YOUTH Paper Ministry Update:
1. HALLELUJAH! Rejoice with us!
The YOUTH Paper Ministry has just passed a milestone. The printing of the present issue, #179 , put us over the 9,000,000 mark of copies printed. The actual number number stands at 9,032,000 copies!
We greatly rejoice and praise the Lord for His provision of funds throughout our 46 years of publishing. (We are a faith work.) We especially marvel when we think of the constant postage hikes for the past 20 years.
Let me illustrate. In the 70s and early 80s we could mail 3,000 copies to an evangelist for $8.00. Until May 14, 2007 that amount mailed only 200 copies (on a second class permit). Now all mail goes airmail at $4.82 a pound plus $.25 per piece via IMEX, or by PO at $6.75+ $.12!
2. Readers’ mail that once flooded our mailbox has dropped off drastically.
I (Hellen) found a folder of incoming mail from the 70s sometime go and was shocked to see the increase of the postage rates from the stamps on their letters. A rise steeper than ours, it seemed.
3. Please pray with us for the Lord to make a way for our readers to communicate with us.
We do get letters electronically, (35 in April), but just today a letter said, “Please keep sending to my mailing address. It costs a fortune to read online messages.” Continue to pray the Lord of the harvest for a new worker to join us.
Spring Is An Awakening
Mother Nature has awakened from her long winter nap. Spring is everywhere! The first unusually warm, sunny days woke up the forsythia and daffodils and set yards ablaze with yellow. Hyacinths and tulips were not far behind, adding a variety of color to the flower beds. Flowering trees and fruit trees everywhere made me think I was attending a giant wedding celebration. The trees were not to be left far behind. First the underbrush and saplings showed off baby leaves of light green. Then the mighty oaks, maples, sycamores, weeping willows and the rest of the gang roused themselves, yawned and went to work. The sap began to flow. Suddenly the woods were becoming green wherever you looked. Spring is definitely an awakening.
As part of God’s creation, we also go through seasons. Yes, God even allows winter seasons into our lives, times when all seems bleak and nothing seems to be happening. We may feel ignored and sometimes even forsaken. We wonder why our loving Lord allows such to happen to us when all we want is the sunshine of His face. But God is the Master Gardener. He knows when we need to be “dormant,” when we need to rest awhile, when we need to trust His Word alone. We won’t know this side of Glory why that which some call the “dark night of the soul” has been allowed into our lives. Rest assured that God has a purpose. He alone knows what we need to bring us into the maturity that He is framing in our lives, preparing us for an eternity with Him.
When we are “awakened” from our “winter nap,” guess what happens next. SPRING follows! All that God has imparted to us in the darkness suddenly comes to life in our lives. The Living Water springing up within us makes us as a “well watered garden and like springs of water whose waters fail not” (Isa. 58:11).
And what are gardens and springs of water for? To feed the hungry and water the thirsty! And isn’t that what we prayed for?
Blessing Corner:
We want to thank each of you who are involved with us in evangelizing and discipling readers of English in developing countries. Thank you for your concern, your prayers, your work on the mailings and the gifts you send in. We ask the Lord to bless you “according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
Have a safe and happy summer, Hellen & Eloise
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