New Beginnings on Death Row

Inspiration

Excerpt from our latest print newsletter:

There are ten men on death row in Riverbend Maximum Prison here in Nashville, TN. These men are scheduled to die on or before October 7, 2014. Only three of them said they knew about Jesus.

Once a week a minister comes to my cell for prayer before he enters death row to visit. About three months ago, I sent three Art Mayse Bible bookmarks (from Lighthouse) with him. The following Tuesday he reported four saved men. Over a period of a month or more, he took ten Scripture prayer cards from Lighthouse and seven more Bible bookmarks.

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Issue 24 Ready to Print

News

Sometimes life brings unexpected setbacks and perplexing questions. As the Apostle Paul said, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair” (2 Corinthians 4:8, ESV).

I can relate to Paul’s feelings in at least a small way as I consider the adventure and challenges of working in prison ministry. May each of us make his testimony our own—”We are always of good courage” (5:6a).

Loaves & Fishes issue 24 has been waiting to be printed for several months now. As it stands, total copies for the next printing would be 108,000, and the printing will cost $16,000. This number includes 5,000 extra copies to distribute between printings.

Today we have $10,000 on hand, so once we have $9,000 more, we can order the books.

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A Letter From Burning Bush Mennonite Church

News

About a year ago, our congregation first learned of the ministry of Lighthouse Publishing, and Loaves & Fishes magazine. Through a series of events, we were asked whether we would consider Lighthouse Publishing becoming a part of our church.

We learned to know Darold and Lavern Gingerich, and visited the Lighthouse facility in Pikeville, Tennessee. After discussion and prayer, we agreed to accept Lighthouse as a ministry of Burning Bush Mennonite Church. Today, Lighthouse Publishing is operating in a rented facility in our community in Bedford, Pennsylvania, and Lavern and his family have settled in here as well.

This has been a new and unique experience for our church, and we are still in the process of learning about the ministry. We are looking forward to the printing and mailing of the upcoming issue of Loaves & Fishes as an opportunity for our church family to get hands-on experience with the work of the ministry. We are aware that years of hard work, prayer, and cooperation have been invested in Lighthouse Publishing. Our hope is that, as we begin to participate, the vision of reaching prison inmates through literature will become our own. We also hope to involve other local churches in the packing and mailing process.

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After the Move

News

New address: Lighthouse Publishing • PO Box 332 • Bedford, PA 15522

I am glad to say we made it through our move and are starting to get our heads above water again. The “endless” list of small things that go with settling into a new community can be overwhelming, but we’re really enjoying life here.

We have rented a building here in Bedford. The mail is being forwarded from our old address in TN to a PO Box. Seth Stoltzfus (treasurer) does most of the bookkeeping at his work office, but donations and deposits are processed here at the office. My dad and Rosanne (my sister) are now in Iowa and will continue to help process prisoner mail.

We have three offices here, including a nice big office for incoming mail and database management. My office is also very comfortable with enough room for two desks. (I am operating my own business out of the same office, and it’s working well.) The third office is a spare workstation and a handy place for storage.

The packing room is to the right (above) with two garage doors. It’s a great place for packing orders. There is also a small warehouse area to the far left where we can store inventory and the forklift. The large Loaves & Fishes mailings will be an adventure because of how small the packing room is. We’ll let you know how that goes when the time comes.

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