United Church of God

Volunteers Vital in Getting God's Work Done: Volunteer Tells the Story of the Development of the Zambian Mailing Office

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Volunteers Vital in Getting God's Work Done

Volunteer Tells the Story of the Development of the Zambian Mailing Office

Some of Christ's final instructions to the apostles and to us can be found in Matthew 28:19-20, to go and teach what Christ taught.

We are doing this in a small way in Zambia and, up to now, in Malawi as well, by distributing The Good News. The Malawi church will now handle mailings in Malawi, which relieves us of the workload and expenditure.

I can't remember when and exactly how it happened, but three or four years ago my wife, Cherry, and I volunteered or were asked by Neil Becker to take on the distribution of the Church's literature in Zambia. Mr. Becker was doing this from South Africa along with his other responsibilities, so we were pleased to assist him in this way. But as my wife says, I no sooner planned it all, than I gave her the work!

We run our own business in Kitwe and have two office employees, Alfred Mulenga and Francis Gondwe. In between their normal work, they prepare the envelopes for posting. First they cut the corners off of all the envelopes, which entitles us to the newspaper postal rate (which is cheaper than normal postage). Then, taking the addresses from a file, they hand address each envelope, which when Malawi was included averaged about 550. (We hope to get this process computerized shortly.)

We try to do this before The Good News magazines arrive in bulk from the United States, but this does not always happen, so there is plenty of activity when they do come. The magazine is then inserted, and Cherry goes through the files checking each insertion to include any requests for booklets and also a letter after every six issues offering a subscription renewal.

Then the envelopes are sealed, but the quality is sometimes so bad that extra glue has to be applied.

We also get a master copy of the Bible Reading Program from Cincinnati, which we photostat, with 20 being sent to Mumbwa and another four distributed in our area. We are most thankful to the home office staff who are always very obliging to our requests, especially Connie Seelig and John LaBissoniere.

Our statistics for the March/April Good News were: 270 posted; 65 collected from our office; 135 sent to libraries, schools, clinics and hospitals; 10 to the Mufulira Prison; and 20 to Mumbwa. This gives a total of 500 copies. Also 406 booklets were distributed, with the five most popular being The Book of Revelation Unveiled, Is the Bible True?, The Church Jesus Built and God's Holy Day Plan.

The Good News is posted to subscribers in 36 towns in Zambia, some to the remotest places. One wonders how the recipients heard of the magazine.

We get many letters from subscribers. I answer those with questions with help from André van Belkum, chairman of UCG–Southern Africa, on the more sticky issues.

Here are a few extracts:

  • "From the time I have start receiving Good News magazines, I have changed from pagan to Christian."
  • "I enjoy reading Good News magazine. Previously I never understood the Holy Bible, try as I may to read it, it was difficult, especially the book of Revelation. Today Revelation is my favorite."
  • From a missionary: "With joy and appreciation have we read one of your informative magazines. We understand that you send them free of charge. It may not surprise you that that makes us very suspicious!"
  • "It is a wonderful privilege to know the devil has no power over me because of the blood of Jesus. The devil is suffering a severe headache as he sees the children of God winning the battle!"
  • From the town clerk of Kitwe: "I wish to thank you on behalf of my organization for your kind gesture in donating The Good News magazines. The literature contained in these magazines will help enhance educational standards among our library patrons. Hoping for more donations in the near future."
  • "Please I beg of you to bear with me for asking too much from you. If you could send me even some old magazines which could be lying somewhere within your office."
  • From a major in the army: "I have been receiving your copies since last year. I do acknowledge that I have benefited a great deal and that I am now a changed person because my knowledge about God has overwhelmingly increased."