It’s not every-day you have something important enough that you need to chase riding a bike down the street on foot. But that’s exactly what happened to John Burton as a young man. He was training to be a literature evangelist in 1980. But training LE’s don’t usually make enough to earn a living full time. So he started going to work at a church member owned joinery factory. White he was going about his regular business of making stuff for houses, he noticed that to postie would deliver the mail, but he would do it in such a rush that he would ride into the door, throw the packages down on the floor and tare off as fast as he could on a postie bike..
As a young enthusiastic Literature Evangelist, John always had a signs of the times in his back pocket. He wanted to share the gospel with the whole world, and he determined that tomorrow, he was going to get a Signs of the Times into this postie’s bag. John planned to slip it in when the postie dropped his lot of mail on the floor and roared off. But he missed it, the postie was too fast and took off up the street. So John did the only thing any self respecting LE could do in that situation, he took off up the street, RUNNING. Chasing the post man on his bike for all he was worth. Eventually the postie saw John running after him and mercifully stopped, and asked what he was doing? John told him that he wanted to put this book in his satchel. And so John did that, and went back to the factory.
The very next day was different. The postie came to the factory, but instead of just dumping his packages and leaving, he got off his bike, and said, “Where is the man who put the magazine into my bag?” He continues “because I read it last night, cover to cover, I’ve got questions, and I need answers”.
John introduced him to Pr Austin Cook. And as a result four people, The Mail Man, His Wife, Her Sister and Her Sisters Husband were all baptised into the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Check out the Signs of the Times booth in the Expo Hall, and sponsor some signs subscriptions to continue the story!
