I Am Wilshire – Terry Wade.
Hometown: Hugo, Oklahoma
Education: B.A., Oklahoma Baptist University; M.Ed., University of Texas at El Paso
Profession: Middle school teacher, retired
Present city: Dallas
Tell us about your family. Jim and I met at OBU and married in 1964. We have two sons, Chris and Jason, six grandchildren and two great grandsons.
Tell us about your work/volunteer life. I spent 20-plus years teaching and retired in 2001 due to my mother’s health issues. Most of those years I taught English and American History to eighth graders, which I thoroughly enjoyed. My students often educated me about myself and other aspects of life, which I appreciated. At present, my main volunteer jobs are Ubering our granddaughter to theater classes and cooking enough food to fill up our 18-year-old grandson when he stays with us. I also volunteer for Wilshire activities.
What are your favorite hobbies? Golf, reading Agatha Christie type mysteries, and visiting art museums.
Where is your favorite place to travel? Any historical venue with art museums.
What brought you to Wilshire and when? We knew we would join if we moved to Dallas because we admired Wilshire’s vision of God’s love for everybody. We joined in 2016.
Where are you engaged in Wilshire? Jim and I attend Compass Class. I’m on the New Member Committee and Pathways to Ministry Committee. I teach Sunday School occasionally. I also do front office receptionist duty on Wednesday mornings.
What surprised you most about Wilshire? How quickly new people are integrated into the various services and activities.
What do you think God is up to in your life right now? He keeps opening doors to service opportunities.
Tell us about your faith journey. I was raised by a woman who thought teaching me about Jesus was more important than teaching Baptist doctrines and who lived the Good Samaritan parable intentionally. It has been a hard act to follow. As an adult I have never had much conflict over faith ideas even when I did not feel free to discuss them in “religious” environments and conversations. I have had positive support from like-minded people and from writers (Seeliger, Borg, Yancy, Rohr, Brown, Ennes, and others). Both groups have expanded my vision of the journey — for which I am very grateful.
If you’d like to be featured in “I Am Wilshire,” contact Carolyn Murray at cmurray@wilshirebc.org.