Tale of the Envelopes

I've been meaning to do a newsletter for quite some time--months, in fact. It's just that when I'm traveling on furlough, there isn't much exciting to report, so I tend to put it off.

Two weeks ago, I decided that I had to do a newsletter before the holidays, serving as a Christmas letter and an update on my itineration. Doing these newsletters is a huge production, involving many steps: writing, editing, and printing (or getting color copies) the letter itself. Then comes the envelopes: return address labels, mailing address labels, and stamps. I use a "mail merge" process to the address labels, so I have to update the information before I print them. Pastors change churches, and churches change addresses; Ariel changes her data files.

I printed 345 copies of my newsletter, changing ink cartridges two or three times. When it snowed two weeks ago, I was out (like a crazy person) driving in the snow to the store just to get more ink. By that point, I just wanted to get the things out in the mail! I labeled them all, but the next day, when I put them in the freezing mailbox, I did notice that the labels seemed to curl off on the ends--I assumed it was the cold. I told myself that as soon as they were back in a warm place, they'd be fine.

Unfortunately, I was wrong. At least 50 of these envelopes have come back to me in the mail, bearing no address label, but a post-office stamp telling me to put a "correct address" on them. Of course, the stamps are canceled, so I can't reuse the envelope or stamp. The worst part is, I have no idea which churches got them and which didn't. For the churches that haven't received one, my apologies!