Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed today with all good things. I had a good day on campus and  Anthony and Tavarus each prayed to receive Jesus today. I still get chronic headaches, muscle tension in my neck that I wake up with, so I think I’ll have to find something to kill the pain for that. The Chiropractor said it is probably stress related.

Tavarus was sitting in the hallway of the BIC, idling away the time, and said he’d do a survey. He had a rough-top afro cut very short on the sides. With one strand pulled down across his forehead with a couple silver beads on it. He wore a hoodie and sweats. He had a warm, wide face with full features and a chin beard he stroked occasionally. Good looking guy. He said he’d do a survey and went to an evangelical church on Rt 59 that a lot of students attend. He was a musician and played several instruments. I asked him what he would say to God if He asked, “Why should I let you into Heaven?” He said, “Because I’ve been following His message and His word. I believe in Him.” He was 90% sure he would go to Heaven but qualified it saying, “No one is perfect. We’re all gonna get judged.” I said I agreed and often thought if when the Bible said “He will wipe away every tear from your eyes” it meant we would be crying when we got there for a moment. I began to go through the Gospel with him and asked him what the big thing was that God had done to take away his sins. He struggled to think of something saying, “For me personally?” I said for anyone and said, “What the Bible says He did.” “Well there are a lot of things,” he continued trying to think of one so I stopped him and said something like, “Here I’ll just tell you.” and began to explain what Jesus had done in dying for him, that His blood had cleansed him and that His righteousness was to his credit. I could see the explanations I gave him from the scripture were novel to him. After finishing the explanation I asked if he would want to be forgiven with God living inside him or thought something else. “I’d be forgiven,” he replied. “Well, it seems like you had never put this together before right?” I asked. “Yeah,” he admitted with a big smile. So I explained if he wanted to be forgiven, there was a prayer he could pray. I walked him through it suggesting he could pray it silently so only God could hear,and be forgiven and God would live in Him and give him guidance for life. He shook his head, smiling, and took the booklet asking, “Can I keep this?” I said he could. Then he silently prayed to receive Jesus. He was happy then and I explained the Christian life living “inside out” by the Spirit’s power. I gave him 20 Things God Can’t Do, writing his name and the date and “forgiven” in the inside. He thought that was great. I also wrote “By the Spirit” after explaining anything the book said that seemed conditional, like it was on him to do his part first; God would give him the power to do that too. Anything God wanted him to do, if he could see the future, would be something he would want to do, as it would turn out better than whatever else he wanted to do to the contrary, in the moment. He gave me his email to get a Bible study. I gave him a Bible study on the Deity of Christ too. I stood up to leave and he reached out shaking my hand and said, “Thank you, thank you. Have a good day.” “You too,” I replied and I headed off.

Anthony was sitting in the Mac building by the elevator as the stairs up to the doors. He looked to be a bit older than that average guy, maybe 30 or so. He had some ink on his hands and across his fingers I could see. He wore a short beard, mustache and short brown hair, had on a brown hoodie and baggy jeans, he was a pretty big guy, somehow had kind of the midlevel monk look. He said he only had 10 minutes to talk, so I asked if he’d like the cliff notes version. He was cool with that so getting his name I just asked what he would say to God if he died and was asked why He should let him into Heaven. “Because I’ve surrendered to Him and I believe in Him,” he replied. That would seem like he was in the camp, but after many years of evangelism I know this kind of response does not necessarily mean someone is trusting in Christ as their Savior. I began to go through the Gospel with him and he was engaged, but he did not know what Jesus had done to take away his sins. I could see with him too that what I was telling him he had not heard before. So I asked if he would want to be forgiven for his sins trusting in Jesus or if he thought something else. “Yeah,” he said firmly that he’d want to. I said (as I had 40 minutes earlier to Tavarus), “It seems like you had not really put all this together before.” “No,” he said frankly. So I offered him a prayer to trust in Christ to forgive him talking him through it as well and asked if he’d like to pray silently and he said, “Yeah,” again and prayed to receive Jesus. I knew I did not have much time so I quickly explained living “inside out” and by the spirit’s power and wrote the later in the front of 20 Things God Can’t Do along with his name and the date and “forgiven.” I gave him a Bible study and he asked where ours met. I told him and said there was free pizza. “I’m on a special diet but I think I can come next week (it seemed like God had healed him of something). So I hope he does. “Thank you, thanks Bob,” he said as I got up to leave. “”You’re welcome,” I said happily and I headed off to the other side of campus to head to the Chiropractor.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance, God truly blessed.

In Him,

Bob

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed and the bad weather has missed ya if you’re near me, Ice storm tonight. If it’s warm and sunny by you–well God bless ya. I had a good day on campus and Sam prayed with me to receive Jesus.

