He Found a Tract on the Track

THE year was 1921. On the highlands of the Transvaal, a province of South Africa, a team of railroad maintenance men worked their way along a stretch of railway track. The crew supervisor, an Afrikaner named Christiaan Venter, noticed a piece of paper wedged under a rail. It was a tract published by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society.

After ordering his men to stop, Christiaan read the tract with intense interest. He ran to meet his son-in-law, Abraham Celliers, and announced excitedly: “Abraham, today I have found the truth!”

Shortly afterward, they wrote to the publishers of the tract for more information. In response, the South Africa branch of the Watch Tower Society sent additional Bible literature. The two men studied it together during their lunch breaks and into the late hours of the night. Soon they began to share the truth with friends and strangers.

Eventually, both Christiaan and Abraham became dedicated Witnesses of Jehovah. As a result of their zeal and faithfulness, many South Africans were helped to come to a knowledge of the truth. Furthermore, over a hundred of their descendants are active Witnesses of Jehovah today! One of them serves at the world headquarters of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Brooklyn, New York, and another at the Watch Tower Society’s offices in South Africa.

Today, some 70 years later, Bible tracts continue to play an important role in spreading the Kingdom message.