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of Bonnie & Louis Rushmore |
January 29
Faster than Speeding Bullets
Assignments
Mail Out Preparation
Packaging Books for Overseas
Randy Fellowshipping the Bushes!
Restocking the Shelves
As the end of day neared, we had to stop our eager workers so that they could go home while it was still Saturday, and because they'd just about worn the Winona World Evangelism Team out! Bonnie and I still had to pack and load the car for our trip to Rebecca's home, so we would be in position to make our Sunday journey to two congregations in northern Mississippi on the Lord's Day. Rebecca, too, had to return home, as she is teaching two classes on Sunday at Collierville. January 26-28 These three days, we readied ourselves for the Saturday arrival of a group from the Collierville Church of Christ to help us with several activities at the World Evangelism Building. We prepared letters, envelopes and labels for various mailings. Wednesday evening, I taught my book Church Divine at the West President Church of Christ. This series of lessons pertains to the identity of the Lord's church. Thursday night, Bonnie and I installed a ceiling fan in one of the bedrooms. Strangely, so far we have not been able to find a bulb that will fit the light fixture to the fan and permit the globe to be attached. Do you suppose that light bulbs are of a different size in China — where the fan was manufactured? Friday, Bonnie had an appointment with a doctor. She has a severe sinus infection. Prognosis — recovery with medication. January 24-25 All day both days, I worked on preparation of a mailing to churches in several states, whereby Bonnie and I will acquaint those congregations with our mission work. Our letter and brochure invites them to participate with us financially, and it requests an appointment for me to come and speak about our missionary labors. One of the tasks the Collierville, TN Church of Christ will undertake on the coming Saturday is to process this mailing so we can take it to the Post Office on the following Monday. Bonnie and I not only work a full day of labor at the World Evangelism Building, but we often work up to midnight at the house with our mobile (laptops) office. Many times, brethren marvel at our productivity, but the secret sometimes is cranking out two days of labor in a 24-hour period. We don't have many distractions or hobbies that we pursue, but prefer to busy ourselves in the work to which we have voluntarily devoted ourselves. Monday, besides packaging books for shipment through the local Post Office, we prepared nearly 400 copies of my book Beverage Alcohol for shipment to the House to House/Heart to Heart program of the Jacksonville, AL Church of Christ. They advertised again in their magazine my book, and they received 3,000 requests for it. That exceeds what remains in print! Nearly 14,000 copies have been given away, courtesy of a Christian family who underwrote the printing costs.
We also sent off for publication the next issue of The Voice of Truth International (volume 67), Living Principles by Bonnie Sue (Reed) Rushmore and the World Evangelism School of Missions Training Manual. Weeks to months to years of labor behind the scenes come to fruition in the publication of Gospel literature and books. The more I work, the behinder I seem to get. We are always rushing against the clock — and the calendar! I haven't started the January issue of Gospel Gazette Online yet! I still need to print 5,000 envelopes before Saturday! We need to print more materials before attending the Freed Hardeman lectures. Emails and phone calls, incoming and outgoing, demand their time daily as well. Class preparation requires setting some things aside; I am teaching Wednesday evening classes at the West President Church of Christ for several weeks. I am teaching about the identity of the church of the Bible. The list of things awaiting a turn for our attention seems endless! January 23 We attended Bible class and worshipped Sunday morning with the Mastin Lake Church of Christ in Huntsville, AL. I presented the PowerPoint Motivated by the Cross about our 2010 mission trips for class time. Next hour, I preached my sermon "What Is Jesus' Plan for My Life?" The closing prayer just over, I received a call from brother Bob Gaffin of the Lincoln Church of Christ. I was already late for a luncheon appointment, preceding teaching a Bible Map Class at 1:00 p.m. and second worship beginning at 1:30 p.m. for the Lincoln congregation. I Rushmored all day! Both churches received us wonderfully well, and they are great encouragers of Bonnie and me in our mission work. The uncertainty about the weather and having no evening appointment, we headed for Winona, MS — four and a half hours away in a southwesterly direction. We paused in Columbus, MS to buy a sweeper, bathroom break and sandwich supper at Arby's. Still, we arrived home about 9:00 p.m.— much earlier than our usual midnight carport docking Sunday nights in Winona. January 21-22 Friday, we spent the first half of the day trying to fix the new, online shopping cart. I love technology! I hate technology! I love… The night before, someone ordered a gift subscription to The Voice of Truth International for $12.00 (which includes delivery), but the shopping cart added shipping and handling to the order. Unable to anticipate how to jump through the right hoops for the packaged shopping cart program, I had to enlist help from technical support of the company from whom we purchase that service.
