Busy Busy Hands

Idle hands may be the devils tools but he was out of luck today at the Berean office. We had many hands here to work and none of them were idle. Lisa brought 5 helpers to join with Marie's boys as we were expecting a load of Bibles that would need to be unloaded. While they were waiting for Spark to bring them, they were given the job of slitting open the hundreds of envelopes that were picked up yesterday.

Above the boys and Lisa were opening them and bringing them into this room for the adults to finish the job. We had such a wonderful group of volunteers today. These people truly are the light on a city that should not be hid. Not only do they know what to do they do it cheerfully.

This office is full of the sounds of visiting, laughing and occasionally an exclamation of panic, (when the printer get's jammed or the computer shuts off). 

 Spark arrived with the Bibles and before we could get in there to help Lisa and the boys pretty much had them all unloaded. 

 We had a bunch of slave drivers working today, either that or very compulsive workers. They wouldn't let us stop for lunch until the last envelope was stuffed and ready to mail.

I admit it was a blessing to sit down at the table for lunch and know the work was done for the day. A big thank you to the group that volunteered. Another amazing DAY!

444

Wow were we busy today at the Berean office. Thankfully we had a lot of great help and even some with muscles. Muscles were needed today as 444 Bibles were sent out. Most of these Bibles had to be stuffed and wrapped. We had a new volunteer, Jenny who was put right to work with stuffing the Bibles, she would hand them to Tiffany who would stick the Bibles in the wrapper and seal it, then it went to Eva Jean who was applying the address return labels and around the table to Bruce, Lila and Chuck. Each person had a job to do and did it well.

 David Jacob was the muscle man today. He and Rachel did the carrying of the boxes, dumping of the boxes, and the loading of the boxes out to the van.

 We were almost finished by lunch time and were able to enjoy a tasty low calorie soup meal furnished by Diane. It really did taste good even if it was diet.

We were pretty pleased to have survived another week.

Rejoiced to See the Day

My reading this morning was in John 8. More on that later.
We had pouring down rain this morning and lots of mail to go through. Eva Jean and Glenna were the first to arrive to start sorting the mail. Below was just one of the 2 mail boxes of mail on this table, the letters were placed on the other table for the readers.

 We heard a noise in the other room expecting someone to come in and help with the mail but the noise continued so I went out to see and saw Spark and Mark K busy unloading a pallet of Bibles. Spark had the van parked right up to the door and just as the last box was unloaded Marvin arrived. Below they are having a laugh at Marve's marvelous timing.

 The volunteers started arriving and by the time everyone was here we had a room full. It was wonderful to see how each and everyone sits down and starts working. Marie was late today so Marvin was started on the computer but it wasn't long before he was asked to go back to reading the letters. There were so many that needed reading.

 We had 4 readers Mark K, Marvin H, David O and Kathy O, 9 study openers Marvin L, Chuck, Bruce, Glenna, Jan, Lila,Joyce, and Eva Jean. (not pictured were Bruce and Lila) 2 of us running the computers Marie and me, while Jeanette was in the other room applying labels.

 Marie's 2 boys Justin and Timothy were hard at work stuffing and wrapping Bibles.

 We were not able to finish before lunch, there was just too much mail but the time we take to break bread together is such a blessing and worth the time off work.

After lunch everyone got right back to work and by 1:30 pm the last study was stuffed in the last envelope and we were ready to clean up the room. I couldn't stop smiling. The work done joyfully was downright amazing. As I was driving to the post office with 2 full mailboxes stuffed with studies heading to prisoners all over the United States I was thinking, "wouldn't dad be amazed!" Then wondered, would God ever allow dad and uncle Ed to see what has happened to this ministry when I remembered my reading this morning. Verses 56 and 57 of chapter 8 in St. John reads: Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
 

Bibles Lots of Bibles

Spark delivered one pallet load of Bibles this morning to the Berean office leaving 3 for a later date. Diane picked up the mail and even though this was just 1 day of mail it was a full box full. I felt kind of bad for the volunteers today. Since I'm out of town Rachel took the pictures below. I think she wants you to guess who these volunteers are:

 Looks like Diane provided the lunch today, that is YahiSobi or something like that. A delicious ground beef meal that we really like.

 I'm not sure why Rachel sent the last three pictures but these are of the Berean office, the coat hangers.

 

Edie and Roma sorting the mail.

 A penguin sitting on the Bible stamps

 And the Berean Fridge

 

Diane reported that they filled 2 van loads with Bibles. Below is Rachel's van and below that is Diane's tire. Her van was so loaded they were a little afraid the tires would pop.

 

unless the tire below is Rachel's tire as her van was also loaded to the top with Bibles.

 

The volunteers sent out the entire skid load today! Spark was called to see if he would bring another skid load on Tuesday. A sewing group came in the afternoon. Diane sent he picture below.

  A big big thank-you is in order to all the helpers today! We survived another week.

