Dear Michael,
I am writing to express my thanks for the Bibles which you sent me at Solomon Carter Fuller Mental Health Center in the South End of Boston. Our center services court referred mentally ill persons who are being assessed for their competency to stand trial here in the state of Massachusetts.
Our clients are often homeless and need to be restored to their medication as well as are in a transition from serious mental illness to recovery. Many have very little and are most grateful to hear the Word of God as a source of hope for them. Many times, Scripture is a bridge for them to pass from insanity to sanity.
I am unable to provide any pictures of our clients as their situation does not provide the opportunity to obtain pictures. They are using the Bibles for their own personal use and in our Interfaith Service which is held on each unit each week. However, our clients are most grateful for the opportunity to have a Bible of their own and value them.
Your organization is doing a wonderful thing by supplying us with Bibles for our clients. They treasure these books and often they are their pathway to health along with the care our staff provides them during their stay here at Fuller.
Please convey my gratitude to the staff of your organization and be assured that the Bibles you sent to me will be used and will provide me the opportunity to pray, discuss and ponder God's word with our clients.
Again, I am most grateful to you for providing us with this resource.
Sincerely,
Sister Kathleen Hagerty, CSJ
Interfaith Chaplain
Solomon Carter Fuller Mental Health Center
Dear Rev. Robertson:
Please extend our appreciation to the Massachusetts Bible Society for sending 24 Life Recovery Bibles for our incarcerated Mentees in the Bridge to Hope mentoring program. Each Mentor will now write a special encouraging note in the Mentee's Bible before delivering them to the jail. Right now we have more Mentees in jail than we have ever had in the past 5 years! Praise God for His precious Word that can set them free in spirit.
Thank you for your prompt response to our heart-felt request.
May God richly bless you.
Sincerely,
Linda Bradstreet, LCSW
Director
Dear MassBible Staff:
I would like to express my sincere appreciation and gratitude for the ministry of the Massachusetts Bible Society in approving our Bible grant and providing us with 130 Spanish NVI Bibles to distribute among our Hispanic congregations.
We will be announcing your generous gift in an upcoming TABCOM Notes e-newsletter that goes out to all of our congregations and regional family. Your Bibles are already in the hands of those who need them!
Thank you again and know that the Bible Grant ministry is a blessing for churches.
Sincerely,
Rev. Dr. Anthony Pappas
Executive Minister
The American Baptist Churches of Massachusetts
Dear Massachusetts Bible Society:
Thank you for your generosity and commitment to Ecclesia Ministries common cathedral. Your support of our ministries provides a "place", a spiritual home, for the poorest people of Boston, those who live on its streets and in its shelters, and fosters relationships between housed and unhoused people, from which both reap great benefits.
Ecclesia Ministries has been actively engaged in street ministry in Boston since 1994 and has provided outdoor Sunday worship as common cathedral since 1996. Ecclesia Ministries common cathedral provides companionship and community to people on the street, a sustaining fellowship that serves to lessen the isolation that people face when they have no place to call home. We appreciate your contribution to our community and hope you continue to partner with us in this important journey of relationship, healing, wholeness and justice.
In God's Peace,
The Rev. Kathy McAdams, Executive Director
December 22, 2009
Dear Sir:
On behalf of the staff here at Baystate Children's Hospital, I would like to thank you for your generous donation of children's and young adult Bibles. Each child who received one was delighted with their gift. You were instrumental in fostering the spiritual comfort we as chaplains try to impart to all the children here.
Enclosed find some photos of a young man and his mother sharing a peaceful moment on the playdeck. Please feel free to use the photos to promote your wonderful services.
Thank you again for your generosity.
We wish you a very happy and holy Christmas.
Sincerely,
Ute Schmidt - Manager, Spiritual Services
Linda Kelly - Chaplain, Spiritual Services
January 21, 2010
Dear Michael,
We are incredibly grateful to the Massachusetts Bible Society for the Bible grant of 30 HarperCollins Study Bibles. Our ministry with this congregation and the larger community has broadened in the last five years. We include regular Bible Studies through which we encourage people to contemplate scripture in their daily lives. Last year, more than 25 people participated in the Adult Education Program.
This may seem like an obvious focus for a church community, but our deliberate and intensified approach to scripture has definitely opened the minds and hearts of both people who have been hearing scripture all their lives as well as folks who are new to Christianity.
Each member of the Bible Study classes will receive their own copy of the Study Bible during our Lenten classes. And the remainder of the Bibles will be available for Sunday worship in the Sanctuary Pews.
Sincerely yours,
Rev. Laura Biddle
October 14, 2008
Dear Reverend Robertson:
Thank you so much for your generous donation of Bibles to our department through the Bible grant program. We were pleasantly surprised at the variety and number of Bibles you provided. It felt like an early Christmas! Thank you also for sending the Qur'an and Bible reading guides. We were delighted to receive them.
We are currently in the process of building up our department, so it is wonderful to have these resources on hand to provide for our patients and staff. The Bibles also came at a perfect time -- the supply we had was running out.
Thank you once again for your partnership. We are blessed by your ministry and hope to continue working with you in the future.
Sincerely,
Rev. Julia Dunbar
Director of Pastoral Care & Education
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
October 23, 2008
Dear Folks,
Thank you so very much for your support of our prison Chaplaincy! This week we received from you a shipment of 100 New American Bibles. I am humbled by your generosity, and thank God we have a resource to call upon for such a needed tool.
I am very careful to tell each inmate when he receives the Bible from my hands that this is a gift from the Massachusetts Bible Society. I tell him that it is now his property, and should be taken home with him when he leaves our custody. Some of the men tell me that they've never owned a Bible before! Hopefully, this is the first step toward making it the most important book in their possession!
Thank you again and thank you to your many benefactors for making this very important gift to us!
Sincerely yours,
Deacon Gary E. Miller
Worcester County House of Correction
5 Paul X. Tivnan Drive
West Boylston, MA 01583
The American Bible Society received a special gift yesterday from the Massachusetts Bible Society designated to purchase 100 Arabic Bibles for Bethlehem Bible College in Israel. Thank you for the blessing of such support.
I can thihnk of no finer investment than one that helps to provide God's message of faith, hope, and love. Thank you for your efforts to secure these funds and then to serve as a conduit in helping to complete a wonderful Scripture-sharing project in a place with great needs. This side of heaven we cannot know the full impact of the Scriptures you wil hlep to provide to the arriving students annually, but we are confident that God's Word will do all that He sent it to do.
Robert L. Briggs
Vice President for Development
American Bible Society
Thanks to the Massachusetts Bible Society for sending us three large-print Spanish bibles, 40 regular Version Popular Spanish Bibles, and 10 Harper-Collins NRSV Study Bibles. We also thank the society for many copies of Bible study guides in both English and Spanish!
Rev. Jonathan Tetherly,
Chaplain
Hampden County Correctional Center