In 1955, a volunteer from a church in West London went door-to-door in Watford, handing out cards offering free Bible studies. An individual took the Voice of Prophecy card. At some point (no one knows when) he must have thought, “I can use this to fix the vibration in that panel at the back of my piano!”
He folded the card several times, making a thick wedge. Then he removed a screw from the vibrating panel, inserted the folded card between the panel and the piano, and replaced the screw, running it right through the card.
Twenty-five years later, in 1980, the piano was sold to a local woman.
She played the piano for several months and then called a piano tuner to come to her home to tune the instrument. In the course of his work, the piano tuner removed the panel, noticing the folded up card used as a wedge between the panel and the back of the piano. He unfolded the card, laid it on top of the piano, and completed his work.
After he left, the new owner saw the card lying on her piano. Although the card had been folded repeatedly and had a hole through it, she was still able to read it. She decided she would like to take advantage of the Bible lessons the card offered. Despite not knowing how long the card had been wedged in the piano panel she decided to write and see what happened. She wrote a note to the Voice of Prophecy Bible School in Watford, enclosed the damaged card and posted it.
Story adapted from Kurt Johnson’s book Just a Scrap of Paper (Pacific Press Publishing Association, 2013).
A few days later, the first Bible lesson arrived by post! The lady and her daughter studied the lessons. Time passed by and both mother and daughter were so inspired by what they had learnt that they chose to be baptized and become members of the local church.
Mike Stickland, the Voice of Prophecy (later the Adventist Discovery Centre) director at that time said as he shared the story, “I still have that folded, damaged card in my files at the Bible school. In fact, I often carry it to show it to our ADC volunteers and encourage them to be faithful in distributing Bible school enrolment cards. Even when no results are immediately apparent, you never know what will happen at some point!”
The ADC ministry is still vibrant!
The old VOP cards (and, believe it or not some are still coming in) have been replaced with new format ADC flyers. Featuring our 20 courses (including the FreeBible programme) and other resources, they are now available to everyone as explained in full here https://adventistdiscoverycentre.org/2023-new-adc-flyers/
The ongoing process of distributing the flyers (85,000 printed to date) gives every volunteer the opportunity to write the first line of yet another amazing piano story.
