Newsletter - March, 2001

God's economy is different: it's not based on fair trade or supply & demand or market value. The market value of a human life was fairly negligible when Christ died for us; signing in blood our eternal worth.

The wheels of God's economy turn on a hidden standard, fed by an underground stream of giving. This stream is what sustains all the churches, countless ministries and an invisible net of relationships: helping hands--one reaching down, one reaching up--as together we climb up the sides of the pit.

The Quiltmaker's Gift $17.95 is a gorgeous picture book about a woman who sews quilts for the homeless and a greedy king who wants to buy what can only be given away. Maybe I'll send a picture of it on my next BookaDay run.

IF YOU DIDN'T get 6 BookaDay selections last week, it's because you didn't ask for them...or you DID ask and I bungled the shuffling of my lists. Ask again. (Hit Reply-Write Words.)

I made a little Lent/Easter Display topped by Lucado's NO WONDER THEY CALL HIM SAVIOR $12.99, TALE OF THREE TREES, and Jan Karon's picture book, MISS FANNIE'S HAT $16.99, complete with hat stickers.

Then I pulled a few books on prayer for another display: THE MINISTRY OF INTERCESSION by Andrew Murray, a $5.50 Hardback, WHEN THE HEAVENS ARE BRASS-Keys to Genuine Revival by John Kilpatrick, pastor of the Brownsville Church-$3 paper, PRAYER IS INVADING THE IMPOSSIBLE $4 an early paperback by Jack Hayford that I used to always keep on hand new, until it went out of print. I also put out three new books: Yancy's REACHING FOR THE INVISIBLE GOD $21.99, Grubb's REES HOWELLS INTERCESSOR (one of those 'might as well give up on trying to be holy' books-cause this guy's gone to lengths I wouldn't even imagine) $11.99, and GRACE FOR THE MOMENT a daily devotional by Max Lucado that I'm fond or because it's a small 4x6 hardback with a squishy cover. (I suppose the marketing word would be 'padded' cover.) $12.99.

PASS IT ON! I have come to the conclusion that aside from a few diehard READERS who cruise bookstores and libraries for their weekly fix, people often only read those few things that someone else gives them. Therefore, us readers need to regularly give books directly to others. Hence I am developing my latest not-safeway-scheme: Ask for a Pass it On card and you can pick out for free any *ubuf$ that you have already read to give to someone else. Put the Pass it On card in the book you give away, and they can bring the card in for a free *ubuf$.

*ubuf$= Used Book Under Five$

There will be a limited number of Pass it On cards in circulation. Right now there aren't ANY, because I haven't make them yet. The other thing I haven't figured out is how out of town folk can play. Any suggestions?

SINCE USED BOOKS FLOW in at ten times the rate they flow out, we have decided to ship a box a month to those countries where books are a precious commodity. The last box we shipped to an Assembly Bible School in Africa cost $30 to ship. Nancy, who works nights at a convalescent hospital, has given us enough to ship a box in March. Does anybody want to take on April or May?

GIVE A CLICK: Phil showed me how to have my web browser open to http://www.thehungersite.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/CTDSites so I can click the button to help feed the hungry. I guess every daily click helps. Easy enough, the only thing of interest on that old page my browser automatically opened was my safeway stock.....

Blessings,
Alliee +