East Liberty Family Health Care Center

Elder Nora Goetz
In this ever-changing world of ours, we all could use more people like Nora Goetz.  How many people do you know who have been members of their church for more than 51 years--from confirmation through retirement?  When you think of "pillar of the church," Nora Goetz should come to mind!

Nora (Gittings) Goetz grew up in Penn Hills, attending Waverly Presbyterian then Mt. Hope Presbyterian until her family settled in at Beulah in the 1950s.  She married her husband Gary, Sr. at Beulah,  and baptized her son Gary, Jr. at Beulah.  Members like Ellie Crouch and Dolores Weed helped raise her--no wonder Nora refers to Beulah as her "second family."  An Elementary school teacher by profession, would it surprise you that Nora has taught Sunday school, led--and even written--many of the Vacation Bible Schools at Beulah, and was a co-leader in the Youth Club (with the Center's own Mary Kellogg, RN).

Nora remembers one boy named Brian from Sunday School.  During Brian's very first Sunday School class, Nora thought, "Why do I always have to have one problem child?"  But when Brian's sister picked him up after class, he shouted to her, "Wait 'til I tell you what I learned in class (when we were doing crafts)!"  He repeated everything Nora had been saying.  "He had absorbed so much while he was looking for mischief the whole time!"  Nora is still in touch with Brian to this day, and learned from him that she must look at people through God's eyes so that she can see the value in them that God sees.

But Nora's dedication and love for Beulah didn't stop with Christian Education.  She's been a deacon and an elder, she was church secretary for 6 ½ years, she's led the Prayer Circle and heads up the prayer chain, she's been a regular at Women's Bible Study and her small group, and since 2001 has been chair or a member of the Mission Committee (that supports the Center!)

Nora lost her beloved husband 10 years ago, and of course, Beulah was there for her through it all.  When her husband died very suddenly at school, Pastor Alice Peterson and Music Minister Michael Frank were there right away and helped her through every step of the process, and a year later, asking Nora to help found a widow's support group called "Kyros."

In more recent years, Nora's passion for mission has taken hold of Nora and all those she influences.  Having grown up at Beulah, she had heard countless missionaries who would visit the church.  One such missionary (Alice Winters, Columbia) so impressed Nora as a child that she had planned to learn Spanish and become a border missionary.  Marriage kept her in Pittsburgh, but the calling persisted. 

The Church Mission Committee urged her to enroll in a "Biblical Perspectives on Mission" class and Nora knew that the call to missions was still there.  At one point, she and husband Gary thought they were being called to Kenya, but it didn't work out.  Looking back, Nora recognizes that God was calling her to Africa, but not Kenya, and not yet!

So, when a couple from Beulah had to back out at the last minute of a Presbytery-sponsored trip to Malawi, Nora recalls "as sure as a real voice, I heard God say, 'You go!'  And so I did!"  Just before the trip, Nora had a dream where God showed her how he had been preparing her for this for her entire life.  In Malawi, Nora saw a grandmother raising her orphaned grandchildren with nothing to feed them, and that night she had another dream telling her to start a garden project.  Now in its 6^th year and utilizing drought-resistant seeds, this garden often yields more than 100 kilograms of maize each year, even when others get nothing.  She'll be going back to Malawi with her son this summer.

Nora has also been the link between Beulah and the Center.  She was a dedicated "friendly visitor" for one of the Center's homebound patients for 5 years, and as chair of the committee, has kept our connections strong through financial gifts, prayer, and gifts of practical items like toys and books for the waiting rooms.  Nora is also a patient at the Center.

God speaks to Nora Goetz in dreams and when He does, she hears His voice and obeys.  Is it any surprise that her favorite songs are "Be Thou My Vision" and "Here I Am, Lord!"?  Nora has asked that any funds raised through her being honored go to the Homebound Elderly Outreach Program, where she volunteered side-by-side with her dear friend from Beulah, the late Mary Kellogg.  Her goal is to raise $5,400 to provide comprehensive homecare services for three patients for an entire year.