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Bruce and Lora WheartyPCUSA Mission Co-workers - Bethel Mekane Yesus School Bruce and Lora Whearty Current Mailing address: (March 2009) Bruce and Lora Whearty 1044 Alta Vista Road Louisville, KY 40205 email: blwhearty@gmail.com Back to Mission Workers Page April 29, 2009 Letter from Louisville Dear friends, As you remember from our last newsletter, Bruce and I returned from Ethiopia in early March on the advice of a doctor in Addis Ababa. He had found that Bruce’s aortic heart valve (a valve transplanted in 2001) was leaking and needed to be replaced. Bruce had the necessary surgery on April 3 at a children’s hospital because this type of re-transplant is most commonly done on children with heart defects as they outgrow the original transplant. We are very grateful that a surgeon experienced in valve re-transplant surgery was available, though we laughed when the hospital admittance form told Bruce that he could bring his favorite teddy bear with him. Bruce had a very good result from the surgery. He was released from the hospital on April 7. There were a few tough days—and nights—in the first couple of weeks, including one trip back to the ER to have his heart zapped back into a proper rhythm, but his improvement has been amazing. He now walks for an hour each morning and each evening, in addition to doing arm and shoulder exercises to rehabilitate his chest. He still naps almost every afternoon, but has more energy each day. We are deeply grateful to each of you who have held us in prayer throughout this time. We have felt your love surrounding us, and though we could never reply personally to all your letters and cards, please know that you have been an important part of Bruce’s recovery. Bruce now has a mechanical valve, which can sometimes be heard thumping away if the room is quiet. It makes sort of a soft ‘thud,’ followed by a little ‘ching,’ so Bruce thinks that his donor was a tambourine. We are told that some people find that steady sound an annoyance, but to us it is a comfort and a gift, especially in the quiet of the night. Bruce says it’s confusing to play the recorder because he now has his own personal metronome that may or may not match the music he wants to play. Since he is on disability leave, he is not allowed to do any work at all, including writing emails to supporters or accepting speaking engagements. We are completely unclear about his future, except that it will not include Ethiopia or any other assignment in the Global South. We mourn the loss of that opportunity, which has given us such great joy, but “for everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” We fully embraced the wonderful chances that you gave us, but now it is our “time to refrain from embracing.” With continued recovery, we trust that there is a place where our skills can be put to use, either for the church or in teaching. Please continue to pray for us during this time of healing and discernment. I have started work as a missionary-in-residence at the World Mission Office in Louisville, helping mostly with the Peacemaking Office which will be itinerating several representatives from our international partner churches this fall. This is a temporary position, but it’s a great help to us as a bridge to our unknown future. It was strange to walk back into the building that we thought we had left and re-start the same sort of work with the same people after only eight months away. I can now begin to answer a few of the questions that you have asked. Thank you for your patience while we searched for answers. Bruce is on disability and I am a missionary-in-residence. That means that neither of us will be paid out of funds—your donations, that is—designated for education in Ethiopia. If you would like to continue to support my salary, you can do so by donating to D506989. Please accept my thanks for that support, but please understand that we will not be going back overseas. If you would like your donations to go to Ethiopia, it’s time to look at alternatives. Larry and Barbara Moir (pronounced ‘moy-er’) will be the next PC(USA) mission co-workers to Ethiopia. Larry is a retired pastor and Barbara a retired school-teacher. Now that their four kids are grown and gone, they hope to spend the next six or nine years in education work in Ethiopia. If you would like to be in direct touch with them, or sign up for their email list so that you accompany them from the very beginning of their call, please write to them at larryandbarbmoir@comcast.net They will go to orientation in July and then travel to Ethiopia in August to start the school year. They will not be assigned to the same school where we lived in Addis Ababa, but will instead go to Bethel Evangelical Secondary School, (BESS), in Dembi Dollo. BESS is on the western edge of the highlands in an absolutely beautiful rural setting. Bruce and I visited there, stayed in their faculty housing, and fell in love with the place. Bruce was often in conversation with the principal about educational issues, and we were quite touched by the work that is being done there. We have talked to the Moirs by phone and are impressed by their strong sense of call to help with education in Africa. We strongly encourage you to continue your pledges to ‘our’ Mission Initiative account, MI910082, which now will become the Moir’s. You have been unfailingly generous in your support of our call; we ask you to continue that generosity for the Moirs, for the students of