| Bruce and Lora Whearty
1044 Alta Vista Road
Louisville, KY 40205
Email: Lora
Whearty
Lora is a missionary-in-residence at General Assembly Council offices in Louisville. Bruce is now on GAC staff in the Mission Connections office. To invite Bruce and Lora to speak, please see their contact information on the Mission Speakers page.
Bruce and Lora Whearty have been serving at the PC(USA) national offices since January 1, 2005. They came to Louisville as missionaries-in-residence after completing a three-year term as teachers and teacher trainers in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu. Lora is the convener of the organizing team for Mission Challenge ’07, the nationwide effort to reconnect local congregations with PC(USA) missionaries around the world. Bruce is a member of that team, and also serves missionaries in planning their interpretation assignments.
At the close of their term in Vanuatu, Bruce and Lora requested a reassignment because their two teenage daughters, who served with them overseas, needed the experience of a regular high school with a peer group and extra-curricular activities. When their youngest daughter finished high school in June, 2008, Bruce and Lora plan to leave as soon as possible for Ethiopia.
The Wheartys will live on the campus of a girls’ school in the capital city, Addis Ababa. The school is an outreach program of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (meaning “home of Jesus”), the long-time partner church of PC(USA). Lora will teach English and Bruce will work with mentoring and training teachers for EECMY. Lora says, “We are thrilled with the chance to work with young women in Africa! I’m glad that girls’ education is seen by both PC(USA) and EECMY as a high priority in developing church leaders for the future.”
In Vanuatu, Bruce taught English and Lora organized a preschool for staff children at Onesua Presbyterian College. She also served as the assistant school librarian. The Wheartys had also served in Vanuatu as mission diaconal workers of the PC(USA) from 1992 to 1994. "It was a time of profound learning for us," says Bruce. "We learned that we can be close friends with people from a fundamentally different culture, that we are far more adaptable than we dreamed, and that God’s love is transcendent, more than sufficient for every need."
When they reluctantly left Vanuatu in 1994, they carried it with them. On their return to Montana they built a solar house, with the intention of providing a witness to living simply. A summer in Albuquerque in 1998 helped them decide that they felt called again to mission service.
"We worshiped at a Mennonite Church, taught classes at a Presbyterian vacation Bible school, walked a prayer labyrinth, and served food at a soup kitchen," writes Lora. "For me, the cooperative atmosphere of all these communities helped me to feel at peace with my faith. I know that the way the people I met shared work, fellowship, and worship together is the way that God intended for us to live."
Bruce holds an associate degree in child development from the Child Development Consortium, a Bachelor of Science in elementary education and a master's in educational computing from Montana State University in Billings, Montana. He is currently working on a doctorate in teaching and learning. Before and in between service with the PC(USA) in Vanuatu, Bruce was an elementary school teacher in Melstone, Belgrade, and Roundup, Montana. He is nationally certified as a Middle School Generalist, and was awarded Montana’s Educator of the Year award.
|