Sam was on the second floor where I felt nudged to go when I first got to school. He was just killing time on his phone waiting for his class to begin directly across the hall. He was wearing running clothes, heavy nylon sweats and a Jacket and a red and blue winter hat pulled down so I could not see his hair. Had a boyish face with skin like a kid. He had been to a Lutheran Church growing up and now had begun to get back into Church and go with some couples he found at school. I warned him there were cults at school, since I did not know who his new friends were. I asked him what he would say to God if he died and God asked, “Why should I let you into Heaven?” He said, “I don’t know to be honest. I don’t think there is a right answer I could give that would be good enough. It’s really in God’s hands. It would just be begging at that point.” He was nonetheless certain he would go to Heaven. I began to go through the Gospel with him and he knew Jesus had died to save us from the consequences of our sin. He understood the Gospel better as I went through it and really liked the illustrations I used and related to them. I asked him in the end if he would want to be forgiven for his sins and have God live inside him. “I would want to be forgiven.” So I began to ask if he had been trusting in what Jesus had done for him to be forgiven. It turned out he had not really been thinking about it at all. “I really just pray a lot,” he explained. I explained the difference in having a relationship with God as his Creator and being in a relationship with God as his Savior. He talked about his friend who was engaged at the age of 20 to a girl of the same age. He said his friend had said the first thing he did when he got up in the morning was to text her. His friend went on to say that he should be doing that with God, the first thing in the morning he should talk to Him. I said that was great, but getting back to their relationship; the reason he could text her was because they were engaged. If I started texting her first thing in the morning that would be creepy. Their relationship made that texting meaningful. I said he had not been sure there was anything he could say to God that would get him into Heaven. But God had told him what he could trust in to do just that. I said he could not have been trusting in that truth, that Jesus was God, had died for his sins and rose from the dead, if he did not believe there was such a truth. He agreed and so I said if he wanted to trust in Christ there was a prayer he could pray. I finished explaining it and asked if he thought he’d like to pray it. “I like it,” he replied. Then checking to see if it was OK to do so silently, Sam prayed to receive Jesus. We talked some more about providence and I quoted Ephesians 2:10 to him. I explained the Christian life was walking by the Spirit. I gave him a Bible study and 20 Things God Can’t Do writing his name and the date and “forgiven” in the front. I also wrote “By the Spirit’s Power” and explained asking for help in all things. He thanked me and asked about the Bible study again, so I am hopeful he will come. We had a great talk right up to the minute before his class began and then he took 6 steps across the hall and went in.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance. God truly blessed. I also directed the faith of some Christians who seemed to change to be trusting in Christ instead of their own righteousness once I left them.

In Him,

Bob

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I had a good day today on campus. Ben, Dylan and Nicole prayed to receive Jesus today. I hope your day was blessed as well and you had some joy.

Ben was sitting in the hallway on some chairs on the second floor of the BIC and said he had already done a survey. I said this was something else (after making sure he had not done it with me and I wasn’t having a brain lapse). “It’s how you get to Heaven. Like say you are walking down the road and you get hit by a bus, so you’re dead and you stand before God and He says, ‘Why should I let you into Heaven?’ what would you say?” He said he didn’t know what to say, so I asked if he’d like to hear some “Bible verses that tell you how you get to Heaven–or not so much?” “Ok,” he said. So I said my name and got his name. He was a solidly-built black guy, handsome features, dark skin. He had a black hoodie on, pulled up over a rough cut afro. He wore sweats, tight at the ankles covered in what looked like a knit tweed print. Low-top black canvass shoes. “Do you wanna do the survey or just hear the verses?” I asked. “You can just tell me the verses,” he replied. So I went into the Gospel with him, using some of the verses in the booklet I use and adding more conversationally.  He knew Jesus had died for his sins. He listened intently to everything I said, not really making eye contact but staring at the booklet very seriously. I did get him to glance my way and smile once or twice. I finished up telling him about the blood of Christ and the imputed righteousness that could be ours by faith because He was God. I explained he needed to trust in that and that faith saved him. “So would you want to be forgiven for your sins, trusting in Jesus or do you think something else?” “Forgiven for my sins,” he replied. “If you want to trust in Jesus to be forgiven and have God live inside you, there is a prayer you can pray,” I said, going right into the explanation and reading it through. I read the line, “Is this prayer the desire of your heart?” “Yeah,” he replied. So I said he could “pray it silently in his heart and God would hear and forgive him and could live inside him.” He said “yeah” again when I offered it and prayed to receive Jesus. I walked him through the Christian life and the fruit of the Spirit and gave him 20 Things God Can’t Do. I explained everything in the book was “by the Spirit’s power.” So I wrote that and his name and the date and “forgiven” in the front, and gave him an example asking if he followed. “I get it,” he replied.  I asked if he had a Bible and he responded, “Yeah, I believe in God,” as if everyone who believed in God would have a Bible. I responded with something like, “Well, now you understand He is Jesus and forgives you.” He had to run to class then and stood up after I gave him a Bible study and said, “Thanks,” and shook my hand and headed off.

