Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I had a great day today of sharing the Gospel with students.  3 peeps prayed to receive Christ today, Cendy, Zdravko and Nate.
Cendy is Roman Catholic and goes to church in Addison.  She looked bi-racial, Asian and Black, wears glasses; she was laying on a bench in the science building kind of half sleeping.  So I asked her if she wanted to do a survey about God for our Bible study group.  She was willing to put in 5 minutes.  She listened to the Gospel but had not understood how God took away her sins.  I asked her, after explaining the work of Christ, if she had ever asked God to forgive her of her sins based on the work of Christ for her on the Cross and trusting in what He had done for her to forgive her, or if she had just been kind of going through religious motions at church.  I could tell the explanation of the Gospel was somewhat novel to her.  She said she had prayed for forgiveness from God, but had not asked based on what Jesus had done for her.  I explained to her that if she wanted to be forgiven based on what Christ had done, to receive Him, there was a prayer she could pray and the Holy Spirit would then live inside her.  She said she wanted to pray and did.  I explained the Christian life and the Holy Spirit to her and how dependence on His power is how we live the Christian life.  She had a Bible and did not want to read a book, so I told her I would keep her in my prayers.
Zdravko is Serbian Orthodox and goes to church on or near the North side of the city of Chicago.  (Zdravko is a pretty common name in Serbia and Bosnia it seems when I googled it, but I had not seen or heard it b4.)  He seemed like an American kid though, no accent, slim, tall and wearing his ball cap turned backwards.  He thought he was going to Heaven because he was a good person.  The Gospel seemed somewhat novel to him and he had not understood very well that God took away his sins on the Cross.  I asked him if he had been going to church as something his family did or if he thought he had been trusting in what God had done by Christ on the cross or had ever prayed to be forgiven based on what Jesus had done.  He thought he might have done that once, “Maybe” but he obviously had not received Christ or been trusting in Him and wanted to pray to accept forgiveness based on what He had done for him on the Cross.  He wanted a book on Jesus, so I gave him the Student edition of The Case for Christ.  He wasn’t up for reading the long version.  I gave him a Bible study and he was grateful and thanked me, so that was great.
Nate was sitting in the cafeteria counter looking out to the South and had just been doing some kind of Bible study.  He is African American and said his mom was really religious, but he did not go to church as often as he should.  He was respectful and intelligent, nice, calm guy who was studying computer technology.  When I asked him something he wanted to do b4 he died he said, “Be one with God.”  It turned out God had sent me to him that He might do just that.  When I had gone through the Gospel with him he had not understood either how his sins were forgiven and when I asked if he had prayed for God to forgive his sins based on what Jesus had done he said, “Not for myself personally.”  So I offered the prayer for him at the back of the booklet and he prayed to receive Christ.  I gave him More Than a Carpenter to read, a Bible Study and he was grateful and said, “Thank you sir.”  I got his e-mail to send him stuff to read.
So I had a really good day sharing the Faith and God led me to His lost sheep, which was great.  I gave The Case for a Creator to Jessica (who was studying anthropology) too and clarified some stuff for her. So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and today if you had a moment, the Lord heard and saved.
In Him,
Bob Bollow

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I had a good day of sharing today, though no one came to Christ.  Still a couple great conversations;  a guy named Dell sitting by the revolving doors in the SRC and CJ in the Science Building.  Dell was really confused about God as his mom is Muslim and his dad is Roman Catholic.  He was really interested to hear the Gospel, but still did not know what to think about Jesus.  He explained how in his greater family he had Muslims on one side and Catholics on the other and they split weekends going to Mosque and Church.  I offered him the prayer to pray should he have more clarity and then showed him a copy of The Case for Christ.  I explained the book and he seemed extremely interested to read it.  He commented it seemed “pretty long” and I offered him the student edition which is a lot shorter, but he wanted to read the longer book, which is a great sign. When I left he seemed really grateful and he said, “See ya around.” Can’t read too much into it but I hope I will see him.  Please pray he reads it.

Later I came upon CJ.  She was sitting in the science building.  Brown hair, pretty, Roman Catholic background.  She had not understood the Gospel and wanted to be forgiven, but when I offered her an opportunity to pray she said she had felt that way once, close to God where He was with her when she was younger.  But all the competing ideas of school had taken that from her and she no longer knew what to think about Jesus.  She was not sure He had died for her sins.  I had the student edition of The Case for Christ in my satchel and explained it and offered it to her.  She was excited to be able to read it and very grateful.

