Our LAST Work Day for 2018

With Christmas and Jan 1 both landing on a Tuesday today was our last day of work at the Berean office until 2019.  We had a busy day for our last day of work filling around 83 Bible requests and processing almost 200 studies. We had a good group come for our last work day of the year.  Below are the volunteers who labored together today.

We enjoyed a leisurely lunch before closing up the office. We are very thankful for everyone that volunteers with this program. There are so many that labor without any of us knowing how much they do from the graders to the ones that visit the jails and prisons, each volunteer is needed and so appreciated! THANK YOU and MERRY CHRISTMAS from all of us working at this office to all of you who volunteer in other areas of this ministry!

Problem Copier

Our Tuesday mornings are usually pretty much the same, the same work and a lot of the same volunteers and what is amazing is that there is enough work to keep everyone busy.  We had almost 170 studies come in today and 62 Bible requests. What was unusual today was where those requests came from. We had a request from a few different prisons and jails we have never sent Bibles to before and request for a Bible from a prisoner in a jail in Alaska. For some reason one doesn't think there is much crime in Alaska.  We were pretty thrilled today that Ray came back this week. He went right to work this week knowing exactly what to do.

 Bruce and Chuck also got right to work opening the studies. 

 Leila and Kathy were readers today. 

Dave was also a reader but when Lance showed up to work on the copy machine, he and Bill went out to talk to Lance. 

We got some bad news on the copy machine that was donated from an Alzheimer unit.  Dave was telling us that was why the machine forgot how to run.  Lance told Bill and Dave it is completely worn out and not worth spending the money to fix it. That puts us right back where we were a month or so ago really needing a working copy machine. We are not inclined to take in any more donated machines. This one weighs over 400 pounds and was really hard for Bill to get it here. His son even smashed one of his fingers while trying to help move it.  Lance is recommending we switch to a laser printer. He feels they are fast and cheap. The only problem with that is the cost of the ink. We always say, "This is God's ministry, if He wants it to continue we will find a way."

If we were to vote on which volunteer is the must enthusiastic, pretty much everyone would vote for Jeanette. She is always thrilled to be helping. 

 Robin keeps everything organized in the other room. 

 Below she has everyone stuffing studies of the next set of 4 for each prisoner that returned a study. 

 Once the stuffing was done the group below is stamping envelopes while waiting for me to finish printing out the Bible request for the week. 

 Once the requests are all filled and the studies all stuffed complete with the next 4 lessons, Bill loads everything in his car to take down to the post office. At that point we can clean off the table and serve lunch. We had a special lunch today. Robin brought in all kinds of Christmas goodies which we put on the table to pass around after eating but Dave took one look at all those delicious looking desserts and exclaimed, "what a good lunch!" We all had to laugh.

Another Productive Day

We had such a good crew come in today at the Berean office. We had a brand new volunteer come. Shirley brought her new husband Ray.

 He was put right to work opening the studies with Shirley showing him the ropes. 

Jan and Joyce also came in today but they were working when I was working so no pictures of them.  Benj and Karl were also back for their volunteer day and we were thrilled to have them. Marvin put Benj to work on the computer to see if we could get that working any faster. 

 As soon as the studies were done we went to work wrapping Bibles in both rooms. The program is growing again with more Bible requests coming in each week. 

 We were glad for our lunch break today. Bill's wife Joan made her special potato soup and everyone enjoyed that treat. 

When I left Marvin and Benj had gone back to work on the computers. I'm not sure how long they worked but it is wonderful having them take care of the little problems that show up each week. Today was a very productive day and a special thank you to all who came to help and a special thank you to Joan for lunch.

Small Irritations

We had a funny morning at the Berean office today. It started with the door. The key would not go into the keyhole.  Water had gotten into the lock from the storm and froze. The door knob needed to be heated up by hands and breath until the ice melted. Then the computer program we used would not open. The program was rebooted up twice and then the computer itself shut down and restarted and still it would not work. Marvin was able to use the back up from last week to get it started.  Robin arrived to make copies except the copy machine was out of ink.  Bruce was in charge of the postage machine and that too kept declaring it was out of ink. At least that worked. We had one of the studies come in with no name, no number, no address on any of the 4 studies and the envelope was accidentally thrown away. Shirley and Vonnie went through each envelope until they found 3 possibles. Of those 3 only 1 was on that study so we sent it to that prisoner although we have no idea if it really was this person's study.  All of this took extra time.  I grabbed my camera to take a few pictures, was snapping away at them, looked down and saw the notice that there was no card in the camera.  The phone was used for the 3 pictures below.

We had almost 100 Bible request this week and over 200 studies so there was a lot to get done. We didn't finish until just after noon. Went to dish out the soup and the crock pot had been accidentally turned off. The soup was just warm not hot. At that point just about everyone in the office burst out laughing. That last little irritation brought out the humor of the entire morning.  I'm thankful we can laugh at small irritations and very thankful for each and every volunteer that came in this cold snowy day. It really means a lot that each and every prisoner who requested a Bible this week will get a Bible and each prisoner that returned a study will have that study graded, sent back and sent the next 4 lessons thanks to these amazing volunteers.  Bill stayed until the last person left as the parking lot was snow covered with ice underneath. He wanted to make sure everyone one safe as they left the office.   