You Prayed They Came

We had 4 pallets of Bibles arrive yesterday afternoon at Meisters. This morning Spark is going to haul a pallet from Meisters to the Berean office. 

So so thankful there is a long list of labels all printed off just waiting to be applied to each wrapped Bible. Now we need help unloading and wrapping. We are now praying for helpers, helpers to wrap, helpers to apply the labels and stamps and of course a few good strong helpers to help unload. Anyone out there have time to donate an hour or two to help? These Bibles will be such a blessing to hundreds of prisoners if we can just get them mailed today.

Praying For Bibles

The Bibles have not arrived. We have many many requests from prisoners asking for a Bible and have no Bibles to send them. We had a wonderful group of volunteers come today to help process the studies. Not many pictures were taken, we were all just too busy working. Janelle was put right to work on the computer.

Jeanette was started on labels

 We had so many letters come today that the second Marvin was asked to help read too.

 The amount of letters that come just cause new volunteers to throw up their hands. 

 Once the labels were all printed Janelle took the studies into the other room to separate. 

We had all the studies processed by noon, enjoyed a nice lunch together then cleaned up and left for the day. Tomorrow the letters will be processed. Please remember to pray that the Bibles will be delivered soon.

Huge Mail Week

Diane walked in the Berean office with another mailbox full of mail. This was the 3rd one this week. We were scrambling to get done today. Thankfully we had a new volunteer. Lila came for the first time and hopefully she will come again now that she saw how much she was needed. Below Diane is explaining the reading job to her while Rachel reads letters. We had some doozies today. This week it seemed like the letters were not as easy as usual to process, each one had something a little different.

 In the picture below Chuck, Anne, Eva Jean, Edie and Roma are busy processing the studies.

 Janelle was able to finish the certificates then started on entering studies. Once the studies were finished she was taught how to enter new Bible requests on the computer. These young people pick up new jobs like they have been doing them for years. She was entering faster than I was and I've been doing it for 22 years. We came to the conclusion that this program needs more her age! Too bad they are either in school or working at jobs that won't let them off for volunteering.

In the other room we had a crew working on labeling the Bibles and loading them in Diane's van until we ran out of Bibles. We were short 250 after getting out 276. Please pray that the Bibles will get delivered soon. They are so needed. We broke for lunch at noon. Rachel and Roma weren't able to stay for lunch but the rest of us enjoyed the meal and fellowship. The best part about the meal was dessert. Eva Jean brought in a pumpkin pie right out of her oven baked this morning.

It was still hot when she arrived. That pie was the creamiest most delicious pumpkin pie I've had in years. She provided cool whip and ice cream for the topping.

I had to leave before 1:00 pm but Diane stayed to finish entering the letters. She called at 3:40 pm, had just finished up and was heading down to the post office to drop off the Bibles and studies. I offered to drive in to meet her so she wouldn't have to unload the boxes by herself but she said she could handle it. About that time I started to pray that God would send someone to help her. This is a hard back breaking job. She arrived just after 4:00 and there were no carts to put the Bibles on, thinking they may be closed she rang the back bell. The post lady came to the door and told her, "we are still open" and sent someone out to help her unload. (Thank You Jesus!) She had to take the studies inside and the lady behind the desk told her she knew of this program, knew Uncle Ed, in fact she said, "I've kind of wormed my way into the family." A big thank you to the Bartonville post office workers, they go above and beyond.

Special Visitors

We were blessed to have the students from Light House Academy come to help us this morning. Check out the short video below of these very busy slightly noisy volunteers.

Marie brought them, got them working on first opening the mail then wrapping Bibles and finishing up with folding studies to fill the boxes. Once they were working she was able to come into the other room to help enter the studies on the computer as Janelle couldn't make it today.

We had a wonderful group of volunteers show up today. We had 2 sets of Marvins, 2 sets of Jans and 2 sets of Shirleys today.

Of course we had our regular helpers too, David, Eva Jean, Chuck, Glenna, Jeanette and mom.

After the Lighthouse kids got the mail opened they had a snack break. One of the Jans brought in goodies left over from hymn sing on Sunday. That and chocolate milk gave these kids enough sugar to easily handle those heavy boxes of Bibles. 

A special thanks to this great group of school children. Can you imagine a better way of teaching? These children learned about volunteering, helping those less fortunate, and opening their eyes as to how hungry these prisoners are for the Living Word.

When the second Marvin showed up, Chuck was given the job of training him. 

We had a tremendous amount of mail again today and were not able to finish before noon but we still enjoyed our lunch break.

Then it was right back to work.

We were able to finish up by 1:30 pm. Amazing how many hands really did lighten the load for the group. In days past we would have been working until 3:00 or 4:00 pm with this amount of mail. A BIG thank you to all who came!

There is one more thing that must be written and this is to Ms G, the lady that saw the last post and so generously donated to help this program out. Ms G, if you read this thank you thank you. Your gift was so needed and we are so very thankful. ps let me know which daughter (I'm one of them)