our partner church, and for the work of God’s mission in Ethiopia. If you would like to continue to support the work of ‘our’ school, Bethel Mekane Yesus School in Addis Ababa, you can do so by donating to E863112. Your donation should be labeled either for scholarships or for general use. Though the school cannot use additional yarn or knitting needles, which depended on my being there to get the program started, they can certainly still use magazine subscriptions or books for the library. If you have further questions, Michael Weller, PC(USA) regional liaison for the Horn of Africa, at mswelleret@gmail.com will be able to offer help. Please continue to write to us, and to pray for us, and we’ll continue in our friendship with you as our relationship enters a new phase, very different from the past, but still in the hands of God. Love and peace, Lora Whearty 1044 Alta Vista Road Louisville, KY 40205 This letter, along with an accompanying photo, will soon be posted to our webpage at www.pcusa.org/missionconnections/profiles/wheartyb You can visit our photo album from that page, as well as browse old letters. March 14, 2009 Letter # 11 from Louisville Download letter - Adobe format Dear family and friends, Lora and I returned to the US one week ago, following the advice of my cardiologist in Addis Ababa. In the week since then, my heart has responded well to the lower altitude. It has returned to normal size and the measurements of its pumping efficiency are even better now than they were before we left the states. Nevertheless, the valve that was transplanted in 2001 continues to fail, and it is likely that I will face valve-replacement surgery soon. We will not return to Ethiopia. We have been blessed (again!) by being welcomed to the Furlough Home at the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary during this time of transition, as well as by the outpouring of support we have received from congregations and individuals all across the country. Your prayers and emails and cards lift us and remind us that we are not alone, and the hand-knit prayer shawl from Wisconsin is around my shoulders as I write this letter. Thank you all! You are a blessing during this time of uncertainty. We try to get used to driving again (“The streets are so empty here!”) and shopping. (“Look at all the food!”) I walk slowly along the little creek below the seminary, hoping to photograph some ducks or some daffodils or some leaf buds. The sunlight off the water is dazzling. I rest halfway up the hill on the way back home. I feel vulnerable. After seven months in Addis Ababa, we were just starting to be comfortable in the language, just starting to develop relationships of depth, just starting to be of service. And now we have suddenly left. There’s not much to count: a few basic phrases in Amharic, a single workshop for teachers, some classroom dialogues to help kids say ‘th.’ What sense can we make of such a ‘mission interrupted?’ The answer is deeper than any need to justify ourselves. Did we change the world? Well, no. But we accepted God’s invitation to respond to the needs of our brothers and sisters, as best we could. It is a tremendous gift to be welcomed into a new culture, seemingly alien, and then discover we are still part of the love of Christ, which reaches across all boundaries. We have given up trying to keep score of what we accomplished, and instead simply witness to the kindness that we have been granted from others, including you. We have given up counting what we give, like people traditionally do in Lent, and instead rest quietly in what we have received, in the hope of Easter. Sometimes we’re asked to give up more than chocolate. 
Bethel Mekane Yesus School has a protocol for choosing scholarship students,
of course, and it includes committee deliberations and careful, documented
conversations with the family. But on our last day in Ethiopia, out of time
to complete paperwork, Ato Teferi (our school principal) simply called one
ninth grade student out of class. He knew that one of her parents had recently
died and that the family was in financial trouble. He brought her to meet
Lora and me, explained to her that one of our supporting churches in Montana
had committed to paying her school fees for the next four years, and then
asked me to take her picture to send back to the US. The poor kid was blown
away by this sudden gift, this guarantee of graduation, this promise of an
unexpected future. I took her picture anyway, and you can see that she’s
trying not to cry.Sometimes we are given more than colored eggs. And sometimes, we have the opportunity to share those gifts. Please know that the work continues. There are scholarships still needed for girls whose families have encountered setbacks, magazine subscriptions still needed for the library, crayons and art supplies still needed for new kindergartens. We have asked World Mission to prioritize our positions in Ethiopia and actively recruit new co-workers to take our places. Perhaps you know of someone who will answer this call. Perhaps that someone is you. For now, during our period of medical leave, Lora and I ask you to continue your support of us, both in prayer and in finances. There will come a time when the future is clearer, both for us and for the PC(USA) mission in Ethiopia, and at that time you will have, of course, plenty of options for continued support. In the meantime, we hope that the joy of Easter will call you out of your regular routines and overwhelm you with