Last week, a man was parked in front of the bus stop we were set up at waiting for a coworker. He got out of his vehicle and said the WT cover caught his attention. In talking, he revealed that a few months ago, his teenage daughter was very depressed and even had started to have suicidal thoughts. However, she was given the Awake! which came out recently about why life is worth living. He said it really helped her, and he credits Jehovah's Witnesses with saving his daughter's life!
Then yesterday, a woman approached the cart and asked specifically if we had a Bible Stories Book. I said we didn't, but we're regularly in the same location if she'd like to come another day I'd have it for her. But she was from out of town. She was willing to give her address and phone number and agreed to have a local sister call on her to bring her the book. She explained that when she was a girl, she always saw her father reading a large red book edited by Jehovah's Witnesses. The way he read it made her think it was important, so she wondered if we had one. I assumed she spoke of the Live Forever book and explained it's no longer in print, but all the things her Dad was learning was transferred to the new Bible Teach book. I showed her the book and asked her if she personally had ever had an opportunity to study the Bible. She responded that no, just her Dad years ago. So I offered for the local sister to also demonstrate for her a Bible study when she stops by with her Bible Stories book. She agreed to that too! Now it's in Jehovah's hands to make sure she's rapidly followed up on.
A few weeks ago, a man approached the cart after watching it for over an hour. He explained that about a year prior, he was in a car accident that killed everyone involved but him. He figured that meant that God had a plan for him and he'd been attending a local church trying to figure out what that plan might be. We were able to share various Scriptures with him, placed a Bible Teach book, and got his information. One of our local brothers now has the information to follow up.
We regularly have people who are on the buses and momentarily stopped point to literature and we run it up to them before the bus takes off again. And when the schools let out, all the students come to ask for YPA books. They've seen classmates with them and LOVE them!
Jehovah's really making the work grow through this ingenious idea, and I'm just trying to do my part in cultivating conversations and extending the conversation past the cart.