Just before 5:00 p.m., we arrived in Huntsville, AL at the home of Howard and Joyce South; he is one of the elders of the Mastin Lake Church of Christ, and they are our usual host and hostess in their home when we visit their congregation. It always feels like home when we walk through the door, and march directly to our bedroom. Some of the chief blessings we enjoy are the friendships and kindnesses toward us by brethren such as brother Howard and sister Joyce. Sister Howard always fixes us a superb supper, this time, sliced pork loin, squash casserole, a wonderful broccoli salad and sweet potato pie. January 17-20 Monday through Thursday, we busied ourselves with writing, printing, folding, tabbing, labeling and mailing our newsletter. We presently send 463 every two months through the U.S. mail (plus over 100 as email notifications that the PDF version is ready). We continued to make final adjustments to the next issue of The Voice of Truth International magazine, and we finalized two additional publications before sending them to the printing company: The World Evangelism School of Missions Training Manual and Bonnie's book, Living Principles. The Missions Training Manual is the most comprehensive and practical volume of its kind of which I am aware. Living Principles is a ladies' class book that treats women Bible characters; one of its unique features is gleanings from unnamed Bible characters.
January 15 -16 Saturday, Bonnie and I selected just under 50 pounds of books to hand off to Tim Childs on his way to the airport for a mission trip to Costa Rica. We carried those books with us to Rebecca's house, as we left Winona for the Home Depot in Horn Lake, MS. Putting the toilet back in our repaired bathroom, it is apparent that the porcelain toilet is defective; it will not sit level on the floor. It was propped up in front with wood shims, evidently because it was manufactured improperly. So, Bonnie and I opted to replace it with the same top rated for flushing, but economical toilet we installed in Rebecca's house in the past. We needed some other items not available locally or if available, too costly. Of course, that gave us excuse and opportunity to eat at one of our favorite restaurants, which is in Horn Lake — Texas Roadhouse. I like the "Road Kill" on their menu, a glorified and seasoned chopped steak with melted cheeses and sauteed onions on top. Naturally, we proceeded to Rebecca's home in Collierville, TN, and we worshipped with the Collierville Church of Christ on the Lord's Day. We ate out between the worship ending at 11:30 a.m. and the beginning of second worship at 1:30 p.m. at Corky's, famous for its barbeque pork. Rebecca taught a new convert's class for girls and women after that worship service, and Bonnie and I spent the next several hours shopping at various stores, so that we could leave more expeditiously on Monday for Winona. We have work to do and we are expecting a delivery of office supplies, needed to finish preparation of the mailing of our newsletter on Tuesday. Around midnight, Tim Childs and his wife Betty are supposed to stop by for the handoff of Spanish books and Spanish Voice of Truth International magazines. A brief interruption at the knock on the door turned out to be police, informing Rebecca that a 16-year-old driver just backed into her mailbox. Since there was no meaningful damage, none that a little strong-arm yanking and twisting by Rebecca couldn't immediately make almost as good as new, we just told the policeman to tell the driver that this was his lucky day. I remember when I was inexperienced that I damaged more than a mailbox, pushed in the grill of a car behind me when I got stopped by a train at a sloped railroad crossing, and the whole town, it seemed, was stopped behind me. I hadn't mastered the clutch and gas pedal yet on the stick shift transmission on the car I had picked up only hours earlier. Coincidentally, the car I damaged belonged to an employee of the used car lot where I had purchased the car! January 14
January 13 Jerry Bates left for Nepal and India. Paula took him to the airport in Memphis. Bonnie and I worked in the office all day, and shipping books via the U.S. Post Office, too. In addition, we started our newsletter. January 12 Wednesday night, Bonnie and I worshipped the the West President Church of Christ in Greenwood, MS. After the devotional, most of the classes remained in the auditorium while I made my PowerPoint presentation, Motivated by the Cross, about our two trips abroad in 2010. Since we do not usually have appointments on Wednesday evenings, and we often attend class at West President, the elders invited me to teach a series of classes for about eight or so Wednesday evenings, beginning next Wednesday. The elders and I agreed upon me teaching about "The Identity of the Church." I have both a PowerPoint and a tract entitled, "The One True Church of the Bible," besides