abundance, with astonishing and powerful new futures, with sudden and unexpected joy. We wish you springtime and dazzling new life. And we hope that you will pray the same for us. Love and peace, Bruce and Lora Whearty 1044 Alta Vista Road Louisville, KY 40205 This letter, along with an accompanying photo, will soon be posted to our webpage at www.pcusa.org/missionconnections/profiles/wheartyb You can visit our photo album from that page, as well as browse old letters. We love to receive email at blwhearty@gmail.com but because we have no easy internet connection at home, please do not send us photos, attachments, or e-greeting cards. Thanks! Wednesday, March 4, 2009 Letter # 10 from Ethiopia Download letter - Adobe format Dear friends and family, Recently I have been having some breathing trouble, along with lowered energy levels. As the recipient of a 2001 heart-valve transplant, I decided to get a check-up from a cardiologist. Last Saturday I got the results from an EKG and from an echocardiogram, and it appears that my transplanted valve is beginning to fail. We are advised to return to the US promptly for a thorough evaluation before there is further deterioration. We will leave Addis Ababa tomorrow night and arrive in Louisville Friday evening. We will be staying at the Furlough Home on the campus of the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and our mailing address will be: Lora and Bruce Whearty 1044 Alta Vista Road Louisville, KY 40205 Our email address will remain the same: blwhearty@gmail.com We would love to hear from you, as always, but we may be slower than usual in responding. I already have an appointment with a cardiologist next Wednesday, one week from today. We will be in touch with you as we learn more. Lora and I are both surprisingly at peace, and have been productive, doing the things that we need to do, that is, packing and faxing doctors and emailing insurance companies and saying goodbye to people. Our sleep has been a little broken up but we're doing OK, trusting that the future, as always, is in God’s hands. Our packing has been interrupted by a steady stream of teachers stopping by, and that makes us feel good. We are confident that, with your help, the small initiatives that we have been able to foster here will continue. Today, our last full day in Ethiopia, we contacted the marble factory near the school. We had visited this place once before, when the marble window-sills, thresholds, and stair treads were ordered for ‘our’ new apartment, now nearing completion. Marble is common in Ethiopia, the result of the extreme pressures exerted in the complex, tortured landscape of the highlands. Today we weren’t ordering anything, just picking up a small souvenir. I found the little sample that I wanted, a scrap that showed the rough, unimpressive matrix on the surface, as well as the smooth, pure interior. I will carry this small stone with me, both as a reminder of Ethiopia, with its hidden beauty lying dormant behind its troubled face, and as a reminder of the metamorphosis that God can create beneath the surface of our own troubled lives. Someday, perhaps, I’ll have the chance to show it to you. Thank you all very much for thinking of us and for holding us in your prayers. Love and peace, Bruce and Lora Whearty This letter will soon be posted to our webpage at www.pcusa.org/missionconnections/profiles/wheartyb You can visit our photo album from that page, as well as browse old letters. We love to receive email at blwhearty@gmail.com but because of our slow internet connection, please do not send us photos, attachments, or e-greeting cards. Thanks! February 4, 2009 Letter # 9 from Ethiopia Download Letter - Adobe format Dear friends and family, These last few weeks have been very important for the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY), and it has been a privilege to be a witness and participant in recent activities here in Addis Ababa. First, there was the thirtieth annual meeting of the Committee of Mutual Christian Responsibility, consisting of the EECMY and all its partner churches. It was fascinating to meet church representatives from Scandinavia and Germany. Since English served as the common language, I was asked to serve as recording secretary. As a native English speaker I could usually hear the various accents with reasonable accuracy, though I quickly found that the Danish laptop I was borrowing had some strange keys! Discussions centered on how to better fulfill the ideals of partnership. Everyone shares the vision of the EECMY moving from being the recipient of donations to being a full and equal contributor, a giver of gifts in theology, in evangelism, and in mission both at home and abroad, but the exact pathways toward that goal can be elusive. There is progress being made. The Berlin Mission, together with the EECMY seminary, hosted a three-day seminar on the missiological writings of Gudina Tumsa, an EECMY General Secretary and martyr; the Finnish Mission made a commitment to hold a future missionary orientation in Ethiopia; and we all celebrated the historical partnerships of the EECMY. The first modern mission to Ethiopia began with the arrival of missionaries from the Church of Sweden in 1868. Other Scandinavian and German missions soon followed and the Lutheran roots of the Western church in Ethiopia were well established. The EECMY became an independent, self-governing church in 1959. Presbyterians were asked to come from Sudan to the western part of Ethiopia in 1919 