Job Well Done

We had quite a bit of mail today. Below Shirley, Eva Jean, Vonnie and mom are opening a bunch of the studies.

 Leila, Marvin and David are busy with the letters while Bill is working on the second computer.

Marvin worked on the 3rd computer today and we were all grateful we HAVE 3 computers. We had a little problem and it really was all my fault. We had so much data on the computers from the 68,000 prisoners on the rolls that Marvin suggested deleting all those from before 2008 to make the computers run faster. I thought that was a wonderful idea and told him to go ahead but what I didn't realize was it also deleted anyone that was just doing studies and had not requested a Bible from us. 

 Thankfully Marvin made a back up so he worked on the 3rd computer fixing my mistakes. We were thankful when Bill and Joan arrived with a couple of their girls. Bill was put to work installing internet at this office.

 While Joan and the girls stuffed and wrapped Bibles. We have a tough time keeping enough wrapped Bibles in this office. Last Thursday we wrapped just enough to mail out for that day leaving none for this week. 

Jeanette pretty much always sits at that table to apply labels. She enjoys visiting with the children while they all work together. 

Just look at the 2 pictures below. So many helpers all doing a part in helping this prison ministry minister to prisoners all over the United States. 

 Kathy and David brought the lunch in today. Below Kathy is busy arranging the lunch on the counter. 

What a wonderful lunch it was. We had piping hot pizza, fresh vegetables, chips, colorful bursting with flavor fresh fruit and Kathy's special dessert. The smells coming out of that room was torture until Kathy called us in for lunch. There was no hesitating today to fill the table. 

The table was full so Marie moved chairs to the second table for a few more of us. The food was delicious but honestly the conversations that happen in this office is food for the soul. Tuesdays are one of the a favorite days here.

Almost 200

Today we processed the request letters at the Berean office. Chuck, Edie, Roma and Anna were amazing help. They went right to work and together were able to stuff, wrap, label and load 197 Bibles.

 It helped that last Thursday there were quite a few boxes of Bibles already wrapped and ready for labeling. They only had to stuff and wrap around 100 and just label the other 97.  Once the Bibles were loaded into the car I left for the post office but these workers went right to work in the other room to open today's mail.

I AM thankful, not just that these volunteers are willing to work but they work efficiently AND gladly! What a great group. The Berean volunteers really are all top notch.

Well Oiled Machine

We had a few problems with the printer today but by the end of the morning everything was working like clockwork. Everything got done except entering the Bible requests which will happen tomorrow.
We had a good crew today helping. Below Chuck, Shirley, Glenna and Eva Jean are opening the stack of mail that came today.

Kathy and Dave arrived to read letters. 

Vonnie started reading letters at the middle table while David and Kathy went right to work reading letters too. 

 Bill went right to work on the computer. 

Timmy came to help his mom Marie make copies as he didn't have school today. We are always happy to see the young ones volunteering here. 

 When Jan and Joyce arrived they were put to work opening mail. Chuck moved over to the first table and started applying labels to studies. Bill S (not pictured)  arrived to help and was put to work also applying labels.

 We had finished most of the work by noon and enjoyed our lunch break.

Marvin came in and joined us for lunch before heading into the other room to work on certificates. We all have our jobs to do and everyone does their jobs so very well the office runs like a well oiled machine.

Movie Maker

We had an amazingly productive day at the Berean office. It may be because of the help that arrived or just maybe because we had a visitor come in to video this office. There was plenty to do for everyone. There were so many wonderful volunteers all helping and having a good time it was like a big party in these two rooms.

 We had a good amount of mail come and quite a few letters to be read. Above Jeanette is showing a touching letter to Ken while Chuck and Shirley open mail. At the other table Shirley, Jeanette, Eva Jean, Edie and Roma (not pictured) are hard at work opening the mail.