other tracts, "The First Church," etc. I also have a class book that is presently out of print, The Church Divine. These types of lessons are always suitable for non-Christians, new Christians and as refreshers for all other Christians, too. January 11 Monday's planned breakfast meeting with Nathan Wright, preacher for the Huntsville Church of Christ in French Camp, MS was postponed due to inclement weather. Hence, Nathan joined us for breakfast at our home in Winona. For Bonnie and me, it was an excuse to break from our typical bowl of cold cereal. As it happens, Nathan usually eats cold cereal for breakfast, too. After breakfast, we gave brother Wright the grand tour of the World Evangelism Building. In addition, we sat at length and discussed the work and how the Huntsville congregation may interact with activities at the building, since that church is within 45 minutes of Winona. Other routine duties consumed the balance of our day. January 9-10 Sunday morning, Bonnie and I worshipped with the Old Union Church of Christ in Carroll County, MS. The brethren always receive us well, and they help make it possible for us to do what we do stateside and abroad for the cause of Christ. We had no appointment for Sunday afternoon, which proved to be fortunate because an unusual snow storm rolled across the South later in the day and Monday. Monday, we didn't leave the house; the road and our driveway were covered in a few inches of snow, perhaps atop some ice. We fared better than predicted and much better than other parts of the country. Still, lacking road equipment to address this type of weather, many southern states were nearly paralyzed temporarily by bad weather. Of course, nothing helps when ice is in the mix, and heavy sleet pelted much of the South, besides the snow.
January 5-7 The carpenter continued to plug away at repairing the bathroom and some other small jobs inside the house. Bonnie and I worked on the new shopping car, some days until midnight. Otherwise, Bonnie worked on The Voice of Truth International magazine, and I did some proofreading on it, in addition to readying a book to send to the printing company.
Wednesday and Thursday, I printed Jerry and Paula Bates' newsletter and helped volunteers in for the day on Thursday prepare it for mailing. Brethren from Strickland (Glen, MS) and Plain View (TN) churches of Christ finished packaging boxes of books destined for Nigeria and prepared a mailing of the Global Harvest magazine. On Friday, a tractor trailer arrived, on the wrong day, and the Bates, Rushmores, Betty and Clayton unloaded it — one box at a time. We received three pallets of about 10,000 books. We got it put away in the warehouse/office. In all, there were four titles. More was printed, but they went directly to points stateside and overseas for further distribution. January 3-4
I'm still working on the online shopping cart, and will be for awhile. We spent the day at the office, involved in various routine things as well. Not enough time, plenty of work and no time for boredom. Any suspected glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel doubtless will turn out to be the headlight of an on-rushing freight train! January 1-2 Saturday, we (with Rebecca's help) took down our holiday decorations, and Rebecca helped us put them back into the attic. Our daughter returned to her home in Collierville, TN. Bonnie and I attended to various duties around the house, a luxury for us as we usually are traveling on the weekends for appointments. Saturday and Sunday, I worked on the December issue of Gospel Gazette Online and finally uploaded it to the Internet. Next, it was time to send out the over 1,000 notifications to subscribers that the December issue was ready. Then, it was back to working of the new shopping cart for the online book store. J.C. Choate Publications, the literature arm of World Evangelism, has about 300 book titles in print, plus about 80 tracts. Rebecca and I have books among those titles since Bonnie and I became team members of World Evangelism. Soon, Bonnie will have her first book among that number. Rebecca and Bonnie are excellent writers and popular public speakers to ladies' classes and inspiration days. Sunday morning, we worshipped with the Elliott Church of Christ, and Sunday evening, we worshipped with the Huntsville Church of Christ outside of French Camp, MS. Brethren at both congregations are friendly toward us and encouraging. |
Saturday, the Collierville (TN) Church of Christ loaned us 20 of their members and family to help us at the World Evangelism Building in Winona, MS. Whereas other groups that sometimes come by are comprised of mostly young people or retired persons, the Collierville bunch are young families. The youngest was about 6-years-old, while others were older elementary children, teenagers and their parents. They arrived at 9:40 a.m. and stayed until around 5:00 p.m.
