Happy Helpers

We walked in a few minutes late to find the Berean office full of happy helpers. Such a wonderful sight and even better, everyone was hard at work opening the mail, working on the computers, reading letters and applying labels.

 Above Leila, Marvin and David are reading the letters that came in this week while Bill and Marie enter the studies on the computer. Below Bruce, Marvin and Chuck are working on one table while Shirley, Eva Jean and Vonnie work on the second table. 

 Above Bill is busy entering while Marvin reads letters. 

 See that yellow thing in front of Marvin? That is one of our handy dandy letter openers. We actually wear these things out with the amount of mail that comes each week. Below Rhoda is just getting ready to sit at the second table to read letters. 

 Above David is giving advice on how to handle a difficult letter to Shirley, pictured below.

Eva Jean opened an envelope that contained 2 million dollars. 

 We are not sure how a prisoner got $2,000,000.00 when locked up in jail but it was sure nice that they donated it to us. We have never seen a million dollar bill but it must be almost legal tender as it came from a Federal penitentiary. It must be one where they make money. We will just hang on to these bills and hang them up on the wall. 

 Kathy came in just a little late this morning but there were still plenty of letters still to be read.

 With so many great helpers we had time to enjoy sitting down for lunch today. After lunch Bill, Marvin and I entered the Bible requests the others went to work in the other room stuffing the next set of lessons for each prisoner. Marie kept everyone busy with the correct study while Eva Jean, Rhoda, Jeanette, Bruce, Marvin, Vonnie and Chuck stuffed envelopes. 

 Once the stuffing is done the likkers come out. We are thankful to have a way to seal envelopes. 

The last job of the afternoon was to make a back up and close down the computer program. Marvin was teaching Bill how to do this as the other person that should be doing this is an old dog that can't seem to learn new tricks (me). In my defense that was something I never had to do at our old office. The internet backed it up automatically. Here we do not have internet and we are usually so busy I forget that last step of the day. 

 This truly is a happy office and a wonderful place to spend the day. Some of the letters today were so touching. One person wrote that when she went to jail she lost all she had then became involved with our Bible study and gained EVERYTHING.
NOTICE: There will be no work on THURSDAY March 2nd at the Berean office. 

Good Attitudes

The group that comes in to volunteer on Thursdays were very thankful when a couple of the Tuesday volunteers came in to help. We had a lot of mail PLUS 165 Bibles to mail out. Below Bill is working on entering the studies. With his help we were easily able to keep up with the volunteers opening the mail.

 Joyce, Edie, Anna and Roma opened mail while Chuck applied labels. 

 After the last envelop was opened those 4 ladies below went right to work applying labels and stamps.

As soon as the studies were finished, we all moved into the other room to start labeling Bibles. We were pushed to finish by noon and didn't quite make it but everyone was more than willing to stay to finish. So very thankful for the attitude of willingness that comes from the amazing Berean volunteers.

Priceless

As President's day was yesterday and the post office was closed, I wasn't sure how today would go at the Berean office with not having any mail today. But everyone that came kept busy with lots of other jobs. A pallet load of Bibles was delivered at 9:00 am. Thankfully David and Marie were there to help unload them off the truck. The first job of the day was to start wrapping those Bibles for the requests that came in last week.

As more workers arrived more Bibles got wrapped.

 We had 165 requests come in last week which was more than double from the week before. Bill and I entered the names and addresses on the computer then printed out the Bible labels.

Once the Bibles were finished these helpful volunteers went right to work folding studies and filling boxes.

We finished up around 11:00 am enjoyed a leisurely lunch then cleaned up the office and left for the day. Ellen will be picking up the mail on Thursday morning and there is going to be a lot of mail. We will be working at this office Thursday starting at 9:00 am if anyone would like to join us. The work is fun, the fellowship is uplifting and the satisfaction of a job well done is priceless.

From Start to Finish

We had a really good day at the Berean office from the start at 9:00 am to the finish just before lunch.

Bill has been given the job of entering and is determined to learn this computer program. Below Joyce is reading a long letter while Jan is opening mail so fast her hand is a blur. 

Marvin, David and Kathy read letters. Some were so touching they read them out loud to us other workers. The heart of this part of the ministry is reading the request letters that come. Some of these are heart breaking, some are touching, some are funny and some are simple requests. 

Below Shirley is opening a request letter and behind Shirley hard at work applying labels is Jeanette. 

Below is Brad. I met him today for the first time. He came to the office to pick up studies for grading for his church. His church people got involved in grading and love doing it. Aunt Bernie use to take them to TEMCO for him to pick up but she is in the hospital so he drove out to us to get them directly. 

Our next job was to bring all the studies into this room for separating and stuffing envelopes. Each person grabs a pile and goes right to work. Have I ever mentioned how blessed we are with amazing volunteers? They truly ARE amazing. 

One of the not so fun jobs is sealing envelopes. Below Kathy is holding one of the 'likkers'. We all like our likker in this office as each week we seal hundreds of envelopes. 

Marie and her family are in Mexico this week so Bill grabbed the broom swept the office and collected all the garbage, all the things Marie does. A big thank you to both Marie and Bill. Some of us don't even see the mess (me) but evidently it bothers some people. Marvin was checking something on the computer. 

Just as we were leaving Evie and Randy stopped in to check out the Berean office and pick up studies. I was showing them around and found a box of 49 & 50s that hadn't been processed yet. They were going over to Marvin's house next so I sent that box with them to give to Marvin. He will want them processed and will make each one a completion certificate to send with the lessons for the inmate. We really did have a wonderful day from the start to the finish.

Thursday's 2 Workers

Roma and Edie were the volunteers today at the Berean office. Chuck would have come but we called to cancel him when we knew we were going to be finished by 10:15 am. The Bibles were labeled and loaded first.

 Then the few studies that came in today's mail was processed. Below Edie is turning down the thermostat. We do that before leaving the office to save on propane.

We had a good week, were able to process quite a few studies and over a hundred Bibles. Thankful for all the volunteers that came in this week Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.