Sig Gunderson
“For People Like Me”

“Sig was a small man with a Goliath personality,” says Fred Lehman, a longtime counselor at Hope Ministries’ Bethel Mission. “He backed many a staff member into the corner with his instructive finger, warning us to always love the men God sent us.”

Sig Gundersen’s life was ordered by the years he spent in the military. But in his mid-20s, he started drinking and, as a result, says Fred, “He’d often sober up and realize he’d met and married a woman during an alcoholic blackout.”

When Sig’s military career ended, he continued to drink and wandered aimlessly around the United States, until he finally landed at Bethel Mission. Here, Christ welcomed, saved and changed him.

Sig never really left the Mission after that, Fred muses. “He served on our staff as a canteen clerk then as head of the laundry for 15 years. When his health forced him into retirement, he moved into a small room at a local hotel but continued to walk the long hill from downtown Des Moines to eat and fellowship with the staff and guests at Bethel Mission.

Sig’s life continued to reflect his military background. “He was extremely organized in his life, attire and possessions. He would give away his older furniture, replacing them with carefully chosen items that fit spaces precisely,” Fred recalls. On the walls hung photos of several overseas orphans Sig supported. A telegraph operator in the Army, he continued to communicate through a telegraph pad with friends he’d made over shortwave radio throughout the years.

Sig Gundersen quietly moved on to his real home in heaven November 2006, leaving his entire estate to Hope Ministries—a significant inheritance he’d received from his mother’s estate a few years earlier.  A year before his death, Sig told Chief Development Officer David Burrier, “I want to give my entire inheritance to Hope Ministries so that after I die, people like me have a place to eat, too.

The staff, volunteers and homeless guests who knew and loved Sig Gundersen will miss his droll smile, his wit and wisdom and his presence. We praise God for the time we shared with this “small Goliath.”