A letter from Bruce and Lora Whearty in Louisville
December 1, 2009
Dear Friends,
Lora Whearty is ending her service as a missionary-in-residence with the Peacemaking Office in December 2009. Bruce is a funds developer, helping raise money to support PC(USA) mission workers.
Many years ago, when we were young teachers in small-town Montana, Lora and I would sometimes visit Bill and Elaine’s house on wintry Saturday nights. We’d spend hours in warmth and conversation and laughter. At the end of the evening, Lora and I would bundle up, Bill would open the door to see us out into the freezing night, and then invariably Elaine and Lora would think of one last thing to say. “Thanks again for the dinner. What’s the recipe for that main dish, anyway?” or “Oh, I forgot. How did Kinsey’s check-up turn out?” Bill and I would roll our eyes as we stood in the open doorway, but then one of us would think of something left unsaid and we’d start talking, too. “Be careful on the steps. I never got around to shoveling, so they could be icy.” or “Wow! Look at the Orion nebula! It’s so clear!” These doorway conversations often led to the most important, most personal topics, the ones that we’d been too busy or too shy to bring up before.
So now we are standing in the doorway after our conversation of the last several years. This is our final letter as mission co-workers. What are the last-minute things we need to share?
Well, first we’d like to say, “thank you.” Thank you for being our extended family, for welcoming us into your homes and for your prayers. You have been a profound help to us during times of transition and challenge, and your warmth and kindness will never be forgotten. We look back on the experiences that you have shared with us: our first tentative sense of call, our invitations to you and others to support us, our transition to a strange and difficult assignment, our growing sense of call as we adapted, and then our sudden wrench back to the United States. We are amazed that we have survived this much change, and we credit that survival to you and your prayers. We hope that you are now connected with another missionary, giving them the same support that you gave to us and sharing in their stories of how mission transforms.
We have been through a lot together and we’d like to stay in touch. This will be the last letter mailed or posted on the PC(USA) Web site, but I’ll continue to send email letters once in a while to let you know how we are doing. If you’d like your name to be added to that e-mail list (or deleted), please just let me know. Our email address will be the same, Bruce and Lora Whearty and our mailing address is 816 E. Muhammad Ali Blvd., Louisville, KY 40204.
The door is beginning to close now. What else have we forgotten to say?
My latest check-up turned out fine, thank you. My cardiologist says, “Go away! I’ll see you on your “anniversary” in April. I swim a mile each week-day morning, weightless in a turquoise pool like a South Pacific lagoon, and my knees love the no-impact exercise. My new valve is still thudding away, audible whenever I’m surrounded by silence. That’s not a bad thing. It serves as a reminder of the gift of every pulse.
My work in World Mission church support continues, and I’m finding it both challenging and thrilling. The challenges come with the slow time-tables that churches must follow and the sheer size of the task: working with 5,000 churches (my half of the country) to reverse a decades-long decline in mission funding. The thrill comes when a presbytery like Detroit, the most economically depressed area in the country, commits to having every congregation supporting a missionary. That’s a recipe for hope.
As her work with the Peacemaking Office winds down and her term as a missionary-in-residence comes to a close, Lora is now looking for other work either with the church or in education. We are simply taking it slowly, trusting that the right call will come as it has so often in the past, like when Lora became a teacher.
This is one of those shy stories that we don’t tell everyone. Lora grew up a “dumb” kid struggling to make C’s, the kind of kid that is pretty much invisible in our educational system. Her counselor in high school told her that she wasn’t really “college material” but she went anyway. She figured that she could earn a degree in elementary education, which would make it possible to be of service somewhere. She was making her way word-by-word through a textbook about teaching reading when she recognized a description of herself: she was dyslexic. So after 20 years of being “stupid,” she re-invented herself by becoming a reading teacher. She has served kids profoundly ever since.
Every adult has had some pain in life. We have shattered hopes, broken hearts, scars. Most of us see this as a pass/fail test. Either you descend into depression or selfishness or fear, or you survive, conquer your challenge and get on with your life. But Lora shows us a third way, a way beyond losing or winning. Lora has taken the pain she was given and has turned it into a gift for others, a gift of compassion and hope and grace. I pray that the rest of us may be so brave.
And now it’s time for the door to close. We’ll watch our step, stopping every so often to look at the stars. They are very clear, especially now.
Merry Christmas!
Bruce and Lora Whearty
The 2009 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 35
