A Promise Fulfilled

Memoir from the life of Philip Reekie.

“And the seed that fell on good soil represents those who hear and accept God’s Word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!” Mark 4:20

In 1896, Tom Kent was a heartbroken widower in Eugowra (New South Wales, Australia) when he first met cyclist Philip Reekie. Tom’s wife Mary had just lost her battle with pneumonia and Tom was in despair, struggling to take care of their eleven children.

Just before she died, Mary asked Tom to promise that he would meet her in heaven—and bring their children with him. After discovering the truths of the Bible, Philip Reekie wanted to spread hope across Australia. He left his job as an engraver and cycled across dusty outback roads under the merciless hot sun, distributing Christian literature. One day he came across a farmer ploughing in a
field. The farmer was Tom Kent.

Philip listened patiently to Tom’s story of heartbreak and heard about the promise he had made to his dying wife. He shared the book The Great Controversy with Tom. Tom wrestled with the truths in the book, but after careful study, he accepted the teachings. His new discoveries gave him the comfort he
had yearned for.

Tom then shared these truths with his children and neighbours. As a result, Tom’s children and five neighbouring families became believers and disciples of Jesus.

Fast forward from 1896 to the present day and this remarkable legacy lives on. When you add the descendants of Tom and the five neighbouring families to the numbers of people these descendants have
converted to Christianity, there are more than 20,000! That’s 20,000 lives transformed by one faithful cyclist and a farmer who shared a very special book.

God surely fulfilled the promise that Tom made to his wife—and then some.