The BBFI Mission Office Mail Room is a conduit between the states and the mission field for mail from family, churches and businesses.

Each morning we receive several sacks of mail and packages from the Post Office. The mail is carefully sorted looking for envelopes containing contributions and “request to catch items” from missionaries.

A mail file is maintained for each missionary family. Their mail placed in the file and sent to them twice a month. The average cost of providing this service alone to our missionaries each year is over $30,000.

The Mission Office absorbs the cost of sending first class mail such as letters and cards. Each missionary has a “Bulk Mail Form” on file indicating the magazines or catalogs they would like sent at their expense.

We also mail packages (at their cost) to the field for our missionaries. With the internet available in most countries, missionaries can order supplies from companies like Amazon. Often these companies will not ship overseas or greatly upcharge to do so.

Through our business relationship with FedEx we can get legal documents or packages anywhere in the world in 1-3 days’ time at discounted prices.

The cost of mailing prayer letters from the field has increased dramatically. One missionary was paying over $4.00 each to mail prayer letters from the field. We encourage missionaries to box their letters each month and ship them to the Missions Office where we can process them for $0.46 each. A dramatic savings when you are talking about 100 letters.

The Mail Room also processes and ships orders for Faith Promise materials and mails 4,000 – 6,000 contribution receipts each month.

The yearly cost of providing these services (and more) exceeds $150,000.

-by Mike Duff, Mission Office Mailroom Manager