So hey, two really good seeds today.  I talked to some smug, prideful peeps early on.  Nothing can be quite so tedious as a freshman at a community college that has taken a philosophy class.  But then I talked to a sweet girl named Tuesday who really loved the Lord.  Talking with Tuesday gave me some energy to ramble on somehow and then I met Dell and CJ.  God is good.  So thank you so much for your prayers if you had a chance, and please pray for CJ and Dell that God might draw them in.

John 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

 
Blessings on your weekend,
Bob Bollow

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope you are feeling the blessing of God and clinging to His promises if you can’t right now.  I walked around for several hours and the last person I talked to, Jennifer, came to Christ.  She is Romanian Orthodox but had not gone to Church in a while.  Her Church is on the North Side of Chicago.  I went through the Gospel with her and like many peeps I come across in mainline denomination churches she did not know it, had no knowledge of the Bible.  She wanted to be forgiven and prayed to receive Christ,  but would not take anything to read except a Bible study.  It is hard sometimes with evangelism.  I feel like I have given so little knowledge and had only a moment to show God’s love.  I pray for them all each night by name and hope in the presence of the Holy Spirit that He might bring fruit.
So thanks for your prayer for the ministry and today if you had a chance, I’m grateful.  Please mention Jennifer to the Lord if you would, that someone might come along and be Apollos.

1Cor. 3:5 What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth.

In Him,

Bob Bollow

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Hope you had a good Monday.  We had a good Bible study today and afterwards I did some evangelism and Kameron, a black guy here to play basketball from Arkansas, and Youstina from Egypt prayed to receive Christ.

Kameron was sitting in the lounge where we have Bible study and I get hassled once in a while.  But my policy of staying under the radar is working out.  I sat on the floor at his feet and had a computer screen blocking sight of me from the desk.  Kameron is 6’5″ and is trying to learn point guard, he just hopes to get a scholarship for school.  He was a really polite guy, his voice kind of sounded like Horace Grant from the Bulls heyday.  He did not look like him much though. 😉  He said he hoped he could play basketball in Europe.  I asked him some questions and he said about getting into heaven:  “I honestly don’t know what I would say. To be honest I don’t read the Bible much I’m not gonna lie.”  I went straight through the Gospel with Kameron and he said he wanted to be forgiven and had not prayed for God to forgive his sins trusting in what Jesus had done for him.  So he prayed with me to receive Christ.  He said he liked to read, (busting the athlete stereotype) and though I offered him the student edition of The Case For Faith after talking to him about what he’d like to read, he took the long version.  So that was good. I got his e-mail too to send him stuff.

Youstina was sitting on a bench looking south, waiting to go to class in the science building a bit before 3 PM.  Pretty girl, glasses, fair skinned for an Egyptian and articulate.  It was cool to talk to someone from so far away and lead them to Christ. When she told me her name, I asked where her name was from and she said Egyptian.  Muslim peeps talk with me at times and at first I thought from her ethnicity she would be Islamic, but then when I asked her why God should let her into heaven she said kind of uncertainly, “I did some good things,” thought a while and added, “I go to church.” So I was hopeful then she might receive Christ and asked her if she was Coptic and she said she was.  I explained the Gospel to her and she did know Christ had died on the cross to take away sins but she was not trusting in it.  And when I asked her if she had ever prayed for forgiveness of sins trusting in what Jesus had done she said she hadn’t.  She had thought she had a 20% chance of going to heaven.  But she believed and prayed to receive Jesus, pretty great, cool to think she has seen the pyramids and came here to find Christ in faith.  I explained the Holy Spirit to her and the assurance she could go to heaven trusting in Christ’s blood.  She did not have her own Bible and so I gave her an English one.  The Coptic Church does not have an English Bible translation they officially endorse ,though I believe they are good with the NKJV and they add some deuterocanonical books in the Old Testament we would consider uninspired history. I explained that the Bible I gave her would differ in that,  but was the same in the NT books she was familiar with.  She was interested in Science so I gave her a copy of The Case for a Creator to read and got her e-mail and told I would keep her in my prayers.

