Fellow Laborers - USA

In this “Fellow Laborers” section, we highlight the work of our colleagues around the world. However, we haven’t talked about what we, Midnight Call Ministries, do here in the USA. After all, we are a missionary outreach spreading the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and His soon return. “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts” (2 Peter 1:19).

We are very grateful to our supporters who continuously undergird this work in prayer and with their financial gifts. Without you, we simply would not be able to function.

Besides this magazine, Midnight Call, we also publish a smaller magazine called News From Israel, which you likely have received as well. These go out to tens of thousands of readers each and every month. Additionally, we also publish a Spanish edition, Llamada de Medianoche, for Spanish speakers in the USA (this is adapted from the magazine published by our colleagues in Central and South America.)

Every month, articles must be researched and written. In the case of our authors in Switzerland (like Norbert Lieth) the articles must be professionally translated from German into English. In either case, the text goes through multiple rounds of proofreading and editing to catch any mistakes and enhance readability before they are ready to publish. Only then comes typesetting and graphic design to produce the aesthetically pleasing magazine you are now enjoying.

Midnight Call magazines being assembled

Once this is done, the much more expensive part of putting ink to paper can begin. By our best estimation, the cost of paper and ink alone is nearly a dollar per magazine. Labor to print, fold, stitch, and handle all these magazine doubles that cost, and then comes postage of about $0.72 (fortunately, we qualify for reduced “non-profit organization” postage rates.) Even so, you see that at 12 issues a year, this comes to about $30 annual cost per magazine, but we only charge $24.50 (and often less for various special offers we run.)

Since our primary mission is to spread the word of our soon-coming Lord, we gladly send out these magazines every month, even to recently lapsed subscribers. Furthermore, we then publish these articles—at no cost—on our website to reach potentially even more souls throughout the world. Although we’ve been on the internet at midnightcall.com for over 26 years, the vast majority of our readership continues to prefer printed literature, so we still concentrate on this medium.

But that’s not all. To maintain our subscriber base, we send out countless mailings reminding you to renew and to entice lapsed and new readers to subscribe. When successful, we then have to pay first-class postage for the business reply envelope used and the various administrative costs involved in processing these orders. Incidentally, telephone orders and credit card payments are even more costly.

This is the work that must be done and is our job; we are just pointing out these often-overlooked items that, when added together, take up a more than insignificant portion of our resources.

Besides the magazines, we publish and distribute high-quality Christian books as a resource to our readers—again with significant material, handling, and postage costs involved. Then there are many smaller things that nevertheless occupy a significant portion of our time, such as responding to readers’ spiritual and theological questions (a small selection of these are published every month in “Letters to the Editor.”)

Midnight Call operates in a very simple and efficient manner, avoiding much of the administrative expenses an organization of our size would normally incur. Importantly, we have no debt, so there is no interest expense. Nevertheless, we do have many of the same overhead expenses such as insurance and utilities that are unavoidable.

Finally, circling back to the top, the infrastructure of this ministry allows us to collect gifts from individuals such as you, and then disperse these funds to our fellow laborers in South and Central America, in Israel, in Asia, “…and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8b).

We are ever so grateful for the continuous support we receive, which allows us to continue this important work of disseminating the encouraging words of our Savior’s soon return. We wedge this short explanation into our “Fellow Laborers” lineup so that you can know where your donations go—you are holding it in your hand. We use the gifts we receive to publish this vital message and put it in the hands of subscribers like you every month.