Gift of Life

 Only Skip beat us this morning. He had the coffee waiting when we arrived. The morning was cold but the furnace here works well and we are thankful for heat.  Skip commented on the amount of letters that arrived this week was much more than he had seen for a while and that ended up being true. We had over 30 Bible request letters plus many other letters asking for the study or other things. Marvin went right to work on the letters.

Chuck arrived and was put right to work on labels with Aunt Jinnie.

When the studies were processed Vonnie had the second room all set up to stuff the studies going out today. 

Bill and Kathy worked on letters. Kathy is the writer. Bill is given any problem letters. Below Skip is entering the Bible requests for today.

Vonnie and Aunt Jinnie were folding more of 1 through 4s as those go in each Bible.

Skip, Chuck and Shirley are hard at work getting the Bibles going out today labeled, stamped and loaded into boxes.

Those boxes were taken to the post office today and are now on their way to a prisoner. We pray that each Bible could be received with joy and thanksgiving. It really is the gift of life.

Tuesday at Bereans

 We had another good morning at the Berean office with plenty of work and plenty of volunteers to get the work done. Below are a few pictures of the morning.

Below Bill had ordered more certificates and is putting them in the cupboard. He bought a case of the silver for basic and a case of gold for the intermediate. They are given out once all 50 studies of the lesson are finished. 

Below Marvin is working on updating the the lists on the wall. We have some prisons or jails that do not allow labels, some don't allow books (which means we cannot send them a Bible even if a prisoner writes and asks for one) and some don't allow colored paper.  

Below Shirley is showing Jinnie how to check for addresses.

At 9:30 am Marvin's alarm goes off and we all meet in this room for a prayer.

Below they are stuffing studies and obviously having a good time doing the stuffing.

Below Bill is printing postage for the Bibles going out today while Shirley works on the intermediate studies.

Kathy is a reader but she also is the letter writer. Today we had a prisoner ask for another Bible but when we looked him up we found he had already received 2 from us. We did not send the 3rd.

Below Skip and Chuck are getting the Bibles going out today stamped and labeled while the 2 Shirleys and Leila fill and seal envelopes.

Once all the studies were stuffed and sealed they all went to work on wrapping stuffing and wrapping Bibles. 

We really are productive but have a good time working together.

Thankful For Bill

 We had a sunny but cold morning at the Berean office needing to run the furnace.  We are very thankful for the use of this building owned by Wayne and Lukie and VERY thankful we have heat in the winter and cooling in the summer.  It was nice and warm inside which warms our hearts as we volunteer together. Below are a few pictures of the morning.

Shirley walked in saw a job and came back with the vacuum.

Below Ray is making a special point to tell us he is passing a study over to Shirley and not trying to hold her hand as he works. Of course we all had to laugh.

In the picture below it LOOKS like Shirley is the only one working but that really isn't quite true. The others were using their brains before we needed their brawn to move boxes of Bibles.

Chuck is working on applying labels to the envelopes. 

Below Bill is keeping us informed on some of the other activities happening.

Joan came in to pick up studies for herself and some others for grading.  

She mentioned her faithful team of helpers are Paula, Ray & Kitty, Jerry & Sharon and Dale. After picking up the studies she drives to the Fellowship Hall and prays over them before handing them out. Today she decided to drive back to the pond and cemetery area and said it is serene and scenic with beautiful landscaping and trees and so beautiful with the bridge.   We really are thankful for our church cemetery.  Below Skip is getting the Bibles ready to mail out from the requests that came in today.

We can't help but be thankful each time we finish, thankful we can volunteer together, thankful for the work that gets done, thankful for the use of the building and thankful that we can still afford postage. Bill tries hard to keep the postage costs down but as the postage rates climb his job gets harder. We are really thankful for Bill. 

Let There Be Light

There were BEAUTIFUL candy apples waiting for us when we arrived at the Berean office today. We THINK they may be from Wayne and Lukie but who ever left them for us, we were all truly thankful. 

It was a little dark in the Berean office this morning but Bill walked in with the exact light we needed. Marvin helped install them. 

We had a very good morning processing almost 30 request letters and getting the studies finished by 11:00 am.

We didn't just work, we took the time to listen to a letter Skip wanted read and heard some very inspiring stories from Bill. Last week I thought this would be my last week to volunteer here and was surprised at how disappointed I was at that thought. God had other plans and I was thrilled when it worked out that I could continue. This is a wonderful uplifting place to be each Tuesday. The light of the Lord truly shines out of this office even when the lightbulbs are not working correctly. 

It WAS a Good Day

 We didn't have a lot of mail today but this gave us time to catch up on a few other jobs that were needing to be done. 

Above Bill and Marvin are working together on a problem letter and below is some of the crew today.

Above Shirely, Aunt Jinnie and Chuck are opening studies while Skip in the back is opening up letters.

Once they finished with the Bible requests and the studies they all moved to the other room to fold studies. Above Skip is taking the Bibles to be mailed today out to the car. Below Shirley is stuffing the intermediate studies, Skip is working on Bibles, Vonnie, Aunt Jinny, Shirley and Chuck are folding studies and stuffing them in the Bibles that still need to be wrapped, sealed and stamped.

We mailed out 29 Bibles today. It was a good day.

Wonderful Volunteers

 We had another productive day at the Berean office today, processing the studies and filling the Bible requests for 36 inmates.  Skip got in a study today from a prisoner from Labelle Florida and read the letter to us.

We had a good crew again. Below Mark is reading a funny letter to the group.

There was plenty to do today. Below Shirley is explaining to Aunt Jinnie what to look for when she opens the study.

Everyone knows what needs to be done and just works at getting the work done.

Below Skip is labeling Bibles while the rest of the crew fold Bible studies.

We were able to finish everything before noon. Thankful for such wonderful volunteers.

Sunday Services At the Peoria County Jail

 Aunt Jinnie and I left mom's house at 8:15 am and only Skip beat us there.  He was busy making coffee. It didn't take long for the rest of the volunteers to start arriving. We had a decent amount of mail today and we were glad for those who could give of their time. Bruce was back as the fields were too wet for harvesting. We are always glad when he comes back to run the postage machine. He does other work too but that is the machine we really don't like to use so are thrilled when he shows up.

Below we have just had the prayer and Skip was telling us grabbing a really touching letter to read then he told us about the Sunday service at the Peoria County Jail.

This was what the speaker spoke Sunday to the inmates.

The story went on that he was able to find work washing cars. He is a true success story and now helps other prisoners. Aunt Jinnie was glad to come to Berean this morning to help. She took mom's place for this week. My mom had a stroke a couple weeks ago. Aunt Jinnie arrived to help care for her. We were glad for her help today.

We were able to mail out 70 Bibles today.

We were done before noon and took the Bibles to the Hanna City post office for mailing. It was a good productive morning.