Velma Mette (Math) Lubbert Rynearson

Velma Mette (Math) Lubbert Rynearson

10/5/1934, Aitkin, MN USA

Spouse/Family

Husband: Charles Lubbert, b. 2/13/1920, Riceville, IA; m. 2/21/1971

6/3/1986

Rodney Rynearson, b. 6/1/1935, Omaha, NE; m. 11/19/2000

Children: Stanley Charles Lubbert (1948), Steven Paul Lubbert (1957), Stuart James

Lubbert (1959); Timothy John Rynearson (1959), Stephen Paul Rynearson

(1961), Peter Mark Rynearson (1965)

Dates of Service Field Call Assignment

1961-1971 India Missionary Nurse

1990-1998 India Missionary Nurse

Biographical Summary

After witnessing a presentation at the University Lutheran chapel on the need for nurses in India, Velma was moved to consider her call to mission work. She undertook a period of prayer and reflection and soon sent the Board for Mission Services a letter stating that she would be willing to go to India and serve as a nurse. BMS quickly extended a call, and immediately after receiving her bachelor’s degree, Velma attended mission school in Saint Louis in summer 1960. Her visa did not arrive until December, so she had to wait a few months before embarking upon her journey, traveling to India by plane in January 1961.

Velma’s first task in India was to attend language school in Bangalore to learn Malayalam. She studied for several months, but her intended year of language study was cut short because the Indian nurse at the station to which Velma was assigned had become pregnant. Because of this circumstance, Velma was sent a few months early to Wandoor, Kerala, a remote place in the Malabar area of Kerala with a mostly Muslim population. She was assigned as the second nurse at Karunalaya (“abode of mercy”) Dispensary founded by missionaries Rev. Henry and Mary Esther Otten (Mary Esther was a trained microbiologist). The founding idea of the dispensary was to show Christian love by caring for the physical needs of people in the area, and to use this care as a way to share Christ’s love since direct evangelism among Muslims was difficult. Velma was the first medical missionary called by the LCMS Board for Mission Services in this area of Malabar. Although her initial language study had been cut short, she did continue to study Malayalam with a private tutor for several hours a week over the next five years.

Karunalaya Dispensary was not a hospital and had no beds, but as it was the only medical facility in the region, its staff stayed very busy! They saw up to 500 patients each day between 1961 and 1966 (the year of Velma’s first furlough), and there were two wide benches on the verandah for those who were very sick and needed to remain for observation. After the dispensary had been open for a time, some of the tea merchants across the street saw the need for more space to give care, and they opened rooms next to their tea shops where people could stay overnight for observation, or a series of shots or an ongoing course of medicine. This meant that the medical staff at the dispensary made rounds (to the tea shops) in the morning immediately after their morning devotions, then came back to the dispensary to treat those who had come that day. Up to forty patients might be staying overnight and need their medicine administered and blood pressure taken, besides the new patients who arrived each day.

After Velma had been working at the dispensary about two years, it did become a hospital, with much of the funding support for the building coming from the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League, which had a great interest in medical mission projects. The hospital began with 25 beds, but by the time Velma went on her furlough in 1966 it had 50 beds, 25 of which were reserved for tuberculosis patients because there was a high incidence of that disease in the region. In 1963, Drs. Charles and Miriam McCreary, who had been instrumental in sparking Velma’s desire to do medical mission work, came to Wandoor, and Dr.Charles McCreary served as the first medical superintendent of the dispensary/hospital. Velma was named nursing superintendent for the newly developed hospital.

Velma spent her first furlough continuing her educational training; she attended Teachers’ College, Columbia University in New York City and received an M.A. degree in nursing administration, which reflected the work she was already doing in India as nursing superintendent. In 1967 she returned to Wandoor to continue working at the hospital, resuming her nursing and supervisory duties. She also taught English as a Second Language to young Indian women and trained apprentices who were going into nursing, besides supervising the nursing staff and caring for patients.

During the years that Velma was in Wandoor, the medical mission served as a springboard for evangelistic work. Under the leadership of Rev. Otten, the missionaries and the Indian staff would share the Gospel in the villages of the region, where they were already known because of the medical care they had given the inhabitants. The mission developed a reading room with Christian literature and utilized the relationships they had in the area to evangelize through preaching, teaching, literature, and drama. Within the hospital, they would put up a Christmas tree during the Christmas season and give Christmas gifts to patients, which gave them an opening to talk about their Christian faith and the meaning of the holiday. Velma herself led devotions and Bible studies. In addition, as the only Westerners in the area, the missionaries were often asked why they had come to India and why they chose to care for the sick in Wandoor. Such questions provided an opportunity for evangelism as Velma and the other missionaries witnessed to their faith in and love for Christ, which motivated them to provide love and care for those who needed it. God blessed their work and the work of the Indian staff as some they witnessed to became Christian, and later a Christian school (Otten Memorial School) was opened in the area that continues to provide a Christian education to students.

