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.