Another Good Day

We wanted to start with a prayer and have in the past but usually get so busy we forget. Marvin is now setting his alarm to go off at 9:30 am for that reason.  The work just goes so much better when we ask for His blessing and His help to do HIS work.  Marvin came in early this morning to work on our computers.

 We are always glad to see Bill, he is a true leader for the ministry. He makes the coffee and serves it but more than that he deals with the post office, he talks to chaplains directly about the ministry, opens doors to prisons and jails and saves thousands of dollars in postage by working with the chaplains direct. Below he is making the coffee for our lunch break. Shirley, Chuck and Jeanette are busy filling the studies.  

 Vonnie organized all the studies while mom and Chuck stuffed envelopes

 This was Shirley's second week and today she was a pro. 

 We had a good morning, quit for a leisurely lunch around 11:15 am. I'm thankful for all who come to volunteer at this office.

7 Baptisms

We didn't have a lot of mail today, but that was a good thing as we didn't have a lot of volunteers. 

We had a new volunteer come in and we were thrilled to welcome her.  Glenna and Vonnie were happy to give Shirley instructions.

We asked the other Shirley to help David read as Marvin was at the jail for the baptisms. Jeanette came in a bit later and also helped with the reading of the letters. 

Today the Peoria County Jail had 7 baptisms. Bill, Spark, Skip, and Marvin were there to witness these.  Marvin arrived here just before lunch and was able to tell us all about them. What a privilege it is to be a part of this ministry and to experience just a small bit of the harvest.

Asking For Prayer

The letter below was mailed to us at Berean Prison Ministry and I would like to share it here.  This is a letter asking for prayer but also thanks those helping with this ministry. 
Dear B.P.M,
I wanted to write a personal letter to you to share my life.  On the17th of this month, this year I tried to commit suicide here in prison.  I struggle with myself about my past and often at times wonder who I am.  (No I'm not crazy)  I just feel lost.  I claim to be a believer but yet I do the type of things I don't understand.  I'm hungry for God, for His Word but its as if I 'm holding on to something.  I argue with this voice in my head that tries to steer me away from God, it often wins out and I don't know what to do.  I was placed on suicide observation being that I attempted to do so all my property was taken from me.  I just now got the privilege of mail and pen and paper back.  Yours was the first piece I received.  I eagerly done the courses.  They help me realize that someone does care.  I don't have my Bible, but there was a piece of an Gideon one in my cell. I think it's NKS, not sure but I"m doing the best I can.  God knows I need help, I want help and I'm confused about me.  I need you all to pray for me.  I'm going to ask for prayers.  I know the Word tells us that Prayer makes thinks happen, esp. when there of the righteous.  I want you to know I do appreciate all that you do for people like me.  God will reward you!
Pray for him, his signature isn't legible so I don't know his name but God DOES! God knows exactly who he is and what he needs.
We had a good amount of mail and plenty of helpers to get that mail processed. Below are a few pictures from today.

96 Requests

We had quite a bit of mail today with over a 100 letters and 96 of those were requesting Bibles. Some of the letters were touching some were sad and some were pretty amazing.  One man had been put in solitary and was determined to commit suicide. When his mail was delivered, his lessons had arrived. He didn't have his Bible with him but found some sections of a Bible from the Gideon's in the cell and he credits those Bible sections with saving his life. We had a good group of volunteers today and were able to get everything done including the mailing of those 96 Bibles. Mom, Marvin, Kathy and Jan were our readers today. Kathy came in early as she had to leave early so when Jan arrived she was put right to work in Kathy's chair.

Chuck was put to work with the labels.

 Shirley is always in charge of the intermediate studies and there were lots of those today.

 Below Marvin and Jeanette are working on some of the problem studies.  We had one study come in today with no return name or address on the envelope and only a last name on the 4 pages of his study.  It took some time to figure out where to send the graded one and his next 4 lessons but we did figure it out. 

 Robin kept everyone busy in the other room with filling the studies.

We were able to finish before noon and enjoyed a leisurely lunch before heading home. 

