Keeping our readers informed

“Alone, I can do nothing.
With God, I can conquer myself.
With God and money, I can conquer the world.”

— Attributed to St. Teresa of Avila

February 21, 2002

Dear Friends,

As the director of Envoy’s apostolate, I can definitely relate to the above quote from St. Teresa.

Her practical way of approaching life — Work as hard as you can, and leave everything, including money, in God’s hands — worked for her. And at Envoy, we strive to emulate her wise example.

I’m writing to you now because I know that Envoy’s mission of “bringing Christ to the world” must be based on trust that God’s providence will see us through. We rely prayerfully on God’s grace and guidance and on the generosity of Envoy’s benefactors.

I’ve promised to periodically update you on the status of Envoy’s apostolate and tell you about our particular needs as they arise, the challenges that I’m hoping and praying you’ll help us with.

First, though, let me say again how grateful I am for your prayers and past generosity to Envoy. I’m not exaggerating when I say that, without your help, Envoy simply couldn’t make it.

That’s why I’m so pleased to be able to tell you that Envoy is poised to become a more efficient, more punctual, and more effective apostolate, able to reach even more souls for Christ and His Church.

To accomplish this, I’m instituting several changes at Envoy that are essential for our accomplishing the following three key goals:

Efficiency: Since Envoy launched in 1996, we’ve operated as a “virtual magazine,” with staffers working all over the country, keeping in touch by phone, e-mail, FedEx, and faxes. This was innovative and fun, but also problematic. Ultimately, the “virtual” model has proven to be inefficient, both creatively and financially.

Not being able to interact in person, brainstorm together, and work as a cohesive team, has been a major drawback. By God’s grace, we’ve managed to put out a great magazine, but I know we can do even better. For Envoy to improve and flourish, I’m convinced that we need the teamwork and cohesion that comes from working face-to-face in the same office. So I’m consolidating our team into a single location: a modest, low-cost office in Granville, Ohio, just a few minutes from my home.

Timeliness: I’ve been frustrated, as have many Envoy subscribers, by Envoy consistently being behind schedule. Getting the magazine caught up to a normal, consistent production schedule is a top priority for us. I’m certain that the operational and personnel changes I’m making will help us catch up quickly. But I need your help to do it.

Improved Product: I believe Envoy is the most witty, intelligent, and exciting Catholic magazine around — but I know it can be even better. Bringing the Envoy team together under a single roof is going to dramatically improve our creative synergy and make us a more efficient and flexible apostolate. Believe me — if you liked Envoy’s first six years, just wait till you see what we have planned!

In order to makes these goals a reality, I’ve made some specific personnel moves over the past few weeks.

First, I’ve hired Carl Olson to be Envoy’s new editor. This move will free me up to concentrate more on building our circulation, improving the look and feel of the magazine, and making sure the magazine operations gets caught up and stays caught up!

In 1997, Carl and his wife Heather converted from Protestantism and entered the Catholic Church. He’s written cover articles for Envoy as well as many articles on apologetics, evangelization, and theology for other Catholic publications.

In April, Carl and his family will move from Oregon to Ohio so he can begin work directly with me and the Envoy editorial team. An experienced and very talented designer and illustrator, Carl will also collaborate closely with Ted Schluenderfritz, Envoy’s new creative director. Ted is an experienced, innovative, and extremely talented graphic artist. Just wait till you see how the team’s combined talents add even more flare and energy to Envoy!

Be assued that I am not going anywhere! I'll continue to serve as Envoy's publisher and oversee the day-to-day operations and editorial aspects of apostolate. Hiring Carl Olson as our new editor will enable me to do an even better job in those areas!

Working together in the same office, we’ll be able to make rapid improvements in the timeliness, quality, and effectiveness of Envoy magazine.

Best of all, these changes will actually trim our budget substantially, allowing us to become more efficient and even more frugal with our finances. In other words, this consolidation of time and talent means we’ll make each dollar stretch even further.

Envoy will immediately begin saving money by consolidating our organization so we can do more work with fewer people, and doing things much more efficiently than before.

But I need your help right away to be able meet the important objectives I’ve outlined in this letter. As you know, we get by on a very tight budget; every dollar counts.

In order to continue Envoy’s uninterrupted production, catch up to an on-time production schedule, establish our new, low-rent office space, purchase a couple of computers for Carl and the others, and all the other odds and ends of making our operation run more efficiently, we need to raise $71,000 immediately. It’s not a gigantic sum, but it’s still out of our reach, unless you and Envoy’s other friends and benefactors help us.

This fund of $71,000 will let me make these strategic changes now, without diverting any of our already tight finances away from producing the top-quality Envoy magazine that you and others rely on as a trustworthy resource for evangelization and apologetics. It is truly an important opportunity for improvement, one we can’t afford to miss.

You’ve helped Envoy generously in the past, so I feel a sense of confidence that I can turn to you with these new opportunities. To be candid, I need your help now if I’m to make these important and necessary improvements to our operation.

Can I depend on your help? I’m hoping and praying that you’ll help us quickly gather the $71,000 we need to move forward.

Ideally, if you could help Envoy with a tax-deductible donation of $10,000 or $5,000 or $2,500, we can immediately make these necessary changes and thereby rapidly improve the efficiency and speed of our production and our apostolic outreach.

Perhaps you could help with a donation of $1,000 or $500? Please pray about what amount God might be nudging you to send. Of course, any amount you can give is vital to Envoy’s success.

I want very much to thank you in a special way for your help. If you’re able to help Envoy with a special donation of $200 or more, I’ll send you the brand-new boxed set of my EWTN television series, “The Truth About Scripture and Tradition,” which I hosted with my friend and fellow Catholic apologist, Bob Sungenis.

In this exciting, new 16-part series, Bob and I take you on a guided tour of Scripture and Tradition, showing you exactly what the Bible says about its own authority and the importance of Tradition. We provide you with a full-scale biblical response to the many arguments people raise against Catholic Tradition and in favor of the flawed “Bible Only” approach to Christianity.

Believe me, “The Truth About Scripture and Tradition” series will supercharge your knowledge of the Catholic Faith, Scripture, and Tradition. the many viewer comments I’ve received make me confident that you’ll enjoy and benefit from this exciting new EWTN television series!

Drawing on St. Teresa of Avila’s wisdom, don’t forget that, alone, we can do nothing. With God, we can conquer ourselves. With God and money, we can conquer the world for Christ!

I’m deeply grateful for your confidence in Envoy’s apostolate. Without your help, Envoy couldn’t do its part in our common mission of “bringing Christ to the world.”

As ever, I promise to keep you and your family in my prayers and Mass intentions, and I ask for your continued prayers for Envoy’s apostolate — after all, Envoy is your apostolate, too.

All the best in Christ,

Patrick Madrid

Publisher

P.S. Remember, Envoy is an Ohio 501(c)(3) nonprofit apostolate. If you can help us with a tax-deductible donation of $200 or more, I’ll send you the complete boxed set — sixteen episodes in all — of my brand new EWTN television series, “The Truth About Scripture and Tradition.” God will reward your generosity!

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