“Only One of the Many Lives That You Touched”

BACK in January 1996, Carol was sick with a brain tumor. She was in her 60’s and until then had always been a happy, robust woman with a positive word for everybody. But now the doctors were striving to overcome the deadly growth. In the midst of her struggle, Carol received the following letter:

“Dear Carol:

“I am so sorry about your failing health. Fortunately, we have the real hope that the Bible helps us to know and love. This hope is for Jehovah’s Kingdom to rule the earth so that we can live in a paradise condition, a time that we all look forward to.

“I want you to know that your personal preaching work saved many people from everlasting death. I am one of these people. I am not sure if you remember the first time we met. At that time I was 20 years old. I had long hair, was selling drugs, and was hanging around with a bunch of hoodlums. We all carried guns and had no real love except for ourselves.

“You knocked on my door with another Witness and offered me The Watchtower and Awake! I tried to give you a dollar and said that I did not want the magazines. You let me know that you were not out merely to obtain donations. You told me that you were doing a work to help people read the Bible. I am not sure if I took the magazines or read them. However, you planted the seed of truth in my life.

“Some years later another Witness, Gary, came to my mother’s house when I was present. I told him of the visit you had made some years before. Gary studied the Bible with me for a long time until I was finally baptized in 1984. Now I am teaching my children the truth of God’s Kingdom.

“I am sure that I am only one of the many lives that you touched in your years of faithful service. However, through this loving kindness, you have enabled me and my family to come to know the Great God, Jehovah, and his Son, Christ Jesus. I look forward to the day when I can see you in the new system of things when Jehovah will wipe out every tear from our eyes, and death will be no more.—Revelation 21:4.

“As for me and my family, we are glad that we had the chance to know you and to be a part of your witnessing work. Thank you.

“With brotherly love,

Peter”

After an illness of six months, Carol died in March 1996, having sown many seeds of truth in the course of her 35 years as a zealous evangelizer. She learned that one never knows when a seed will bear fruit, even years later.—Matthew 13:23.