I headed down the hall then and had a sense I should head over to the PE building and thought, “I’ll head over there,” and then thought to myself, “If you are going to head over there, why are you walking in the wrong direction?” So I just abruptly turned around and went down stairs to  the tunnel from the BIC. I’m not sure where those little conversations come from (I may just be reasoning with myself) but in this case it lined up right to find Dylan who had decided to lay down on a hard bench under the staircase, (where a girl named Bre had trusted Christ a few weeks ago). Dylan was a real good looking kid, like a catalogue model. Brown hair wearing a hoodie and jeans. When I asked what he would say to God to get into Heaven he said, “I’m your son.” I asked him the likelihood he would get into Heaven and he said, “100%. I don’t see God sending me elsewhere, even though I’ve definitely sinned.” I said the last part of the survey was what he thought about Christianity in this little booklet. “It’s funny you should come by,” he said as if he’d been thinking about it. “I don’t really know the story of Christianity.” He then said something like he was not raised with any faith but he believed in God. So I went through the Gospel with him too, saying all I’d said to Ben and asked if he’d want to be forgiven for his sins, trusting in Jesus. He said he did, so I read him through the prayer, saying he could pray it silently, not so I would hear it but God would hear and be forgiven with God inside him. “Wanna do it?” I asked. “Yes sir,” he replied and he took the booklet and prayed to receive Jesus. I also gave him 20 Things God Can’t Do writing his name and the date and “forgiven” in the front along with “by the Spirit’s Power” explaining the Christian life to him. He had to run to class then and said looking at his phone, “Bob, I gotta go to class,” and said for the second time, “I appreciate it,” offering me his hand to shake. I quickly pulled out a Bible study and he said he’d try to make it to ours and headed off down the hall.

Nicole was sitting up on the third floor of the BIC building. After 2 PM the hall was pretty empty, but the classroom near us was in group discussions. She was a very pretty girl and might have passed for sisters with the actress Katie Holmes. She had long brown hair past her elbows and a narrower face than the actress. She wore leggings, black and white canvass hightops and a light blue hoodie. I asked her to do a survey and she said, “I’ll do it. I said no the last time you asked me but I’ve seen you around so OK.” So, so much for worrying that I am bugging students, asking them more than once to do a survey when they say no. This has happened to me before. When I asked her what she would say to God she said, “I pray to God a lot. I wouldn’t owe anybody anything. I’ve believed in Him my whole life, I’ve never doubted.” She was sure she would go to Heaven, 100%, and said she had gone to church when she was young and “taken all the classes.” As I went through the Gospel with her, I asked her if she knew what Jesus had done to take away her sins. She had no idea. So I said it would probably come back to her as I went through it, but I really don’t think she had ever understood the Gospel. I explained how the blood of Jesus poured out, sort of like His life-force on the world and made life all the places we made death. “There’s death inside us from our sin and the Bible says the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin, turns death into life. So now you’re alive inside and you match God so He can live inside you.” “Wow, that’s so cool,” she replied. I told her that good works could not save us and she agreed your good things could not fix your bad things. “But God says He can turn your bad stuff into good stuff.” I quoted Romans 8:28 to her. I asked if she would want to be forgiven for her sins and she did, so I said there was a prayer she could pray to trust in Christ and explained it to her. I said she could pray it silently if she wanted. “Thank you,” she said taking the booklet to pray and she did. I gave her a Bible Study she was interested to read. Her mom had a very old copy of the Bible that had been in the family that she said she would borrow sometimes. I asked if she’d like one of her own and she said she would. I wrote her name and the date and “forgiven” in the front and she really liked that. I also showed her the “Where to Turn” passages and said there was a section on prophecies Jesus had fulfilled. I also gave her the book 20 Things God Can’t Do writing “By the Spirit’s Power” in the front and explaining the Christian life is asking God for strength to do everything. As I said to everyone today, the Christian life is living “Inside out.” “God transforms you on the inside, you become a good woman and then you do good things on the outside.” I got her email to send her some stuff and she’d thanked me several times as I went though things. I got up to go and said, “It was really nice to meet you,” shaking her hand “thanks for taking a chance and talking to me.” “Thank you. It was nice to meet you too,” she responded. “You’re welcome” I said and headed off.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance. God truly blessed and helped me.

In Him,

Bob

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed and the Lord was near to your heart. Leondra received Christ and I had a good day encouraging some of the peeps who were Christians and also a girl named Grace who had lost her father to suicide. Please pray for her. I also gave her a bible promise book. She came from an old-school catholic family who had told her her whole life that her dad was in Hell and she would go to hell when she died because she had never been baptized. I walked her through the Gospel, and she said she’d like to be forgiven. But she’d given up on having enough faith and being good enough. I explained again that faith was a gift she could ask for if she wanted, and God could give her the strength to believe. She was grateful and said she would think about it.

