FOURTH
PRESBY
TERIAN
John M, Buchanan. Pastor CHURCH

A LIGHT IN THE CITY

February 8, 1999

Ms. Laura C. Gidding
8319 Woodland Drive, Apt. E
Darien, 1L 60561

Dear Ms. Gidding,

Thank you for your letter. | found your description of your spiritual journey fascinating,
and I’m so pleased that my words on Thirty Good Minutes last week connected. [’m also
glad that you identified with the Viktor Frankl citation. He is one of my favorites, as well.

I think you certainly are on the right track in responding to the stirrings of the Holy Spirit in
your life. I was pleased to read that you have joined Community Presbyterian Church in
Clarendon Hills, and 1 strongly urge you to be in touch with the pastor there, the

Reverend Christian Chakoian. Chris is a good friend of mine, and I think you would have
much to gain from a personal conversation with her about your journcy.

Il also was interested to note your application to McCormick Seminary.

It sounds as though important things are beginning to happen in your life, and I do hope
that you will remain open {to your call to vocation, however and whenever il comes.

Thank you for taking the time to write, and every good wish to you.

ajthfuldy,
bsliecs

. Buchanan

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‘The Fourth Proshatenan Church of Chicago Tati Bast Chest? Sire Gbinage (L681 120% phone 312, 74745700 fax 41. 7aF aot

8319 Woodland Drive, Apt. E :
Darien, Illinois 60561 a

February 2, 1999

Rev. John Buchanan
Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago
126 East Chestnut Street

Chicago, Illinois 6061 71-2094

Dear Rev. Buchanan,

As a former employee of a public #levision station in San Jose, California, | was
surprised to view a religious program on my focal public television station here in Hiknois
last Sunday. Such programs were not broadcast by the San Jose station. But my
astonishment was transformed to awe as | listened to your sermon.

Since returning to the church in 1996, t have come to recognize God at work in my life
through the presence of the Holy Spirit. Coincidence is the common Jabei used by the
unenlightened. What others brush off as coincidence, | know to pe sacred stirrings.
Clues dropped in my path.

it seerned as though the words you spoke on last Sundays "30 Good Minutes” were
catered for my ears. The affirmation came when you quoted Viktor E. Frankl. “Man's
Search for Meaning” was ane of the first books | read after beginning a personal
relationship with God. Frankl’s powerful testimony still serves as the most poignant }
have read regarding the purpose of hope and love.

As you spoke about the calling to serve God and the importance in answering that call, |
reflected on my own calling. A copy of my personal testimony is enclosed for you. it
seems that God has gifted me to serve people in times of grief and doubt. | am drawn to
this work, and it is deeply fulfilling.

Presently, | volunteer a few hours each week with St. Thomas Hospice and offer part
time support to the Riverside Presbyterian Church. But | long to serve others as a full
time ministry, and 1 am quickly approaching a crossroad as my last day working for the
Riverside church, February 12, draws closer. This crossroad is an opportunity.

Yet, the form of my ministry remains a mystery at present. I'm half tempted to begin
offering individual and group grief support here in Darien privately. Perhaps my recent
decision to attend the Community Presbyterian Church in Clarendon Hilis will ead to
opportunities. | have decided to attend their next Stephen Ministry training program. |
have also submitted my application to the M.Div. program at McCormick Theological
Seminary.

| continue to pray that God will guide me so that | may use His gifts to serve others. lf,
after reading this letter, my path remains as mysterious to you as it is to me, we can be
content to let the letter serve as an affirmation of your ministry.

However, should this fetter stir any thoughts that you deem helpful to my search, please
do not hesitate to call or write.

Thank you,
Grace and peace,

A

Laura C. Gidding
(630) 325-1130

Enclosure

Personal Testimony
Laura C. Gidding

Loss and the process of loss, grief, led me to my current ministry. Loss causes us to
define our faith, to dig deep down within ourselves to find the answer to the relentless
question—‘Does life exist beyond this tangible realm?”

