A message from Jan Miller
I started writing letters for Christ in 1996. I worked full time. Between the job and church activities during the week and on weekends I had little contact with the outside world. Although I was not ashamed to speak of Christ, it was difficult for me to start a conversation with a total stranger and then work the conversation to spiritual things. At the time, I just wanted to do “something” more for the Lord. I didn’t want to just “tell” the Lord how much I loved Him… I wanted to “show” Him how much I loved Him. Before I made the commitment, I realized I would probably never know the results of these letters. That was fine. That was not the reason for the letters. I just wanted to share Christ. With that in mind, the commitment was made. I had been writing letters for some time, and then one day I received my first response. But then, it was like “a little window that God opened” to let me see some results of the “Letters for Him.” It was surprising and very encouraging. It deepened my commitment and resolve to continue the Letters for Him ministry. Below are a few excerpts from some of these letters…
Actual Responses to Letters
One of the first responses I received was from a mother. Her teenage son had received a letter. (Her son had his own listing in the telephone directory). She stated at first she just thought it was a letter from one of his girlfriends. She gave him the letter and he went to his bedroom to read it. Later, he came out of his room and handed the letter to her and his dad and requested they read it. They both read the letter. The mother ends her letter by stating…
“My husband and I had been praying for our son. We hoped the Lord would be able to intervene and reach him some how and then your letter came. For the first time, in a very long time, my Son wanted to talk about the Lord. He accepted Christ as his Savior. Thank you so much for writing this letter. I cannot tell you what this means to us…”.
Of course you and I both know…this was not me, it was the Lord. You see, I had no idea who this young man was, or even that he was a young man or that he needed the Lord. He was just a name in the telephone book. But the Lord knew…the Lord knew, and that made all the difference!
Another response came from a wife. She stated the letter they received was addressed to her husband. She also stated the day they received the letter was the very day they had returned home from the hospital where he (her husband) had been diagnosed with cancer. She wrote...
“…as you stated in your letter, it was the darkest and most hurtful times of our lives.” She went on to say she had been praying for her husband over 20 years. He went to church with her sometimes but never had accepted Christ. And then she writes: “After reading your letter he started crying and handed it to me. He accepted Christ as his Savior right then and there. He is going to be baptized in our church next Sunday.”
Again, only Christ could have done this!! Only God could arrange for this letter to reach this man on the very day he was diagnosed with cancer!! What a GREAT and WONDERFUL Heavenly Father we have!!!
I received a letter from a couple who had moved to San Antonio. My letter was forwarded to them. They state...
“We have some friends that we really like. They are outside of our church family. We have wanted to talk to them about the Lord, but was unsure how to bring up the subject. We did not want to scare them off. The day your letter came was the day they were coming over for dinner and games. After dinner, we said “You’ll never guess what we got in the mail today,” and we shared your letter. It opened the door. It gave us the opportunity to share Christ. We are going to take your letter to church. We think this might be a good ministry for others.”
I’ll never forget the day I received a phone call at home. There was a man on the phone who stated...
"I’m looking for a Jan Miller.”
I answered that I was Jan Miller. He then said,
“I’m looking for a Jan Miller who writes letters. Do you write letters?”
“Yes, I write letters about the Lord. Is that what you are talking about?”
“Well, I have a question for you? How did you know?”
“I’m sorry, how did I know what?”
“How did you know I prayed to God if he was really real, to let me know?”
Of course, you and I know that was the Lord! And that is what I told him. I explained I didn’t have any idea who I was writing to because the names were picked randomly from the telephone book. But God knew. God heard his prayer and God was the one who directed the letter to him. This man went on to tell me how messed up his life was and how he had ruined his family and they had no choice but to leave him. He stated it was all his fault. He stated he had been thinking of hurting himself. How could God possibly love somebody like him? I was able to witness to him over the phone. He promised he would ask Christ as his Savior as soon as we hung up. How amazing is our Lord!!!