Leondra was sitting on the counter in front of the vending machines at school. She was an athletic built black girl with long black straight hair held in place with a hair band. Nice looking girl with frank features, wore jeans and boots and a jacket. Her friend walked up after she said she’d do a survey but wandered off a bit as we talked. She thought of herself as a Christian it seemed, and said she didn’t go to Church as much as she ought to, having gotten busy with school. When I asked her what she would say to God to get into Heaven she said, “I feel as if I’m a nice person. I go out of my way to help people. I’ve done right in life, haven’t done anything wrong.” She thought she had about an 85% chance of going to Heaven. She listened to the Gospel and when I asked her what God had done to take away her sins, she didn’t have any idea. As I explained that Christ’s blood cleansed her so God could live inside her, she seemed to have a moment of realization. I explained that she did not go to Heaven because she was good but because Jesus was good and His righteousness was to her credit. She wanted to be forgiven and so I asked if she believed Jesus was God, He died for her sins and rose from the dead. She did, so I said if she wanted to place her trust in that there was a prayer she could pray and after I walked her through it. I asked if it was the desire of her heart. She nodded, so I said she could pray it so only God could hear and be forgiven. “Wanna do it?” “Yeah,” she said kind of sweetly with a touch of relief. I explained the Christian life living inside out and I gave her a Bible Study. I said I had a couple of books and would she like some bible promises or some short things to read. “Something to read,” she replied so I gave her 20 Things God Can’t Do and wrote “By the Spirit’s Power” in the front. I showed her there were 100 verses in the back that the author thought were good. Then I wrote her name and the date and “forgiven” in the front and she really like that. She thanked me and I thanked her friend, who had returned, for waiting and she slid off the counter to wrap her arm around her buddy and look at a text over her shoulder and I headed out.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance, God truly blessed.

In Him,

Bob

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed today with the leading of the Spirit into love and good things. I had a good day on campus and Gaetano prayed to trust in Christ today. He was Latino. I got to present the Gospel to a couple of Muslim girls sitting together at the counter in the cafeteria too, so it was a good day. They really seemed to enjoy it and both took a booklet and the little tract “Jesus and the Quran.”  Leen from Jordan who moved here when she was 6 (slight build, long dark brown hair and round plastic glasses) and Jud(e) from Saudi Arabia (Long lighter brown hair wire-rim glasses) who had just been here a few weeks, but had gone to an English speaking school. Both spoke English with no accent. Neither wore a head scarf. They said they believed in it, but were not ready to commit. They listened attentively and politely to the Gospel.

When I got too school, I had had a poor night’s sleep and was still a bit worn out from everyone I spoke with yesterday. I asked God to give me some leading as to where I should go and I got a picture in my mind of the PE lounge. So I decided that was as good an idea as any and headed over that way, asking some students along the way, but no one was interested. Gaetano [Guy tan oh] was sitting in the upstairs of the lounge at a table against the glass, looking down on the pool. He had a thin mustache and a beard that began more or less on his jaw line and rectangle glasses. He was not very tall, wearing a jacket and jeans, fair skin. He had kind of a square face and a medium brown hair parted on the side swept to the right. He knew Jesus had died for his sins and was a practicing Catholic. He had taken an Old Testament class at COD last semester. When I asked him if he wanted to do a survey, questions about how you get to Heaven, he said, “I can listen to you for a while.” So I asked him some questions. He thought he had about a 40% chance of going to Heaven. When I asked what he would say to God to get into Heaven he said, “I don’t know what I’d say. I’d be more in shock than anything in meeting Him.” I began to go through the Gospel with him. He understood a lot of it already and knew Jesus had died for his sins. He followed well as I explained “When you think about it, what God wants most from you is what you would want in someone you married, to believe Him.” “Trust,” he immediately put in. “Right,” I replied. As I finished explaining the righteousness of Christ imputed to him he saw how everything fit together, so I asked if he’d want to be forgiven for his sins or thought something else. He wanted to be forgiven, so I asked if he had been trusting in what Jesus had done for him or had known the story but had not really applied it to himself to be forgiven. He thought maybe it was “50/50” So I said, “Well, if you would like to completely trust in Jesus to be forgiven, there is a prayer you could pray.” And I walked him through it, explaining he was asking God to live inside him (to know Him personally) and was expressing he was grateful for being forgiven. I asked if he’d like to pray it silently so only God could hear and be sure he was forgiven by trusting in Christ. “Yeah, I’ll do it,” he replied. And he prayed to receive Jesus. He had seen me around a few times he’d said. We talked about prophecy and the limitations of science to know truth. He had begun to take a New Testament class with a professor I knew who was a Christian. I gave him 2 Rose publications, one listed 100 prophecies Jesus had fulfilled and the other show some scholarly reasons to trust the Bible. I also gave him a Bible study on the deity of Christ and explained living inside out by the Spirit’s power, that everything God was asking him to do He would give him the power to do. He wanted to work with autistic kids and I said God’s Spirit could help him break through the limitations of communication in a learning environment.  He felt he had found some validations of the Bible himself. We talked about the likelihood that there had been a worldwide flood, as 500 different cultures in the ancient world are on record in their belief there was a flood of some kind that destroyed all or nearly everything. He thanked me as we finally got up to leave, over an hour later, and shook my hand and said he’d look for me. I got his email to send him some stuff. I said I would keep him in my prayers and that when someone decided to trust Christ and prayed with me I kept them in my prayers each night until that spring and for one year following. He said he would pray for me too and I thanked him and we parted Brothers. He had met the Lord.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance. God truly blessed. We had 4 kids at our discipleship Bible study tonight so that was great. One, Stephanie, prayed to receive Jesus last semester.