Loss is an opportunity as much as an avoided and misunderstood aspect of life.
Resistance to accept loss results.in stagnation. ideally, loss will increase in significance
with age, preparing us for pivotal loss that begs the question, “Is there something
beyond this tangible world?” Eventually, joss tests our faith.

Where is God in the midst of profound anguish? Loss leads us to begin gathering
information, asking questions and seeking answers. The question is the catalyst that
ignites the burning fire—the pain we feel as our illusions of tangible permanence are
destroyed. This is how our faith is cast into a custom experience that prepares us for life
beyond our physical existence.

For some, though, significant losses precede minor losses or come at an early age. A
child dies before the parent. A brother dies before a grandparent. The former was the
experience of my mother and father; the latter was mine at the age of 16.

The hallways of my high school offered littie comfort. What did death and dying have to
do with dating and driving? | felt terribly isolated. Numb. Yet, support did come. The
high school nurse took it upon herself to form a support group made up of my peers. We
connected through our experiences of loss. Though different in form, our losses all
shared the same subsiance.

The loss of my brother and the support I received planted a seed in me. But the seed
lay dormant for many years.

| took it on faith that my Brother Nick’s soul now existed in heaven. But it was the faith of
my parents, not my own—a required practice until my confirmation in the Catholic
Church at the age of 14. After meeting this obligation, | was giver the option to stay or
walk. | walked,

Twenty years passed. My life outside the church was limited to the superficial worid
around me. | sought fulfillment in material things and from a marriage that was created
outside the church. My marriage ended in divorce in 1996. The loss brought me to my
knees, and uncovered a question | had ignored for far too long. | surrendered my
(tusion of control, and my quest for faith ensued.

| began to dig for answers. My life began to be reshaped, as did my perception. There
was evidence of some force at work in my jife. Order was restored where chaos had
ruled. Fragments began te connect. Peaple came to me offering validation and
affirmation—nutrients that nurtured the seed planted so long ago.

Personal Testimony
Laura C. Gidding, Page 2

| encountered Janet Childs. As a voice for The Centre for Living with Dying in Santa
Clara, California, she seemed to speak to me personally while addressing a group of my
coworkers during a United Way campaign in 1985. The following year, | attended a
volunteer inquiry meeting. It led to a two-year relationship with the Centre.

The experience brought me full circle. | came to sit in the chair that my high school
nurse had sat in back in 1980 and share the gift | had received with others. The seed
roated by her actions, became a young, strong and nimble, yet naive, tree.

That tree would gain direction under the guidance of two individuals, a husband and
wife ministerial team—Reverends Nancy and Steve Harrington of The Presbyterian
Church of Sunnyvale.

At the coaxing of a friend, shortly after my marital separation, | attended an informal
Sunday evening service called Intersections. Though many other people attended,
Steve and Nancy seemed to speak directly to me. Their message resonated, and }
found a church home of my own. Within a few months, | became a congregational
member as well as a staff member of The Presbyterian Church of Sunnyvale.

| came to know Christ on a personal level. Ail of the obligatory memories of my Catholic
upbringing finally made sense. Forgiveness transformed my pain. Ultimately, | came to
forgive the man who killed my brother.

Through my faith, | experience a spiritual life that exists concurrently with the physical.
Loss is the bridge that connects the two. | would like to share this bridge with others
who seek it. Seeing loss as an opportunity and testifying for the gift it has to offer, | wish
to support others as they seek their own answers.

Currently, | pursue my ministry as a volunteer with the St. Thomas Hospice agency.
Such work is fulfilling in a deeply satisfying way.

Kathleen Norris captures the allure of a personal calling in her book Ciaister Walk.
“None of us can understand what possible use we are in the world; it’s one of the
deeper mysteries. Rarely, grace comes to us in the form of another person who tells us.
we have been of help. But usefulness is not something we can know, or claim, for
ourselves; | suspect that to have it as a goal of one’s religious life would engage a
person with mystery in tantalizing ways.”

May God continue to guide us as we strive to answer His call to serve.