Determination

Ever meet someone with whom you feel a quick connection?  You don’t know why, but it is there.  The person in today’s story is such a person for me.  I had already interviewed him twice for the Hayes Barton Baptist Church newsletter Faith Points so was a bit familiar with him.  It took no more than a few minutes with this interview to uncover just what the connection is.  We were born in the same city and almost in the same year.  The city is Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the year….we’ll leave that for you to figure out!

Mory Read and I have talked on several occasions about Operation InAsMuch, the annual missions day we and many other Baptist churches across North Carolina hold each year.  Mory has been the driving force behind this missions day for several years at Hayes Barton Baptist Church.  When we have talked, our conversations were about planning, recruiting, and carrying out Operation InAsMuch.

When we began our conversation for the 85 faith stories celebration of Hayes Barton Baptist Church, we began as I have with many of the people I meet; we began with the question, “Where were you born?”  For Mory, it was Milwaukee, Wisconsin…and that was all it took to understand why I feel an ease for conversation with him.  I, too, was born in Milwaukee.  And while he was born at Mount Sinai Hospital and I was born at St. Joseph, we each can claim surviving Wisconsin winters as one of the markers of our childhoods.

Mory was not “born and raised in the Baptist church” which makes him different from many of the people we’ve talked with for the stories, but does not make him that unusual at Hayes Barton Baptist Church.  Growing up in a small Wisconsin town north of Milwaukee, he remembers worshipping in the homes of elders on Sunday and Wednesday nights.  He remembers the town as a typical one for the time in Wisconsin:  “a bar on one corner, a post office in the middle of the block, and a bar on the other corner.”

Wanting to move beyond the farming and factory work that the Wisconsin of the time offered, Mory decided to move to North Carolina in 1986. “I was looking for something different to do,” says Mory, “I contacted people in many places but actually heard back from someone in North Carolina.”  While he didn’t get a job from that contact, he decided to move “to find what I wanted.”  This determination on Mory’s part is something that characterizes his approach to life.  “My mama would call it stubbornness and tell me I was stubborn,” says Mory with a laugh. 

Mory started attending Hayes Barton Baptist Church in 1990 and married his wife Susan at the church in 1994.  He attended a long time before becoming a member.  “It took some time,” Mory recalls, “because I wasn’t ready for organized religion.  I guess I was being stubborn again.”

Although it took some time, Mory became very involved in activities in the church.  In fact, he was so involved that on the day he finally joined, many people congratulated Mory by saying that they thought he already was a member.   Choir, food boxes; helping shut-ins; outreach…all of those activities were part of Mory’s involvement.

Of actually joining the church, Mory recalls he felt one Sunday while “sitting in church that the time had come.”  He was baptized on an Easter Sunday and remembers how much his experience “correlates with Jesus Christ rising on Easter.”  Of full immersion baptism as an adult, Mory says he had no problem. “I did it proudly.  It is a tenet in the Bible.”

As said before, Mory has spent the past few years leading Hayes Barton Baptist Church’s efforts with Operation InAsMuch.  “I have the ability to plan and organize,” says Mory, “and I like helping people, getting them what they need.  Operation InAsMuch allows me to get people involved in helping other people.   There are more needs than we can ever meet, but we can work together to meet some of them.”

As Operation InAsMuch becomes part of Hayes Barton Baptist Church’s heritage, Mory reflects on other aspects of the heritage of the church.  “I think of those who have gone before us.  We think of it as their church but, most importantly, we need to think of it as God’s church,” says Mory.  “We’ve been here a long time and gone through many interesting things.  We always rally together and carry forward.”

The hope that is Hayes Barton Baptist Church from Mory’s perspective is that “it continues to be a beacon that will bring the Word to the people and be a place for people to connect with and be closer to God.”

Of the home he has found at Hayes Barton Baptist Church, Mory sees “people you really care about and love.  You get to know a lot of people.  You find warmth that makes you feel like it is a home.  Everyone can fit here in some way.”

There is no doubt that Mory fits in at Hayes Barton Baptist Church.  The “stubbornness” that his mother noted has translated into a determination directed at helping meet the needs of others.  That determination is also a signature of Hayes Barton Baptist Church as a whole.  Yes, Mory fits in at Hayes Barton Baptist Church.  No surprise now; he is a fully involved fully member whose determination helps make things happen for God and God’s church.