ABOUT US: Jon and I (Debbie) have been married over 25 wonderful years. We have 3 adult children. Our two boys have special needs. We live in a small home, and we’ve dedicated one room to printing the songbooks, and other items for the Bride.
So, we have NO printing company. We purchase all of our supplies at retail prices, sometimes getting a discount with a coupon, or for ordering a larger quantity, just like at any grocery store. When Jon gets off of his regular job, he comes home and grabs a snack and starts working on songbooks. After supper he is still working on songbooks, until bedtime. Sometimes our daughter, Rebecca, helps with the songbooks too. All I can do is answer the phone and write down everybody’s information.
THE PROCESS: First Jon prints the pages of the songbooks for the order he has, like 20 books. Those pages are printed from our computer to the Laser Jet Printer and are warm when they are stacked in the output tray from the printer. The heat from the printer makes the pages expand or stretch slightly. They are set aside to cool for a day so that all of the pages go back to the same size before being cut and punched.
The next day he cuts the pages in half to the songbook size. Then punches the pages to make the holes for the coils to go through. The puncher only takes five pages at a time, so that is a slow process by hand. After the books are punched, they are set aside to wait for their covers to be finished.
The covers follow a similar process. Jon uses card stock to print the covers. These covers are also on the computer and Jon enters the Church Name and information, and prints 20 covers for a 20 book order. Those covers must cool down before they get laminated. So, accordingly, the next day he places each printed cover into a Lamination pouch, and feeds it through the laminator. Again, this process also heats the covers, and again, the covers must be cooled down before being cut and punched.
Jon also corners the covers by hand, using a special tool to cut the four outside corners of every cover. The covers are punched one at a time after being cut.
Then the books are Assembled – covers are placed together with their pages and COILED. This is a continuous spiral coiling, which gets cut at book length.
Jon types up a fancy Invoice and the order is packed with grocery bags and egg cartons, in a recycled box, and labeled. Finally, the package is brought to a UPS store or the U.S. Post Office to be shipped.
Rebecca helps with printing, punching, and laminating. But only Jon is strong enough to operate the paper cutter. Jon also does all maintenance for the computers and printers. Printers often need new print-heads, roller assemblies, and other parts to be replaced. Jon also does all the ordering, calling around to find the best supplies for the best prices. Then we offer the books at the cost of printing and shipping.
We do not have Visa/Master Card Capabilities because they would charge us a monthly fee, which we do not have because the books are sold at cost. Also, we sometimes go for months without any book orders. We would also have to charge much more money for the songbooks to be able to have the Credit Card Capabilities.
We make every effort to make the books affordable to the Bride. Many small Churches can only afford to get a few songbooks. Some of them call back to order a few more as they are able to fund it. Many from Africa have begged for free songbooks, which would cost hundreds of dollars just to ship. We don’t like having to say “no”, but we put other needs first, such as missions.
FAQ
Many have asked what Church we attend: I attended the Branham Tabernacle for 11 years when I was single. After Jon & I were married we’ve attended Bible Believers of Louisville for over 26 years now. The pastor there is Bro. Brad Burgess. Our little Flock has several preachers, evangelists, and missionaries.
We appreciate the many invitations that we have received to visit our Sister Churches. Unfortunately, the special needs of our two sons limits us from traveling at this time.
I hope this answers most of the frequently asked questions.
May the Lord Jesus Christ continue to bless all of you,
Sis. Debbie Neagle
