February 2025 Update

News

Welcome to 2025!

We are happy to launch another year of sharing the good news of Jesus with prison inmates. As a donor, distributor, or prayer supporter, you are a tremendous blessing to our ministry.

In the coming year, we are particularly excited about a few things. James Hoover has been volunteering as a magazine reviewer, and is now also functioning as administrative assistant in order to help facilitate our publishing goals for 2025.

Another new development is the possibility of featuring Loaves & Fishes magazine on a digital content app on prison tablets. We are in discussions with a content vendor, and hope to learn more very soon. Please pray with us that a channel could open up for digital distribution of our content in prisons.

In addition to sharing our financial and shipping reports for 2024, I want to let you know about our publishing goals for this year.

Building Fund Update

Since Lighthouse Publishing moved to Pennsylvania in 2014, we have held funds from the sale of its former property in Tennessee in reserve as a building fund. At our recent advisory board meeting, we discussed the status of this fund, originally $40,000, with a current balance of $53,456.61.

Lighthouse Publishing currently rents its facilities, and intends to continue to do so for the foreseeable future. This brings up the occasional question of what to do with our building fund. It was suggested that we find a use for these funds to assist the ministry operations in some way other than for routine expenses.

Our decision was to use a portion of these funds to prepare a number of magazine issues ahead of our publishing schedule. The goal is to have several issues of the magazine fully print-ready so that they can be released for print immediately when our general fund allows, reducing delays.

Specifically, a limited amount of these funds will be used for editing and graphic design expenses for 3-6 issues of the magazine in 2025. Our editing team is working on an accelerated schedule to make this happen. We would appreciate your prayer support, as all of our staff have other responsibilities, and the hours of writing and editing can be a significant sacrifice. This is particularly true for our editor who is serving as a missionary in Peru.

2024 Items Shipped Report

2024 Financial Report

Publishing Update

Issue 54: Evangelism

By the time you receive this newsletter, Loaves & Fishes issue 54 should be in our warehouse. We are pleased to announce that this issue is fully funded and will be sent out as soon as it arrives.

We expect the cost of editing, design, printing, and shipping to be around $35,000. Due to your generous support, our funds on hand are close to $45,000. Your giving inspires our work, and we are excited to place this issue in the hands of our readers and distributors.

-Mike Fisher, Manager of Operations

Reader Feedback

I just want to say thank you for allowing those in the prison system to have access to your wonderful publication. Please continue to bless us with the news of God’s love and greatness! God bless you all for your love and kindness.

—Joshua Engle

Graceville Correctional, Graceville, FL

Distributor Feedback

I extend my heartfelt gratitude to you and your staff for your generous donation in support of the residents in the custody of the Sheriff’s Office. We are deeply touched by your kindness and generosity. Please know that your donation will be used efficiently and effectively to maximize its impact.

December 2024 Update

News

Christmas All Year

Dickens’ fictional character Ebenezer Scrooge famously said, “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.”

It’s hard to say whether Jesus expected his followers to celebrate His birth in the way we do these thousands of years later. However, there are timeless themes in the story of Jesus’ birth that, if we allow them to inform our lives, will be a blessing to us and those around us.

Jesus’s birth and childhood in humble and poor circumstances, and his constant associations with those less fortunate, demonstrate the importance God places on people, above material wealth and status. We should follow Jesus’ footsteps and reach out to anyone regardless of where they come from or where they have gotten themselves.

The supernatural phenomena associated with Jesus’ birth, including manifestations of angels and His birth to a young virgin, should inspire us to seek divine intervention in the problems we face. We must believe in miracles. God is able to place his divine spark inside a person and transform them. Pray constantly for God to show himself. He is able.

We live in a dark world, and yet it is a world that God created as a beautiful home for mankind. Jesus’ birth is a story of light in the darkness. The light of Jesus in us can burst as a bright star upon the dark spaces where we sometimes live and serve. Through Christ, the beauty of creation as God first intended it can be glimpsed again, if imperfectly, as His followers bring the good news of redemption and live transformed lives.

Scrooge may have had in mind such Christmas graces as hospitality, generosity, and friendliness, and the birth of Christ is about these things, but Christmas is so much more. The birth of Christ represented an epochal change, the inauguration of God’s kingdom on earth.

Christmas is for all the year. Christmas is for life.

—Mike Fisher, Manager of Operations

James G. Weaver – December 7, 1950 – December 5,2024

Remembering James Weaver

Today, we at Lighthouse Publishing experienced a deep loss. This morning, James Weaver passed from this life into the presence of the Lord. Jimmy filled an invaluable role here as our primary office staff member for nearly seven years.