By 1970, the mission board was considering moving Velma to a different location, so she added to her responsibilities that of training her successor, an Indian nurse who would serve as nursing superintendent. Another nurse, Betty Mayer, had also been sent by LCMS to help continue the work. Having helped to make sure that the work of the mission in Wandoor would be continued, Velma took a furlough in 1970, intending to return to India after a time in the United States. However, during her stay in the U.S. she was re-acquainted with Charles Lubbert, whom she had known as her roommate’s brother when she went to school in Rochester. Charles had been married, and his wife had died in 1968. Charles and Velma married in 1971, and she resigned from mission service. She also “became an instant mother” to three sons, Stanley, Steven, and Stuart. Even with these newfound family responsibilities, Velma continued her nursing career. The family lived in Riceville, IA, where they owned a farm, and Velma worked at two different hospitals in Iowa before beginning to teach nursing at Rochester Community College in Rochester, MN in 1974 (a position she held until 1990). For this teaching position she commuted 50 miles each way! The students she taught cared for Mayo Clinic patients who were hospitalized either at St. Mary’s Hospital(where Velma had been a student and a nurse) or Methodist Hospital.

In 1982, Velma began a new educational program, studying for a Ph.D. in Nursing at The University of Texas at Austin. Velma completed this program in 1990. In 1986, however, Charles passed away, and with their three sons already out in the world, Velma once again had to consider her next steps once her degree was received. Her friend, Betty Mayer, who had worked with her as a nurse in India, asked if she would ever consider going back to India. Velma replied “I might,” and didn’t give the matter too much more thought, but Betty began writing to people in India to see if there might be a position for Velma. A position in Vellore, Tamilnadu seemed possible, but funding would have to come from the States because Velma was a foreign national. After prayer for guidance, Velma herself began to work to acquire a visa and the necessary funding to return to India. The Board for Mission Services did not have the funding, and for a time prospects looked discouraging – Velma had no guaranteed position, no visa, no official sponsor, no funding, and she had not completed her studies. But in 1990, Wheat Ridge Ministries agreed to act as Velma’s sponsor, and she began receiving financial assistance from individuals and groups; Vellore said she could have a position there if she had a sponsor; and lastly she received her Ph.D. degree and her visa to India on the same day, October 30! She resigned from her teaching position in Rochester in November and again traveled to India after Christmas. This time she arrived in February 1991. Now Velma took on a teaching position at the Christian Medical College and Hospital in Vellore. She taught at the College of Nursing from 1991-1997 as the only non-Indian on the faculty. The yearly enrollment of nursing students was 600.

Although she would have stayed in India for a longer period of time, Velma had difficulties with her visa in 1997 and had to return to the United States. However, she continued her ministry, beginning work in 1999 in St. Louis as the coordinator for medical ministries for the LCMS Board for Mission Services. One of the first people to greet her when she arrived at the LCMS building was Rodney Rynearson, whom she had met briefly in India in 1996, and whose wife, Rhoda, had died in 1997. Velma and Rodney became reacquainted and began seeing each other, marrying in November 2000.

While working with the Board for Mission Services, Velma traveled to thirteen different countries to help initiate, implement, and evaluate medical mission projects as well as to interview missionaries about their health concerns and help provide medical care for missionaries as needed. She also visited certain projects undertaken by LCMS World Relief and helping to document these projects for publicity purposes. In 2002, she retired from this position and continues to keep busy with family and other activities. She has been involved with LWML for many years and assists Rodney with his involvement in deaf ministry. Velma retains close ties to India and those who serve in mission there: she serves as a speaker about her mission experience; corresponds with her Indian friends and with missionaries who remain in India; and provides encouragement, gifts, and prayerful remembrance for those who serve. The paths on which Velma’s call has taken her are many and varied, and by the grace of God she has devoted her life to service in Christ’s name and care for God’s children.

Nota Bene

Wheat Ridge Ministries Seeds of Hope Award recipient May 7, 1997

Missionary Veteran honoree at the 2007 LCMS Synod Convention

Phase 2 Information

Biggest missiological issue faced?

An issue was adjusting to a different culture. It took time to get used to living in India. Learning Malayalam, the language of Kerala, a crucial task, helped Velma feel at home.

Theologically, the missionaries in Wandoor dealt with the issue of how one can present the Gospel to Muslims as well as to Hindus and how best to relate to others in a Christian way. In particular, resolution of conflict can be difficult when people coming from different cultures have different accepted ways of dealing with conflict. An ongoing concern was how to determine the proper charges for the medical services provided.

Most significant contribution during missionary service?

Velma notes, “It’s only God who knows exactly what was accomplished.” It never ceases to amaze her when a former student tells her that something she said (often something she hardly remembers) was a major influence. It makes her understand that God places His servants where they should be and gives the Holy Spirit to work through them.