to help against the influenza pandemic. Dr. Charles Lambe accepted the invitation, provided that he was allowed to start a school and a church as well. The Presbyterian missions became known as the Bethel Synods. Seeking solidarity against the persecutions of the communist government that had overthrown Haile Selassie’s empire in 1974, they joined the EECMY in 1979. The second big event of the past weeks, then, was the celebration of the Golden Jubilee of the EECMY. The high point of the festivities was a Sunday morning worship service in the Addis Ababa Convention Center for about 6000 people, complete with wonderful choirs, impassioned preaching, women trilling their praise, and a ceremonial procession of EECMY couples who had been married fifty years or more. The old husbands and wives were draped in black velvet capes with gold embroidery so that they looked like royalty, and their weathered faces gazed steadily into the spotlights and flashbulbs with deep dignity. These were pastors and leaders of the church, men and women together, who have endured the privations of poverty and famine, have survived the persecutions and torture of the communist regime, and have prevailed to see the church grow from 25,000 members in 1959 to over five million members today. The service concluded with a flag ceremony where pastors from the nine provinces of Ethiopia paraded with regional flags, knelt together in prayer, and then passed the flags to children dressed in the traditional costumes of each area. Such a celebration of diversity, together with a commitment to the future of the church! The following week was devoted to the EECMY General Assembly, which is held only once every four years. It was primarily concerned with reports from committees such as evangelism and development, with considering several amendments to its constitution, and with the election of new officers to lead the church for the next four years. Morning devotions were inspiring, discussions were peaceful and respectful, and decisions were generally by consensus. The most remarkable story of the church in the past year, though, is one of forgiveness and reconciliation. Twelve years ago, there was a schism in the EECMY. The root cause was a conflict over the language of worship: would Amharic, the dominant language of both the nation and the church--and a force for unity in the church--be used to the exclusion of other languages? Each side had valid reasons for their position, and each side defended those positions with vigor and belligerence. When the two factions split into two churches, the bitterness only increased. Congregations were torn apart. Eventually, even some of the partner churches took sides in the dispute and directed their mission efforts exclusively to one or the other church. Through the years there have been 26 separate initiatives attempting reconciliation between the two sides, but failure after failure only created deeper divisions. Last summer, in the Ethiopian Diaspora community in Minnesota, the first reconciliation took place. Both sides admitted that the original issue about language had been made worse by pride and anger. Both sides admitted that countless human and material resources had been wasted in the conflict, while opportunities for growth and mission had been squandered. Pastors from the two competing churches met in worship, embraced and cried, and washed each others’ feet in a public ceremony of penitence and humility. The news and spirit of that reconciliation swept across the world to Ethiopia, and reconciliation ceremonies have been held in congregation after congregation, with former enemies admitting how badly they have behaved toward one another and humbly asking—and granting—forgiveness. The leaders of the two churches have met and agreed on the necessary steps to be taken over the next year to complete the full reunion of the two churches, with the agreement that worship is best in the language of the heart. These events of the past few weeks have all been marked by the spirit of reconciliation. At the partners meeting, the representative of the Church of Sweden apologized for her church taking sides in the conflict and embraced the EECMY leader that her church had shunned for 12 years. At the Jubilee, participants were members of both churches, now joined to celebrate their common heritage and their common future. And the General Assembly found carefully crafted and thoughtful solutions to potential areas of conflict. The spirit of Jubilee, when old injustices are overthrown and anything that bound us is cast aside, was truly observed. The EECMY has been faithful to the Jubilee call: “And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants.” (Leviticus 25:10) This, then, is the great gift of the EECMY to us in the West who are used to seeing ourselves as the donors, the ones who are blessed, the ones who have it right. Perhaps we are the ones who have been enslaved by our pride, by our self-satisfaction, by our willingness to divide our own church. Please pray that we are meek enough to accept this gift, to follow the simple admonition, “You shall not wrong one another” (Leviticus 25:17), and to proclaim the Lord’s Jubilee. Love and peace, Bruce and Lora Whearty Mailing address: Bethel Mekane Yesus School attn: Lora and Bruce Whearty PO Box 1111 Addis Ababa Ethiopia This letter, along with two accompanying photos, will soon be posted to our webpage at www.pcusa.org/missionconnections/profiles/wheartyb You can visit our photo