Productive Prayers

 We sure did a lot of praying about our printer last week. This week Marvin ordered something, installed it and the printer is fixed and good to go for another half a million copies. This printer not only supplies copies of the study for the Berean office it also provides them for the Peoria county Jail and Tazewell jail.  We were all pretty busy today as there was more mail than usual. Skip and I were kept busy on the computers, Bruce ran the postage machine, Kathy and Leila were the letter readers, Marvin was put on repair duty (he not only fixed the printer he also fixed the toilet paper holder in the bathroom). Marvin looks up prisons and prisoners when we can't find a complete address. At 9:30 am we meet in the room for our prayer and today we had a lot of items to thank our Lord for but also prayers for Erica who is in critical condition in Florida and our cousin Abigal who was in the hospital with blood clots. Shirley, Chuck, Sharon and Shirley processed the study mail then prepared boxes of studies for next week. We have a real problem with a man named Gilbert who works in the mail room of one of the prisons. He is rejecting the Bible studies, sending them back with the note the contents are not allowed.  Skip prayed that his heart could soften and he would allow the studies to continue. This is a first for us, usually if there is no chaplain or church services at that facility the mail room clerk can either accept or reject the Bible but we have never had one not allow the prisoner to do the study.

Marvin had some news for us, they have discovered the location of the city of Sodom. He was telling us about it after the prayer. 

We really do appreciate that our prayers are heard. God actually inclines His ear to hear them. It is wonderful to know these prayers are productive. They are answered and and we are thankful. 

Printer Problems

 We had a good crew of volunteers today at the Berean office. Marvin brought in a new part for the printer hoping that would clear up copies. 

Unfortunaltey that didn't work so Marvin and Bruce spent some time on the computer trying to find a way to fix the printer.

Jerry Rupp came in to get copies for Tazewell county jail but we didn't have much to share. He was able to take at least one of each lesson and will try to get them copied before they are needed. Kathy and Leila were the letter readers today.

Chuck was in charge of the applying address labels to the envelopes. Bruce ran the postage machine and also opened studies. Shirley always takes care of all the intermediate studies.

We also needed more studies folded and prepared for Bibles. As soon as the studies were processed, Leila, Sharon and Chuck worked on getting those done.

Below Kathy and Shirley are stuffing new lessons to be mailed out to the prisoners.

Skip is now officially in charge of this office and we are thankful he was willing to do this. There are so many supplies that need to be restocked to keep everything running smoothly.

This office handles studies from many different prisons and jails over a lot of America. I'm always amazed at how much we can get done.

Short Handed

 Skip couldn't come today so we were a little short handed at the Berean office but still got everything done by 11:00 am. We had a lot of laughter today.

I made a pretty big mistake by leaving a number out of the prisoner's TDC number but caught it when I was entering the  Bible labels and was able to correct on the computer but that meant I also needed to correct it on the 2 envelopes.  Thankfully the two Shirley's helped find those envelopes. We had a very touching letter come in, Kathy read it for us. 

I left there before the treat which just happened to be home baked rhubarb bars from Gail.  

A Good Morning's Work

 We had another good morning at the Berean office. Thankful Marvin arrived in good time as we needed to make 100 copies of 1through4 of the studies and we couldn't get the printer to work. Marvin seems to have the touch, he got it going. Skip went right to work stuffing 100 Bibles that he mailed out today to a prison, plus another box of 20 for another prison. Those boxes behind him are full of Bibles going out today.

Below area couple other pictures of our morning.

Leila served the dessert today, chocolate cake donated to us from Taunya. A special thanks to her.

The cake was delicious.  It really was a good morning's work with 128 Bibles now on their way to needy prisoners.