 Above Ken is asking Chuck what he is working on and Below is Tim, who just happened to bring his massive movie maker. Tim is making a short video clip of what happens in this office and will include the clip with the rest of what is happening at this little prison ministry that seems to impact thousands of people all over the world.

 The printer was giving a bit of trouble today, Marvin is the expert on that so Bill was quick to call him over. Between the two of them they got us up and running. Leila, Marvin, Dave and Kathy were the readers today with Jeanette and Shirley helping on that big job. Below Maddie is preparing envelopes for us to use with the labels as they are printed. 

 Joan and Bill arrived with 3 of their daughters just in time. Spark arrived with a pallet load of Bibles that needed to be unloaded, stacked and then stuffed and wrapped. 

 Vonnie and Jan worked on separating studies by number then giving the stacks of envelopes for stuffing to the willing workers sitting at the table. Edie and Roma are great at filling envelopes. The prisoners look forward to getting mail and the quicker we make the turn around the bigger the impact can be on a hungering soul.

 A bit later that table was cleared off for the big job of wrapping Bibles. Dave took command of that operation and kept everyone busy stuffing and wrapping Bibles. Below is our handy man Bruce. He was refilling the stamp pads with ink as most of our return address stamps were running out. Thankful he knows how to do that and is willing to get inky fingers.

At the end of the morning I caught Tim down on his knees. He was probably saying Thank you for getting him out of that chaos. Either that or maybe he was just putting his equipment away. This office gets loud as the many voices ask questions, visit and exclaim over a touching letter or two. 

We are all glad for the lunch break. Mom brought in a delicious beef stew served with a lettuce salad, deviled eggs, garlic bread, strawberries, oranges and two kinds of cake for dessert.

The letters still need to be entered and the Bible labels printed out but that will need to wait until next week. A big thank you to all who came out to help today.

Easy Day

Yesterday Dave, Mary and Carol came to help at the Berean office. Dave entered the Bible requests, Mary placed labels on Bibles and Carol folded studies. We finished before noon.

 Today we planned on wrapping and mailing out the Bibles for the week. We had 260 requests to fill. Karen came to help with all the heavy lifting of loading the Bibles into the car but when we arrived ALL the Bibles, stamps, labels, sleeves for wrapping and studies for stuffing were gone. Princeville is holding a Harvest Call work day and they are going to get all of this done for us. Instead Karen was put to work making copies. Marie had Anna, Roma and Edie folding.

 Sometimes we have an easy day and today was one of those days. Totally unexpected but totally great to be able to finish early! Thankful for Princeville to take all that work we would have had to do.

Round and Round

I arrived at the Berean office early this morning but wasn't the first one here. Marie already had the copy machine running and Skip was here to pick up answer keys. Marie still needed to get them put together and we had a lot of mail so Skip was put to work opening envelopes.

 Shirley, Chuck and Vonnie soon arrived to help with that big pile of mail. Shirley (not pictured) was put to work reading letters at that table. 

 We were thrilled when Joyce and Jan walked in the office. They were each given piles and openers. 

 Jeanette was given labels to apply while Marvin and Kathy were reading letters. 

 Bill and I worked like a greased wheel spitting out labels faster than the letter openers could keep up. We were able to get almost all the mail entered by noon. Below Kathy and Marvin are working on a problem. Kathy's phone was put to use a lot today. We have no internet at the office so if we have a question Kathy looks up addresses on her smart phone.

 We had a man stop in to pick up Bible studies for his church to grade. The studies were not processed so he was put to work on that while he was waiting. BEWARE if you show up when we are swamped you WILL be put to work. Almost all of the stuffing was done before lunch. After lunch Marie wanted to finish putting together the new revised 2017 answer keys. This is a big job, she made 100 copies. Each sheet is put on the table and we go round and round pulling one sheet off each pile to get a complete set of the answers for all 50 lessons.

That is 100 times around for 100 sets, Marie has no problem getting her steps in for the day. We are working at the Berean office tomorrow. Bibles need to be stuffed and wrapped and the requests entered.