"This is Our Lady's newsletter . . .We are just the instruments to get it to the public."
June Klins, Editor

    The Spirit of Medjugorje newsletter was founded in 1988 by Joan Wieszczyk, Bob Nietupski and Dr. Charles Jackson to spread the messages of Our Lady of Medjugorje. They filed as a non-profit corporation. By mid-1991, the men had withdrawn from the newsletter production. Joan continued to publish the newsletter monthly until May of 2002, when she suffered a heart attack that left her with some memory problems. Joan never charged a penny to anyone who wanted the newsletter. She never wanted to charge for Our Lady's messages. The production of the newsletter was dependent upon free will offerings donated by the subscribers. Printing and postage have increased over the years, but Our Lady has always provided “The Spirit of Medjugorje” with enough money to cover the costs.

After Joan's heart attack, June Klins, who was co-editor at the time, took over. Here is her story:

    It was at the Notre Dame Medjugorje conference in 2000 when Joan first asked me if I would take over should anything ever happened to her. I prayed about it for a few days and then told her “yes.” I could never say “ no” to Our Lady, as I recalled Her message of 6/5/86 : “I wish you to be active in living and spreading the messages.” Besides, I thought, in the two years that I knew Joan, she was never sick, not even with a cold or the flu. So, saying “yes” was really quite easy, because Joan was healthy and vibrant.

Then it happened. In June of 2002, Joan suffered a heart attack. The newsletter was suddenly thrown into my lap. I spent the summer learning how to set up the newsletter and how to keep the books. In March, 2003, Joan had surgery and in October she made a pilgrimage of thanksgiving to Medjugorje, where she prayed about her retirement. When she returned, she asked me to take over as editor. Seven years ago I could not have found Medjugorje on a map, much less spell it! And now I was going to edit a newsletter about Medjugorje that goes to 47 states and10 foreign countries ? Not to worry though, Our Lady was interceding…

      Plus, it seemed like it was all part of a Divine Plan – Back in January of 1998 - a friend of my mother's gave me a medal of Our Lady of Medjugorje and I was healed of a strange condition that incapacitated me for a year. In June of that year I planned to take my mother on a pilgrimage to Lourdes or Fatima or Guadalupe, but the travel agent booked us to Medjugorje instead. I did NOT want to go there for several reasons, one being that we thought it was dangerous because of the war. We went anyway though, because by this point I could see that Our Lady was planning something for me.

      My first day in Medjugorje a stranger walked up to me and asked me why I was not taking notes at Mirjana's talk. He told me that since I was a teacher I should be taking notes. However, he had no way of knowing I was a teacher. You can bet that from that point on, I took notes.  When I got home and shared my trip with a lady at church, she gave me a copy of The Spirit of Medjugorje she just happened to have in her car, and suggested that I write up my journal and send it to Joan. So I did. Joan began to use my articles in the following months, and there was enough material there to last until my next trip to Medjugorje the following year. Joan told me that she wanted me to continue to write for the newsletter, and so I did as the Holy Spirit prompted me. In March of 2001 Joan asked me to join her staff as the co-editor.

      Last year, when going through some boxes, I found an article I had cut out of the newspaper two years PRIOR to my first pilgrimage to Medjugorje. It was an article about Ivanka coming to our city. I have no idea why I cut it out, because I knew nothing about Medjugorje at the time, or who Ivanka was. I do not remember doing that at all. When I read through the article, though I found that the person who brought Ivanka to town was Joan – who would 2 years later become my mentor! Our Lady had the whole thing orchestrated right from the start.

      This is Our Lady's newsletter, as Joan always told me. We are just the instruments to get it to the public. I promise to do my part if you promise to do yours. What is your part? Our Lady tells you; ”I want you to spread my messages with your heart.“( 1/10/85 ) Please share Our Lady's messages with people, and encourage them to subscribe and help build a bigger army for Our Lady. I welcome any suggestions you may have. You can write to me at my email address or the P.O. Box on the front page. I pray for our readers every day. Please pray for me. Thank you.

-June Klins