“It’s a beautiful life when you get involved with the ‘others.'” Jim Burmeister should know. He’s been helping the “others” for years now, whether they’re the poor and needy in Zambia, Africa, or an elderly couple at a motel needing a ride home across the country. There was a time when Burmeister lived just for himself. But on a beautiful June day in 1969 everything changed. 

Finding Christ at a Bar

At 18 years old Burmeister bought his first six-pack of beer. The normally shy and quiet kid quickly found himself popular with other kids. He began to party and drink a lot. He met and married a girl named Grace and they had four children. But with the loss of a job, Burmeister found himself drinking more. “Eventually my drinking became more important than my wife and four children,” said Burmeister. 

Then one day in June, 1969, Burmeister pulled into the parking lot of a tavern. He was prepared to wait 20 minutes until it opened. While he waited, he tuned his radio and landed on a station where a preacher was talking. He listened to the message and accepted Christ in the bar’s parking lot that day. “I don’t recall the message,” he admitted, “but that day I responded to the invitation, Praise the Lord!”

The ‘Others’

His daughter first introduced him to the concept of the “others” on their way home from her first semester in college. “Dad, ‘others’ — that’s what this church and school is about!” She was talking about the church and Bible school she’d been attending. “Can you believe that?” said Burmeister. “Not about making her a better Christian or winning the lost to Christ, but ‘others!'” Consumed with a busy store to run, Burmeister said “others” weren’t really on his radar.

Then on Thanksgiving, his store received four 25-pound turkeys that were 3 pounds too big. “I was trying to be obedient to the Lord,” wrote Burmeister. “I was led to donate those four turkeys to Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago.” The mission was 500 miles away, but he made the drive. “The only challenge was [that] I wasn’t comfortable being around the ‘others.'” But as he volunteered for a week as a counselor, the “others” grew on him. That week turned into six weeks and by the end of the time he wasn’t satisfied with simply running his store. He wanted to do more.

Hope Mission is able to build fresh water wells with money from items Burmeister sells.

He got that opportunity when he obtained a second store and needed more help. That’s when he said he was really able to make a difference. 

“Over the next two years we brought five ‘others’ into our home for free room and board, while also giving them a job, a paycheck and a fresh start at life,” Burmeister said of the men he employed. The men came from the Mission and Lester Roloff’s Schools in Corpus Christi, Texas. “That was the beginning of living for ‘others.'” 

Making It Official

After he returned from a trip to visit his missionary daughter and her husband in Africa, he began thinking about how he could raise money and help those he saw in great need overseas. It started with “ends and pieces” as he calls them. Small bits of wood resulting from trimming boards to size. “That was the beginning of sorting, splitting and stacking kindling wood … we’ve been able to sell the kindling wood to campers on vacation. It’s only one thing and a very small part of raising support for missions.”

A grinding mill for corn was built with the help of Hope Mission.

And he’s right about it being a small part of what he does — he raises money for missions through decorative wooden paddles, key holders, Christmas wreaths, tote bags and much more. He even started a 5k run/walk called “George’s Goats for Grammas,” in honor of a friend who, before he passed away, was able to raise enough money from his nursing home bed to buy 1300 goats for the poor in Africa. With that money, he was able to build wells, buy goats, sewing machines, bicycles and a mill for grinding corn into cornmeal for the needy in Africa.

He named his endeavors Hope Mission. “We still sell kindling wood and we have since provided the community in Zambia with hundreds of goats, six fresh water wells, a grinding mill, many bicycles, blankets, shirts, jackets, garden seeds and much more … including HOPE!” 

He still helps the “others” who need a place to stay. “After 36 years of caring for these “others” we have a large building, two stories, with a dormitory with eight beds and a three-bedroom house on two rural acres.” 

His passion may have started with the turkeys and “ends and pieces,” but it’s grown to so much more. Living for the “others” for Burmeister has been “new, exciting, more than I could have ever expected.” “Life has been fulfilling, living … for the “others.”

He also encourages people to start helping the “others.”

“You have, like me, only one life to live for Christ. Then you will meet Him. Will He say, ‘Well done, thy good and faithful servant?’ …You too, will stand before our Lord and Savior one day to give an account of your time and talents!”

“Get involved,” he tells them. “Get next to the ‘others’ in your own life. They are all around you.”

Jim Burmeister operates Hope Missions from his home in Hayward, Wisconsin.