Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope ya had a good day walking with the Lord.  It rained here, but I had a good day on campus. Though I could only get 3 students to talk with me in the course of over 3 1/2 hours or so, they all received Jesus as Savior.  I did preach to a few of the football players, so I hope that will lead to a longer conversation later in the year. One guy, named “Lucky,” might just have to move a bit more.  Thanks for your prayers.  Oscar, Heidi and Viviana prayed to receive Christ today.

Oscar was the first guy I talked to in the Lunch room, at the counter against the glass, and was named after the famous pugilist.  When he told me his name I asked “Like Oscar Robinson?”  “Like De La hoya,” he answered.  “Cool,” I replied.  He said he was born at the time De La hoya was big.  (Boxers had cache still in some subcultures when the sport had no mainstream names left for a lot of people in the US, so it was interesting.) He was smaller in size and height than his name sake (same ethnicity).  Had a little facial hair and wore dark-rimmed glasses that were taped together on the white side I could see.  He wore an orange shirt and jeans.  He hadn’t gone to church since he was young. That seems to be the more common story of those I’ve talked to this year, they don’t go to church anymore nor does their family.  When I asked him what he would say if God asked him why He should let him into Heaven he said, “I’ve always been an open person to You, I guess, and I’ve always wanted to be [there] after death.”  He thought he’d have an 80% chance of ending up in Heaven.  But he listened to the gospel closely.  He didn’t have any idea how God took away his sin and I explained the Gospel to him.  I told him what God wanted most from him was that he believe Him, much like he would want in a relationship someday with someone he would marry. “You want to be able to believe her and you’d want her to believe you.”  Then I asked, “So would you like to be forgiven, trusting in Jesus so God could live inside you? Or do you think something else?”  “Forgiven” he said.  I explained he could ask God for forgiveness and I walked him through the prayer. He read it (as I held it) and prayed.  I explained the work of the Holy Spirit to him, and gave him a Bible study and a Bible, as he did not have one.  I also gave him the book 20 Things God Can’t Do.  I told him I would be praying for him until a year from spring and he was really grateful. I said good bye and he said, “Thanks a lot!” I got his email to send him more stuff.  It was great to talk with Oscar because he had a heart for God. I gave him a card for the Compass church, suggesting he could watch some sermons online.

Heidi was sitting in the hall of the BIC, waiting for her class to start.  She was from Alaska and was living with her aunts (one of which, at least, was a nurse) and planning to become a nurse at another school after 2 years at COD.  She went to the “Christian” church in her small town “Everybody went to” and hadn’t really found a place to go locally yet.  She wore a black t-shirt and black nylon running sweats with stripes down the legs and I sat at her feet while she sat in a hall chair.  She’s a cute kid, kind of athletic looking like a softball player.  She was an outgoing person but self-described as shy.  She had long, dark-blonde hair, straight past her shoulders, nice kid.  When I asked her what she’d tell God to get into Heaven she said, “If He’s watching, He should know what I’ve done.  I haven’t done anything (not gonna say I’m perfect) that He wouldn’t let me in.”  In telling her the Gospel, when I asked her what Jesus had done to take away her sins, she said He, “Gave Himself up.” She liked the stories I told her to illustrate things, and laughed and wanted to be forgiven.  So said I knew she had known the story, but asked if she was “really trusting in Christ to forgive her”.  When she’d done something wrong, was she assuming she was good enough and God was forgiving? Or was she believing she was forgiven because of what Jesus had done.  That gave her pause and she thought and realized she hadn’t really been trusting in Christ, “Humf,” she said in realization.  And she decided to pray to receive Jesus and did.  I gave her 20 Things God Can’t Do and a Bible study.  I also gave her a card for the Compass Church since she lived locally.  She was grateful and happy when I left.  I invited her to Bible study. I hope she’ll think about coming.