Blessings,

Bob

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed walking with the Lord. I had a really good day on campus and Charlene, Tika and Connor each prayed with me to receive Jesus. Two black students, Eli (a really large football player in an aviator hat) and Arya (she said “Wow” a couple times as I explained the Gospel) were close too, saying they would think about it.

Charlene was sitting on the floor at the bottom of the stairs of the school entrance by the bookstore. She had light brown hair pulled back behind her head and oval wire rimmed glasses, sharp features with an oval face. Looked like a Librarian and wore bootleg blue jeans and running shoes, wearing her jacket. She said she wanted to do mission work in Africa and attended a Roman Catholic Church nearby. When I asked her what she would say to God if He asked her why He should let her into Heaven she said, “I’ve just been following His commandments and going to church.” She thought she had a 50/50 chance to go to Heaven. She knew Jesus had died for her sins. I explained the Gospel, using a dozen or so verses and that she did not go to Heaven because she was good but because Jesus was good and that faith in that saved her. I asked her if she would want to be forgiven trusting in Jesus. She said she would. I said I know she knew the story, but I asked if when she asked for forgiveness for her sins, if she thought she would try to do better and hope God would forgive her and she would do good things to make up for it. Or if she thought, “I know I’ll be forgiven because Jesus died for me.” She said something like, “It was more I was just trying to do better.” So I said that if she wanted to trust in what Jesus had done, there was a prayer she could pray and walked her thought it, asking if she wanted to pray it so only God could hear. “Yeah,” she replied. She took the booklet then and prayed to receive Jesus. When she finished praying, I explained living by the power of the Spirit in us “Inside Out” as I do with everyone. She thanked me and said her church had had 3 different priests while she was there and they “all seemed to say something different” about how you were saved and went to Heaven. I said I had heard priests say different things too, but some I know just have decided to tell you what is in the Bible and you can trust in that and she agreed. I gave her 20 Things God Can’t Do and wrote her name, the date and “forgiven” in the front along with “By the Spirit’s power.” I also gave her a Bible Study and explained that if she was trusting in the righteousness of Jesus to be her righteousness, the likelihood she would go to Heaven was 100%. I gave her the Rose publication Following Jesus too. I got up to go and said, “God bless you. I’ll see you in Heaven and you can tell me how things went.” “God bless you too. Thank you,” she said, smiling and I headed up the stairs.

I found Tika sitting in the hall of the science building. She had a white lab coat on and the scrubs uniform all the nursing student wear, under a winter coat. She was African American with classic full features and really pretty skin, intelligent looking – might have been the cheekbones. She had her hair pulled up into something of a burst of ringlet curls on the top of her head, cute nice kid. When I asked her what was something she wanted to do before she died she said, “Get to know God more.” And I said that was really appropriate for this survey and she smiled. I asked her what she would say to God and she thought for a while with an umm and a Humm and finally said, “Because this is where I belong, with Him.” I asked how likely it was she would go to Heaven and she said, “Today, about 10%.” And she laughed. I explained the Gospel to her and asked her how God took away her sin and she guessed, “Baptism?” I said, “Well if Augustine is right, that takes away your original sin. But then you sin after that, so Jesus takes it away.” I went on to explain the Gospel and the imputed righteousness of God to her and she was thoughtful and attentive. When I ended and gave her to option to be forgiven or thought something else she said, “No I believe that.” Meaning what she had just heard me explain, but since she had not gone to church since she was a kid I asked, “Do you believe Jesus is God, He died for your sins and rose from the dead?” She thought for a moment, looking up towards the corner and I silently prayed God would give her faith and she finally said, “Yes I do.” So I said if she’d like to place her trust in that to be forgiven, there was a prayer she could silently pray and I walked her through it and asked if she’d like to pray that, “Yeah,” she said smiling. She took the booklet then and prayed. I gave her a Bible, showing her the “Where to Turn” section and the section on messianic prophecies Jesus had fulfilled. I wrote her name, the date and “Forgiven” in the front. I gave her a Bible Study and 20 Things God Can’t Do and also explained to her the Christian life, walking by the Spirit and that if she was trusting in the Righteousness of Jesus to be her righteousness the likelihood she would go to Heaven was 100%. Her class was about to start as the other nurses had gathered in the hall towards the end of our conversation, so in parting I went back to her statement that she wanted to know God more. “You know some people would think that knowing God more is just more details about Him and that is partly true. But the real way we get to know God more is trusting in Him as He lives inside us. “Well put. Thank you Bob. God bless you,” she said. “God bless you too,” I said and got up and headed off.

