Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Wednesday's Volunteers

Dave, Cindy, Carol and Mary showed up ready for work and we had work for them. Carol and Mary were put to work stuffing envelopes with the next set of lessons for the prisoners waiting for them.
 Dave and Cindy were put to work entering all the Bible requests for the week.
As soon as those jobs were done we went into the other room to stuff Bibles. Once the Bible labels were printed and we had enough Bibles stuffed to fill the requests we quit for the day. Tomorrow's group with wrap, label and stamp the Bibles. SO very thankful for volunteers. 

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Over 400

We had over 400 Bible studies come in today and were short handed on processing them. The volunteers that showed up were happy to help and worked efficiently, so efficiently that we were able to take a lunch break at noon. Below Leila is just getting ready to sit down and start reading while Marvin and Marie work on organizing the studies and letters. Bill is already hard at work at the computer and Vonnie is opening mail.
 Chuck and George are also busy opening mail. We had over 400 studies and more than 100 letters to read. That's a lot of mail!
 mom was working so fast her hands were blurry as they fly from one envelope to another. Shirley had to read some of the letters which came with the studies. 
 Below Bill and Marvin are busy working on computers. We are blessed to have 3 running computers to keep up with this program. 
 Jeanette was a letter reader, letter organizer and even applied labels. 
 We were all doing 2 or 3 different jobs today, below Marvin is working on the certificates for the 24 people that finished all 50 lessons. 
 Vonnie went in the other room to start separating the studies, while Leila and Chuck stuffed and sealed. 
 We broke at noon for lunch and fellowship. What a great group of people all coming to serve the Lord at what ever job is needed. 

 After lunch we went back to sealing envelopes. 
We did not finish today, we still have a couple hundred left to stuff, seal and mail out. That gives the Wednesday volunteers something more to do than just enter on the computer or fold studies. We will be working at the Berean office tomorrow starting at 9:00 am if anyone wants to help stuff envelopes. I believe it will be less than 2 hours of work. I'm very thankful for what got done and feel blessed to be able to work with such wonderful volunteers.

Thursday, April 20, 2017

88

We had a light morning at the Berean office. Edie and Roma came in to help get the 88 Bibles stuffed, wrapped, labeled and loaded and I was on my way to the post office before 10:00 am.
We really do have a good time at this office. For some reason it just doesn't seem like work.

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Tickled Our Funny Bone

We had an unbelievable funny letter today, in fact it just tickled us all and was all about tickling. David opened the letter, skimmed it and then just had to read it aloud.
 The letter started out that this prisoner had a problem, he LOVED to tickle women's feet and had tickled hundreds of women's feet. By this time the entire room erupted in laughter. Now THAT'S a problem. David never finished reading the letter out loud so I'm not exactly sure what the letter writer wanted help with.
 The next letter that had to be read out loud Marvin L opened. This one was so thankful it touched us deeply.
This prisoner was thanking the grader of his study then went on to express his gratitude for the in-depth remarks written on his study and how it has changed his life. I don't know if the graders of these many Bible studies realize how souls are touched and changed. THANK YOU to all who are willing to do this important job. We had almost 400 envelopes containing studies come in and every one of them will need to be graded. Each envelope holds 4 double sided studies. It really is a BIG job to get them all graded each week. We had a good group come in today to process these studies. Joyce, Shirley Glenna, Vonnie and Eva Jean worked on the middle table. While Chuck and Marvin worked on the back table.
 Our readers today were Kathy, David, Marvin H and Jeanette. Marie (not pictured) worked in the other room keeping the copy machine running and organizing the stuffing.
 Bill and I worked on the computers. After the requests were all read, Marvin moved to the third computer and started marking down any returns. 
When we have a Bible returned we make a note of that on the prisoners file that it was returned and why it was returned. We send out Bibles once a week but sometimes the prisoner will get transferred before his Bible arrives. If they ask again we make a note that the second Bible was sent out and what date.  Bill the Berean director stopped in today. We had a facebook request from someone that claimed they had been in a prison and gone through our study in Mississippi but was now in his home country of Nigeria and would like to send the study out there. Bill is going to bring that up at the board meeting on Thursday but the logistics just don't work. Eldon dropped off a pallet load of Bibles which will need to be stuffed and wrapped on Thursday. We had finished most all of our work by noon. Only Marvin had to work after lunch. He is the last one to leave the office each week.
Thankful for the amazing amount of work that happens with these amazing workers!

