A Good Morning

 We had a light day today both with the mail and with the volunteers but easily got everything done that was needed. Below were both Shirleys, Ray and Chuck. Marvin was the reader today.

Bill was put to work on the postage machine.

The last job of the day was to get the Bibles ready for mailing. Chuck was working on that as Ray and Shirley were stuffing the intermediate studies. Marvin needed a little help taping up a Bible box so Chuck was helping him with that in the picture below.

When we finished we sat and enjoyed a cream cake with our coffee and visited a while before heading out. It was a good morning.

So Blessed

 We were busy this morning at the Berean office.  Once the studies were processed everyone went into the other room to work on Bibles except these 3. They were busy. Skip was entering new Bible requests while Kathy and Justin were answering letters.

Every was having a good time working together.

Below is a couple videos to prove that.

I went out to load the Bibles in the car and took the picture below of the cars in the parking lot and this is after a few had already left.  We are SO blessed with willing, amazing, hard working volunteers!

The Merry Maids Arrive

 Aunt Jinnie and I were the first to arrive this morning at the Berean office but before the door was unlocked the other volunteers started arriving.  We were pretty busy, so busy in fact that I forgot to take pictures and because Marvin wasn't here to remind us we forgot to have our 9:30 am prayer.  Aunt Jinnie reminded us about an hour later so we all stopped what we were doing and Chuck had a prayer for the program, prisoners and volunteers today. Below are a few pictures take a little late. By the time I pulled the camera out Vonnie was putting away the boxes and I told them all to "look busy" which caused a lot of laughter.

They HAD been busy. They had processed all of the studies and got 29 Bibles ready for mailing.

I was able to catch Shirley, Bill and Kathy at work as they were all working in the other room. 

We were loading up in the car when I realized I had forgotten my purse, went inside and there were the Berean Merry Maids all busy cleaning.

We will ALL appreciate the nice clean office and are very grateful for those that volunteered to do this. 

The Tithe

 Aunt Jinnie and I arrived at 8:55 am to find volunteers already hard at work.

Skip had arrived about 8:15 am and had already read all of the letters.  Bill arrived and gave us an update. He was meeting today in  Springfield with the Illinois department of corrections and then shared some updates on his health.

After the prayer Skip read a letter from an inmate that had sent Berean a check for his tithe for the year. When a prisoner sends tithe money we are pretty sure that this is not just a jail house conversion.

Below are a few pictures of the morning.

Above the volunteers are stuffing new studies to be mailed to the prisoners and below Justin is separating the studies by number.

Below Skip is explaining a letter to Bill.

Below Skip is preparing the Bibles for mailing today while the rest work on the studies.

We finished the work by 11:00 am and sat down to enjoy the snack. We enjoyed working together. 

Amazing Grace

 As yesterday was a holiday the Berean mail couldn't be picked up until this morning.  Thankfully the post office wasn't terribly busy and I didn't have to wait more than a few minutes. We arrived at the Berean office 10 minutes early only to find plenty of volunteers already there waiting to work. Aunt Jinnie is back, below Shirley is reminding her of what we do as we process the mail. 

We didn't have a lot of mail today but had other things that needed to be done. Marvin arrived with another new helper. Justin came today to help. Below Marvin is introducing him to everyone.

Bill arrived to help with some of the computer stuff. Below he and Marvin are working on some addresses.

Once everything was done in this room the volunteers were put to work in the other room. Skip is getting the Bibles ready for mailing, some are stuffing the new studies and some are folding papers.

After the work was done we sat around the table with a snack and coffee and listened to Justin give his testimony. It was really amazing. It would be great if he would share it again so it could be recorded. We are so very thankful for each volunteer and even more thankful to hear testimonies of God's great love for each of us and His Amazing Saving Grace

That's Love

 We had quite a bit of mail today. We usually get some touching letters and some funny ones too. Check out the request that came in today. 

We never know what someone will ask. At 9:30 am everyone gathers into the main room for prayer and sometimes we share letters or stories during that time. Below Marvin was sharing something Ron Messner shared with him. Ron has been helping this inmate ever since he was released.

That's LOVE!

We were able to mail out 65 Bibles today.  Below Ray is applying the address labels.

Skip is entering the new Bible requests.

A group working in the other room. Not pictured was Chuck hard at work on separating studies, Shirley filling the intermediates, and Kathy writing letters.

Bill is explaining to Marvin that perhaps Marvin's type A personality could become more like Bill's type Z. Of course we all laughed at that.

Working With Special Volunteers

 We had another good morning at the Berean office. Before we could get started though we needed to be able to drive into the lot. Below Skip is shoveling the snow out of the way.

 The studies were processed first before we started working on the Bibles.  Below Skip is entering the new Bible requests while Marvin is looking up addresses. 

We really do work well together. Below Skip, Chuck and Ray are stuffing, wrapping and labeling Bibles while Vonnie, Shirley and Shirley are working on getting the first set of lessons ready to be stuffed into the Bibles.

Bill and Tate arrived to load boxes of Bibles and stopped in to talk to Kathy for a bit.

The amount of work that gets done in this office in a few hours is pretty amazing and I am very thankful to be working with these special volunteers.