Printing Work

We’ve had deadlines during these two months. P.K. and Thankam Varghese were with us here in Winona the last week of June, then I took them to Searcy, to Eddie Cloer’s for a few days. P.K. works with Eddie on the Malayalam edition of Truth for Today magazine. On the way, we dropped off some books at Ed Mosby’s, for his literature work. Then I ran by Steve’s and Melinda’s and had supper with them before heading back to Winona.

The following days were scrunched, making corrections on Volume 65 of The Voice of Truth and writing “The Heart of…” article to introduce Global Harvest, our new mission magazine, to the readers. I also did corrections on the Global Harvest file, meeting the requirements of the printer in Hong Kong for publication. We had started doing layout work on a series of tracts before J.C.’s recurrence of cancer, and since getting an affordable quote from Hong Kong, I have continued work on them. The number has grown from 30 to 60.

Family Visits

Sweet little Riley, only a little over two months old.
Yes, that’s me, holding her and looking like a
proud great-grandmother with her hair up in a
towel — (sometimes I do have to wash the stuff!).

Steve and family came for Independence Day weekend, getting here late on the 2nd and leaving after worship on Sunday. I enjoyed their visit greatly, but was sad that their schedule didn’t coincide with Sheila’s.

Sheila and Rob, with Stephanie, Matt and our new GREAT GRANDDAUGHTER, Riley, came for a week, arriving the evening of the 4th. Since all of our children and grandchil- dren live so far away — Georgia, Arkansas, Kentucky, Arizona, California, and Alaska — time to be together is precious. Darla and Dave were able to come for the weekend, and I was so happy about that, but Steve and Brad couldn’t make it. Needless to say, I held on to every minute, enjoyed cooking foods they like, and spoiled that baby [according to Stephanie!].

Sheila had to get back to her job in Alaska, and I had promised to go home with her for some “girl” time. We left the 12th in the early morning [Rob, Stephanie, Matt, and Riley drove back to Arizona in an RV]. She worked until 4:30 each day, which also gave me good time to work on the tracts, as the projected number continued to grow. I was wanting to have a selection for those who do not have a background in Bible, others to deal with doctrine and with denominational error, and some for Christian growth. I used numerous things J.C. had written, some that Louis wrote, some of Jerry’s, and I filled in the holes.

In the evenings Sheila and I had time to talk, to have one of the members of the church over for dinner, to attend mid-week Bible Study, to take a walk in the rain forest and around a lake, both of which were beautiful. I always enjoy worshiping with the church in Ketchikan, so Sunday was a good day, spiritually and also just being with Sheila. On Monday evening I flew to Seattle, to Atlanta, and reached Jackson Tuesday morning.

Books Delivered, Tracts Finished, Annual Team Meeting

Brother Joe Ruiz speaking to the team at our annual team
meeting. Of course, half of the group was on the other
side of the room and is not in the picture…

Wednesday four pallets of books were delivered: Vol. 8 of the Spanish Voice of Truth, Philip Slate’s Lest We Forget, a reprint of Stan Mitchell’s Give the Winds a Mighty Voice, and Don Petty’s tract, “The Day the Sun Went Out Forever”. Louis and Bonnie were here to help unload, and my brother-in-law, Clayton, came over so we had two “teams”. It was a hot job because of the temperature and the humidity, but we were glad to have the books safely stored in the building.

I was thrilled to finish the tracts — they turned out to be 76 tri-folds, with one 16-page tract-sized booklet by Louis, “From Creation till Now”, and a 32-page by J.C. and me, “What Is Christianity?” I breathed a monumental sigh of relief to have the files submitted to the printer, so that the whole job can be done at one time, and the delivery of Global Harvest won’t be delayed.

Our annual team meeting was scheduled for July 28-30, here in Winona. It was a good sharing of the various parts of the work, and an encouragement to all of us. Wayne, Jerry, Louis, and I discussed several matters about work overseas and made decisions for the year ahead. All of us also discussed having the World Evangelism School of Missions at the Double Springs church building this year, one Saturday a month, because several members there want to go through the classes.

California Visit

Savannah, Seth and Arwen, playing solitaire with an
Indian form of the game.

For about two weeks before the meeting I was having a lot of tightness in my chest muscles, as has been typical for me when I am under excess pressure. Finally I had submitted Global Harvest, the tracts, the flyers about them, and flyers for Louis and Jerry to the printer, and had them approved [the technical complications worked out]. Louis, Bonnie, and I had finished the set-up and corrections on The Voice of Truth and had sent it to the Stateside printer, we had said the goodbye’s following our team meeting — and I was packed for two weeks with Brad and his family in California [It’s a wonderful thing to have some mileage for tickets!] Early on Saturday morning after the team meeting ended Friday afternoon, Mother and I prayed together, said our goodbyes, and Onirah and Clayton took me to the airport in Jackson.

The time with the California Choates was wonderful. I got to kid-sit twice so Brad and Georgia could have a “date night”, and we cooked together, played games, read, had Bible lessons and private talks — even went to the grocery store without Georgia and indulged in some junk food the kids thought they really needed!

And of course I took along my computer so that I could be connected with the world — particularly with the men overseas — and to work on layout on some manuscripts. You know, all play and no work makes Betty a lazy girl, and we can’t be having that!

