2 minute read
IT SHALL NOT RETURN VOID
By Brenda Kiš
Who knows how it got there? How long did it lie in the dust before Mai Inthavong* discovered it? Life was beautiful and prosperous for Mai and her family. With a thriving business, her whole being was wrapped up in living well, having enough, maybe even more than enough. Then one day it all caved in, and she became desperate! Her business went bankrupt and they lost everything. She and her family faced an uncertain future.
What will happen to us? How will we survive? Questions swirled around in her mind as she wandered aimlessly through the marketplace. Every thought led her to a dead end. It seemed that no one and nothing could restore what they had lost. Would suicide be the only way out, she wondered.
As if in response to the unspoken question, suddenly something on the ground caught her attention. Mai reached down to retrieve a dirty, crumpled GLOW tract! Picking it up and reading its message, Mai thought about the better life portrayed in the words of hope. How she longed for such hope! When she got home, she called the phone number on the back of the tract. The next day she and her husband and young child visited with the local Adventist pastor. He told them about a loving
Savior and offered encouragement from the Bible. This was just what they needed and hope sprang up in their hearts.
In this closed country of millions, four out of five people are still waiting to hear the good news that has given Mai and her family new life. The only way many of them will find this hope is through the literature that ASAP youth evangelists and church members sell or distribute as they go door to door, person to person. ASAP Ministries is training and sponsoring these young evangelists to heed Ellen White’s 1903 counsel, “There are many places in which the voice of the minister cannot be heard, places which can be reached only by our publications – the books, papers, and tracts filled with the Bible truths that the people need. Our literature is to be distributed everywhere. The truth is to be sown beside all waters…. We know not what may be the results of giving away a leaflet containing present truth” (Manuscript 127).
Today Mai and her family attend church regularly and are taking Bible studies in preparation for baptism. One small tract in the dirt made the difference between life and death for them. They know that the material riches they had before cannot compare to the riches of Heaven, and now more than ever life is beautiful and prosperous for Mai and her family!
You Can Support a Translator! ASAP seeks skilled translators to share the hope of the Gospel in the heart languages of the unreached. Your love gift of $5 to $500 will advance this important work.
