Hi, my name is Jaqueline, I am from Brazil. The following took place when I was in College. Sometimes during my vacations, I used to sell adventist literature as a colporteur. I remember on my first vacation that our leader used to say we probably wouldn’t see the results of our work immediately, but only in heaven. However, it didn’t satisfy me. So, I prayed to see some of these results even here, and to have the feeling that God was using me to help other people.
Every day I knocked door by door to present books. Normally, I used to present three books about health and one about religion. One day, my bag of books was empty before midday. Then, I met my sister at lunch time and asked her to lend me some of hers, but the only book she could spare was one called “To have and to hold: a guide to a successful marriage”.
I took it, but I thought to myself, how could I, a single and not-dating person at that time, advise someone about marriage. It looked like it wouldn’t be a productive afternoon.
I went anyway and after some hours I entered in an ice cream shop in order to present my books to the owner. I didn’t even open the book “To have and to hold” to show her and she took it out from my hands and started to read it. She said her marriage was not going very well and it was about to turn in a divorce. They couldn’t find a way to put the marriage back together, but she decided to buy the book anyway.
When I was about to leave, my friend Samela just entered in the ice cream shop. She was lost, beyond the borders of her zone, and decided to try to sell something in the ice cream shop. As I already had done the job there, the three of us had a small talk and then Samela and I left.
Some days later, on the last day of my vacation, when I was packing my bags to go home, Samela ran into my room and said: “do you remember that woman at the ice cream shop? Today I was on the other side of the neighborhood and I met her. She has another ice cream shop there too. She asked me to thank you, because she and her husband, both read the book and decided to support each other, taking another try to save their marriage, and stop the divorce.
Then, humble and very happy, we thanked God because He helped someone in need through us.
This is one of the experiences that shows me how wonderful God is and how He can help other people through my life. And more than that, I am thankful because He answered my prayer and let me see the result of this work even here in this life.