Do you know what the word «colporteur» means?

lt is a French word that means «to bear or carry on the neck.»

That is how some sellers who lived hundreds of years ago in the Walden­sian valleys in northern Italy carried Bible verses. While selling fabrics or other materials, they distributed portions of the Word of God to the people who bought from them. This was done in secret, because at that time it was forbidden to read the Bible.

Many years later; in the United States, a young man named George King wanted to be a good preacher, but he became very nervous and would get tongue-tied when he tried to speak.

Then someone suggested to him that he should go to people’s homes to sell books and subscriptions to a magazine that spoke of the second coming of Jesus. At first, nobody imagined that he would sell anything, but he did.

He soon encouraged other people to spread the message that Jesus is our Savior and will come back very soon for us. That kind of missionary work was called «colporteuring» or «canvassing.»

Thanks to George King, colporteuring became a very important means of preaching the good news of Jesus all over the world.

Today the Seventh-day Adventist Church has thousands of literature evangelists who distribute many books and magazines so that the whole world can know about Jesus and get ready for His coming.

Would you like to be a literature evangelist? Write in your Prayer Jour­nal why you would or would not like to be one.