Peeps have started to call me “sir” this year here and there.  I think I finally crossed the threshold into ‘older looking’ to a college student.  Ha, at least it took a while. God may have to provide some supernaturally-imposed rose colored glasses at some point, maybe He already does.

Thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for Evangelism today if you had a chance, God led me through His Spirit and that was great.

In Him,
Bob Bollow

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Hope ya had a good day.  I did sharing the faith.  I found Laron — first guy I talked to — black guy who was doing stuff on his lap top at a table.  He was on the second floor so I looked out at the little landscaped park they have made in the center of the BIC in a couple places in order to see if he was doing anything constructive.  He looked like he was on social media so I asked him if he wanted to do a survey.  He immediately said yes without hesitation so I hoped the Spirit might be in it.  I went through a survey with him and then the Gospel.  He went to church consistently in Maywood but he had no understanding of the Gospel.  But by the time I finished and asked him if he wanted to pray to be forgiven for his sins and have God live inside him he directly said, “Yes.”  Just as he had to a survey. He prayed and I gave him More Than a Carpenter to read and a Bible study. So hey, pretty great!  I talked up a guy I’d talked to before, a free safety who had badly sprained his ankle goofing around playing basketball.  He was up for my praying for him, so I did, asking God to heal it.  I have no gift in this regard for the record, but hey if someone is willing I always pray and ask knowing God might act in a way that could move them to faith after I’m gone.  I made my way over to the Science building and then somehow talked for over 3 hours to Asian students sitting around in a group I chat up once in a while, getting to know a girl I have been praying for better and salting the Gospel in here and there on whoever came over to chat.  So it was a great day.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and today if you had a chance. Please pray Laron might grow his faith.

In Him,
Bob Bollow

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
I had a pretty good day today encouraging some Christians and going after some cultists.  The new cult on campus I might have mentioned is pushing the “Mother goddess” who is some chick in Korea.  They walk around with Bibles, distorting the passages in a way no one who ever wrote a commentary in the history of biblical scholarship possibly could and sucking kids in.  So today I was sick of it and took them down a few pegs and warned them they were under judgment for distorting the word of God.  I kept one guy from getting sucked in and laughed at their blaspheme for effect.  You can’t be harsh doing evangelism as a rule, and I never would be talking to students, but hey, I took out the bat and smacked a few over the fence on them.  I hope God was in it.  I was a bit ticked, not a good sign I suppose.

But hey, Shaq came to Christ today.  Not the Hall of Fame Basket ball player unfortunately, that would have been cool.  Just a tall black guy with braces on his teeth.  Pretty sure he is not an athlete either, I think it might have just been wishful thinking for his mom.  I had to talk him through the idea of forgiveness by claiming the name and work of Jesus Christ.  But he prayed to receive Christ with me and I gave him More than a Carpenter to read and got his e-mil to send him stuff.  I meet a lot of people too who have prayed in some way to receive Christ and have no idea of the atonement.  I wish I could say this was a mystery to me, but the truth is I have heard alter calls a dozen times offering a relationship with God, or to accept Christ, never mentioning the Cross.  I have heard this on Christian radio too and at a Christmas service a few years ago at one of the largest churches in my immediate area.  You are not saved if you think you are going to Heaven because you are good and don’t seem to know why Jesus died, and never think about it when asking for forgiveness.

So thank you for your prayers for the ministry and today if you had a chance.  Please pray I would be wise with my words on campus.

In Him,

Bob Bollow

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Thanks for your prayers for the ministry and today if you had a chance.  I had a good day of talking with students and two peeps, Romeo and Martha, prayed with me to receive Christ.  I also got to talk a long time with two students I have been praying for; an Indian girl from a Muslim family and a guy who is part Philippino and part Chinese, I believe.  Those were good conversations I think God was in.  She is a Psych major and is taking a Philosophy class. Hearing students talk about the content of their Philosophy classes can make me wish I was teaching them.  She had almost a Hindu idea of life returning to “The Universe” after death absent reincarnation.  I talked to her about the latin phrase in Philosophy “ex nihilo nihil fit” meaning “out of nothing nothing comes.”  But I think it struck home with her that she needed God for values and morals as we spoke and she ended on theism. I will be praying she comes the rest of the way to Jesus.

