The Meet Hope Podcast
The Meet Hope Podcast
Second Listen: Trying Something New with Bill & Kelly Walenda: A Volunteer Story
This episode originally aired in February 2023, but we think it's a great story to take a second to listen to -- or give it a second listen! After you listen, go find your team at meethope.org/teams!
Thanks for being a part of the HOPE community as we continue conversations about faith and hope! You can learn more at meethope.org or find us on socials @meethopechurch. Join in for worship on Sundays at meethope.online.church! Have a question? Contact us at podcast@meethope.org.
Enjoy what you heard? Be sure to rate us on Apple Podcasts and click the subscribe button so you don't miss new episodes every Monday!
Hello Hope Podcast listeners. We live in a fast-paced world where new material and ideas are thrown at you 24-7. Some of you told us this and said I want to listen to everything, but it's hard to catch up. Well, we're here to help. We desire to be a place that is grateful for and respectful of your precious time, and so to serve you best, we will every so often be resharing past episodes that we call Second Listen, because we think they are worth taking a second to replay. Even if you are an every week listener, we think having a second listen to these episodes will make an impact on your weekend life, and if you have heard this one but are behind on new episodes, now is a great time to catch up on any others you have missed. Thank you, and here we go.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Meet Hope podcast, where we have conversations about faith and hope. Hope is one church made of people living out their faith through two expressions in person and online. We believe a hybrid faith experience can lead to a growing influence in our community and our world for the sake of others. Welcome to Hope in our world for the sake of others Welcome to Hope.
Speaker 3:Hey, welcome everyone. Thanks for listening to another episode of the Meet Hope podcast. I'm Rick, one of the pastors at Hope, and today we have an interview with Bill and Kelly Walenda. Welcome, hi. Hello, thank you so much for being here with us, and you guys know that this is part of a two-episode segment where we're going to be looking at the worship plus two and really focusing on the plus twos, and so this episode is about volunteerism, and next episode will be about small groups, and so, before we begin, though, I want to ask both of you to just share a little bit about yourselves, like you know, about how long you've been married, about your family, maybe what you do for a living, things like that. So who wants to go first?
Speaker 4:You guys going to arm wrestle or just no, no, I'm going to enjoy letting Bill go first.
Speaker 5:Oh great. Okay, so I'm Bill Walenda. I own two the Little Gym franchises, so gymnastics and fitness classes for kids. We've been coming to Hope for about 17 to 18 years and we've been married since 1991, through the math but we've been together since 1983 in high school, so almost 40 years. So it'll be 40 years in October.
Speaker 3:Now you told me earlier a little bit of information about how you guys first met.
Speaker 5:Correct. We met when we were two years old. Our parents played on, our dads played on the same softball team, and so we. They came to a barbecue at my house and then we went to high school together after that.
Speaker 3:So it was love at first sight. At two years old it was.
Speaker 5:It was.
Speaker 4:It was.
Speaker 5:She was about the same size.
Speaker 4:Oh, wow. And now it's a free for all. And we do have three kids, all grown Our youngest is finishing up college and they've all been here to Hope and involved in one way or another. And so we've had those experiences as parents of children involved in the Hope Youth Ministry. And I am personally, by way of work I'm an attorney, I work at one of our larger health systems and I also oversee our privacy program.
Speaker 3:Great, okay, thanks for sharing that. So how did you guys first start attending Hope?
Speaker 4:So we've told this story at various meetings and the short of it is dear friends of ours had come here to the family Christmas service and they knew that we were a bit disenfranchised with where we had been going and they said you've got to go, and so we waited till the next Christmas and we went to that family service.
Speaker 4:Took it very literally and that's what prompted us and just thoroughly enjoyed it. Kids enjoyed it, we enjoyed it and we couldn't say enough things about it. And then I said well, let's see what hope is like when it's not Christmas, and here we are.