Connor was a really big guy, tall but very meek. He was Italian and liked history so he wanted to visit Italy. He sat two floors up from where I had talked with Charlene, but against the window so he could see his bus come. He reminded me a bit of Christopher Reeve when he played Clark Kent. But he did not look like him, though his hair was slicked back. He wore jeans, canvas low tops and a jacket. His glasses were wire rimmed and his jaw line and nose were rounded, his head large and oval, kind of a gentle giant. He had some time before his bus came. When I asked what he would say to God to get into Heaven he said, “I was nice to my dog, I’m an animal lover.” He thought he had a 50/50 chance to get to Heaven, saying he hadn’t done any community service or charity work, but he hadn’t done anything really bad. He listened attentively to the Gospel as I went through the verses with him and when I asked him if he wanted to be forgiven trusting in Jesus he said, “Forgiveness is one of the best things that can happen.” I asked if he would like to trust in Christ to be forgiven and he said he would. When I offered him the prayer to pray, asking if he’d want to pray, he said, “Yeah.” He took the booklet and paused a moment and said, “Your name is Bob right?” “Yes,” I said looking back at him and I asked if he had prayed and he said something like, “Oh ok” and opened it and I heard him pray under his breath as I looked away. Then all of a sudden his bus was there so all I had time to do was quickly give him a Bible study as he ran down to make sure he caught it. But now I know where he waits for the bus on Mondays, and so I’ll hope to bump into him again and give him a book and some stuff at 1:15 next week or possibly Wednesday.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance. God truly blessed.

In Him,

Bob

Hey brothers and sisters in Christ,

I hope your weekend has been blessed so far. I love seeing the ice that is the bane of my driveway all melt off. No one prayed with me to receive Jesus on Friday but I went through the Gospel with 7 people. It was a bit sad, as a few students were open and close. One had lost his faith. Jack (big dude with a beard, easy going) having been raised Pentecostal was now uncertain of what to believe, though he knew the Gospel. He took a copy of the Student edition of The Case for Christ from me and I’ll pray he reads it.  Micky, a sandy haired, bearded guy with shortish shaggy hair and a nose ring through his septum was thoughtful and thanked me saying I was a good speaker. ‘Not good enough’ I’d be tempted to think, but God is able. He seemed open to thinking about a life in Christ. Nick had stick-straight blonde shaggy hair over his ears, a thin beard over his cheeks and long 2 inches strands down from his chin. His mustache came straight out from his lip in quarter inch bristles, looked like a Viking, wearing all black. He wanted to own a vineyard.  A bit on the humorless side, but said “maybe” when I asked him if he’d like to trust in Christ, though he believed Jesus was God and had died for his sins and rose from the dead. Thought he was sure he’d go to Heaven before we talked and went to a Lutheran church and school as a kid. He seemed like he just might be too reserved to pray with me, so I was hopeful in leaving him. Stephanie, a pretty, brown hair girl, looked Latina and had long hair pulled back behind her head and perfect drawn on eyebrows. Her dad was Mormon (so I explained several things that made the book of Mormon historically impossible) and her mom was Catholic. She was caught between, in being noncommittal to either, but very attentive to the Gospel. I gave her a Rose publication hand out on why you can trust the Bible. I encouraged a few Christians in their faith as well.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism on Friday I got a few good seeds planted I hope.

In Him,

Bob

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope you day was blessed and you are warmed and filled with the Spirit. Jessica prayed to receive Jesus today. But our Bible study was cancelled the second week in a row due to weather, as the school closed at 5 PM to extra activities. I had a good day on campus. James took the student edition of The Case for Fatih saying he was an agnostic but would read it. He had grown up in the foster care system and had too many views of religion to pick one, but thought there was something out there. He was grateful for the nudge it seemed. Looked like a regular guy, short mop of hair and a hoodie. Michele, a lovely, tiny girl with long brown hair pulled up randomly on top of her head and the occasional freckle, took the student edition of The Case for Christ, having been burned by the Roman Catholic Church after serving there 3 days a week. She was unsure what to believe after hearing the Gospel, but was grateful for a book. I gave her the Compass church website, saying they were doing some presentations she might like to listen to online.

Before discovering Jessica, I had just talked to another Roman Catholic girl, Emily, who was consecrated to Mary. She wanted to know what I thought about Mary and a lot of other things, asking questions for about 40 minutes after I went through the Gospel with her. Essentially, I had asked her why she thought Mary, who was just a woman, would be able to hear more than one prayer at a time. She had no answer to that. I said Mary was awesome but she sinned. Emily asked why I said that, and I said in her song in Luke she says it in her description of herself. We looked it up in a Bible and I showed her where Mary calls God her Savior. I said that if Mary thought she needed a savior, the only thing she could need saving from was her sin. So by calling God her Savior, she thought she was a sinner. This went on and on in different doctrines of the Church from Augustine and elsewhere, all of which were extra biblical. So I just explained them to her in that light. Then I met Jessica as I went down the stairs.

