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.

Prayer Requests

A few weeks ago at this office we were struggling with the postage machine and Robin asked if I would tell the Roanoke church that we needed stamps. My response was, "no we should just pray for stamps." This morning on the walk Ruth came with a bag full of stamps, over 3000 of them.  When I walked in the Berean office Robin was already hard at work. When I showed her the stamps she could hardly believe her eyes.

What a blessing, not just for the stamps but such a dramatic answer to prayer.  A BIG BIG thank you to who ever donated stamps for this program. We hate to make a prisoner wait for his study or graders wait to grade because of not having the postage. We also ran out of Bibles well last week Bill walked in with the report the Bibles we use went on sale AGAIN and he ordered 5000 of them at $5.00 each. Another answer to prayer. It is hard not to smile when working here. We have another prayer request, our copier, the one that shoots out 130 copies a minute, the one that works like a mimeograph machine has officially died.  It has served us well for many many years and spit out millions (literately) of copies.  This is a very needed piece of equipment. It has been the cheapest way to make copies but also by far the fastest way. We must have something fast because of the thousands of copies that need to be made each week. We ask for prayers that the right machine could be found and that we can afford it. We had a good group of volunteers today helping. Everyone willingly went right to work at what ever needed doing.

I'm always amazed at how much work gets done at this office and gets done joyfully. 

Another Fun Filled Work Day

We had a really good day at the Berean office. We were so glad to welcome back David from his long hospital stay.

Vonnie brought a guest today. Her grand daughter came in to say hello to all of us old folks. Bill brought the mail today. He stayed to work on the copy machine which is not working. 

We had a lot of mail but also a lot of visiting to do while the mail was opened. 

 It was such a joy to be working with these amazing volunteers. 

 Below Robin had everyone busy stuffing envelopes. 

 It was a lot of work but many hands made it seem light and the time just flew by. 

 The Bible requests were entered and we were able to get them all out today. Mark brought in a laptop so he and Marvin worked on getting that to work with our other two. Sure am thankful for these to men who keep the computers running properly. 

Please pray that we can either get our copy machine fixed or replaced. We will run out of studies soon. That machine puts out over 100 copies a minute and we go through hundreds of copies each day. Today we mailed out over 400 envelopes stuffed with 4 studies and a postage paid envelope. That was over 1600 sheets of paper and each and every piece of paper had a study printed on BOTH sides. We will be taking OVER 400 studies to church for grading tomorrow evening so if anyone WANTS to grade there is now an abundance needing to be graded.