Recommend Us to Your Friends

Loaves & Fishes , News

Literature Packets

For the past six months, except for the work in the mailroom, we’ve been mostly working on 1) raising awareness and 2) making internal changes in the ministry in preparation for growth. In addition to becoming officially non-profit and obtaining a non-profit mailing permit, we’ve been able to reach some other significant milestones.

A big one is the resources we have published to help inform and raise awareness for the ministry. Here is a list of them:

• A ministry presentation in a full-color booklet. This is an effective way of raising awareness among churches and individuals.
• 3 Marks of an Effective Missionary, a 20-page booklet designed to inspire God’s people of their mission and to explain the basis of the ministry here.
• Five full-color bookmarks with poetry from Art Mayse (a friend of ours in prison) and one that reminds us to pray for the prisoners of the USA. Each of these mentions Loaves & Fishes and encourages prayer and financial support.
• A cheery refrigerator magnet with a prisoner testimonial on it and our contact information.

In the recent weeks, we’ve sent custom information packets to various segments of our database. Now we are looking for new contacts to send literature to. Hopefully, you can help us get these resources into the hands of potential donors.

How You Can Help

Friend-to-friend recommendations are one of the most effective ways to raise awareness for a cause.

Would you like to help us spread the word about Lighthouse Publishing and the wonderful opportunities to touch hearts in prison through literature?

Perhaps you have friends who have never heard about the open door in the prisons. Maybe your church has never been involved in prison work.

Be a voice. Simply let us send you some free literature packets. You can share them with your friends and churches that might be interested in learning about and supporting the work of Loaves & Fishes.

To order these resources, just send an email to info@lighthousepublishing.org. All we ask is that you use this literature for the glory of God and join us in prayer for the progress of the work.

For the Kingdom,

Lavern Gingerich

God Remembers Your Work of Love

Inspiration

Are you ever tempted to lose heart and simply give up? Oh, how relaxed life could be—if only the battle would be over, the work done. Or just to be permanently discharged.

But no, the One who sent us out has not called us back yet. The fields are still white for harvest. Workers are needed to finish the harvest before the night comes.

Some time ago, God encouraged my heart with Hebrews 6:10:

“God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.”

Yes, God remembers your labor of love for the saints. It’s important to preach the Gospel to unbelievers, but it’s just as important to minister to the saints. “Teach and make disciples” is just as much a command as “Preach the gospel to every creature.”

Whether we strengthen a weak one, help heal a broken heart, or show kindness in times of distress, God remembers the labor of love toward His people. He sees it, rewards it, and supplies the resources to go on.

Sometimes I have questions and fears. Then the Lord encourages my heart with verses like Hebrews 6:10, and I find strength to keep pressing on.

If you are a servant of the saints and tempted to just hang it up and choose an easier battle, be encouraged. Remember God is not unjust to forget your work of love toward His name.

For the Kingdom,

Lavern Gingerich

Ministry News and Prayer Requests

Loaves & Fishes , News

Non-Profit Postage Permit

As we said before, Lighthouse Publishing is now officially under our local church. Just recently, we finally were able to get a non-profit postage permit to mail at non-profit rates. This will save us several thousand dollars every time we do a presort mailing for the Loaves & Fishes single subscriptions! We will also save money on other presort mailings, such as the newsletter.

New Voice Mail System

Our old setup wasn’t recording complete messages anymore. If you left a message and never heard back from us, we are sincerely sorry. We’ve switched to a new voice mail system hosted with our phone company. It only costs $3/month and is just what we need.

New Bookkeeper

Esther has been responsible for the bookkeeping here for the last several years. With three little ones, it had become very difficult for her to keep doing it. The Lord is faithful and provided for this need also. We’ve hired Rosanne Gingerich, my sister, to be our new bookkeeper and cleaning lady. The carpet in my office is cleaner than it’s been in a long time. I think she deserves a raise already.

Next Issue of Loaves & Fishes Magazine

We have inspiration for the next issue of Loaves & Fishes and hope to start preparing it soon. Please pray for direction in this project.

We have close to $14,000 on hand. We’re not sure yet if we’ll print this one here or have someone else do it. If we outsource the printing, we could move ahead once we reach $20,000.

