Mailing in May?

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I just wanted to give you an update on the new issue of Loaves & Fishes I told you about last month. I am very encouraged to report that we now have the funds we need to start printing. It is a major accomplishment for this ministry to have the money for printing only 2 months after mailing the previous issue.

Once the booklets arrive, we will need around $8,600 loose funds to mail all the subscriptions. We already have $1,000 or so to put toward postage and are hoping for the rest in the next 30 days, so we can mail this issue in May—three months after the previous one went out.

Publishing every three months has been our goal for years, and to think it could soon be reality is very exciting to me!

Spending $8,000 for postage sounds outrageous, and we don’t want to approach it lightly. But to put it into perspective, we can prepare, print, and mail these booklets for only 30 cents a piece. This is a booklet with 48 pages plus a full color cover, folded to half the size of a sheet of copy paper.

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Breaking News: Upcoming Issue

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Last month I told the story of how God provided the funds we needed to get Loaves & Fishes 11/01 on the road. Today we look forward to printing the next issue (11/02) and doing it all again!

This issue is filled with an interesting variety of stories, poems, articles, puzzles, and testimonies. Below is a cover shot and a few of the inside pages. It’s still not finalized, so a few things could change, but I wanted to give you a “sneak peek.”

I really believe God helped us put this issue together, and I can’t wait to share it with prisoners across the USA. As soon as we get feedback from the reviewers and make all the final adjustments, we will be ready to start printing.

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Loaves & Fishes on the Road Again

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February 2013 Loaves & Fishes Report 

I am in awe of God and His faithfulness. Just like the rainbow after the storm, the Lord’s kindness is refreshing and His promises sweet.
God has made it possible for another issue of Loaves & Fishes to hit the road! There were 30,000 individual subscriptions and 56,000 copies in boxes.

We really appreciated the willing help of volunteers from Woodbury, TN and our church here to prepare the mailings. It was a blessing to see how quickly we got it finished.

The postage for the box subscriptions cost $4,250 and the single subscriptions $4,410. We were getting ready to package the box subscriptions and didn’t yet have enough money to put postage on the boxes, but soon after I sent an email update, we got a pledge for $5,000 toward the project. We received it just in time to fill our postage meter and put postage on the boxes. Isn’t it amazing how God works?Continue reading

The Sacrifice of Giving

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January 2013 Loaves & Fishes Report 

In a land of indulgence, credit cards, and Santa Claus, it’s easy to think of giving in a negative light. Yet we know that God is the author of giving and showed us how to give by sending His Son to redeem us from sin. What a pure, sacrificial gift!

We are called to follow that example: “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God” (Hebrews 13:16, ESV).

Today there are millions of men and women locked up in prisons and jails across this country. Many of them are living in darkness and their hearts are full of anger, violence, and hate. Satan and his demons have turned thousands of people into wild “animals” and there may be no point of return for those. It breaks my heart to see this happening in our prisons.

Thankfully, most prisoners haven’t gone that far, and many are still searching for truth. Some are full of regret for the crimes they’ve committed. Some are lonely and hurting in their relationships. And others have almost given up on life and face a dark, hopeless future. Most prisoners struggle with deep emotional pain.Continue reading