Jessica was sitting at the bottom of the stairs in the PE building lounge waiting for her mom, who providentially was late. She was up for talking since she was just waiting by the doors. Each time the automatic doors opened we got a shot of cold air through the wide gap to the outside where it was about 10 degrees and blowing. She was wearing jeans and a jacket, had long brown hair pulled back behind her head and lots of freckles. She had a kind face and was very nice. Her father did worship at several Catholic churches, so she bounced around to them, following him as he got a job at the next one. When I asked her what she would say to God as to why He should let her into Heaven she said, “Because I believe in Him and I’ve never not believed in Him. I’ve always known He’s there for me. He’s not gonna let me down now.” She was sure she would go to Heaven. I began to go through the Gospel with her and she knew with some prompting that Jesus had died to take away her sins. I explained His imputed righteousness and how His blood had cleansed us and made us alive inside. She enjoyed hearing the Gospel. In the end she said she would want to be forgiven for her sins. I asked if she had been trusting in Jesus or had just known the story. She talked about how God was with her through everything and she had always trusted in that. So to help her clarify the question I asked her if, when she asked for forgiveness, if she was thinking about that Jesus had died for her and trusting in that, or if she knew that but had not thought about it before.  “I think that I really had never thought about it. It is just the way things were in our family.” “Like setting the table or celebrating Christmas?” I asked. She agreed it was like that. So I said if she would like to trust in what Jesus had done to forgive her, there was a prayer she could pray. I talked her thought it, asking if it was the desire of her heart. “”Yeah it is,” she said warmly smiling. So I said she could pray it quietly, not so I heard her, but God would hear and she prayed to receive Jesus. Her mom called but she said she was fine waiting, “I will talk to you when you get here. I am talking with someone right now,” she said on the phone and got off to hear more about living the Christian life.  I gave her the book 20 Things God Can’t Do and wrote her name and the date and “forgiven” in the front.  I showed her the 100 verses in the back and said the guy that wrote the book had found the translations styles he liked best to express the verses and she was excited about that. She said she had two bibles, a regular bible and a children’s bible she looked thing up in when she found something hard to understand. I gave her a Bible study and got her email to send her more stuff.  I told her I would keep her in my prayers until a year from spring and ask God to bless her. She reached out her hand to shake mine as I got up to go saying, “Thanks so much for sharing this with me.” I said she was welcome and headed off happily.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance. God truly blessed the work.

In Him,

Bob

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was not too frozen. We are bracing for a projected minus 18 and minus 19 for Wednesday and Thursday highs. I’m just trying to make my friends out west happy as they read this. I had a good day on campus and though there are not as many students around campus on Friday, Charley and Leidy each prayed with me to receive Jesus today.

Charley was sitting in the PE Lounge by himself looking at his laptop and was willing to do a survey before class. He had stick-straight brown hair and fair skin, slight build. He said he wanted to see all the MLB parks. There are 32 and he has been to 12. He had on a t-shirt and a hooded jacket. When I asked him what he would say to God if He asked why He should let him into Heaven he said, “I feel like I’ve treated other people like they would like to be treated, I’m a pretty honest person.” He thought he had about a 75% chance of going to Heaven. He went to a Catholic church and it was hard to tell if he had much familiarity with the Gospel, but he listened to it straight through without objection, tracking with me. At the end I asked him if he would want to be forgiven for his sins with God inside or if he thought something else. “God inside,” he said looking me in the eye. So I said, “Well, it seems like you hadn’t really put all this together before right?” He agreed he hadn’t and I said if he’d like to place his trust in what Jesus had done for him to be forgiven, there was a prayer he could pray silently and God would hear. “What do you think? You wanna do it?” I asked. He nodded yes and took the booklet and prayed to receive Christ. Then he closed the booklet and put it in his pack as he had to run to class right then. But I had a chance to give him 20 Things God Can’t Do and wrote “By the Spirit’s power” in the front and also gave him a Bible, writing his name, the date and “forgiven” in the front,. “Perfect,” he said. I said I would keep him in my prayers. He got up to leave and he thanked me and I told him, “God bless ya baby.” “You too. Have a good day,” he said smiling, and he ran off to class.

Leidy was sitting up on the third floor. She wore a gold knit shirt and black leggings. English was her second language and her syntax got shifted into Spanish word order sometimes. She had a cute round face and her brown hair was pulled back behind her head. She was short and average build, really sweet kid. When I asked her what she would say to God to get into Heaven she said, “Wow, I don’t know. I have [done] lots of sin like everybody. But I tried to do my best every day. Maybe He’ll only see that.” She thought she had a 50% chance of going to Heaven but really wanted to share her faith. But she said she struggled with doing what she wanted to do to be a good Christian. She hadn’t much time before class and I tried to tell her the Gospel as quickly as I could, and she believed Jesus had died for her. She stopped me as I talked about what Jesus had done and said something like, “Yes but you have to try to do things.” I agreed that was true, but explained that we do things to please God by the power of the Holy Spirit living in us. I said that God could only live in her and give her that strength if she was trusting in Jesus alone to forgive her and not trying to earn it. And I read what she had said when I asked her why she would get into Heaven. She agreed that she tried and repeatedly failed to regularly do things like read her Bible. I wrote Matthew 22 and told her about the parable there.  She asked me who the king was and I said the King was God and we had to put on his righteousness to enter Heaven, not our own, like the wedding garment.

