It Was Just a Brief Printed Message
EACH year Jehovah’s Christian witnesses distribute millions of handbills, inviting people to attend Bible discourses at their Kingdom Halls and other meeting places. At times these handbills, with their brief Scriptural message on the reverse side, have been instrumental in causing people to start making remarkable changes in their life. Also, leaflets or folders encouraging home Bible study have led to similar results.
● On the west coast of the United States in November 1971, a young, long-haired, bearded man walked into a Kingdom Hall. Searching for the right religion, he made it a point to hear different speakers who were prominent in their churches. So when he saw on a windowsill at his lodging place a handbill extending an invitation to a discourse at the Kingdom Hall, he decided to attend. As he noted that the lecturer represented the Watchtower Society, his interest was stirred as he thought that the speaker must be someone of importance.
At the Kingdom Hall, one of Jehovah’s witnesses approached the young man and, in the course of the conversation, offered to study the Bible with him. But he turned down this offer. However, at the conclusion of the talk, delivered by a traveling overseer, he agreed to give some thought to having a home Bible study and he remained for the Watchtower study and the traveling overseer’s concluding talk. Now he was not just willing to have a Bible study, but he even asked what he had to do to be baptized.
Plans were made to discuss the Bible the following evening, Monday, at the home of the Witness. The young man came, full of questions. On Thursday evening of that week still more questions were considered. As soon as his list of questions was answered, the young man said, “O.K., let’s study.”
The next day he was at the Kingdom Hall for the Theocratic Ministry School and Service Meeting, the two meetings scheduled for that evening. At first no one recognized him. He had trimmed his hair and shaved off his beard.—1 Cor. 11:14.
As he progressed in his study of the Bible he told the Witness that ‘he could never go from door to door,’ telling other people about the Scriptures. Soon, however, he was sharing in the house-to-house preaching work. After studying just five months he brought his life into harmony with God’s righteous requirements, dedicated himself to Jehovah and symbolized that dedication by water baptism.
● Some years ago a man living in Chicago, Illinois, who had never heard of Jehovah’s witnesses, found a leaflet under his door. His landlady, not one of Jehovah’s witnesses but somewhat interested in their work, had placed it under his door. The leaflet asked the question, “Would you like to understand the Bible?” Reading the information rather quickly, the man placed the leaflet on a table. Thereafter he would occasionally pick it up and read it. After about two weeks his curiosity got the better of him and so he decided to go to the Kingdom Hall on Sunday to find out just what Jehovah’s witnesses were teaching.
At the Kingdom Hall he was warmly welcomed. Before he left, the Witnesses gave him more literature to read. He read this before returning to the Kingdom Hall the following Sunday. He was so impressed by what he read that he got still more literature. Also, that Sunday one of the Witnesses arranged to study the Bible with him, using the publication The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life.
For years this man had attended services in various churches of Christendom. He had also read many books on the so-called ‘psychic sciences,’ but without any satisfaction. Now, as a result of his visits to the Kingdom Hall, he was convinced that he had found the truth. He continued to make progress in his study of the Scriptures, but found it hard to give up the smoking habit. (2 Cor. 7:1) Eventually, however, as he put it, “with a great deal of prayer and determination, I stopped.” Thereafter he dedicated his life to Jehovah God and was baptized in symbol thereof.
So, it can be seen that even brief printed messages are playing a part in aiding people to learn about the truth that leads to eternal life.