Done For the Year

Today was the last day of work for the rest of this year. Next week the Berean office will be closed. We will not be working again until January 2nd, 2018.  We had so many wonderful volunteers today we were able to finish all of this weeks work today.  Below Gertrude, Vonnie, Eva Jean and Ron are busy opening the mail.

 Mom and Chuck were put right to work on applying the labels.

 Below Bill is answering questions from Marvin.

 Jan is getting the stamps from the cupboard. 

 Leila, Ron and Marvin were soon moved to the other room to work on stuffing envelopes. Robin was busy keeping everything running smoothly in this room.

 Below Bill and Marvin are visiting with Kathy about some of the letters. 

 We had a visitor today, Marie brought her daughter Laura. Laura lives and works in Mexico and has come home for Christmas. 

 Above and below they are just finishing up with the stuffing and sealing of envelopes. 

 We took a break for lunch after finishing the studies and request letters.

After lunch we were able to get the Bibles out for the week. We had a very good day for our last day of work of 2017. Thankful for all the help today and all of 2017. What a GREAT year this has been. 

Good Gifts

The program is growing again. We had more mail than usual and more Bible requests than last week. That is always a good sign that we are doing something right with this program. We had a brand new volunteer today, at least brand new in our office, Gertrude has been grading the intermediate studies for a few years but today she showed up at the Berean office to work.

We won't say how old Gertrude is but she was the oldest working with us today, hint...she is in her 90s. We were thankful she came as we were a little light on volunteers today. We were thrilled when Joyce and Jan came. Below Joyce is working on labels.

 Bill is hard at work on the computer while Kathy is reading letters. 

 Bruce and Chuck were kept busy with the mail and letters. At the other table Gertrude and Eva Jean were kept busy opening the mail. 

 Below are our 4 readers of the day, Leila, Jan, Marvin and Kathy. We had many request letters today and these 4 were kept busy.

 As soon as the mail was all opened and read, Chuck, Bruce, Eva Jean, Joyce and Marvin went to work on stuffing the studies. 

 Robin was in charge of keeping everyone busy and did a great job. We were able to get them all stuffed by lunch time. 

 After lunch everyone left except Robin and I. Robin got the Bibles wrapped and stamped while I worked on entering the Bible requests and printing out the address labels. By the time she had to leave I was working on the last sheet of labels. 

We were able to have all the mail plus all the Bibles that were going out today ready for when Bill Schick, the Berean director was due to arrive. He had a funeral this morning but promised to come this afternoon to mail out everything we had ready. We wanted to get these Bibles out today as just maybe they will arrive on or near Christmas for the prisoners requesting them. What a good gift that would be, the best GIFT of ALL! We will not be working on Wednesday as for the second time in 2 weeks we were able to get both Tuesday's and Wednesday's work finished in one day. What a gift for us, a free day.

Another Good Day

We had another great day at the Berean office. So many willing workers that not only did we get today's work done but tomorrow's work too. It helped that there only about half the mail we usually get.

 Above Bill is trying to look up an address on his phone from a prisoner that sent in a study with only his name, number, city and state. No street address, or prison name.  Thankfully google knows. Below Vonnie is opening the mail.

 Above Marvin is getting ready to open the letters and below Bruce is opening studies. 

 We had a new volunteer today, Benj works at Cat and Cat gives their workers a day off to volunteer somewhere. Last week Benj volunteered at the South Side Academy but they ran out of ceiling tiles so today he came here and was put to work by his dad, Marvin. 

 Marvin and Benj were a couple of our readers today. 

 When Bill arrived we asked him if he would mind making the coffee as David, who usually makes it, was not able to come today.

  David had a meeting while his wife Kathy went to TAG along with a lot of our other volunteers. We NEVER complain about TAG, that's where most of this wonderful help actually came from. One TAG meeting they asked Diane and I to give a talk about Berean, we did, showing the entire group what we were doing. We asked for help and help came in abundance.  In the picture below you will see lots of laughter. Poor Bruce got caught sitting in Chuck's chair. In his defense someone took the name off of the back of the chair.

 Speaking of chairs, below Jeanette is sitting in MY chair. When I asked if she would like to just stay there she quickly got up. We had a laugh at that too. 

 Below Jan, Benj and Marvin are busy at work reading request letters. 

 Bruce and Chuck are still chuckling over Bruce getting caught in the wrong chair as they are working on the labels. 

