A friend of mine from Florida, whom I’ve come to know through Hope’s disaster response work over the years, has a favorite saying. “Semper Gumby” is a vital attitude, he likes to say, to bring into a disaster setting, or onto a disaster-impacted worksite. The volunteers may be fully prepared to serve in a particular fashion, or to tackle a specific task; but then the situation and the circumstances will very often call for a different response. Flexibility is super-important, we’ve learned through the years, when it comes to disaster response ministry.

“Semper Gumby” is a fun way of saying that we need to be “always flexible,” in our approach to many kinds of ministry. Here’s an example from our own congregation.

Many of you are familiar with Hope’s Touched By Hope ministry. For over a decade, we have sponsored an annual medical-dental clinic at our church, to provide a wide range of free services to community members. During the pandemic years, we had to put Touched By Hope on “pause.” Last November, we were excited to put this event on again, for the first time since 2019. We advertised and publicized, organized volunteers, and had everything ready to go … but a very small amount of community guests showed up. It was a strange, alien feeling, to have so many willing volunteers fired up and ready to serve, with so very little to do.

A similar experience occurred with Hope’s most recent Hope Chest ministry event, and so we’ve been re-thinking our approach. While we may be feeling sad that we can’t run some of our favorite social ministries in the same old familiar ways, “Semper Gumby” is an attitude that we have adopted here at Hope.

Instead of having a big, multi-faceted, one-day Touched By Hope event this year in November, we’ve shifted our planning toward a series of smaller, more varied Touched By Hope events throughout the year. In August we had a successful Touched By Hope School Supplies Drive, and helped a large number of local students from families in need. Volunteers from our church have organized Touched By Hope ESL Classes, starting this month. Our Touched By Hope Ukraine Grant Program is assisting refugee families in our area this fall. Plans are in the works for a Touched By Hope Dental Clinic down the road, a Touched By Hope Clothing Drive, and perhaps some other local mission events, too, under the Touched By Hope umbrella (or “brand”).

When it comes to sharing our faith, and living out the love of Jesus in our community, it’s good to be flexible! “Semper Gumby!”

In Christ,

Pastor Wayne Puls