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Who IS the Angel?

WE arrived at the Berean office to find someone had been working, just like the shoemaker someone was busy yesterday and applied the labels Wednesday morning group printed off to the Bibles. We still had work to do today but with the good help finished within an hour.
Bruce, Roma, Edie and Anna were efficient and accurate. They had the Bibles stuffed, wrapped, labeled quickly. How wonderful to work with such willing workers. Chuck was sent a text to take his time at breakfast as we would be done before he could arrive. THANKS to whoever came Wednesday afternoon or evening.

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

A Good Morning

David, Cindy, Carol and I had a good morning at the Berean office. We were able to get all the requests entered and printed out plus 60 Bibles mailed.
 Above Dave and Cindy are trying to figure out a name. Sometimes the hand writing is atrocious. Below Carol and I were busy applying the postage for these Bibles going out today. 
 Once the Bibles were loaded into the car Carol worked on studies while I made copies. 
What a good morning's work.

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Funny Letters

We had some funny letters today at the Berean office. The first one Marvin read was one none of us had ever heard before. This man sent back his study blank, nothing done on it at all with a long letter stating: I thought you were a conservative Christian organization. I find that the Bible you sent was from China which has a terrible human rights record. It went on to say how could Berean support China and all of the Muslim countries by giving the prisoners a Bible made in China. Of course he kept the Bible but is refusing to do the study.
Above Chuck is hard at work applying labels while Shirley, George, Joyce, Eva Jean and Vonnie were listening to the letter. Next Jan read another funny letter. We were enjoying the reading today.
Bill was working on the computer but had us all laughing with this joke. A cannibal was complaining to his friend about his last meal. He said he had been boiling some missionaries and they just kept coming out tough. His friend asked, "can you describe the missionaries?" "They are dressed in long brown frocks replied the cannibal." "That's the problem" exclaimed the friend, "Those are Friars!"
 Marvin, Jeanette and Jan were the readers today. We were missing lots of our regulars but thankfully have people willing to just jump in and do the job. Dave and Kathy were up visiting their daughter Emily, Leila and Bruce had a doctors appointment and mom is in Gulf Shores, AL. 
 We had almost 400 studies come in. Vonnie organized the other room, Jeanette, Shirley and Chuck moved out there to help separate and stuff studies.
We were missing Marie who usually organizes this room, her husband Gary had an accident Saturday night with a chain saw. The saw slipped, cut through his boot into his leg and even into the bone. Gary will be laid up for more than a month. He is a farmer and with this wet weather does not have his planting done.  We are asking for prayers for Gary.
We finished most of the work by noon today and enjoyed lunch together. We are thankful for this office that supplies our needs so well.

Thursday, April 6, 2017

Video

Tim Martin came again today but this time just to interview Ken Hoerr. Tim showed up before the rest of the Thursday group and was put to work while he waited opening and reading letters. 
 When the rest of the workers arrived they were put to work stuffing and wrapping Bibles. We had 80 labels printed out but today another 80 requests came in. We had enough postage to mail out 100 Bibles. The rest of the request will be mailed out on Tuesday.

 Below Ken is all smiles now that he has finished the interview. 
 We had a good productive day.

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Counting

One of the jobs the new director wanted us to do was to count the Bible studies that come in so today we took the time to count. We had 364 but then found a few more studies mixed in with the letters. The board members are trying to find a cheaper way to mail out the studies and we are looking at the non for profit rate but there must be at least 200 going out on any given day. That won't be a problem. 
 Above Bill S, Marvin H and Bill C are all working on the computer program. We have some glitches and these three guys are the experts on fixing things. Dave and Kathy are hard at work reading letters, and Eva Jean is applying labels. Below Marvin L and Chuck are applying labels and stamps while discussing world peace or something like that. Both of these men are retired elders and we are thankful they only retired from preaching, not from volunteering. 
 Kathy came in just a bit late but there is always work to be done even for the late comers. 
 Glenna, Shirley, Jan, Vonnie and Eva Jean are hard at work opening those 364 + envelopes while Marvin and Dave work on a problem that came in from Missouri.
 Below Jan is pulling studies for stuffing. The Wednesday group is doing a great job keeping those boxes full. 
 Joan S brought in help for wrapping Bibles, Marie kept everything in this room running smoothly. 
We really do have a well run office at times and today was one of those times. A great big thank-you to those who helped.