Light Mail Day

We had a very light mail day today but still found plenty to do at the Berean office. Kathy and Marvin were the 2 readers. Glenna and Ray opened the mail. Chuck and Jeanette applied labels. Then once that was all done Robin put Chuck and Ray to work on wrapping Bibles.

We easily got done by 11:00 am and had a leisurely lunch. It was actually nice not to be in a hurry. Thankful for an easy day.

Amazing Day

We had a pretty amazing day at the Berean office. It started with Marvin opening the mail and finding this:

In case you can't read the letter it says:  Thank You so much for sending a large print Bible when I was in prison. I still have the Bible but in all the movements I lost a lot of pages. The Shepherd's Psalm 23 is my favorite.
Thanks again,
ps  I serve the Lord because He first loved me!
Not too much later Marvin opened another letter with a $3.00 check from a prisoner from Taylorville, IL. He wanted to pay his tithe to Berean.

These two letters weren't the only amazing things happening. We also got a letter from a prisoner who stated he was going to commit suicide after he was put in prison but instead he found the Lord. BUT..that too isn't the other amazing thing that happened. For the last amazing part of the day you will need to read to the end of this post.  We had a good group come today. Our readers were Dave and Marvin. Our newly weds Shirley and Ray almost always show up AND sit together but that doesn't keep them from working. Vonnie and Glenna both know exactly what to do and go right to work as soon as they arrive.

 Bill is our servant director. He will take the time to make coffee and serve it to the other volunteers as he is receiving and making calls to prisons. Bill is always finding cheaper and better ways to get the Bibles to the prisoners and saves Berean thousands of dollars of postage.

 Marvin and Jeanette are siblings. Jeanette has a heart of gold and Marvin thinks she may be just a little too gullible. We wouldn't have her any other way. She loves grading lesson's 17-20 and today she took all of those home after we finished our work today. 

See all of those boxes on the table in the picture below? Robin brought those back from her house today. She spent hours of her time at home this week folding all of those lessons and putting a self addressed stamped envelope with each group of 4 lessons so they would be ready to send to the prisoners this week. 

 Mom was able to come help today and because of her help we got lunch on time. Mom is so good at making sure the lunch is ready to be served as we finish up. Below she was applying labels to envelopes while Shirley works on the intermediate studies. 

Now for the most amazing thing that happened today. Last week Robin opened our last package of the sleeves we place the Bibles in for mailing. Diane was sent a text that we would need more mailing sleeves. The sleeves came in yesterday but the post office told Diane they were too heavy to deliver and they would need to be picked up. The post office doesn't open until 9:00 am here in Hanna City and I needed to be at the Berean office by 9:00 am as the volunteers arrive then. I was hoping we had enough sleeves to finish today's mailing but had no idea how many sleeves were left nor how many Bible requests would come in today.  Robin counted the sleeves and announced we only had 67 sleeves for today's requests. By the time we finished entering the requests and printed the labels out there were exactly 67! Everyone that requested a Bible this week was sent a Bible today. Now THAT is AMAZING!

Another Big Mail Day

Today at the Berean office we actually had more request letters than Bible studies come in.

Kathy and Marvin were trying to get the letters all read by lunch time but were falling behind until Jeanette came in to help.

 Ray, Vonnie, Joyce and Janet had to get the studies processed and did that job without any other help.

Below is just some of the mail.

 Robin worked in the other room getting the Bibles ready for mailing. She had every Bible in the place wrapped and ready for labels but was short exactly a case. We had 140 request come in and only 120 Bibles. Bill is going to grab more cases so these last can get out quickly.

 We broke for lunch then finished the Bible request after lunch while Marvin and Bill were working on the certificates and a few other problems. We  had a couple interesting letters come on, one from a Muslim man that thought we should all convert to 'his religion, as Islam is the religion of peace", basically he wrote that this country is terrible.  What is kind of ironic about that letter is he was writing it from prison.  Such a shame to be so deceived. Jesus said LOVE your enemies, not cut off their heads or blow up the innocent. He didn't ask for a Bible but we probably should have sent him one any way.