album from that page, as well as browse old letters. We love to receive email at blwhearty@gmail.com but because of our slow internet connection, please do not send us photos, attachments, or e-greeting cards. Thanks! Christmas, 2008 Letter #6 from Ethiopia Download Letter - Adobe Dear friends and family, We have finished our formal Amharic study, and will start our official work after the holidays. One of the striking things about the method that was used to teach us was that we weren’t allowed to speak for the first few weeks. Our job was to listen, to tune our ears, to clearly hear the sounds of this new language. Only then were we allowed to start struggling with our own sounds, to produce our own questions and answers. This strikes us as a powerful metaphor for entering a new culture: you don’t have the right to speak until you have listened well! We explained to our friends here in Addis Ababa that we needed to write our Christmas letter to the US well in advance, especially since Ethiopian churches don't celebrate Christmas until January 7. They laughed at how we Americans are always looking so far ahead and then they described how Ethiopians celebrate the holiday. So much of it sounded familiar! Candles at midnight church services? Of course! Special hymns? Special foods? Special time with families? It wouldn't be Christmas without them! The feasting is the same, the celebration is the same, the joy is the same. There are some things, though, that are different. Our friends will join with neighbors and slaughter an ox instead of shopping for ham or turkey. A typical gift for a child is a new school uniform sweater or a new notebook rather than the latest toy. And in the Orthodox Church, incense, white shawls, and candles lit before icons will mark the services rather than the carols familiar to those of us in the west. These sorts of superficial differences are easy to see. There are also deeper differences that reach beyond how we celebrate. People note with relief that Christmas falls on a Wednesday this year. This lessens the chance of confrontation with Muslims and the resulting violence, which is a danger when Christmas Eve services conflict with Friday evening’s Islamic prayers. Hotels and restaurants frequented by foreigners have initiated more stringent security procedures, and expatriates are warned not to gather in public places where we might present an inviting target for bombers. The Ethiopian government has announced that inflation this past year has been 55%, with the cost of food more than doubling, while the US embassy reports that unseasonable late rains damaged the grain harvest this year. Severe food shortages are predicted to start as soon as March. This sort of news is hard to hear when we want to splurge on presents and sing about “Peace on Earth,” but it’s curiously similar to the first Christmas, the one without the trappings and tinsel. Jesus was born into a time of confusion and fear. The government proclaims a new policy and the people obey, even though Mary is pregnant and has to travel to Bethlehem. There is no room in the inn, not even for a first-time mother in labor. Herod paces the floor of the palace in Jerusalem, plotting to kill any challengers to the throne. Babies are trampled in the quest for power. But in the midst of this troubling time, there is courage. Joseph decides to neglect his society’s teachings about ritual purity. Instead, he stands by his betrothal and his unexplainable dreams. Emboldened by their own visions, the wise men directly disobey Herod’s commandment, and return home by another way. Egypt somehow shelters the ragged refugees, and Nazareth provides a home for this family without honor. Today we celebrate that courage that allowed God’s gift to be given to us, to all of us, to those of us who are scorned by our neighbors, to those of us who live in fear, to those of us who are powerless. And the gift is also given--and this is a great mystery--to those who scorn their neighbors, to those who proclaim the policies that debase others, and to those who seize power for themselves. Christmas is not a time to celebrate our own nostalgia, to stuff ourselves while others starve, or to imagine that the stable straw was sweet and clean. Jesus was born into a world of manure. In many ways, that’s where we still are. We are still called to be courageous today, to make sure that this vulnerable hope has a chance to grow in spite of those who would ignore it or neglect it or kill it. We picture you in your various churches, all across the country, pausing in your busy lives to commit some time to silence and wonder. Then we imagine you singing the old, old carols, more familiar than any advertizing jingles or hit songs from our youth. We think of you repeating those worn passages from Luke and Matthew, as familiar as our own life histories or favorite stories from family reunions. But we also can’t help but look ahead. We can hardly wait to see what this new, new story will create in you! We think of each one of your faces in candlelight, each one of you illuminated like an icon where the face of God can be seen. We picture you holding to fresh dreams instead of outmoded doctrines, and standing bravely against the forces of fear and hatred and hunger. We picture you listening carefully to all the voices that need to be heard and then speaking the Good News as we enter this new world together. And we thank you for your support in our efforts to do the same. Love and peace, Lora and Bruce |