The value of the items taken during a burglary at the New Hope Lutheran Church in Pacific wasn’t much.

According to Pastor Mark Gause, thieves broke in sometime during the early morning hours of Nov. 14, snagging about $150 in donations earmarked for the church’s charitable efforts, a camera and a video camera.

Although every asset is precious to the church – which hosts a weekly food bank on Tuesdays and is the gathering place for community events such as AA meetings and Boy Scout gatherings – the burglars caused more harm by breaking the front door and costing Gause precious time he could have spent on charitable efforts.

“They didn’t have to bust our door,” Gause said. “The biggest thing is frustration and the foolishness. If you want to break in and do something, I guess I can understand that. But at this time of the year, we’re so busy. To have to do the processing of finding what’s missing, finding how do we recover it and how do we reorganize this. Plus the emotional package that goes with that. With all we do, really? But churches are easy targets, there is usually something laying around.”

Gause discovered the break-in after arriving to open up the church between 7:30 and 8 a.m.

“I should have discovered it sooner,” Gause said. “My first clue should have been that the door was broke. You know how you go on autopilot? I put the key in and got ready to start my day and when I opened the door, I saw the back door was open. Then it all registered.”

Gause called the police department, then began to assess the damage.

“Drawers were open, papers strewn about, stuff turned upside down,” he said. “We just had a fundraiser and we had $150 that I hadn’t had a chance to deposit yet. There were a couple of small electronic things that I haven’t found where they usually are, a camera and a flip video camera.”

Despite the loss, he said the break-in could have been worse.

“They had scouted through every place and had piled things up. To me it looked like they were going to go back and pick them up,” Gause said. “There was a laptop in the backroom they had unplugged and set out. They opened up all the doors and near as I can tell they went through every place. So we’re pretty sure somebody had interrupted them.”

Gause continued:

“My first thought was – and I told the police officer this, ‘You know if you just ask around, somebody would give you keys to this place,'” he said. “Half the town has keys to this place. We try to be a part of the community. We host 12-step programs, Boy Scouts and the food bank program. We give pastoral care to anybody who needs it.”

Gause said the break-in didn’t hamper the church’s annual Thanksgiving basket handout, which provided a holiday dinner for 200 needy residents this past week.

The real impact comes later, he said.

“Losing $150 dollars, that’s money that was going to get food, but it won’t stop things,” Gause said, adding that the church is always looking for food and cash donations to help out.

“We need canned food staples, things like proteins, vegetables, soup, peanut butter,” he said. “Those things are pretty universal. And the first best way to help is always cash because we can leverage that. Right now, our Thanksgiving is OK. We’ve got Christmas coming up and even harder is all those weeks in February and January, where all the energy often wears down for people.”

For those interested in donating to the church, call Gause at 253-335-4032 or stop by the church at 603 3rd Ave. S., Pacific.