David Anguish
A British fisherman recently found a bottle in his nets. Noticing a note inside, he opened it and was amazed to find a letter from a soldier sailing off to war. That soldier died in battle and so that letter turned out to be his last words to his family. The fisherman began a process which fulfilled the man's request, the letter eventually finding its way into his daughter's hands.
Oh, about that soldier, his war, and his daughter. The war was World War I. The date of his letter was 1914. His daughter, now 86 years old, lives in New Zealand. (This story was reported on National Public Radio's All Things Considered program on April 13, 1999.)
For a writer, few things are more exciting - or humbling - than opening your mailbox and finding a letter from someone you've never met, in a part of the country or world you've seen only on the Travel Channel, whose correspondence concerns some piece of writing you've penned. Contacts from Ireland and Haiti, from a former editor who worked on a gospel paper published by a distant cousin, from the wife of a man now a Christian because of a tract we've prepared - all are among this writer's occasional reminders of just how far-flung the impact of the written word can be.
I have no doubt that God knew that. Words such as euaggeliz_ (evangelize), k_russ_ (to herald, preach) and logos (word) make clear that God wants his message spread as widely as possible. The very existence of the epistles and gospels -documents designed to communicate with saints and sinners with whom the inspired writers were not physically present - testifies that writing is a vital part of the divine plan to spread the good news (cf. 1 Thess. 5:27; Col. 4:16; and 2 Pet. 3:15-16 for evidence that those writings were supposed to be and were shared). To stress this is not to put writing in competition with other methods of proclamation, but to give it its proper place among them. As Michael Green has said, "In addition to speaking to people about Christ, whether in public, in small house groups, or as individuals, one further method was open to early carriers of the gospel. Those with the talent could write. And they did" (Evangelism in the Early Church, 229).
It is significant that, after their own support is secured, the first thing so many missionaries ask for is printing equipment. What is so amazing is not that their supporting brethren see the sense of their request and do what they can to supply it, but that those same brethren often do not duplicate the same kind of work in their local situations. Particularly in high density population areas, few things are more effective in spreading the good news widely.
We are part of a church which has committed to the inclusion of a writing ministry among our efforts to herald the glad tidings. For less than 30 cents per home, our brochure mailings will reach a potential audience of nearly 30,000 this year. For about 45 cents a booklet, we have published tracts which can help teach others about Jesus and his way.
Joe Barnett has written, "the printed word can be read at the time, place and privacy of one's own choosing, unlike fleeting, one-time sermons or radio and television messages. The printed word can be read, reread, studied and meditated upon, just as we do the Scriptures" (in Furman Kearley, "Evangelism Through the Printed Page," 1989 Harding University Lectures, 676). A young British soldier, deceased for 85 years, shows just how true that is. When it comes to the printed page, we just never know how far - through space or time - the good we do will go.