A letter from Bruce and Lora Whearty in Louisville
July 9, 2009
Dear Friends and Family,
Yevgeny Yevtushenko wrote, “I’m heaped as high as new-mown hay!” That’s pretty much how I feel, complete with the exclamation mark. My recovery from heart surgery has gone remarkably well, thanks to Lora’s persistence and encouragement, the wonders of modern medicine and thousands of prayers from around the country. Thank you so much for your support, for the part that you have played in helping me back to health. We have felt continually surrounded by your love and care.
The last several months have not been a time of panic or fear for us, but simply a time of waiting, of living each day with commitment to the tasks that needed to be done that day and with gratitude for the strength to do those tasks. For me, this was mostly a time of walking and napping, with the walking gradually lengthening and the need for naps ebbing away. We have been able to put questions about the future on hold, to simply live without having the answers, and our strength has been renewed. With God’s help, we are now ready to “mount up with wings like eagles” (Isaiah 40:31).
My cardiologist has cleared me — with flying colors — for work here in the United States, but not for living any place without top-notch medicine. This, of course, rules out mission work overseas in the Two-thirds World. But I have been granted a wonderful opportunity to continue in mission. I have accepted a job with PC(USA) in the communications and funds development area, where my job will be to promote the connection between missionaries and churches around the denomination. It’s clear to me that this call is a continuation of our previous calls to mission, just from a slightly different perspective. We tend to think of “our” mission to Vanuatu or “our” mission to Ethiopia, but this is a good time to remember that the mission is really God’s, not ours, and we are grateful to be invited to take part in that great work in any capacity. Now I, like most of you, will become a supporter of mission overseas rather than a missionary myself.
We do not know exactly how this job will develop, but I look forward to being back in contact with you. That was the hardest thing about being on disability, having any “work” — including even answering emails from you — forbidden! That’s all a thing of the past, though, and now we can be back in touch. Please let me know how you are doing! Our personal email address will stay the same, blwhearty@gmail.com. I have email at the office, too. That address will be bruce.whearty@pcusa.org. I hope to be in touch with all of our supporting churches, either by phone or email, within the next few weeks about how we can work together in supporting PC(USA) World Mission. I look forward to renewing our relationship!
Lora will continue her missionary-in-residence work at the national office. She helps with planning for events such as the orientation for new missionaries and the itineration of the International Peacemakers in September and October, which will be part of World Mission Challenge.
We will continue living (for at least a little while) at the Furlough Home on the campus of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, so our postal address, either for your church newsletter or for personal mail, remains:
1044 Alta Vista Road
Louisville, KY 40205
Since we did not finish our three-year term, one of the things that we have lost is the chance to have six months reserved at the term’s end for our interpretation assignment. We miss having that time for traveling around telling stories and saying, “Thank you.” On the other hand, maybe I should look at the next 10 years as an extended interpretation assignment! Lora and I would love to visit each of you in person, but we will all have to be patient about how and when that might happen. It may be possible to work those visits into other travel that I will need to do as part of my new job. I need your help to figure out how all this might work. Please let me know if there are specific presbytery meetings or events involving church clusters that you would like to invite me to, and we might be able to piggyback some individual church visits onto the main event. We’ll work together to keep our friendship strong.
Please allow me to share a couple of thoughts from the time of my recovery. First, PC(USA) has done a great job of supporting us. From the first trembling phone call from Ethiopia to Louisville saying that we needed to come home, throughout the maze of disability paperwork, and up to helping us discern this new call, PC(USA) has done it right. I think that the entire denomination should be proud of the level of care that World Mission provides our missionaries. It is a privilege to become a part of that support system.
Second, I can’t help but reflect on what my health outcome would have been if I had been Ethiopian. Even in the midst of my gratitude for my returning strength, I remember the impoverished villages that we visited “down country” near Sudan or the homeless people thronging the streets of Addis Ababa. Poor Ethiopians with congestive heart failure die. That undeniable fact helps me live in wonder and gratitude and to recommit to the work of the church and the healing mission begun by Jesus as a witness to the power of God. The needs of the world are unimaginable and, in a place like Ethiopia, overwhelming. The only thing more unfathomable is the compassion of God. Now that our foreign mission days are over, will we settle down to a “normal,” comfortable life? No, because the world’s needs still live in our hearts and God still calls us all, continuously, to love our neighbors.
I look forward to answering that call, alongside you, in new and vibrant ways. We came back to the United States with tears, and now it’s time to reap with joy. Please hold us in prayer as we begin our new work.
Love and peace,
Bruce Whearty
The 2009 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 35