Speaker 3:So this is an aside, but this is so. So this is an example of invite. So you can invite someone and it takes a year, it might, before they will choose to take you up on that invitation. That's good to know.
Speaker 4:But I'm glad we did.
Speaker 3:I'll have you back for that interview. We'll talk about invitation. So you started attending about 17, 18 years ago. When did you first start volunteering at Hope?
Speaker 4:So I was probably the first one to volunteer the two of us, I can't remember exactly when, but it was some years in, as we were working and had kids and built out of town a lot. I do specifically remember Pastor Jeff's assistant, Joanne at the time so we were coming frequently enough recognized me and just walked up to me and asked if I'd be interested in volunteering once a month at the lobby as a lobby greeter.
Speaker 3:So you joined. That was your first volunteer role was a lobby greeter on a. Sunday morning Once a month. Once a month is how I started. Okay, all right. And Bill, how about you? When did you first volunteer?
Speaker 5:It was probably a couple of years after that and my first experience volunteering was when we used to do the craft fair here and sponsored by the men's group, and I was asked to to volunteer. We got here at six, 30 in the morning. We were unloading cars and for for the crafty people and setting up their booths and they were so, so, very just impressed and thankful for all the help. So I kept doing it.
Speaker 3:Right, okay, so that was a kind of a once a year or twice a year commitment. When did you move to a like more of a regular volunteering role?
Speaker 5:So probably around eight, eight years ago or so, I kind of felt the calling to to work food pantry and I knew we had one. So I contacted Tracy Davis who was running it at the time. We operated out of a little storage closet in the back. We were serving about 40 families a month and I said, hey, I want to get involved in this. So that's where I started shopping and ordering the food and accepting the deliveries and things like that.
Speaker 3:Right, that's right. And so then that was about eight years ago. You said Correct. And then, around 2017, our church here at Hope, we decided to launch a second campus. I know you guys remember that, but we launched that around the end of 2017 into 20, I think it was the end of 2017, 2018, 20. At any rate, you guys were a part of that. How did that happen?
Speaker 5:Well, Well, as you certainly know, Rick, you are the king of volunteerism.
Speaker 4:So you asked me but Kelly go ahead. Vicki came up to me.
Speaker 5:Vicki.
Speaker 4:Cruz, vicki Cruz, and she was then also on staff and said you've heard that we're moving, or starting, rather, a satellite campus in Mount Laurel. Would you be willing to serve there as well? And I said how often? What do you need? And that's when she said as often as you can, and would you be willing to be regular attenders, which is different than right volunteering, as you're pointing out. So I said that sounds interesting. Well, let me go home and talk to Bill, which I then did do, because Bill cannot explain how we decided.
Speaker 5:So we live about two minutes from here and I thought, sure we're going to get up at six in the morning and go all the way to Mount Laurel, set up and go to service and then clean up and be back at noon. Sure honey, that'd be great.
Speaker 4:But we were at a place, so for a lot of people listening, they have young kids. Our kids were older now and not coming every Sunday and we had the luxury and flexibility to do that and off we went. We started meeting you there Sunday morning.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, and it was a fun time, wasn't it? It was amazing Actually love it, miss it sometimes Fun time, wasn't it?
Speaker 4:It was amazing Actually love it, miss it sometimes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so how did it so? That experience really, I think, elevated your volunteer experience, wouldn't you say Absolutely. And so you moved from not only serving on a monthly basis in the lobby, kelly, you were serving then weekly setting up on a regular basis as well, on a setup team, and Bill, you took on the role of being a monthly team leader, right, and then you also because we give out multiple roles back then you were doing, what other things were you doing?
Speaker 5:So I started as just a volunteer, you know, setting up and cleaning up and then moved to a team leader. So I was in charge of all the setup and cleanup, where everything went, how to set it up, and then after that I was kind of dragged into the tech booth, which was super new for me and a little scary, but I was happy to do it. We needed the help and so I ran the sound system. I learned how to run the lights Never actually did that in a service, but I could and then I was asked to host, which for me was a big stretch.
