Complimentary Story
Editor, Wisconsin Christian News:Summer 2025
Eggs and bacon, a simple breakfast. Also an apt metaphor for the difference between being concerned or involved. The chicken’s eggs are frying in the pan? The hen is “concerned,” but the bacon provider is “involved.” Let’s apply that to WCN newspapers. Which are you? Here’s my story.
In the fall of 2018, I picked up my first “free” issue from a local restaurant’s rack. On a few more visits, more such issues, as I was “concerned.” I decided to subscribe, and began getting “involved.” If you regularly pick up “free” issues, then paying for a subscription, if you can afford it, is the least you can do.
I also sent a Letter to the Editor, wanting to get more involved. Publisher Rob Pue kindly informed me that his limited resources did not allow for handwritten letters as mine, as they would all need to be typed by hand to work with the publishing software, a time-consuming task, what he has no staff to help with. My flip phone was no good, my secondhand computer was not connected to the internet.
God intervened. My dear friend, Mike, offered an unused tablet. As a wary fish or fly, I had tried to keep out of the “net” or “web.” He explained that I could just connect at “hot spots.” He also set me up an Email address. I didn't think I would use it much at the time. Rob published a few of my letters and my involvement progressed.
With the decline of the postal service, getting subscription issues of WCN became hit and miss. The Hand of God reached out again. Rob informed me that due to personal issues, the elderly lady that had been filling local racks, couldn’t continue. “Could I?” “Okay, how does that work?”
Ten times a year, he would meet me at a nearby parking lot with a load of newspapers. I was to keep the news racks at area restaurants and stores stocked. I never told him I only rode a bicycle, with no car or even a license. Mike to my rescue again. We were now, “involved.” I then had access to a reliable hard copy every issue.
By simply asking, I added two more grocery stores. One nearby, the other some distance, but Mike wouldn’t even take money for the gas. Now, my brother and his wife cover the distant location on their own. I let my subscription lapse, keeping one of the roughly 500 copies we distribute. However, I try to give Rob, what little I can afford, when I see him to help cover the costs of printing and distribution.
In a letter printed in the last issue from another WCN distributer, it was related how their 9-year-old grandson had given them $60 to help support WCN. I teared up and thought, “Now, that’s real bacon!”
How about you reading this? Can you afford to get “involved?” I was also happy to see Rob finally appealing for support in that print issue. His typical ad in every issue was perhaps overlooked and his monthly “Behind the Scenes” ministry letters to regular supporters seemed to be largely ignored.
If you are a Christian, and you regularly pick up “free” issues, please understand, they really are not “free.” The cost to keep a real, printed newspaper in publication is more than “substantial!” If you can, subscribe, or at least send in the subscription price if mailed copies are a problem.
Another way of getting involved is by helping to find new advertisers that would be willing to promote their business in ministry in Wisconsin Christian News. Do you know a potential one? There is no harm in asking, they can only decline. Rob will supply you with the basic details such as cost, size, etc.; if they’re interested, he will be glad to make arrangements. We should all also be supporting those that already have ads in the newspaper and let them know we appreciate their support of WCN.
In closing, Rob is spot on. The hard copy papers are an important ministry outreach. Without that first issue, I wouldn’t be writing this. I pray he will not have to drastically reduce the size of the paper — or even worse — go to an “online only” publication. Please don't take this newspaper, now in publication for 26 years, for granted. One day, that "free" copy you always pick up may not be there. The harvest is great, but the workers are few.
So again, what about you? If you’re able, are you willing to put some bacon in the pan and become “involved?”
-Bill Behringer,
Winneconne, Wis.
