You are a child of God;
The Lord provides material resources for your use during your lifetime;
You have His message of free salvation.
How do you look at these blessings - especially the fact that He has chosen YOU as one of His children? Have you ever considered the relationship between your blessings and the opportunities you have to be of service in the continuing great work being done by organizations having special ministries such as Lutheran Braille Workers, Inc.?
The ministry of LBW subsists on the gracious free-will offerings of our readers and benefactors worldwide. We gratefully accept donations of time, materials and money, whether designated or undesignated. For every donation received LBW supplies the patron with a tax-deductible receipt for the full value of the donation.
A Chain Reaction
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. - Romans 10:13
You may wonder how supporting Lutheran Braille Workers, Inc. will bring others to "call upon the name of the Lord" and believe. Your support creates a chain reaction:
Contributions provide funds to purchase equipment and supplies for
mass-produced braille and large print materials.
Each page contains a Christ-centered message.
Material is provided FREE all over the world to blind and visually impaired
persons upon request.
Blind or visually impaired people have access to Christian material they
can READ.
It is known that many of those capable of reading braille in under-developed
countries usually have a listening audience of 20 to 60 nationals.
Through these Biblical and devotional materials in many languages, the
Holy Spirit brings many to faith in Jesus.
Your gracious gift of supporting funds, no matter the size, will help to bring the Word of God to someone, somewhere in the world, that may never have another chance to know the Gospel. You can designate your donation for a particular language, country, equipment need, or book in the LBW catalog. Or you can trust us to put your blessed gift toward whichever is our greatest need at the time. At any rate, you can be assured that you have made a vital contribution to a well-established and ever-growing Christ-centered ministry, one devoted to a very special and appreciative population.
Preparing a Will Is An Act of Love
You may feel that your financial position does not permit a substantial gift to support a favorite mission project today. Have you thought of providing for such a mission project through a Will or Living Trust? Before we go into how easy it is to support a favorite mission project through a will, one question must be answered:
Have you taken time to write a Will or Living Trust?
The state in which you live has already written a will for you, just in case you do not take the time or are just not interested enough to write one. A will you write would supersede the state's will - but only if yours is up-to-date and properly written. You need a will so that you - not your state's intestacy laws - can determine how, where and to whom your property is distributed. If you have no will, there is no guarantee that the court's decision will reflect your wishes.
Should you doubt this, ask your attorney to explain to you what kind of will the state has already written for you. He or she will tell you:
The state's will has made no provision for certain loved ones in
the special way you would;
There are no provisions for gifts to your favorite mission or charity,
nor for your home congregation;
There is no provision for assisting in spreading our Lord's message in
the special and unique ways done by organizations like Lutheran Braille Workers,
Inc.
We work closely with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod Foundation, which stands ready to help you and LBW in many ways. The Foundation, organized in 1959, is the "trust management service" of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and helps individuals to accomplish personal and family goals through special tax-qualified trusts, charitable gift annuities, endowments and other individual plans.
Planned Gifts
The Foundation can help you develop a plan to continue your support of Lutheran Braille Workers' ministries. Special tax-qualified trusts and annuities allow you to:
Contribute cash, stocks or real property while retaining an income
for the rest of your life;
Receive many tax benefits;
Be confident that, after you have been called to Heaven, your remaining
assets will continue to do God's work for the blind and visually handicapped
through LBW.
Life-Income Agreements
Special tax-qualified trusts and annuities:
Unitrust:
Provides a lifetime income.
Allows tax benefits in the form of charitable deductions and capital
gain savings.
Provides a trust fund that grows tax-free.
Pooled Income Fund:
Allows you to retain a higher-than-average floating interest rate.
Provides a "money market" type of return that can be set up for one,
two or three lifetimes.
Generates charitable deductions and avoids capital gains.
Gift Annuity:
Allows you to transfer property while retaining a regular,
guaranteed income for the rest of your life; part of the income is tax-free.
Provides charitable deductions and capital gains benefits.
Can be set up for one or two lifetimes.
Endowment and Memorial Funds
The LCMS Foundation also manages endowment and memorial funds for Lutheran Braille Workers, Inc. These funds provide income from your gift forever, and may allow some use of the fund's principal for the benefit of LBW.
Volunteers... Willing Hands and Hearts
LBW invites you to prayerfully consider contributing your talents and available time as a volunteer in service to the world's blind. We have work centers throughout the United States and Canada, hopefully in your area. Just four volunteer hours per week can help bring the Lord's Word to the visually handicapped.
Volunteering for Lutheran Braille Workers has several rewards: fellowship with other Christians; pleasant facilities; a challenging way to spend your extra hours; and the satisfaction of helping provide Christian reading materials free to the world's needy. At a local work center you can assist in embossing braille pages, collating and assembling books, stapling and binding, and shipping your handiwork across the globe, as well as printing and mailing newsletters, even participating in prayer groups. If you are a braille transcriber, or are willing to learn, we have many opportunities for training and transcribing. We also need proofreaders and translators for braille, large print and regular print materials, in English and many foreign languages.
If you're near the Home Office, at 13471 California St. in Yucaipa, CA, we have many other opportunities for volunteers. These include: receptionist; typist; computer entry; pulling and filing cards; stamping envelopes; Xerox operator; print shop assistance; shipping/mailing assistance; cleaning; yard/lawn maintenance; prayer groups; and general office tasks. No task is too small or goes unappreciated.
Equipment Donations
Lutheran Braille Workers, Inc. also values your donations of equipment to assist us in our production and the conduct of our daily business. Gifts of operable personal computers, IBM or Macintosh, 286 or higher, help us in training braille transcribers to transfer their talents to modern technology. We also appreciate donations of scanners and printers (laser, inkjet or dot-matrix) which help in mastering our publications. We can provide you with tax-deductible receipts for these donations, as well as gifts of binding equipment, copiers, typewriters, braille writers, etc. Call or write to find out our present needs in all areas.
How To Contact Us
Thank you for taking this time to learn about the wonderful ministry of Lutheran Braille Workers. With your support and prayers we can continue to bring the Lord's Word to the visually impaired worldwide for many years to come. Please address inquiries, donations and correspondence to:
Lutheran Braille Workers, Inc.
P.O. Box 5000 (UPS parcels to: 13471 California St.)
Yucaipa, CA 92399-1450 U.S.A.
Phone: (909) 795-8977
Fax: (909) 795-8970
Click here to send e-mail to LBW
Click here to go Back to the Main Page...
Click here for The History of LBW Inc.
Click here to learn about The Publication Process
Click here to read about Our Current Needs and Goals