Read the Interesting Conclusion
I received a letter from a young woman. She told me she had not received my letter, but her friend had. She told me his name. We will call him Billy. They had been friends for a long time. She was a “born again Christian” and had witnessed to him several times, but without results. In her letter she writes:
“Billy would always say if the things I said were true and Jesus was the only way to heaven and all these people who are Christians know about it, why aren’t they telling everybody? Why is it I was the only one who ever talked to him about Jesus. Then he got your letter. He let me read it. He told me he was very impressed and he would have to give this some thought. I want to thank you for sending this letter. I have never heard of anyone doing this before. Billy has not accepted Jesus yet, but he’s thinking about it. I just want you to know…”
I do not know if Billy ever accepted Christ or not, but he received the message from a total stranger who did not know him. That made an impression. Once again, this could only be the Lord at work. How could I possibly pick a name from a telephone book that has sixty-thousand or so names in it, and it go to a person who is questioning why others do not tell him about Jesus. Amazing! There are no words to describe the wonders of our Heavenly Father.
I could give you other examples of letters that I have received but I prefer to tell you how just “writing the letter” changed the place where I worked. My husband and I had just moved to Lubbock, Texas. I had been hired by a large University Hospital. The business department, where I started working was “clickish”. They had their little groups and seemed not to welcome anyone else. So at lunch time, I found myself alone in the cafeteria. It was an hour long lunch. At that time, all my letters were hand written. That took about 50 minutes, so it was a great opportunity for me to get most of my letter done. Day after day, week after week it was my time to write for the Lord. I loved it. Then one day, a nurse who I didn’t know, walked up to my table and asked if she could have lunch with me. She asked if I was studying. I stated “No, I was writing letters.”
“Wow! You must have a lot of relatives. I see you writing everyday!” I then explained that I was writing to people out of the telephone book. “What? You’re writing to people you don’t know?”
I asked her if she would like to read the letter. She wanted to. I asked her if she knew the Lord as her Savior. She did! She thought the letter was amazing. I had many other people who started wanting to sit at my table. Some, because they heard about what I was doing and others, because there was no other place to sit. Some were employees and others were friends or relatives of patients. The ones who did not know about the letters would always apologize for interrupting me. I would state they were not interrupting, I was just writing a letter. They would make small talk about how no one writes letters anymore. And then I would say something like… “Well, my letter is a little unusual, it is written to people I don’t know.” They always seemed intrigued and I would ask if they would like to read the letter. They always did. Some knew the Lord, others did not. Eventually, word got back to my department that I wrote letters. One by one, employees in my department asked to read the letter. Then an amazing thing happened. As it turned out, most of the employees in that “clickish” department were professed Christians…I would have never guessed! They started talking about the Lord! They found out some of their coworkers, whom they had been working with for years, were fellow Christians! One of the ladies asked me if I would write to a relative of hers. She was concerned her niece did not know the Lord. I told her I would be happy to, but since I usually write to people out of the telephone book, I would need to tell her niece that she requested I write her. She stated that would be fine. I wrote the letter. When my husband accepted a job in Colorado, I was saying my good-byes to my fellow employees. One of the ladies in the department pulled me aside and said,
“I know God sent you here. You made it a different place.”
You and I know that was God too! A person could not do something like this even if they could plan it. God has done some pretty amazing things with a small thing like “writing a letter for Him”. Only God could do something like that! And that’s the key…only GOD! What an awesome God we serve!!!
In all the examples of responses I listed above, it is important to note that none of these letters came from the person who accepted Christ. They always come from someone who is already a professed believer in our Lord who is telling me what happened to the one I wrote to. There is a reason for this. When a person accepts Christ as their Savior, everything is new! They have a new life, a new beginning. Things are different. It’s exciting. They have just started on their spiritual journey with the Lord! Wow! It may not be until months or years later they think back on the circumstances that brought them to Christ. This is how it should be. Remember…the Apostle Paul writes in I Cor 3:6,7: “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that plants anything, neither he that waters; but God that gives the increase.”
You may or may not receive responses to your letters. In the years I have written my personal “letters for Him”, I have never once received a letter from the individual who accepted Christ. As I stated, most responses you will receive will be from fellow professed Christians. And these responses will be few. Some will be positive, affirming and a real blessing to receive. Some will be a rebuke, correction or admonition. Some I respond to with a loving note of thanks. Others, I’ve chosen not to respond to. Some letters, I keep, others I throw away. I stay committed to the goal…reaching others for Christ through “LETTERS FOR HIM.” I send the letters, God is responsible for the results…not me. I plant a seed or water a seed…God gives the increase. God gives the increase!!! He is the One deserving of all praise and honor.
I will end by quoting my favorite verse for the ‘LETTERS FOR HIM Ministry:
“For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and does not return there, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” Isaiah 55:10,11