When asked about specific contributions to mission work in India, she notes that during the Wandoor years the missionaries and the Indian staff were giving care to Muslims, who are generally very resistant to Christian beliefs, and that it was a new thing for the people of the region to observe that they gave care to all, no matter to what caste or social group the people they were serving belonged. Through the grace of God, the missionaries and the Indian staff cared for all equally regardless of social status, recognizing that everyone for whom they cared for was a child of God. With the help of God Velma was also able to witness to her faith at this time, particularly when asked why she was there and doing the work she did. She had the privilege to be part of the witness that Christ has died for all and extends salvation to all.

A further contribution Velma was blessed to make was through teaching; she notes first that she learned many things from the Indians she was with! However, she did have the opportunity to teach modern health care methods, and she also contributed by mentoring her successor as nursing superintendent in Wandoor. In Vellore, she taught students at the undergraduate and graduate level, including doctoral students who now serve as educational and administrative leaders around the world, two of whom have served as dean of the College of Nursing, Vellore. With students from mostly Hindu and Muslim backgrounds, she was also able to provide a Christian witness at the college, where she taught Bible classes as well as nursing.

Connection to today’s mission?

Medical missions in Wandoor still continue, and Velma helped carry on the mission through her work and through the training she provided to nurses, including her successor as nursing superintendent. In Vellore, she taught students who are now leaders in the College of Nursing and throughout India and the world. In her later work with the Board for Mission Services, she thinks that she helped influence some of the missionaries and foreign nationals to tell and show the saving love of Jesus by encouraging them to emphasize that their medical work was done in the name of Jesus.

Lessons Learned

It is important for missionaries to appreciate the contributions of other cultures.
Prayer is a powerful thing.
Forgiveness is always important in times of conflict.
Velma notes that in India she learned to be thankful for all things, even for a drink of cold water. Everything is from God, and God has many surprises in store. In India she could more clearly recognize God’s work in all that she experienced and did, and it helped her to learn that no person is self-sufficient; all are dependent on God’s grace. It is easier to forget this in the United States.

Best Practices

Even as busy as they were with medical work, the missionaries in Wandoor took time each morning for devotions, which strengthened their faith as well as their Christian witness.
The integration of evangelism and medical mission provided a wonderful opportunity for Christian witness; the staff of Karunalaya Dispensary/Hospital were able to demonstrate that the reason they were involved in caring for the sick was their Christian faith.
As medical missionaries, they had to practice good health care. One best practice was their effort to be careful and knowledgeable about health care and good medical techniques. As a teacher, Velma also did her best to use teaching methods, practices, and examinations that helped the students learn about and contribute to good health care.

Phase 3 Information

Inspiration for entering foreign missions?

Velma notes that she was recently looking through an old photograph album and found a photo under which, at 8 or 9 years old, she’d written that she wanted to be a missionary and go to Africa. She did go to Africa later, but her mission work took her first to India! She cannot recall why as a young girl she had thought of mission work, but credits the Holy Spirit for guiding her and providing her with opportunities to serve. While at the University of Minnesota for her bachelor’s degree, she was attending Gamma Delta at the University Lutheran chapel, and attended a slide presentation by Drs. Charles and Miriam McCreary. (They later were called to be medical missionaries to India..) They discussed the need for nurses in India. Adding to the urgency of the call, Velma read in the medical mission newsletter The Cross and Caduceus that nurses were wanted in India. Velma, moved by the presentation and the information she’d received, prayed about her decision, and a short time later she walked out to a mailbox on a cold winter night in Minnesota to send a letter volunteering to go. The Lord had work for her to do and provided the call she needed.

Quotation by/about or brief story:

While Velma was working at Karunalaya Hospital in the early 1960s, the staff encountered a pregnant woman with late-stage tuberculosis. Because of the health threats posed by her illness and by her pregnancy, the staff had to undertake a serious discussion about whether or not they should abort the baby. After prayer and discussion, they decided they simply could not go through with an abortion. Mercifully, when the time came, the baby was delivered and the mother and her child did survive.

Velma and the hospital staff delivered many babies in and around Wandoor and at Karunalaya Hospital. One of the babies weighed only two or three pounds at birth. The baby was kept alive by frequent feedings of boiled milk. When Velma visited India in 2002 as part of her assignment with the Board for Mission Services, a woman walked to the Wandoor hospital compund to see her. This woman who had been that tiny infant was a happy mother and grandmother.

During that same visit to Wandoor in 2002, a Muslim man found out that Velma was visiting and came to see her at the hospital. He told her that as a young boy he came to the dispensary for medical care, and Velma took care of him and his family, so he wanted to see her again. It moved her that he took the time to come up to see her and reminded her that in mission work, relationships are very meaningful!

Velma recalls a Bible class she taught in Vellore on the book of Ruth. During her discussion, she pointed to Ruth as an example of devotion to her mother-in-law Naomi. One Hindu student who was attending spoke up in surprise and said no! – far from being an example of devotion, Ruth was disrespectful to her mother in law because she did not obey her directions to leave! Velma realized that she was understanding the story from one cultural perspective and the student from another.

Lutheran Society for Missiology