Why Our Print Magazine is Moving to Subscriptions
One Minute With Marlin
One day, during my lunch break at a local eatery, I struck up a conversation with my waitress. The more we shared about life, the more clearly I saw rivers of pain and heard the heartache behind the ready smile she wore. There are more hurting people in our backyards than ever before. Now is the time to be the hands and feet of Christ, listening to, caring about, and serving our neighbors.
My wife, Lisa, and I adopted all four of our children. Our oldest son is on the Autism spectrum and our three younger children all have Down syndrome. Raising our family has been one of the most challenging and rewarding things we have ever done. Diving into the world of adoption and special needs revealed shocking orphan statistics and also revealed to us the many individuals, ministries, and mission organizations working tirelessly for their calling in their corner of the world. We wanted to share more about these stories with our neighbors, so in 2012 we started Plain Values magazine. Being from Holmes County, Ohio, most of our neighbors are Amish and as a result, we reached out how we could with a print magazine placed directly in the mailbox each month.
I believed in sharing these incredible stories so much that I offered the magazine for free to all of our readers. Advertising has been the only means of income to pay the bills. And this past year, my wife and I gave Plain Values to a non-profit we founded dedicated to helping children in need. The mission of our non-profit, Room to Bloom, aligns beautifully with the mission of our magazine. It is to “promote the beauty of adoption and ascribe dignity to people with Down syndrome and other special needs”.
Our readers have responded to our message of good news with opportunities to help others. What began as just a small magazine for my neighbors in Ohio has grown to over 320,000 monthly readers all over the United States. Recently, a much larger media company has taken note of our work and has asked to share our work with their readers. As exciting as that is, it presents us with a problem, if even a tiny percentage ask to receive Plain Values, we will grow ourselves right out of business!
I need your help. Plain Values is transitioning to a subscription magazine in order to continue sharing stories of missions, ministries, individuals, companies, and organizations around the world who are serving their neighbors and people in need. We are offering current readers of Plain Values a subscription to the magazine for $30 for one year or $50 for two years. Now, here is the beautiful thing, when you give, a portion of your funds will go directly to the Room to Bloom Foundation to help children in need!
It grieves me to ponder the weight of what is hovering just below the surface, often out of sight most of the time. But, if we begin to pay attention, ask sincere questions, and listen to truly hear... we can show the love of Christ to those around us.
So many needs. Pick one. Act. //
Q&A
Why are you offering subscriptions to the magazine?
Over this past year, our print costs have gone up, and we continue to get more and more people requesting to get our magazine. We have reached a point in the magazine where we either have to cut people off or start offering subscriptions for new readers.
What is the benefit of subscribing to the print magazine?
Subscribers of Plain Values magazine will not only be supporting the magazine, they will also be supporting our non-profit, Room to Bloom, which helps children in need. In addition, our magazine subscribers will have access to exclusive digital content from our Plain Values e-newsletter.
I want to subscribe. What do I do next?
You can give Jan a call at 844-260-4578 or click the subscribe button below. Thank you for your help!
I read your story in the EPOCH TIMES.
I'm so glad to have found you. We need God in our lives more than ever before.