 Joyce was given the job separating the studies. That is Robin in the background. Robin is the organizer of that room, along with making all the copies, she keeps everyone stuffing the correct studies. 

 In the picture below these volunteers are actually doing tomorrow's work. They are stuffing, wrapping and labeling Bibles that will be mailed out today instead of tomorrow. 

Robin kept Chuck, Vonnie, Jeanette, Benj, Bill and Bruce working in an assembly line to get everything done by lunch time. We really do have a wonderful time processing the studies and filling the Bible request. Thankful to be working with so many amazing volunteers. 

November News Letter

We had a skid load of Bibles delivered this morning at the Berean office. Thankful Robin and Eldon were willing to help with the unloading. While the Bibles were being unloaded Cindy was busy typing in the requests for the week.

As soon as the Bibles were unloaded Robin and Mary went right to work stuffing, wrapping and labeling the Bibles heading out this week.

Bill arrived as we were busy to mail out the Bibles but we weren't quite finished. He left with the promise he would be back to load them into his truck and haul them to the post office. We sure are thankful that we now have strong men doing the hauling. We needed to order supplies today. Another 10,000 number 10 envelopes, 10 boxes of paper, 10,000 business reply envelopes and more wrapper sleeves. We are very thankful for those that donate money for these supplies. It always shocks me how much we spend on that.
To see the Berean new's letter click HERE.

After ThanksGiving But STILL Thankful

Another wonderful morning of fellowship while we worked on the prison Bible studies and Bible requests. Tuesday mornings are such a blessed time with such wonderful volunteers. We work together in harmony, with prayers going up for the prisoners, this program and each other. There really is nothing sweeter in the eyes of God to see His children serving and loving HIM and each other. I'm very blessed to be allowed to participate in this program and if you are looking for a way to serve there are many many opportunities with the Berean Ministry. Below are a few of the volunteers working at the Berean office today. Vonnie and Marvin are working behind Rhoda and Shirley.

 Marvin is busy applying the address labels to envelopes.

 Marvin and Kathy were the readers today while Bill is working on the computer entering the lessons. 

 Vonnie is busy separating the studies by numbers. 

 Bill is getting the Bible wrappers ready for Marvin to enter while Robin is busy making copies. 

 Rhoda, Shirley, Vonnie and Chuck are filling envelopes and once they are stuffed with the new lesson, sealing them. 

 Below Bill is getting ready to print out the certificates of those prisoners that have finished all 50 lessons in this study. 

The prisoners love the certificates. We got a letter from one prisoner who wrote, "this study is the first thing I've EVER finished in my life. Believe me that certificate was proudly hanging on his cell wall. Sometimes the letters cause us to burst out laughing. Last week we had one man write that he was sentenced to 150 years and would we be willing to help him when he gets out. Most of the letters that come are requesting a Bible but a lot of them are thank you letters. They really appreciate the comments the graders leave on the lessons. The graders in this program are most important. Sometimes this is the only outside communication a prisoner has. They anxiously await for this piece of mail. If you are a grader we THANK YOU from the bottom of our heart. One updated note for graders ANY studies going to ANY of the jails or prisons in MICHIGAN MUST grade in black or blue ink. Michigan no longer allows any studies going through with RED INK.

A Good Day

We had another productive day at the Berean office. Lots got done and lots of volunteers to do the work. Thankful for each and every one!

Experienced and Efficient

We didn't have a lot of mail today and blame that on the Veterans Day Holiday Saturday. For some reason when there is a holiday over the weekend or on a Monday we just don't get much mail. We had a good group of volunteers to come in and process what mail we did get. Leila, Dave and Kathy were our readers today.

 Bill had the main computer and runs it well. 

Eva Jean is working on labels below. 

 Once the mail was entered on the computer, the labels put on the envelopes and the envelopes put on the studies we migrated to the other room to work on stuffing the next set of lessons for each prisoner. Below Jeanette is checking with Chuck about the spelling on a name while Vonnie and Jan put the studies in order. Shirley and Glenna were stuffing and sealing envelopes. 

 Below Joyce and Leila are probably discussing really important items of the day, maybe what is for lunch but more than likely something with the prison ministry. 

 Dave and Bill were in the other room working on the computer.

 Below we are just about finished for the day. These volunteers are experienced on how to get these jobs done and done efficiently. 

 We had a good time today working together and got everything accomplished that needed to be done. Very thankful for such willing volunteers that not only work hard but have fun working together.