Last year, in my education class, I taught a lesson on long term memory and how information is stored. The brain will keep information in long term storage based on two conditions; if the information has been repeated several times, or if the information caused an emotion of some sort. It might be a lot more difficult to know where you were at on September 11th of the year 2012 than September 11th of the year 2001. All of us remember where we were at when we heard about the tragedy of the Twin Towers in 2001. Why is this? Because that information given to us caused an emotion that we will never forget. Sometimes it is not what is being said at the time but how we felt.
The same goes for working door to door. The impression we give to people about God’s love is much more effective than all the words we could ever say to them.
In the Rocky Mountain Conference, we rotate between three locations every three years. The first summer that I started was the summer of 2010 in Grand Junction, Colorado Springs, and Pueblo. It was in the town of Pueblo that I passed a house that said, “No Trespassing.” After I passed this house I walked to the very bottom of the hill and got a sudden urge to go back. I stopped and debated whether I felt like God impressed me to go back or if I was just making it up in my own head. I ignored the thought and kept on walking. Not even 10 seconds later I was struck with an even greater impression to go back to the “No Trespassing” house. I rolled my eyes and sighed saying out loud, “Fine. I’ll go back.” I trudged my way to the top of the hill to find this house again. As soon as I spotted the house out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that the owners of the house were outside in the yard.
Annoyed at myself, I stepped up next to the fence and said, “Hello, Sir. How are you doing today?” He slowly walked over to where I was standing. To be completely honest I don’t even remember what was said. All I remember was he gave me a five dollar bill, I left him with a Great Controversy. Before I left he asked me, “So what denomination are you?” I smiled and told him I was a Seventh-day Adventist and went on my way. I didn’t think anything of the experience, but I happened to tell my friend Tony about it.
Two weeks later, it was the very last day of summer and my boss gets a phone call from the Pueblo Pastor. The Pastor said a man called the church looking for a girl who visited his house two weeks ago. Joe then called around to the teams asking which girl it was that met this man. Having forgot about the experience I ignored Joe’s call. Joe called once, then twice, and then three times. Finally, Tony answered the radio and said, “That was Mollie who met the man.” I immediately called Joe and said, “Yes! That was me!”
Joe picked me up from work and started driving to the man’s house. I looked at Joe and asked in a slightly concerned voice, “What does this guy want anyways?” Joe shrugged his shoulders and said, “I have no clue. That’s why we are going to his house to find out.” Sure enough, we pulled up the house with a big “No Trespassing” sign on the front. After knocking on the door, the man soon came to greet us. It didn’t take long for the man and Joe to become friends because they were both Vietnam veterans. After building a friendship with Joe within 2 minutes, the man looked at me and said, “Little lady, I was so impressed by your visit two weeks ago. And because my wife and I were so impressed by your kindness, we want to know if we could help with your school finances, every month for a whole school year.” Joe and I both were speechless. After giving him the biggest thank you, we left just praising Jesus for using us.
This experience taught me that I need to focus more on how I am showing God’s love rather than just merely talking about it. People are going to remember how you made them feel rather than what you said to them. Since we rotate locations every three years, this summer was the year for the Literature Evangelism group to go back to Grand Junction, Colorado Springs, and Pueblo. While we were in Pueblo, Joe and I figured we should try to visit this man we met three years ago. We were pleased to hear that this man and his wife attend the local Seventh-day Adventist church, and they still remember when we came to visit them three years ago. All the praise and glory goes to God for telling me to go back to that “No Trespassing” house.