Project Goals

Our heart still beats with a vision of publishing Loaves & Fishes four times a year. We also see a huge opportunity to touch thousands of women with a magazine directed specifically toward mothers, wives, and single girls. Besides, we’ve had a vision for a Spanish version of Loaves & Fishes for years now.

However, we don’t feel clear launching into other projects until we can do at least 3 or 4 issues of Loaves & Fishes a year. Our main, and perhaps only, constraint is lack of funds.

We need wisdom in these decisions. Please pray for us that we could bring glory to God and expand His Kingdom with the donations of all our dear partners.

For the Kingdom,

Lavern Gingerich

Written Words Are Powerful

Loaves & Fishes

Have you considered how empty life would be without words? Without words, your life would consist mostly of emotions and images.

Words are priceless—not just spoken words, but also written words, especially when they are arranged effectively to form engaging literature.

Among the first examples of published literature were the Ten Commandments, inscribed on stone tablets by the finger of God. It was important to God that His words were written, not just spoken. When Moses demolished the “literature,” God rewrote the commandments for His people on another set of stone tablets.

Advanced Publishing

Publishing has advanced in amazing ways. School boys used to press marks into wax tablets. Now I can simply press keys, and characters appear on my computer screen. If I write something I don’t like or want to add more to a previous paragraph, I can instantly delete or rearrange my words. (Ah… you have no idea how many times I rewrote that sentence.)

Many years ago, scribes would dedicate months to tediously copying one book. Some were meticulous; others were not as careful. Dim lighting, poor eyesight, fatigue, and impatience could all take a toll on the quality of the finished product. There was no other method available.

In those days, anything longer than short personal letters was normally hired out to professional scribes whose entire career was copying words by hand. Today we can duplicate literature with 100% accuracy, and it’s no longer a tedious, back-breaking job. Modern equipment makes it easy to duplicate literature on paper millions of times. Technology lets me share literature with people on the other side of the world as soon as I hit the save button.

Written words are powerful. The ability to freely publish literature with mass duplication compounds this power.

Advantages of Publishing

Leverage: While written words will never replace spoken words and living examples, written words exert unmatched leverage compared to other forms of communication.

In other words, literature helps us magnify the impact of truth. We can publish 80,000 copies of Loaves & Fishes and the power of that literature goes on for years, decades, and even centuries, all without taking additional time and resources on our part.

Influence: Like a road map, literature influences destinies. It persistently changes minds and invokes emotions, both for the good and the bad. Effective literature often has permanent effect on those who read it. God uses literature to bring souls into His Kingdom and to disciple believers.

24/7 Preacher: Literature has liberty like none of us have. Show me a messenger that is welcome in a prisoner’s bunk all day any day. Or one that fits into a teenager’s shirt pocket. Written words make themselves at home in desk drawers, purses, and truck consoles—even under the pillow of a seeking soul—right within reach exactly when the recipient is ready to open his heart.

Many organizations and religions, such as the Communists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Mormons, realize the potential of written words and invest as much as millions of dollars per year in publishing their message.

As we shared before, the fields are ripe for harvest, and there are many open doors in prison. Literally thousands have asked us to speak into their lives.

Will we wake up to the opportunities of advanced publishing before the night comes when no one can work? Or will we allow Satan’s servants to saturate the prisons with his message while we lag behind, hoping someone else will finish this task?

Printed literature is powerful, and God uses it to change lives. It gives us leverage to make more of an impact than we could otherwise. Literature has liberty to preach and teach when the recipient is ready, even 1,000 miles away at 2:00 in the morning.

The Need for Publishing

It takes around $30,000 (plus overhead) to produce and mail one issue of the Loaves & Fishes magazine (about 80,000 copies).

Everything is in place to prepare, print, and mail additional copies of Loaves & Fishes, as well as process incoming mail from prisoners.

We need prayer for wisdom to prepare more issues of Loaves & Fishes and to minister to the prisoners who write back. We also need more finances to reach our goal of four printings a year.

Thank you for your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. We hope that you will continue to partner with us for the glory of God.

For the ripened grain,

Lavern Gingerich