After retiring from his career as a laboratory technician, Jimmy gave his time and talent to our ministry. He went above and beyond simply processing mail and maintaining our database, to establishing personal connections and sharing notes of encouragement with untold numbers of prison inmates.

At the end of 2022, Jimmy retired a second time, and we have missed his presence often. And now as the Lord has called him away, we are left with many great memories of his infectious laugh, intense care for others, and thousands of hours of service on behalf of people he never met.

Pastor Jimmy

There was once a kindly gentleman,

Jimmy Weaver was his name;

Often when I crossed Sproul Mountain

I heard much about his fame.

Jimmy was a much loved pastor

In a little country church,

Personal friend and trusted mentor

To the folks who worshipped there.

Jimmy cared for those in prison—

Lighthouse was his usual spot.

He helped propagate the vision:

Reaching a less fortunate lot.

Jimmy was a kindred spirit,

Though I didn’t know him long.

He enjoyed a table garnished

With nutrition quite diverse.

Time was short to know my namesake;

Only twice we got to talk.

But I have those treasured memories,

Now life’s path alone I walk.

Friends, there is a kindly Being

Who you really need to know,

Time is short and life is fleeting,

Talk to Him while here below.

Jesus Christ, your Friend and Savior,

Now invites you, “Come and dine;”

Jimmy’s waiting at the table—

Till we make our heavenly climb.

—James Hoover, Loaves & Fishes magazine staff

Publishing Update

Issue 54: Evangelism

Since our October newsletter was published, issue 53 was shipped. We are currently finishing up issue 54, and hope to have it ready for editing and design soon. Our current bank account balance is around $13,000. We project a printing cost of $22,000 for this issue, and a postage cost of around $9,000. With design and other expenses, the total cost of this issue is expected to be around $35,000, so our goal is to raise an additional $22,000 in funding by press time.

October 2024 Update

News

Change and Hopelessness

One of the most depressing realities in life is the difficulty of change. My personal weaknesses sometimes have such a grip on me that I can feel like there is no way I will ever overcome them. I’ll never succeed in becoming the person Jesus would have me to be.

Looking around, there is also reason to be pessimistic. Much as you pray, hope, and try to help, the problems of people that we care about and attempt to serve just will not go away. It is hopeless!

And if that were not enough, our world is stuck in age-old ruts of conflict and despair. One would think that with modern science and centuries of humanimprovement at this point, we would be living in a much better world than our forefathers. But are we? The more things change, the more they stay the same.

And then I think of that friend who overcame significant health challenges simply by faithfully exercising discipline over time. I think of another acquaintance who emerged from a prison experience as a faithful brother and evangelist for the gospel.

In fact, every day I interact with people who have changed from being selfish or obnoxious or ungodly into being lovely, content, and mature men and women. Even one of these stories is enough to lift the attitude of hopelessness that wants to overwhelm us. Change is real. It happens!

But how? The answer is simple, yet complex. Change is only possible through the supernatural power of Jesus. At the same time, God asks us to play a role. He calls us to renew our minds. As we contemplate God’s glory, we are transformed into His likeness.

God calls us to put off the old self. When we confess our sins, He affects change in our lives—we become clean. God calls us to die, and then Christ lives His life within us. As we begin to walk with God, we (and others) observe the tangible results, and suddenly hope comes alive. Change is real!

We play a part, but we can’t begin to do it ourselves. Remember that when working to help others change. They need your help and God’s help, and when combined with their own will to grow, the results can be truly astonishing. Keep working for change!

—Mike Fisher, Manager of Operations

Issue #53 Status

Issue 53 has been shipped to our readers and distributors. This is the third issue of the year, and we are blessed to share it with our readers. We are so grateful to our donors for the gifts that have enabled this project.

Issue #54: Evangelism

At this time we have begun work on our next issue. The topic will be evangelism. Prisons are ripe fields for evangelistic work, but they also are home to Christians who may have the spiritual maturity and the opportunity to reach out to others in need. These believers need instruction on the task that all Christians should be engaged in: reaching the world for Christ.

Will issue 54 be our fourth issue of the year? We would love to see it happen! It will require partnership between our donors and our magazine staff. As God provides the resources through your kindness, we will do our best to steward our resources and prepare more Bible-based content for prisoners.

Distributor Feedback

Inmates love it. It has the Word, stories, Bible studies, and crossword puzzles. It is great!

—Chaplain John Benson, Tucson, AZ

Reader Feedback

I just want to say thank you for providing this wonderful periodical free of charge. This helps individuals who don’t have much money, like me, to further our studies and ultimately continue to strengthen our relationship with the Lord. I absolutely enjoy all the material you include in each issue. God Bless.

—Justin McDonald, Lubbock, TX

June 2024 Update

News