Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Praying For Muscle Power

There was no Berean today as the post office was closed yesterday and it is not open early enough to get today's mail by the time we start. The next time we will work at the Berean office will be Thursday and will need LOTS of help! Anyone wanting to donate a few hours on Thursday June 1st we will start at 9:00 am. The Bibles will also be delivered that day so could really use some strong guys.

Thursday, May 25, 2017

Working on Bibles

We had a good crew show up today for the Bible wrapping. Edie, Roma, and Anna showed up all at once with Chuck coming in a bit later. The 5 of us got every Bible in the place stuffed and wrapped and 82 of them mailed out.
We will need to order another pallet load of Bibles for Tuesday. A big thank you to these dedicated willing workers.

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

A Blessed Tuesday at the Berean Office

We had a wonderful group of volunteers today. From the young to the old all work well together. The rooms were filled with laughter, singing and visiting while the mail was opened and processed. Marie brought in Justin to help make copies. He is great on the copy machine.
 Joan brought in Faith, Berlica, Mackenson, Ava and Aubry. They were put to work first stamping envelopes with the return addresses and got 3500 envelopes all ready for us. That should last us at least a month or so. Next they applied the stamps on the studies ready to go out.
In the other room Marvin L annd Chuck were busy processing studies while Shirley and Vonnie opened mail. 
 Marie kept busy filling study requests. 
 Below Joan is filling a stamper with ink then cleaning it up  while Faith makes sure they work. 
 Mackenson was more than willing to help on what ever his mom wanted him to do AND with a smile!
 Mark and Marvin were the readers today.
 Bill brought in a new volunteer today. Sarah came to help as she is on break from ISU. 
 Below Bill is talking to Marvin and Chuck about the trip to Romania. 
 Kathy was a little late today, below she was explaining to Mark why. Her smile lights up the entire room. 
 Mom and Jeanette were put right to work applying labels. 
 Marvin and Bill worked on the computer fixing problems and entering studies. 
 Joan and Marie are getting studies ready to stuff, the kids were sealing envelopes and applying stamps. 

We were so grateful for their help today. Many hands really did make light work. We finished with everything by lunch time and were able to enjoy a leisurely  lunch with great fellowship. Speaking of lunch, a special thanks to mom for bringing in her home made ham and bean soup served with fresh baked corn bread, chips, lots of fruit, then apple pie and ice cream for dessert. Tuesdays at the Berean office are GREAT!

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Zoom Lens

I grabbed the camera without looking and only when I reached the Berean office did I see the zoom lens was on it. Oh well, who cares about pictures anyway. What was amazing was the amount of work that was done in that office today. We had 2 new volunteers come. Mark was put right to work reading letters along with David and Kathy.
 Wayne stopped in to turn the air on. We were grateful, it was hot out today and the air conditioner works well in this office. 
 Lisa was put to work opening mail with Vonnie, Eva Jean, Shirley and George. 
 Bill and Marvin worked on the computers. 
 Chuck and mom worked on applying labels. 
 In the other room Joyce, Jan and Jeanette also applied labels then separated and stuffed envelopes. When all the mail was opened in our room, Chuck, David and a few others went into the room with Joyce, Jan and Jeanette to help. 
It really is amazing how this work gets done so quickly. We were finished before noon and enjoyed a nice lunch. We are so very thankful to the many volunteers that keep this program running.
This week Fedi,Bill, Tim and a few others are over in Romania. Ruth heard from Fedi that things are going well.

Thursday, May 11, 2017

Easy Thursday

Trying to get to the Berean office today took longer than the actual work. The interstate was so backed up it took a half hour to drive 6 miles. A lot of cars were getting off and going through Peoria which caused Edie to be late too. She could hardly get through and almost ran into a car trying. Roma was waiting for us when we arrived and between the 3 of us got the 80 Bible requests filled and on the way to the post office. No pictures, the only picture taken was too blurry to use. Edie had quite a story to tell. She found a newborn fawn in her front yard. She walked up to it and touched it and it fluttered it's eyelashes so she was sure it was alive but was sure it would be dead by the time she got home from Berean. Hopefully not, mama deer leave their newborn fawns and the fawn's instinct is to stay down and not move until the doe comes back to feed it.

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Entering Bibles

We had just 3 workers today at the Berean office but these volunteers know exatly what to do and went right to work. Cindy and I entered the Bible labels
while Mary separated and filled the studies we were not able to get done yesterday.

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Busy Berean's

We had another great day at the Berean office. Truly is a joy to be there. A big crowd showed up and there was enough work for all. Below Leila is looking at the flyer for the Sermon on the Mount fund raiser just for Berean that is going to be held June 16th at Expo Gardens.
 Ken Hoerr arrived bringing goodies for the volunteers

 Check out that sack, he brought goodies from Trefzger's Bakery.

 Above and below are busy volunteers
 Below Bill and Marvin are working on getting a back up system for Berean.

 Above Chuck and Eva Jean are sealing envelopes while below Kathy is finally getting a break to eat her lunch. The rest of us ate earlier but Kathy and Leila hadn't finished reading the letters yet. They were a little short handed in the letter reading area. Joan brought her girls and below they are busy stuffing envelopes. 
We processed 370 studies and read about 85 letters. Tomorrow we still need to finish separating some studies and enter the Bible requests on the computers.  Another good day!

Thursday, May 4, 2017

Assembly Line Workers

The Thursday volunteers are so good at this assembly line job of stuffing, wrapping, labeling, stamping and loading Bibles they are able to get a couple hundred Bibles done an hour. Today Edie, Roma, Anna and Chuck did just that.
We finished before 10:00 am and had time to go out for a late breakfast. The only problem is the nearest breakfast restaurants are NOT very efficient and just take too much of my time. Thankfully Sarah came along today and paid the bill while I ran the Bibles down to the Bartonville post office.

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Learning To Save

Bill, the new director of Berean Prison Ministry came in to the office today to teach us how to save big bucks. We are now going to be applying non for profit stamps on the Bible studies. We just have change how we go about getting the studies graded. In the past we would just apply the first class stamps to each envelope and attach the envelope with the study to be graded. Once the grader finished they would just put it in the envelope, seal the envelope and mail it off. Now all the mail must come back to our office to be stamped AFTER it is graded. We will need to put boxes out at the different churches that grade and once a week collect those boxes of graded envelopes. At our office we will apply the stamps and separate them they way the post office requires for non profit mail. Below Bill is showing us a roll of 3000 non for profit stamps.He compared that will the price of 3000 first class stamps and the savings was huge.
Below we are all listening intently
Bill explained how the studies will need to be divided up to go to the post office.
We are all willing to try, after all this could save Berean over $50,000 a year in postage. We had a good group of volunteers today with 2 brand new volunteers. Bob and Bernetta came today for the first time and we were very grateful for their help.They live next to Eva Jean and were willing to bring her to help also.
We had most of the regulars come to with just a few missing. Below Marvin and Bill are trying hard to figure out the spelling of the name on one of the studies.
 While Dave and Leila try to understand what this letter is requesting.
 Chuck and Bruce were opening mail then applying labels.
 We broke for lunch just before noon.

Marie was trying to get a few more studies done while waiting for the food line to go down a bit. 
The fellowship that happens during our work at this office is so very heart warming. We are all people who want to serve and are thrilled that there is work we CAN do. A big big thank-you to all who came today and worked so willingly.