates and Medicare premiums are positively impacted as well.

Various ministries have been benefited as Roy and Mary Jobst have shared their blessings. As Mary humbly says, "Roy and I are very grateful that God has blessed us with these opportunities to serve Christ by helping to financially support these ministries."