Well, leaving Winona on Saturday with those tight chest muscles, on Monday I had so much itching and burning around my torso that I finally had to stop and check out the problem — and, behold, I had a full-fledged case of the Shingles! Horrors! I went to a doctor and used the medicine he prescribed, hoping it helped. The itching and pain were terrible, though, and interfered considerably with the pleasure of the visit with Brad and family. The blisters dried up in about two weeks, but the pain in the depth of the flesh persists.

Overseas Shipments of Books

August 16, Jerry and Paula took a load of about 5,000 magazines and books to Dallas, to be put in a container being shipped to Ghana by “Mission Printing”. Some of the young people from the church in Winona, along with Craig Owen, our new preacher, came over and helped to load the boxes in the trailer. Before the first of January we will be taking or trucking about 15,000 magazines and books to “Mission Printing” for their shipment to Nigeria. We are trying to be aware of any container being sent out by our brethren, so that we can have labeled boxes included, for folks on our literature mailing list.

Jerry and Paula will be going to Ghana the first part of September, and then to India and Sri Lanka. Louis and Bonnie will go to India and Burma during October.

Reports from Brethren Overseas

From Joshua Gootam in Kakinada, India: “Right now I need some money to reprint JC’s Sermonnettes book in Telugu. We must have printed it over and over about 10 times so far in Telugu, but this one and the Church of the Bible book are in great demand. We give them out to new converts or denominational preachers and members of the church possess a copy each so they can answer questions, etc. $1500 would get us 2000 copies. I discovered I am out of stock when a Pentecostal preacher called long distance for it.

“I have booked time on A-1 channel (Telugu) on a trial basis only for one month. They claim they have lot of viewership in USA among Telugu people. Also they were asking only $ 125 per half an hour. I have already paid them the money. Our programs would be on the air every Sunday at 5:30 A.M. in September which means Saturday evening there. Kindly arrange to send $500 only for this, if you have the funds. We are now on 3 satellite channels as Aradana TV people came down on their price. One more Telugu BIble TV channel is on the air and they want our programs too.

“I have just proof read August issue of the Telugu magazine. It is now entering the 31st year. It has been marvel- lous all these 30 years of publishing. Can’t stop admiring the vision and tenacity of JC in evangelism through the printed page. No telling how many more years or days we have on this earth, but we will work hard till the end.

From Sunny David in New Delhi, India: “In some parts of Pakistan there has been large floodings and they are having lots of problems. Here in India, it is as usual. It does get flooded in some parts of the country every monsoon, though, as you know. But there have been at least two incidents of cloud-burst in Leh, in the mountainous countryside, which lies beyond Kashmir, and lots of tourists go there. There have been around two hundred killed and several injured, and that has caused places around there to get flooded too.

“In Delhi we have had rains here and there occasionally, and the monsoon around here will continue till Sept.15. They say there will be Commonwealth Games in Delhi, Oct.3-11. Most places around the city are still dug up, especially Connaught Place. The city government plans to beautify everything before the Games, but it is a big mess around.”

Flooding and Aid in Pakistan

Brother Luis (Chito) Cusi, who works with a medical/evangelistic team in the Philippines in disaster situations, has put together a three-person team to go to Pakistan to help with the flooding crisis there. Christians and believers in Christ in the affected areas are being pressured to denounce Christianity or they will be by-passed in the government (Muslim-run) relief programs. We are thankful that Chito has volunteered to go to Pakistan, working with brother Asghar Ali in Lahore and Naeem Sabir in the Sahiwal area, to reach those who are in dire need of food, water, clothing, shelter and medical aid. Chito has written this: “Thank you again for your help in MARCH working with HHI for the Pakistan disaster victims. We cannot give all that they need but will see how much we can do. Winter is coming so tents and blankets are important; the mosquito net is needed, too, since they complain of mosquito-born diseases. The groceries are needed, too. So with whatever we have in pledges (which is now at about $13,500), we will have a little of this and a little of that. Add whatever else medicines will be needed and prescribed by our doctors. We will give priority to the brethren and those who are in greater need, hopefully this can be done in an orderly manner. We will have to discuss this very well with Naeem.”

Since we have made several appeals in the past — and for some time we did not see any opening to help with the terrible losses in Pakistan — we have not made a special request for help for them. Instead, when Chito wrote that they would be going in with money and some supplies, we decided to send $5,000 of the money on hand here (and $1,000 was added, personally). Considering the need, it is hardly more than a token, but we could not do more without making an appeal.

Conclusion

Again, I have to cut this short. There are emails from other brothers in India and Sri Lanka that I wish I could share, but time and space to write have run out. The Rushmores are leaving for the Northeast in three days, to make reports to supporting churches and to visit her mother who is ill, before they leave for India the first part of October. The Bates are in India now, so we are short-handed here, and for most of the next month, I will be the only one in the office. We are working on reports now (and I will have to delay sending the financial reports till next time, because there is just no time for that part), Vol. 66 of The Voice of Truth International, and Vol. 5 of Global Harvest. I have written checks for the brethren overseas for the fourth quarter, but am overdue now on emails to them. Three hundred boxes of the magazine and tracts are to be delivered on October 15. Several have promised to come in to help with that. Please pray that we use our hours wisely.

I love you. Betty (J.C.)

The Angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him, and delivers them (Psalm 34:7) He does!