Speaker 3:And by hosting you mean up in front of everybody.
Speaker 5:On the stage leading, welcoming everybody that's the easy part. Saying the prayer for everybody For me, that's a big hard part for me. That really took me out of my comfort zone. And making the announcements.
Speaker 3:That's great and so that. So I'm going to go back to Kelly for a second. So, kelly, tell us. So how did your experience at Mount Laurel lead to the next step? How did you start volunteering? What's the newest area you're volunteering?
Speaker 4:So the newest place I'm volunteering is on our lead team and you know that's obviously a big part of that is Pastor Jeff and looking at the dynamic and what he knows. But for me it went from doing some things that come naturally I'm an extrovert greeting people, welcoming people to what wasn't in my comfort zone and didn't know how I would play a role there and took a leap of faith and appreciated that the lead team, the management team and the pastors here felt it would be a good fit, and I'm in year four of that.
Speaker 3:Okay, all right and Bill your roles now. Since COVID, we've taken the Mount Laurel campus and we absorbed it into one campus again, here at Voorhees, and your roles have changed as well. How are you serving here at Hope?
Speaker 5:So I'm still serving at the food pantry. I order all the food and accept all the deliveries, which have gone from about 2,000 pounds a month to it's about 10,000 pounds or 12,000 pounds a month, that's a lot of grocery carts.
Speaker 3:That's a lot of grocery carts.
Speaker 5:That's a lot of grocery carts, a lot of grocery bags, so I still do that, and then I am the producer in the main services on Sundays, yeah.
Speaker 3:So let me ask you. So we're talking about Worship, Plus 2, and we're doing this, you know so here, the first of the plus two is volunteerism. The other plus is small groups, which will be next week. But let me ask you both did you volunteer first or be in a small group first?
Speaker 4:I happen to have been in one small group before I became a regular volunteer, and again that was based on work life, home life and when Bill could be around. So the first one I did was a small group in the chapel called Chasing Daylight. I loved it but couldn't make it work. And then volunteerism is really where I connected.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 5:All right, and how about you?
Speaker 5:Bill. So I volunteered at the food pantry. But when Jeff started, he talks often about the Bible study for men who don't do Bible study and I thought, hey, that's me. I didn't know if you know, the acts were at the beginning of the book or at the end of the book, so I wasn't sure I wanted to. I was afraid to get in a small group because I didn't think I knew enough to even participate. So this had my name right, all over it, right? So I joined that one.
Speaker 3:Okay, all right. So let me ask you this how did your volunteerism at Hope impact your spiritual growth, or did it impact your spiritual growth?
Speaker 4:It did, and thinking about this and getting ready for today. To be honest, I didn't think it would.
Speaker 4:I was volunteering because it's nice to give back, because somebody specifically asked Not sure, right, if I would have stepped up because that wasn't my journey, right asked not sure right if I would have stepped up because that wasn't my journey Right and didn't see or appreciate how it would make me grow as a person and what I saw the more I was here, the more I spent time physically here, but meeting people and what is the cloth of hope just gave me this great comfort and a desire to go on my relationship with Jesus, and I wasn't raised to think of it in terms of that and so that for me it's everything is relational Relationship here with the others in our community and then to Jesus, and it just naturally sparked it. And then that led to more volunteering, more reading of books and then more small groups.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you both know that I say this often, that I ask someone to volunteer for the church because I know when that person gets connected to the body of Christ by serving that, whatever it is they're going to do, that their life is going to have added meaning, they're going to grow in their faith, and it's all because of that connection to the church. Bill, you would agree with that, wouldn't you? A?
Speaker 5:hundred percent yeah to the church Bill. You would agree with that, wouldn't you? A hundred percent yeah. For me, when I volunteered, or started volunteering, I found that you know, it changed my whole life, quite frankly.
