{"id":9987,"date":"2020-08-14T12:36:40","date_gmt":"2020-08-14T16:36:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.presbyterianfoundation.org\/?p=9987"},"modified":"2024-04-05T16:48:27","modified_gmt":"2024-04-05T20:48:27","slug":"living-water-and-love-remembering-pierce-buford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/resources\/news\/living-water-and-love-remembering-pierce-buford\/","title":{"rendered":"\uc0dd\uc218\uc640 \uc0ac\ub791: \ud53c\uc5b4\uc2a4 \ubc84\ud3ec\ub4dc\ub97c \uae30\uc5b5\ud558\uba70"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the world was thirsty, Pierce Buford gave it clean water. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>She did so as a \u201ccyclone of goodness,\u201d in one friend\u2019s words, whose passion, persistence and Southern hospitality knew few bounds. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>After all, she said in a <\/span>2017 interview<\/span><\/span><\/a>, everyone needs water. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Pierce Elizabeth Buford of Oxford, Mississippi, who died July 22 at age 80, was a veteran volunteer for <\/span>\uc138\uacc4\ub97c \uc704\ud55c \uc0dd\uc218<\/span><\/span><\/a>. The Tennessee-based nonprofit, a ministry of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) <\/span>Synod of Living Waters<\/span><\/span><\/a>, trains volunteers to help communities worldwide with water purification and health education. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Before that, she was a development officer with the <\/span>\uc7a5\ub85c\uad50 \uc7ac\ub2e8<\/span><\/span><\/a> from 1992 to 2001. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\ucd1d\ud68c <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"

Pierce Buford<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Once she became part of LWW\u2019s efforts, Buford represented LWW at conferences across the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>At the PC(USA) General Assembly, \u201cshe was the queen of the exhibit hall,\u201d said LWW executive director Steve Young. \u201cEveryone knew to come by the Living Waters for the World booth just to see Pierce, or she was going to track you down.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>LWW\u2019s training arm, Clean Water U, holds regular sessions at Oxford\u2019s <\/span>Camp Hopewell<\/span><\/span><\/a>. At these sessions, Buford kept attendees well supplied with snacks. She\u2019d spend a full day preparing a lavish feast, pressing anyone nearby into service. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>For all her energy and lightheartedness, Young said, Buford struggled for years with health challenges. Having to orchestrate meal preparation from her wheelchair did not slow her down or dampen her enthusiasm, he added.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Kathy Vaughan and her husband, Jerry, were part of Buford\u2019s exhibit team for Living Waters for the World. Vaughan recalled Buford pushing through pain and discomfort as they traveled. She carried a notebook of convention details and her medications and made sure Vaughan knew where to find it \u201cin case I die tonight,\u201d Vaughan said. \u201cThat was Pierce!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>On one trip, Buford was recovering from surgery on a broken hip. \u201cPierce nicknamed me \u2018Cruella\u2019 because I made sure she continued her therapy as we traveled that week. As her health declined and she was no longer able to travel, she often told me she needed a visit from \u2018Cruella\u2019 to push her into getting up and out,\u201d Vaughan said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPierce loved people, her family, LWW and her church,\u201d she added. \u201cThose are what kept her going after many would have given up.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Something else Buford loved: Ole Miss. \u201cShe rubbed that in my face at every opportunity,\u201d Young, a Mississippi State grad, said with a laugh.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>She also took the opportunity to lend her development experience to Clean Water U, teaching potential water teams how to raise money for their efforts.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Developing strengths<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Maggie Hendrix, a friend and colleague from the Presbyterian Foundation, recalled that Buford loved working with then-Executive Vice President Bob Langwig. \u201cHe gave the two of us the freedom to develop our very different strengths so that we could successfully raise money to support the local churches and their missions,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The two often worked with the <\/span>Rev. Dr. C. Kenneth Hall<\/span><\/a>, the 200th moderator of the PC(USA) General Assembly and a minister at large for the Foundation. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cKen told the jokes and preached, Pierce then said they should give and why, and I told them how,\u201d Hendrix said. \u201cWe made a great team.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Troy Marables, now Vice President of Human Resources at the Foundation, worked alongside Buford while he served as a Development Officer for the Presbyterian Foundation. \u201cHer legacy was selfless service,\u201d Marables said. \u201cShe also brought a great deal of joy and life to her work and was an inspiring person to spend time with. I enjoyed working with her and will always remember her encouraging spirit.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Bringing joy to every cause<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Young said Buford worked with Hall on another of her passions: peace in Northern Ireland.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cIf she believed in it, she was 110 percent in it,\u201d he said. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>To honor and remember her, LWW has established the <\/span>Pierce Buford Fund for Clean Water U<\/span><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cShe was all about stewardship being a joyful act as opposed to an obligatory one,\u201d Young said. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Buford, who once described herself as a Martha trying to be more like Mary, brought that joy to everything she took on.<\/span><\/p>\n

\ub0b8\uc2dc \ud06c\ub85c\uc6b0\ub294 \uc778\ub514\uc560\ub098\uc8fc \ud3ec\ud2b8 \uc6e8\uc778\uc5d0 \uac70\uc8fc\ud558\ub294 \uc791\uac00\uc774\uc790 \ud3b8\uc9d1\uc790, \ub3d9\ubb3c \uac74\uac15 \uc804\ubb38\uac00\uc785\ub2c8\ub2e4. \uadf8\ub140\ub294 \ub2e4\uc74c\uc744 \uc878\uc5c5\ud588\uc2b5\ub2c8\ub2e4. <\/em>\ub8e8\uc774\ube4c \uc7a5\ub85c\uad50 \uc2e0\ud559\uad50<\/i><\/a>. \uc774 \uae30\uc0ac\uc5d0 \ub300\ud55c \uc758\uacac\uc744 \ucee4\ubba4\ub2c8\ucf00\uc774\uc158 \ubc0f \ub9c8\ucf00\ud305 \ub2f4\ub2f9 \ubd80\uc0ac\uc7a5\uc778 Robyn Davis Sekula\uc5d0\uac8c \ubcf4\ub0b4\uc8fc\uc138\uc694. <\/em>robyn.sekula@presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com<\/span><\/em><\/a>. <\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the world was thirsty, Pierce Buford gave it clean water. \u00a0She did so as a \u201ccyclone of goodness,\u201d in one friend\u2019s words, whose passion, persistence and Southern hospitality knew […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":9990,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9987"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45932,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9987\/revisions\/45932"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}