Delicious!

We were very blessed today at the Berean office. Wayne and Lukie Unsicker provided our lunch for the Thursday group of volunteers. The volunteers had to work hard first though before the treat. Those Bibles the Lighthouse kids wrapped on Tuesday were labeled and mailed out today.

We were able to get all the studies processed, the letters processed and the Bibles labeled, stamped and loaded into the car by 11:00 am giving us about 45 minutes to fold studies and fill boxes. Below are a few pictures of the day. Below Janelle is applying the address labels to each Bible.

 Diane is working on the certificates. Each week there are between 20 and 30 prisoners finishing all 50 lessons of the basic Bible study and those that finish are sent a certificate.

 Below is our delicious lunch.  As a special treat for dessert, Wayne made the pineapple upside down cake out on his grill. That was served with ice cream.

 The lunch was delicious but honestly the fellowship is even better. We sure do enjoy each others company. It is hard to get back to work after enjoying our time of breaking bread.

 Below is Mark's van which was being stuffed with Bibles. The UPS truck had just arrived to pick up the boxes of Bibles we ship out directly to chaplains in prisons and jails across the United States. 

Diane came to the post office with me to help unload the Bibles. When we finished getting the last box loaded we both gave a sigh of relief. We survived another week!

Lighthouse

Berean had special guests come today to wrap Bibles. Check out how busy these willing workers are:

It was a good thing they came, they wrapped an entire pallet of Bibles for us and we probably got requests today of most of those Bibles. On Tuesday we work on reading the letters and processing the studies. On Thursdays we mail out the Bibles. There is enough work now to probably work 3 days a week but we would need someone willing to manage the volunteers. Anyone out there want to volunteer on Wednesdays?
Below is a short video of the adult room as we were processing the studies. Not all volunteers were present during the filming.

The office was noisy today but very productive.

We finished up around 3:00 pm. Check out the studies to be mailed in the picture below.

We now have 46,330 students on the rolls. Each week around 20 to 30 finish all 50 lessons and those prisoners anxiously await their certificate.

Letters, Lots of Letters

Today we had a light mail day at Berean giving me a few extra minutes to find a few nice letters to bring home for this blog. Just click on each letter to make it large enough to read. Scroll down for the rest of the pictures.

We get hundreds of letters each week. Some are angry they are in jail, some are grateful for the gift of a Bible, some are obvious begging letters, some are touching and some are heart breaking.  We say the heart of this ministry is the letters. When our volunteers are readers they really learn what this is all about and thankfully keep coming back to help. Below are a few pictures from today's work. Marie brought Timmy and Justin in this morning just in time to help unload a pallet of Bibles.Below Timmy is getting a well deserved treat out of the fridge.

 Dan came in to repair our lesson box which collapsed over the weekend. Below Vonnie and Eva Jean are stuffing Bibles for wrapping.

 Rachel is busy reading letters.

 Edie, Roma and Anna are busy with studies.

 Below we are all busy wrapping and labeling the Bibles then stacking them in the car for mailing.

 Chuck was put to work labeling studies. 

 Diane R is amazing, we give her a job and she quietly and quickly gets it done. She is one of our multi task volunteers.

 Not quite sure what Edie and Rachel are working on but I'm sure it was something needed.

Today was a good day. We finished early enough we could relax during our lunch meal without feeling like we must scarf down the food.  A big big thank you to everyone that helps support this ministry. One of the many graders sent this today by email: THEY LOVED OUR BIBLE STUDIES and want more.....

(Can you guys really manage all this stuff??----sure hope so.)

Please send the second series of Bible Study lessons to:.. and then there were names of those who finished the first set of 50 and want to continue. Yes we can do this.

Loud!

The wonderful workers started showing up Tuesday ready to work and work there was. We had 2 full mailboxes full of letters and studies to process. Marie put Timothy and Justin right to work. We needed wrapped Bibles and these 2 boys were able to wrap over 10 boxes.

The piles of mail are growing each week.

Thankfully the volunteers keep on coming. I think they enjoy working together, just check out the visiting going on while opening the Tuesday  mail.

Camera Home

The camera was picked up and the pictures downloaded from our Tuesday group of volunteers. This was the day I thought we would have very few volunteers and was worried about getting the huge mail load done. The first picture is just some of the big piles of mail.

 We were so thankful a new 'young' volunteer showed up. Below Janelle is hard at work opening the studies with Eva Jean. Glenna is behind them with her own huge piles of studies.

 Poor Janelle, she was put to work unloading an entire pallet of Bibles on Tuesday then loading them back up for mailing on Thursday. We are praying she will come back this week. Jeanette was given a flower today. This was sent in with one of the request letters with a note this rose was sent to us in love.

 Marie's mother-in-law drove all the way from Forrest, IL with her grandson to come help us. They were put right to work folding studies, stuffing them in the Bibles then getting the Bibles wrapped for mailing.

 Mike walked during a very busy morning and we think he was kind of shocked at how many volunteers were crowded into both rooms. Below he is very emphatically explaining something to David. Pictured is Glenna, Jan, Chuck, Eva Jean, Jeanette, Timmy, Timmy's grandma's back, Mike, Marie's back, Dave, Shirley, mom's hand and Jeanette. 

Pictured are Timmy, his grandma, his cousin, Marie and David who was emphatically making his point right back at Mike.

When we finished up Thursday we were all thankful. We survived another week.

Productive SO Productive Day

We had a wonderful productive day at Berean, much much easier than Tuesday. That probably is because the amount of mail that came in today was manageable. That and the fact we had a lot of nimble fingers, strong backs and willing workers. Not that Tuesday's group wasn't willing we were just so overwhelmed. Mark had arrived with a pallet of Bibles even before I got to the office. With Marie and Justin's help we almost had them all unloaded before Joan and her kids arrived to help. Below are a few pictures of the day and one short video. We ran out of stamped envelopes and had a little competition on who could stamp the most envelopes in the shortest amount of time. Check out who WON, the answer is at the end of the video!

Below Faith and Timmy are opening the Bible boxes.

 Justin is holding just a few of the address labels of today. 

 Berlica is helping slice open the boxes with our wonderful letter openers Cheryl donated.

 Notice how each child has one of those wonderful letter openers. They were put to good use today.

 We have an assembly line going with unpacking, stuffing and labeling.

 We had a new volunteer come today all the way from Tremont. 

 JulieAnn was put to work with Marie and Diane R reading letters.

 Joan kept the other room hopping, processing almost an entire pallet load of Bibles.

 Berlica graduated from stamping envelopes to applying labels to Bibles. She was very proud of herself. She was careful to put them on right side up. 

 Roma and Hannah were put to work filling boxes.

 We finished by lunch and all were able to sit down for a nice meal. I'm not sure what everyone is shocked about in the picture below but it must have been Diane R's change of clothes. She was heading out to another job at 1:00 pm and went from fancy to work ready in the blink of an eye.

 Below Chuck has brought in a box to fill with Bible studies to be graded. He is mailing them to his brother-in-law and sister Lynn and Mim Klopfenstein all the way to South Carolina. They take around a hundred a week for grading. So so thankful to anyone willing to grade the thousands that come in each month. Justin has his hands full of Bibles ready to be stacked back inside the box until next Tuesday. 

We have a hard time keeping up with the requests each week. The prisoners that write and request a Bible are hungry for the Word of God. Our jails and prison guards are reporting good things happening. I believe a revival is happening in prisons all over the United States. Pray the people on the outside will also make this oh so important decision. The time is so short and God would not have any perish!