During the last month of the PAFCOE student’s training, they
head out onto the streets to do canvassing – selling books house to house.
Selling anything door to door isn’t easy, let alone spiritual books, but our
students persevered and God gave them marvelous experiences! They are selling
two books – The Great Controversy and
Health and Peace (The Ministry of
Healing). Let me share some of them with you!
One student said, “We prayed together with my partner before
we went out for canvassing. Since we didn’t have much time to work, we hurried
to our area and soon saw two people talking. We smiled at them and canvassed
them with our books. One of them was already practicing healthy lifestyle and
bough the Health and Peace book right
away and encouraged his friends to also buy it. Praise God!”
Another said, “I was inspired this week because we sold our
first book! God led us to a woman who was the secretary of a small business. It
was raining very hard and we ran into her store to take shelter from the rain.
As we waited, we were impressed to canvass the lady, but both of us felt shy
and hesitant. Then we saw that she was looking at a book and when we moved
closer, it was The Great Controversy!
When we asked her about it, she told us that she had just bought it from some
other girls dressed like us. We offered her the Health and Peace book and she bought it too!”
One of our foreign students said, “This week, we canvassed a
government official and he bought a book from us! And he gave a very generous
donation too! Later on, we passed a lady selling health products and taking
blood pressures. So I started talking to her and thought she would like the Health and Peace book, but no! She was
interested in The Great Controversy!
I realized that many of God’s people are in search of truth and waiting for us
to approach them. I thank God for this inspiring week!”
Another foreign student added, “This week, I went to MAMC
(Manila Adventist Medical Center) to get a prescription for my thyroid. As I
chatted with the doctor, he found out more about me and then wrote the
prescription I needed as well as how much I needed to pay him. Then a thought
popped into my head that I could try to sell him one of my books! He proudly
informed me that he had all those books on his phone and reads them every day
and didn’t need my books! So I proceeded to ask for a donation instead to help
cover our expenses. He responded with, 'Okay, I will make your medical fee for
free! That is my donation to you.' I discovered later on that it was a good amount
that I had saved! I was so happy and inspired!”
And one more, “This week we walked very far in our outreach
and finally we came to a very important government building. We decided to
canvass the people there. Most of them were so busy and we spent a lot of time,
but no one bought a book. Then we came to a door and inside was a man writing
on a paper. So we approached him and he really listened to our canvass and then
decided to buy the book! Then later on, 3 more people bought books too! Another
day, we went to a place that is hard to enter. When the guard asked us who we
were, we showed him our student ID and he said, ‘You are a student who studies
in a Bible school? So you are missionary? Okay! Just come in!’ We were so
happy!”
She also said, “When we were canvassing a man in a different
place, I told him all about The Great
Controversy. After I finished, I asked him what he thought of the book and
he replied, ‘It’s all about history.’ Then I asked him if he was interested in
the book and he said, ‘Yes. So I will know what will happen in the future,
because I see this is a prophecy book.’ And he bought the book!”
Another said, “When we went to do outreach this week, we
were planning to give the Health and
Peace to one of our Bible students because she had done so well. When we
arrived at her house, I pulled out the book to show her when she excitedly told
me that she had already bought a book like that from other Amazing Facts people
(probably our classmates). But she had given it as a gift to someone else and
she was so happy to receive the book from us!”
And one more said, “Canvassing was a completely new
experience for me this week. I went out with an idea of what it would be like,
but as I came back, I recognized something even if we sold no books. I felt so
blessed anyways! It was my first experience and through it, I got increased
confidence and that was worth all the rejections! God may not always give you
success but He does know how to shape our characters!”
If you haven’t experienced the joy of canvassing, then we
invite you to do so! You will not regret it!
