2 Pallets Full

 We had a good mornings work at the Berean office. Not only did we get all the Bible studies processed and 32 Bible requests filled we were able to stack 2 pallet loads of Bibles in the office AND wrap 5 extra boxes. Below are a few pictures of our productive morning. It is amazing how there are many different jobs to this one ministry and everyone that volunteers in this office know how to do most of those jobs.

Above Marvin is working on returned Bibles while Leila reads letters. Below Wayne has arrived with his fork lift ready to haul 2 pallets full of Bibles over to the office.  Wayne and Lukie also provided fresh baked donuts from Trefzgers Bakery. Those were delicious!

Above Ron is stamping envelopes and below Shirley, Leila, Shirley, Chuck and Vonnie are busy stuffing and wrapping Bibles.

Below I had asked Shirley to hold the empty box and she found a way to hold it AND still work.

WE really had a good crew working today and got a lot accomplished.

The smiles below show that we also have FUN while working.

I was very thankful for everything that got done today and we even got a jump on next week with getting so many Bibles wrapped.

Rainy Day

 We had rain all day today, which works out well for us in the Berean office. The farmers in the group could not work in the rain so came to volunteer with us. We were able to get everything done before noon. Usually Bruce is busy in the fields but with the rain he ran the postage machine.

Kathy, Leila and Marvin went right to work on the letters. 

Skip read letters then helped me on the computer both on Bible studies and entering Bibles.

In the other room Shirley, Vonnie and Ray were busy filling studies. 

When the studies were finished we went to work on labeling the Bibles.

We were able to have a coffee break just after 11:00.

Above Ray who was working here only because it was raining. was explaining to Leila that he needed to be standing so he could see his wife better. Of course the rest of us all burst out laughing. 

We have such a good time working together even with a rainy day outside it was full of brightness and laughter inside. I'm so thankful we get the chance to work together to help spread the good news of Jesus to prisoners. 

Busy Morning

 We had a busy morning at the Berean office with more mail than usual.  There were plenty of Bible studies to open and process. Ron, Shirley, mom and Shirley all went right to work.

At one point each of the 3 ladies opened an envelope with the studies all folded separately. We don't like that and if mom opens one she writes on the study to please fold them together. We teased her saying she must have written by mistake, "Please fold separately" 

That made everyone laugh.

Below Marvin is posting something on the bulletin board. If it looks pretty full, IT IS! We have lots of notes on different rules of prisons, jails and prisoners.

Below he is asking if we knew how many copies the new copier had made. The guesses were 3000 all the way to 10,000 but all of the guesses were wrong.

The real number of each double sided copy is WELL over 250,000! Crazy as we haven't had it that long and still call it the new copier. Below he is showing us the exact number which I can't remember.

Bill came today, he had a good report from Mayo Clinic and is in remission. Even his hair is growing back.

Below Marvin is helping Skip look something up while Kathy is showing something to Bill. Leila is reading letters.

Ron, Mom and Shirley went to work in the other room stuffing the next set of Bible studies to be mailed out today.

Shirley is busy working on the intermediate studies.

We only had 19 Bible requests today so spent some time putting the return envelopes on folded studies for the future.

We quit at noon and had delicious cookies and brownies mom brought in. They were all mother's day gifts she was willing to share with all of us. Those cookies tasted even better than they looked. 

Marvin took his home to show his grand daughters telling us they were much to pretty to eat. That didn't seem to bother the rest of us. It was a busy morning but we all enjoyed the work which I was very thankful to get done.

Tuesdays News a Day Late

 Yesterday was just too busy with the co-op concert and horse work which meant today's post on Berean really happened yesterday. We had a good group but had some problems with the computers and the printer.  Below Joan Nelson is sharing with us some special writings from some of the prisoners. 

Bruce is busy attaching labels to envelopes then the envelopes to the correct studies. 

Skip and Leila were the readers. Kathy and Dave are up at Mayo clinic. Hopefully they can figure out Dave's medical problems. 

Below we are finishing up the stuffing of studies

Below the two Shirleys are discussing how to handle one of the problem letters.

Mom and I had to leave before Bill got the postage machine going. That machine is from Pitney Bowes and is almost always giving us trouble. Today it kept trying to update over and over and we could not print out the Bible stamps.  Marvin stayed late trying to get the printer to keep chugging out copies. He told me tonight that he ended up going back today and working on it. We could really use prayers that the computers and printers keep working. It really holds us up when they don't. 

Blessings Galore

 We didn't have a lot of mail this morning but all of us had plenty to do and before we knew it the time had flown by. Below are a few pictures. Vonnie keeps everyone busy in one room while I work in the other.

Skip is running off the Bible postage while Shirley is working on the intermediate studies. 

Shirley and Chuck have already finished processing the studies and were put to work on envelopes in the picture above, below Skip, Leila and mom have an assembly line with the Bibles while Shirley is filling the intermediates, Megan is folding new studies then putting those with envelopes while Marvin makes copies.

After our coffee break which was coffee, 3 different kinds of a Danish pastry and cinnamon rolls Chuck left to pick up water for the volunteers. The office is on a well and Wayne does not think it is safe to drink. Chuck brought in 20 cases of water. Marvin, Chuck, Leila, mom and I formed and assembly line to get them out of Chucks trunk and into the office. We are very thankful for his efforts. 

We have so much to be thankful for. We GET to volunteer here, we have a WONDERUL office that is perfectly suited for this ministry and we can HELP prisoners all over America through this program. What a blessing this ministry has been to us as volunteers and to those requesting Bibles.

A Special Treat

 We had snow on our way to the Berean office this morning.  So much snow was coming down on the interstate it was hard to see the road. Below is a picture from the Berean office, the snow was still falling. 

I had to drop the truck off this morning to get the oil changed and tires rotated so mom followed me to Peoria Tire and Vulcanizing and we got to the Berean office at 8:55 am. Almost everyone was there waiting for us. Wayne walked in with a box of fresh baked donuts for our treat. With that to look forward to everyone was more than willing to get to work.

Bill was able to join us today, he goes back to Mayo Clinic next week to see if all the treatment worked. We think it did as he is looking much better.

Marie sent 2 of her kids to help today at the Berean office and did we ever put them to work.

These good strong young adults were so helpful. Justin and Megan were very willing to do the heavy work. As soon as we were done processing the studies we started on stuffing and wrapping the Bibles.

We finished before noon and really enjoyed those fresh baked delicious donuts from Wayne and Lukie. Those really were a special treat.