Romeo is a black guy, braids, was sitting with some friends one of whom was a Christian.  They all listened well to the Gospel though, and I talked them up a bit too after Romeo had prayed to receive Jesus, giving all of them More Than a Carpenter to read. He hadn’t understood the Gospel before.  Romeo thought of himself as a christian, but had never asked God to forgive his sins based on the work of Christ to save him.  But he has now, and has believed in the Name of Christ . He was going to church, though, so I think his faith will take root.

Martha is Roman Catholic, pretty brown haired girl and said she did not go to church as much as she should.  She hadn’t understood anything of the Gospel but ate the word right up and believed . I encouraged her to pray to accept the forgiveness of Christ for her sins and she did with me. She had to run to class, but I gave her More Than a Carpenter to read and a Bible Study on the deity of Christ.

So please pray for Romeo and Martha if you get a chance and the peeps I talk to from time to time that they might come.  Thanks so much for your prayers, I am grateful.

In Him,
Bob Bollow

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Well, I hope ya had a great day today.  I had a really good day of sharing and encouraging Christians in the Christian life.  Grace came to Christ today.  She was sitting in one of the cubbyhole benches on the second floor of the science building overlooking the lounge.  Several people have come to Christ there, so it is a fortuitous place to sit.  It was a little after 2 PM and she seemed in no hurry, so I went through the gospel with her telling her everything I could think of.  She took it in like a sponge and was really interested.  She had brown hair, artistic.  Looked like a girl who used to go to Elmhurst college, Emily.  A really nice sweet kid, she goes to St Francis but did not know how God took away her sins.  She was up for praying to receive Christ and did with me after I finished going through the Gospel.  I explained the Holy Spirit to her and the Mass as remembrance and gave her a Bible to read, as she did not have one of her own.  She said she liked to read so I gave her a copy of The Case for Faith which has an outline of the arguments for The Case for Christ in the back. I  got her e-mail to send her stuff, which I did tonight, and will be praying for her.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry if you have had a chance.  As I’ve mentioned I always am doing evangelism on Mondays but painting has trailed off again and will be Going Out more this week.

Thanks so much for your prayers.

In Him,
Bob Bollow

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Thanks for your prayers for the ministry of evangelism.  Today Jake came to Christ.  He was sitting in the science building.  Talkative white kid, slender short hair, went to Catholic Church Christmas and Easter primarily.  He said he kept a rosary in his car and prayed regularly.  He was talkative, a great kid.  Saved his friends life once.  His dad is a truck driver and he said his mom has a Bible study in her house.  I wouldn’t be surprised if his mom was praying for him.  He had prayed for forgiveness sometimes but had no knowledge of the Gospel or of how God took away his sins.  I went through the Gospel with him and explained asking God for forgiveness based on what Jesus had done for him, which he had never done.  He prayed to receive Christ with me.  He was really into science and I gave him a copy of The Case for a Creator.  His friends had walked up and cut the end of the conversation short so I’m hopeful to talk him up again sometime.
I had a couple other good conversations one with a lapsed Catholic, Fred, and also with a black girl Allie.  Allie said she would pray later as we had an attentive spectator, a kind of geeky white kid.  She was cute and nice and he seemed eager to talk to her and had walked up on us later.  She had prayed for forgiveness b4 but never in the name of Jesus thinking about His work.  She was a big Bears fan, and of Cutler the quarterback, so I used the analogy of meeting him at a club and being offered a skybox ticket in a box he’d rented for out of town friends.  All she had to do was go to the gate and give her name and tell who had provided the ticket.  “But what if you went to the gate and gave your name and wouldn’t say who gave it to you?  Without Cutler’s name you can’t get the ticket.  Your name is not enough.  The person at the gate would say, ‘I could have 15 Allies reserved, you need the name’.  Heaven’s like that.  You have to trust in the name of Christ and His provision for you to get in.”  “Something just clicked when you said that,” she responded. Which was a bit of Déjà vu.  That’s the second time someone said that to me this semester.  I think she understood and she kind of emphatically promised me she would pray so I hope she will.
So thanks for your prayers for the ministry if you had a chance of late.  I’m sorry I did not get an e-mail out this morning I was studying for the Bible study and lost track of the time before running to school.
In Him,

Bob Bollow

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
I had a great day of sharing after Bible Study today. 4 Peeps came to Christ: Julian, Justice, Anthony and Bianca.

