*** w07 2/1 pp. 13-14 Why I Delight in Making Disciples ***One day while I was preaching there, a lady shut the door in my face. But soon she came looking for me in order to apologize. When I returned the next week, she said: "I felt as though I had shut the door in God’s face. I just had to go and look for you." Her name was Pearl. She told me that she had been so disillusioned with friends and relatives that she had prayed to God for a true friend. "And then you came to the door," she said. "Now I realize that you must be that true friend."
*** w01 4/1 pp. 18-19 par. 16 True Christianity Prevails! ***By just making ourselves available, unexpected opportunities to make disciples sometimes arise. In Nairobi, Kenya, two Christian women in field service had finished working the houses assigned to them. A young woman suddenly approached them and excitedly said: "I’ve been praying to meet someone like you." She implored the Witnesses to come to her home immediately for a discussion, and a Bible study was started with her that very day.
*** w00 3/1 p. 5 God Does Answer Prayers ***A young woman in India was in serious need of comfort. Married at 21, she had two children. But soon after the birth of the second child, her husband died. Suddenly, at the age of 24, she was a widow with a 2-month-old daughter and a 22-month-old son. No wonder she needed comfort! Where could she turn? One night, in deep distress, she prayed, saying, "Heavenly Father, please comfort me through your Word."
The next morning, she had a visitor. He was one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. That day, his house-to-house ministry had been difficult because few had opened the door to him. Tired and rather discouraged, he was about to go home, but somehow he felt impelled to visit just one more house. That was where he met the young widow. She invited him in and accepted a publication that explained the Bible.
*** w98 4/15 p. 27 From City Towers to Wilderness Tundra—Go to the People ***Early one morning at the airport, a man accepted the Watchtower and Awake! magazines. He then said in a calm, slow voice: "Oh, no, not Jehovah’s Witnesses!" Why such a reaction? The man was a devout Muslim who had just been praying in the airport chapel. He had been pleading with God to show him wisdom, insight, and truth. The thought that Jehovah’s Witnesses were an instant answer to his prayer simply amazed him.
*** w95 10/15 p. 15 Reaching All Kinds of People in Modern-Day Athens ***One day shortly after he moved to Athens, he found at his door a copy of TheWatchtower, which had the cover theme "Health and Happiness Can Be Yours." He read it several times. In the same magazine, he read that we should seek first God’s Kingdom and his righteousness. (Matthew 6:33) Thomas kneeled and asked God to show him how to do this, promising: "If you show me how to seek your Kingdom, I will devote six months of my life to learn how to serve you." In the fourth week after that, two Witnesses knocked on his door. Immediately Thomas accepted a Bible study, and ten months later he was baptized.
*** w85 12/15 p. 20 par. 18 Urgently Needed—More Harvest Workers! ***Take the case of a young woman in New Zealand. The Witness who first called on her noticed that she was "uptight emotionally and obviously worked up over something." Later this person admitted that "she had been going to commit suicide and had decided to pray to God first to ask him to help her." At that point the Witness knocked on her door, so she really "thanked God for answering her prayer." Was this a coincidence? Then why do similar things happen so often? What did Jesus say? "When the Son of man arrives in his glory, and all the angels with him, . . . he will separate people one from another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats." (Matthew 25:31, 32; see also Revelation 14:6.) The angels are helping Jesus in the shepherding work, and they direct the Master’s "fellow workers" to those who are crying to Him for help.—1 Corinthians 3:6, 9; see Acts 8:26-39; 16:9, 10.
*** w79 5/15 p. 32 Jehovah Is the "Hearer of Prayer" ***A registered nurse was highly esteemed by friends and acquaintances. But her marriage was a failure, and her husband eventually departed because of his immoral life. Being a deeply religious woman, one day the nurse desperately prayed, expressing her longing for a happy life and pleading that God would let her know if he had a worthwhile purpose.
That very afternoon, Jehovah’s Witnesses came to the woman’s door while they were engaging in their house-to-house preaching activity. She had just taken a shower and was still wearing a robe. But even from the brief introductory comments made by one of the Witnesses, the nurse felt that her prayer had been answered.