Key Lime

 As yesterday was a holiday, the post office wasn't open until today to pick up the Berean mail. Each time Monday is a holiday we don't get a lot of mail for the week and today was no exception. Most of the volunteers were told they would not need to come in but we still had enough to get the mail processed this morning.

Beth, Vonnie and Shirley went right to work opening the mail. Skip was the only reader this morning and had all the letters read as I was processing the studies on the computer. Bill came in to help. He had ordered ink for the stamp machine and below he is searching his phone to find out when that was to be delivered as we were low on ink.

It turned out that the ink was being delivered today.

Each week Shirley takes care of all of the intermediate studies. 

Once the studies were finished and the people requesting Bibles were entered into the computer we printed those labels and got the 22 Bibles going out today ready.

We were enjoying key lime pie and coffee by 10:30 am.

Willing Hands

 Mom and I arrived at 8:45 am and already there were volunteers hard at work. We had over 80 Bible studies come in for grading and over 30 Bible request letters.  Vonnie almost single handedly filled almost all the basic studies herself while we worked in the other room

Leila was one of our readers today, Bruce ran the postage machine but also processed studies. Mom worked on putting the return address label on envelopes while Shirley opened mail and then processed all of the intermediate studies.

Below Skip is entering all the Bible requests, Bill is looking up addresses while Kathy writes to prisoners.

The postage machine needed to be refilled with money so Bill is taking care of that job in the picture below.

Kathy is answering any of the special requests.

Below Vonnie, Leila and Bruce are getting Bibles ready for mailing while Shirley stuffs the last of the intermediate studies. 

After everything was finished we took a break and had a dessert and coffee and of course conversation. We sure enjoy working together and really do get a lot accomplished in a few hours each week. We really are thankful for willing hands.

Maybe Next Week

 We didn't have a lot of mail this week but took that opportunity to get some other jobs done such as folding studies. Below is a short video of some of the work getting done while we have fun doing it. 

We finished around 10:30 and enjoyed coffee and coffee cake around the table visiting. Hopefully next week we will be swamped with Bible requests. 

Wrapping Bibles

 Mom and I arrived at the Berean office about 8:50 am and already there were volunteers waiting for the mail. Skip carried it in and even before we got into the office they had passed it out and were opening it. Mom was put to work placing the non for profit stamps on the envelopes she worked on last week.

Below the group is hard at work opening the studies.

Once the studies were processed most of us ended up in the other room to wrap Bibles.

Below is a short video of this room while Bill and Kathy work in the other room answering letters.

We left as the rest of the group was finishing up. Hopefully they all took a break and had some dessert and coffee before leaving for home. It was a good morning and we had 34 Bibles to take to the post office and got another 60 Bibles wrapped.

Thankful To Be Back

 After missing last week while on vacation I was very glad to get back to the Berean office today.  We had enough to do to keep us all working until 11:00 am. I didn't remember to take pictures until we had finished processing the studies in the other room. 

I noticed what I thought was a new picture up on the wall.

Vonnie explained that the picture has been here for weeks. I guess I'm not that observant.  Below Bill was telling us some stories from his life in Mexico, Skip was printing off the Bible stamps and brought them in to start working on Bibles, Kathy is busy writing to prisoners,  mom is putting the new studies in the envelops. Vonnie is working on filling the intermediate. Bruce and Leila were working on envelopes while Shirley was folding. Beth had been working on studies but stopped to listen to Bill.

We really do enjoy working together.  We enjoyed apple pie and coffee before heading home. I was thankful to be back.

Harder and Harder

 The mail for Berean had 10 returned Bibles so when Marvin arrived at the Berean office he went to work to find out why they were returned.  One had on a sticker no books, periodicals, magazines allowed. Another had a note no leather, vinyl, or hard back books allowed. A few came back with the note this person already has a Bible. Some came back with the note full name and number required (we had their first and last name and the correct number but not a middle initial.)  Another came back with housing required and on our label the housing number was blacked out.  It is getting harder and harder to get Bibles to prisoners.  What a crazy world we live in. Thankfully the Peoria County Jail is letting Berean workers in. Rhonda called from the jail, they needed Bibles. In the video below we were discussing how to get them there. At the end of the video Beth was telling us about some guests she had for dinner and how one of those guests became a Christian.

Our air conditioner at the office wasn't cooling and it was really heating up in there with everyone hard at work.  Meister Heating and Air was called and in 20 minutes Philip showed up to check it out.

He had to change the compressor but got it working.

We were really thankful for that air as we had 2 skids of Bibles to bring in and stack today. There was plenty of work to be done today and plenty of volunteers to help get that work done.

Below is our assembly line for stuffing and wrapping Bibles.

When we finished we enjoyed raspberry flips Beth brought in as a special treat.

We would really appreciate prayers that God would provide a way for us to get Bibles to those asking for one. Covid shut down many of the prisons and jails we had been able to hold services, studies, and counseling and most of these facilities no longer allow Berean volunteers in to provide any of these services.  Now we are having trouble even getting a Bible to hurting inmates. 

Productive Hours

 We didn't have a lot of mail but that was a good thing today. There was no water at the Berean office. The Unsickers had a water leak and had to turn it off until they could get a plumber there. We were able to finish everything by 10:30 am, had some home grown melon, coffee and brownies then left for home. Beth came today to help. We were all thrilled to have her. She gave us some updates and stories of different prisons and had everyone laughing. 

The only volunteer here not pictured was Bill. He was busy with the postage machine getting that to work so we could mail out the Bibles.  It was only 3 hours of work but thankfully they were all very productive hours.