Speaker 5:And I went from a life of, you know, doing life for my benefit to really a life of service, and I run my businesses that way. I do everything in my life to to serve others and, um, you know, for for me, that's that's what it's all about is we're we're put here for a reason, and my reason is to serve others.
Speaker 3:Wow, that's great. That's great. So and I know you've shared this a little bit but did you have fears, worries, concerns, when you first started volunteering?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think it would be unnatural to not unless you've done it somewhere else, in another church, maybe For me. You know, bill was talking about how he's maybe physically behind the scenes food pantry where I was being asked was to be up front, and you're like wow, I'm welcoming people into God's house, right? So what does that mean? But everybody who has come before us always helps you. They put you at ease, they tell you what to expect, and so you can't be afraid of that. You have to be willing to realize that you might make mistakes, it might feel awkward, but the world isn't actually looking at you the way you think. They are and they're happy to be welcomed. And so the other thing that I would say is a fear is do I really have to commit forever?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you're committed for life, so they ask you to come right.
Speaker 4:One Sunday a month, and if you're really busy and have a lot going on, that can seem overwhelming, but don't please let that ever deter somebody, because you can try something, you can shadow people, you can see what's a good fit. None of this has to be a forever. It's really finding the best place your gifts can be used.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and what would you say to someone about serving or volunteering at Hope for the first time?
Speaker 5:I would say just do it, enjoy it and the you shouldn't have a fear, because we're, they're just people, right? And that's that's something that stopped me for a long time, as I was thought everybody's going to be thumping Bibles at me and and hitting me over the head with Jesus, and and it doesn't. They'll meet you wherever you are, wherever you are, and whatever you can give people are happy to to get that.
Speaker 3:Yeah that's great, yeah, and there's so many ways to be connected and we really want to encourage everyone to find one of those ways. Find your passion. Find a thing that works for you, built for you the food pantry. I remember you coming and saying I want to get involved because that was a passion for you. And so, find your passion, use your gifts. If you are listening, you want to know more information about how to figure out your passions and your gifts. There's going to be a small group that's going to be offered beginning March 6th, called Hardwired, and you'll be able to find out more information about that, and I'm sure it'll be in the show notes at the bottom of the episode, Because we all agree it'll change your life Absolutely.
Speaker 4:I agree 100%.
Speaker 3:So we want to encourage each of you to step out. Absolutely, I agree, 100%, yeah. So we want to encourage each of you to step out. Try, because who knows where God might take you. I'm sure if we were to ask Bill and Kelly from 17 years ago, would you ever find yourselves in front of a podcast microphone talking about volunteerism.
Speaker 4:I would have laughed.
Speaker 3:Absolutely not.
Speaker 4:I would have laughed.
Speaker 3:Hey, so we end each of these episodes by asking the question what is bringing you hope today? So you both got to answer that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's a big loaded question. What I will share is you do make relationships through volunteering. You will make them through small groups and in those relationships I've come to be able to rely and lean on people. And I was going through some tough decision making at work and people here at Hope really carried me through which of course, includes my husband here and through prayer, and in the last three to four weeks I have been able to redefine my role, have very healthy conversations with leadership, which I am sure I wouldn't have been able to do without my faith, and it gives me hope that I can grow and I can give back, whether it be at work or at church. Awesome, thank you.
Speaker 5:For me through volunteering and through living a life of service. I've I found that my team at work all kind of are turning that same way. They're getting involved in their churches, they're getting involved in social activities. They're they're really living their lives of service. So it's great to see from me and that just gives me hope for the future.
Speaker 3:What a great influence you are on people, on the people you work with. Yeah, thanks, wow. So hey, thank you both, bill Kelly, thank you.
Speaker 5:Thank you listeners.
Speaker 3:We're so glad that you joined us for today and everyone, have a great day.
Speaker 2:Thanks for being a part of the Hope Community as we continue our conversations about faith and hope. If you don't already, please join us for worship on Sundays or on demand. You can learn more at meethopeorg or find us on socials at meethopechurch.