I explained Christ had earned righteousness that was given to us by perfectly fulfilling the law. Even the Apostle Paul, who was beaten and shipwrecked and did many wonderful things, did not say he had earned his own righteousness but was trusting in the righteousness of God, which he gained through faith in Jesus. She realized as the Lord moved in her that was true. She began to see and wanted to be forgiven with God living inside her. As I went through the prayer with her she began to read it aloud with me and at the end she said, “Amen.” “It’s amazing. It’s wonderful!” she exclaimed. She was so grateful and excited and said she thought God had sent me to explain this to her. I agreed that was true. “I just want to thank you. I needed this so much. This is wonderful what you are doing talking to people.” I gave her 20 Things God Can’t Do writing her name and the date and “forgiven” and “By the Spirit’s Power” in the front, explaining that Jesus told us to become as a child to be dependent on Him and ask for his help in anything and everything. I had made her 10 minutes late for class, but she said this was more important to her than her class. I invited her to the Bible study and told her to email me. She left happy saying, “Maybe I will see you somewhere.” “Anytime just let me know,” I said, having given her my phone number and email.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance. God truly blessed. I also got a good seed planted with Jen who took the student edition of The Case for Christ.

In Him,

Bob

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed and you could be as warm as ya wanted. I had a good day on campus and Janet prayed with me to receive Jesus. I got a good seed planted with a guy named Mike in the MAC Arts building, too, who was under conviction but was sinning a bit. I gave him the student edition of The Case for Christ. He tried to give me the ‘science /evolution disproves religion’ thing but I gave him a bunch of current DNA stuff and shook his cage open. I walked around for 90 minutes before I could get anyone to do a survey or to talk about God. The school had a small mob of over a half dozen Campus Crusade people doing surveys (I passed 7 in the halls) without going through the Gospel with people. No hope for change, but they could just notify people they had a Christian group with the same effect. So no one I found wanted to do another survey or talk about Heaven where they actually heard the truth (since they had just done a data survey). Many had been asked several times and were annoyed when I spoke with them. But CRU finished their damage at 1 PM or so and I found 3 peeps to talk with after about 3 hours.

Janet was sitting in the cafeteria, having eaten half her sub sandwich. She didn’t look big enough to eat the other half. She was a cute, petite, Latina girl. Small pretty face, no make-up, long brown hair pulled back behind her head. She had diamond look studs in her ears, too big to be real. She had a black long sleeve shirt on and leggings. She had been raised early on by her grandparents who always brought her to church. She hoped to be the first person to graduate from college in her family. When I asked her what she would say to God if He asked her why He should let her into Heaven she said, “Hmm… growing up I guess with my grandparents, they were very religious. I assume that because I haven’t done anything bad I would be accepted.” She was sure she’d go to Heaven when she died. I began to explain the Gospel to her that God loved her and wanted to live inside her to give her power to live life and know her. I explained that first He had to take away her sins and asked her if she remembered what Jesus had done to take them away. “He sacrificed himself” she answered. “Right, He died for you,” I replied and then explained how His blood cleansed her and His righteousness was to her credit. I asked at the end if she would want to be forgiven and she said she would. “Do you believe Jesus is God, He died for your sins and rose from the dead?” I asked. “Yes I do,” she replied. “So would you want to place your trust in that and to be forgiven, instead of just hoping you were good enough?” I asked.”Uh huh, yeah.” she said nodding. So I talked her through the prayer she could pray, explaining she could pray it quietly, not so I heard, but God would hear her and forgive her and live inside her. “Think you’d like to do it?” I asked. She nodded. She took the booklet and prayed while I went back to the other side of the table to get a book out of my backpack. I gave her the booklet to keep and explained living by the Spirit’s power “Inside out”. I wrote ‘By the Spirit’s Power’ and her name and the date and ‘forgiven’ in the front of 20 Things God Can’t Do and showed her the 100 Bible verses in the back. I gave her a Bible study and got her email to give her some more things. She had her family’s Bible that she had taken for herself and I explained how John began and that she could read there. I also gave her the Rose publication “Following Jesus” because she said she was very busy with work and school and was having a hard time getting to Church. I also explained Zwingli’s symbolic view of the Mass and some other things. “Thank you, thank you,” she said happily as I got up to leave. I said she was welcome and maybe someday I would see her in Heaven and she could tell me she finished her degree. She liked that idea and I left having told her I would be praying for her each night.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance. God truly blessed me and had a plan for the day.

In Him,

Bob