We had enough helpers helping the Rushmores, Paula Bates and Betty Choate that we could tackle several assignments simultaneously. Some of the men built shelves for smaller quantities of boxed books to permit larger quantities of books to be placed on pallets resting on the concrete floor; they built 20 feet of shelving, strong enough on which to drive trucks. One mail out preparation consisted of nearly 1,700 letters, while another newsletter mail out came to 640 pieces. Young people counted 4,000 tracts into bundles of 25 to fulfill requests from congregations for them. Young and old alike together packaged 64 boxes of books and tracts for future shipment overseas, weighing 864 pounds — nearly half a ton. Bushes were trimmed on two properties to keep nature from overrunning World Evangelism in Winona. Shelves were restocked by young helpers.
Also a crowd pleaser, we enjoyed good fellowship over lunch! We had our own salad bar, lasagna, homemade cookies, cakes, cobbler, homemade rolls and brownies. 
Tuesday, we sent off to the printing company we use in South Carolina digital copies of several books. Our benefactor for printing Beverage Alcohol has agreed to fund printing another 6,000 copies, bringing the total circulation, once these are given away, to 20,000! That means 20,000 Christian and non-Christian families have the benefit of valuable biblical, historical, political and medical information about alcohol. I travel stateside and make PowerPoint presentations about Beverage Alcohol, too.
Puttering around with the online shopping cart delayed our departure from Winona for Double Springs, AL in preparation for the next session of the World Evangelism School of Missions. We arrived about 6:00 p.m. in Double Springs, and we met James and Barbara Jones of Restoration Radio for supper at the Mexican restaurant in town. It appears that I'm getting pretty good at inviting folks to supper out, and then they buy the meal! Both the Jones and Rushmores were staying in a guesthouse of a Christian family in Double Springs. Brother Jones was one of the two primary speakers on Saturday for the School of Missions.
Saturday through a little after 3:00 p.m. was taken up by the World Evangelism School of Missions. The second primary speaker was Don Green from the East Fraser Church of Christ in Memphis. Wayne Barrier also spoke at various times throughout the day. The Double Springs congregation provided the facilities, breakfast snacks and a hearty lunch.
The repairs on the bathroom as our house are complete, except for clean up and a little tweaking. It has been a long time coming, and as with almost any old house, there were some costly surprises along the way. However, it looks nice, and it should serve well for many years to come.
Scheduling truck deliveries and pickups at the World Evangelism building in Winona is a test for anyone's patience. Trucks have this nasty habit of showing up on days other than when they are scheduled, meaning that we cannot plan ahead to have brethren from area congregations help us load or unload these tractor trailers, which typically we do one box at a time since we have neither loading dock nor forklift. Then, there's the problem of paying for lift gate delivery and pickup, and then trucks come without lift gates.
Friday, however, a rescheduled pickup, the truck arrived at the time it was supposed to arrive, and it had a lift gate. Hurray! Betty Choate, her brother-in-law Clayton, Paula Bates (Jerry departed for overseas the day before), Bonnie and I loaded three tons of books, spread between five pallets, on the truck. We spent just under two hours before the arrival of the truck in the brisk, cold outdoors loading and packaging those pallets.
At home, but not idle, Bonnie and I worked Monday on the online shopping cart and The Voice of Truth International. Since our computers are laptops, and they travel everywhere with us, our mobile office is open and operating at the World Evangelism Building, at the house, in motels as we travel, in the car (Bonnie while I drive or me in parking lots on Sundays between appointments) or overseas.
Monday morning, a contractor began working on the main bathroom of our home. Well, following the rotted wood led him to tear out the entire floor, joists and all down to the dirt crawl space. Missing tile behind the vanity sink sent Bonnie and me later in the evening on a nearly fruitless quest to find ceramic tile to match or come close to what is on the wall. It's starting to come together.