I looped around after coming up from our student group locker to stash the Bibles. [Yes, we have a student group locker so we have hit the big time and I save 50 cents a day now that it is colder on a place to toss my coat]. There is a woman in the SSC lounge (it is the largest one in the school right by Starbucks, it is the size of a small gym) I discovered much to my chagrin on Friday, that does not think I am allowed to initiate conversations with students.  It is impossible to have a rule about this if you think about it.  It would mean anyone from the public who uses the library could not ask a student where the bathroom is.  They have no policy on this, some people just act like they do. I prayed all summer that the women who sat at the info table in the SSC would be replaced as they kept calling the cops on me last year for no reason at all. I finally took a class so I could say I was a student. (I might again next semester, got any suggestions?) The old women at the desk were gone in the fall. Now there is a new desk nazi to deal with who hassled me Friday.  Ha, but she faces the stairs so I came into the lounge behind her back and found Justice sitting around talking with Julian.  I asked him if he wanted to do a student survey, (which is actually a questionnaire) but he said he already had. So I asked him his name, not remembering we’d spoken, and when he told me it was Justice I knew it hadn’t been me. So I said, “What did you say to this question? You’re walkin’ down the road, you get hit by a bus, so you’re dead and you stand before God and He says to you why should I let you into heaven, what would you say?” Julian heard the question too and they both had nothing so I said, “Ok, how does God take away your sin.” Justice said, “Repent, you repent.” I said, “Yeah, but what is the big thing God does to take away your sin?” Blank looks. “What washes away your sin?” I tried the colloquialism and that triggered Anthony who was standing around eavesdropping. “His Son dies on the cross!” He said with enthusiasm. “That’s why there are the nail prints in his hands and feet!” Now he is preaching to the other guys but they are not really paying attention to him.  So I said to Julian and Justice, who were still kind of struggling genuinely with the question, “You guys don’t know how to get to Heaven right?” They admitted they didn’t. “Well, do you want to know?” They said they did, so I sat on the ground in case someone looked over from the desk I would be blocked from sight by a bunch of football players. I went through the Gospel with them, not quite realizing Anthony had taken a chair behind them to continue to eavesdrop. Both of them wanted to pray to receive Christ and as they were praying Anthony asked over their shoulders, “Can I have one of those?” talking about the booklet.  I watched him and he was reading some of the pages, which I don’t read except the bible verses so these would provide a different angle on the Gospel just a bit.  But I had handed it to him with the page open to the prayer I had walked the other guys through and after a minute asked him if he had prayed.  He’d been reading a page and said, “Oh yeah.” And he prayed to receive Christ as well. Justice and Julian said they did not read much, not wanting a book, and I talked about the Holy Spirit and living the Christian life.  Julian left his seat so Anthony moved into it and I offered him a book. He wanted one and the description made Justice want a book too so I gave them both a copy of More than a Carpenter.  I gave them my contact email as they wouldn’t let me send them anything. So pretty great, God just lined the whole thing up. And I slipped out of the lounge.

I talked to some other peeps and then was feeling pretty spent by 3 PM, but I thought I would talk to one more student if I could.  I went through the tunnel to the SRC and found Bianca and Dina sitting together looking like best friends with Dina’s head on Bianca’s shoulder.  Both looked Latino, seemed like sweet girls.  Dina didn’t want to talk but just to listen and she encouraged Bianca to do a survey.  She’d been to a Baptist Church a few years before for a time but her father had gone to prison and it seems like some things had changed from that.  She said she would tell God if He asked her why He should let her into heaven, “Because I learned to forgive.”  She thought she had a 50/50 chance to go to Heaven and had a tender heart, but had not understood Jesus had died for her sins.  When I finished going through the Gospel with her she wanted to be forgiven and prayed to receive Christ. She wanted to look at all the books I had and took, The Case for Faith. Dina would not take a book but said to Bianca, you can read it to me. I got her e-mail to send her some stuff.

So thanks for your prayers today for the ministry if you had a chance.  I’ll always go out to do evangelism on Mondays after Bible Study.  God blessed me today it was fun.

The election is coming up soon, don’t forget to be asking for God to have mercy on our country, we are in a bad place.

In Him,

Bob Bollow