Two New Volunteers

We had a larger amount of mail than we have been getting today and I thought we were going to be short handed but instead we were pleasantly surprised to find 2 new volunteers today. Karl and Benj arrived. They both work at Caterpillar and Caterpillar gives their employees a morning off to do charity work. Karl was put right to work opening the mail. Notice he is moving 3 of the piles over to Shirley. He wasn't giving Shirley more work he was just making room to open the pile he had.

 This is actually Benj's second time here so today we had him read letters. 

 Chuck and Marvin were put to work at the back table applying labels to envelopes while mom, Shirley, Karl, Joyce, Vonnie and Glenna opened the studies. 

 As soon as all the studies were opened the group went into the other room where Vonnie lined everyone out stuffing the next study into an envelope. 

 Mom and Shirley were left in the computer room as they were processing the  intermediate studies and we don't allow those to leave the room. We don't want them mixed up with the basic studies. Shirley knows how to process them correctly and mom was helping her. 

 The next job was to wrap Bibles and today we had 60 Bible requests. 

One funny request happened. On a lot of the request letters the hand writing is hard to read. I was struggling with one of them trying to figure out the last name. The first name was obviously John but it looked like John's last name was Jones but I just wasn't sure. I opened the letter and saw John May. He had no number and I gave that one to Marvin telling him. I can't send this man a Bible, his last name doesn't match what is on the envelope.  Marvin looked at the letter and started laughing. The May was him asking if he may have a Bible. We were done by noon and enjoyed lunch while visiting with each other. We kept Karl and Benj so busy they both agreed to come back at least 1 more time this year. 

Two Tuesdays

I never got the blog posted from last Tuesday and that must be included here as we had a special treat. Kathy and Dave provided the lunch. Kathy made all kinds of goodies to go with the fresh baked hot pizza.  Everyone that stayed for lunch raved over her peach blueberry dessert.

 We had a decent mail day and ended up sending out quite a few Bibles. Below Kathy, Dave and Marvin are working on the request letters. 

Below Chuck is working on labeling the Bibles going out while Shirley (behind Chuck is working on stuffing the intermediate studies and Vonnie and Glenna are stuffing and sealing the basic studies. 

 Robin kept everyone busy. 

  The next few pictures were taken today Nov 13th. We had a small mail day as yesterday the post office was closed for the Veterans Day holiday. We only had 31 Bible requests. Marvin and Chuck are labeling the Bibles going out today while Glenna, Vonnie and Shirley work on stuffing and sealing studies. 

 Kathy finished her work in the other room writing letters,  and came in to help with the Bibles. 

We were done well before noon today and had plenty of time to visit with each other while eating lunch. This work is well worth doing and actually doesn't seem like work at all when it can be done with so many willing wonderful volunteers.

New Copy Machine

Bill Schick got the new (to us) copy machine to the Berean office and got it up and running.  He actually FIXED it himself and it RUNS. The other part of this story is that first he called a 'real' repair man and that man told him it couldn't be repaired. Well Bill is from Mexico where of course things can be repaired. He found the problem and fixed it.

Robin kept that machine running all morning trying to catch up from the last 2 weeks. We had another light mail day but that gave us time to get other important things done this week. Below the mail is getting opened.

 We were missing some of our usual readers so Joyce and Jan were asked to fill in that spot. Below Shirley and Mom are explaining to Joyce that this job not that hard and she will be fine. 

 Jan is reading a letter to Kathy. 

Bill arrived with some supplies. We found out we were completely out of sleeves, the sleeves that we put the Bibles in.  Diane was called and more are now ordered. 

 Below are the 4 readers of the day. Leila, Joyce, Jan and Kathy.

 Below the ladies are stamping envelopes. There always seems to be plenty to keep everyone busy at this office and we are thrilled with how many volunteers show up to help.

Lots to be thankful for today but the BIG thing to be thankful for was a working copier. 

Light Mail

We had a light mail day today. Believe it or not it is because of Columbus Day holiday. When we have a holiday that falls on a Monday, it doesn't hit 6 days later, it hits the next week.  Even though it was a light day we had plenty to do.

 We ran out of Bibles but Bill told us where to find them, Chuck drove to Hoerr's met Johnny Hoerr, got Bibles and brought them back to the Berean office for wrapping.

By the time everything was done it was almost noon. We enjoyed a nice meal and plenty of fellowship together.  Bill was heading down to Springfield, IL with a group of Romanians who were here to learn about the prison ministry.  He called to report that he was able to get a copy machine donated  to Berean. It wasn't working but he was able to get it up and working. It is a big heavy machine and he still needs to get transport for it but hopefully it will be here next Tuesday. That is another answered prayer.