A Visit to the Book Depot

100,000 Anchors at the depot in Pontiac, IL.

Steve Bury explains the shipping system to Brian Bill and me.

Brian and Steve share a light moment.

Yesterday we shipped out 4 boxes containing 400 books.

This box goes to a CPC in Pennsylvania.

Note how the printer spelled my name. The guys got a big kick out of this. PS They got my name right on the book cover.

100 Anchors ready to ship.

Steve Bury unloads the shipment at the UPS center.

Yesterday we drove to Chicago for a KBM board meeting on Saturday morning. On our way we stopped in Pontiac (about 90 miles south of Chicago) to visit our new Anchor Book Depot. The depot is “new” to us because until recently, we stored the books in Chicago.

When God opened the door to move the Book Depot to Pontiac, he also raised up two men to head it up for us. We call them the “two Steves,” Steve Oltman and Steve Bury. Each Thursday they come to the facility to ship out the book orders we have received that week. 

Our system works like this. As requests come in (almost always by email or via the contact form on the KBM website), they are routed to Doreen Mahlstedt in Indiana who contacts the person making the request to confirm all the details. When that is in order, she contacts Steve Oltman who prints out a UPS shipping label. The two Steves then meet at the Book Depot in Pontiac on Thursday to label the boxes. Then they take them to the nearby UPS store where the truck picks them up for delivery to prison ministries, crisis pregnancy centers, military ministries, street ministries, rescue missions, and other evangelistic organizations across America. 

We do all this on a volunteer basis. No one gets paid for their time and effort. We donate the books to qualifying ministries, and we pay the postage. Recently we reprinted 103,000 coipes of Anchor and have started shipping them out. The total cost to us is around $56,500. So far we have received just over $41,000 from friends who believe in this ministry.

I hadn’t seen the new book deport and hadn’t met “the two Steves” before yesterday. Unfortunately Steve Oltman couldn’t make it, but it was great to meet Steve Bury and to spend time with Pastor Brian Bill and his wife Beth. Brian serves on the board of KBM. 

Steve Bury told me that my visit was sort of like “undercover boss” because I had never visited the “Worldwide Headquarters” before. The whole operation impressed on me again how glad I am to be part of ministry that equips others to share the Good News of Jesus. We prayed together that God would use the books to bring many men and women to Jesus. I have no doubt God will answer that prayer.