“And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases Him.” Luke 15:20.
After a trip to visit family members in Papua New Guinea, Margaret and her husband Levana were back at home in Perth, WA, sitting together in their living room.
Margaret was quietly reflecting on the words that her devout Christian father had said to her at the airport during their farewell.
After praying for her, he had said, “Margaret, Jesus is coming back very soon. When you arrive at your home in Perth, my God will be at your door the next day.“
Just a few kilometres away, Jumpstart literature evangelist Jo Laing was at a local Seventh-day Adventist church. Jo and some other literature evangelists had gathered together to worship and pray for divine appointments before heading out for a day of canvassing.
Margaret and Jo had no idea that in just a couple of hours, their worlds were going to collide.
When Jo knocked on the door of Margaret and Levana’s house, it looked no different to the other houses on the street. Levana opened the door. Although he looked through the cookbook that Jo showed him, he didn’t demonstrate any real interest. She then began telling him about The Great Controversy.
Levana flicked through the pages and then turned to his wife. “Is this one of ours?“ he asked.
Margaret came to the door and confirmed that they did have the book. She then explained that she was a backslidden Seventh-day Adventist.
“We just came home from Papua New Guinea last night,“ she said. “And the last thing that my dad said to me was that he would be praying for God to show up at my house.“
It was a hot day in Perth—43 degrees Celsius—but Jo felt goosebumps forming on her arms. Both women looked at one another and marvelled at how God had answered Margaret’s father’s prayer!
“Wouldn’t it be great if I could come to your church and share this story?“ commented Margaret.
“It would,“ Jo agreed, and the two exchanged phone numbers.
A few weeks later, with tears in her eyes, Margaret stood at the rostrum in Bickley Seventh-day Adventist Church and told her story of how God had found this lost, straying sheep.
We praise God for how he used a literature evangelist in Perth to answer a father’s prayer in Papua New Guinea!
This month, Adventist Heritage is celebrating 175 years of literature ministry. You can listen to the Adventist Heritage Daily Devotional Podcast to hear this story and many more, as well as finding out what’s on this month at heritage.adventistchurch.com.
This story was originally published in Stories of Faith, edited by Vania Chew for Literature Ministry, South Pacific Division.