Viviana was sitting at one of the tables in the big lounge where we have Bible study on Tuesdays.  She was wearing a dark-blue hoodie made out of velour with a zipper front.  She was cute, Latina, had long brown hair that was kind of wavy around her face, she wore black rimed Ray Bans and had a big smile, that let you see all her teeth all at once. They seemed perfectly straight.  She was nice and was interested in the Gospel, though she had not been to church since she was young and didn’t know how her sins were forgiven.  I asked her what she’d say to God if asked why He should let her into Heaven, “I’d say… Because in my life I’ve tried to help as many people as I could. To help them to the fullest extent [of my ability].”  She listened to the Gospel and enjoyed hearing about what God had done and wanted to be forgiven. But she was a bit hesitant, so I asked her if she believed Jesus was God and had died for her sins. She seemed unsure.  I was praying in my heart as I spoke that God would move in her heart.  “Maybe this will help you,” I said. “Do you believe in God?”  “Yes,” she said nodding.  “Do you believe He can do whatever He wants to do? I’m not asking if He can to anything no matter how irrational, like making a rock so big He can’t lift it.”  She thought about it and decided He could do what He wanted.  “So could He become a man if He wanted to?”  “Yes,” she agreed.  “And if He did, would he tell people the truth?” “Well I hope so,” she laughed.  “Otherwise you are talking about a different God than you imagined,” I said and she agreed.  I asked, hypothetically, if she knew the truth about the presidential candidates, and could expose all their darkest deeds in Washington tomorrow, if she would live very long if she started finding a way to announce all of this stuff in Washington.  She thought she’d be killed. I agreed, saying some people close to Clinton had already died.  I explained that is part of the reason they killed Jesus and asked, “If God became a man and they killed Him, what would He do next?  He’d rise from the dead.  And He did.  So it all makes sense. It’s just that Christianity tells the story of why God would do all that. He did it because he loves you and had to pay for your sins.”  Viviana tracked with all I told her and I was still praying God would grant her faith as I talked. “You know how when you go to forgive someone, how it cost you something?” I asked. “Yes it does.” she replied.  “It cost God something to forgive us. There is a balance to the universe, and God paid for us by dying for us.”  At some point I explained the prayer to her, talking some more and she said, “I really like that.”  I said if she wanted and if she believed enough to ask, she could pray for forgiveness and ask God to give her more faith, as faith was a gift. But if she wasn’t ready to pray, she should wait and think about it.  She looked at the prayer again and said again that it was “A good prayer.”  “I haven’t prayed in a long time,” she said, looking down and reading. And then she prayed as I saw her lips moving and she slowly read the sections. So I looked down, letting her finish.  I talked to her about The Case for Christ and offered her the student edition of it, to help strengthen her faith which she took.  I walked her through the Bible study I had and gave her a book called Bible Basics.  At the time I had already given away the bible I had in my satchel.  She said she thought she had one at home somewhere.  So I gave her a Gospel of John.  We talked a bit more and I got her email.  “Thank you so much, I appreciate your time,” she said as I got up to leave.  “You’re welcome” I said.  And we parted.  Then I walked over to the science building and felt convicted I should get over to my truck and get another Bible, in the chance she hadn’t moved from the table.  When I got back she was there and was really grateful for it. So I was grateful God moved me to do that.

So thanks for your prayers for the Ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance.  God really blessed me today.

In Him,

Bob

Hey Brothers and sisters in Christ,

I hope ya had a good day and no ill wind was blowing by your house.  Today Josh prayed to receive Christ.

Josh has a rough-topped curly afro and dark rimmed glasses and the random facial hair of the young college man.  He was sitting in the hall on a couch outside the bookstore, and I asked if he wanted to answer some questions about God and stuff for the Bible Study group on campus.  He was up for it.  When I asked him what he would say to God if asked why He should let him into Heaven he said, “Right now?  I wouldn’t fully know what to say.  I’m a believer, go to church every Sunday.  But just me personally, I’m not fully right for Him yet.”  He seemed like he felt he wasn’t being good enough.  He listened to the stories I often tell explaining the Gospel, the imputed righteousness of Christ and his need to be perfect to get to Heaven.   As I went through the Gospel, he knew the story of Christ dying for his sins but he obviously hadn’t been trusting in that.  When I asked him if, when he’d done something wrong, if he had trusted that Christ had died for him to be forgiven or if he’d hoped he was good enough. He thought hard for a minute, saying “It’s kinda hard. I mean I know it (the story).”  “But you haven’t really been trusting?” I asked.  “Right,” he agreed.  “You can ask trust in Him through a prayer if you’d like now quietly in your heart,” I offered. He decided that the prayer I described for him was the desire of his heart after I went through it, and prayed to receive Christ.  That was great.  I explained the Fruit of the Spirit to him, and that living for God was first to ask to be transformed on the inside, not good works to transform us on the outside.  From the things he said as we’d talked, he was trying to earn God’s favor, saying about how likely it was he would go to Heaven. “I got a shot. Should be doing ok.” But now he trusted in Christ.  He happily took 20 Things God Can’t Do to read and a Bible study, giving me his email to send him some stuff.  I told him I’d see him in Heaven and he laughed with some real joy. That was good to see.

I went through the Gospel today with a Muslim student named JT, who was thoughtful and open. I gave him an evangelistic book I’d been given directed towards Muslims, which he said he’d like to have.

I gave the Gospel to a cute Filipino girl named Sam, who was struggling with the different religions she was encountering.  She came from a Christian background but hadn’t trusted in the name of Jesus. She took a copy of the student edition of The Case for Christ.

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

In Him,

Bob

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope you were blessed today, as I was on campus. Two girls, Nirali and Evelyn, each committed to faith in Christ, committing to pray later. I hope they will do so. Dinah and Lashunna each prayed to receive Jesus.  Thanks for your prayers that made these girls come. Please pray they draw near to Him.

Nirali is a pretty girl who looked like she was from an Indian heritage, her hair was swept up over her head kind of randomly curly and she wore a zippered hoodie and grey sweats. Evelyn, who went to church every Sunday, appeared to be African American. She wore a leather-look black baseball cap and jeans with a white short top. She had pretty features too and big eyes.  I walked up and asked them if they wanted to do a student survey for the Bible study group.  They hesitated, so I asked if they wanted to know how to get to heaven.  “Hey, you’re pretty, but even pretty girls die, everyone does, do you know where you are going?”  That somehow got them more willing to listen and Evelyn said, “Do we have to go anywhere?”  I said, “No, just right here I’ll ask you questions and write stuff down.”  “How long will it take?” she asked. I told them 5 or 6 minutes, but I forgot both would be talking and once I had their attention and they wanted to hear I got a little long-winded.  When I asked them what they would tell God to get into Heaven, Narali said, “‘Cause my family needs me.” Evelyn said, “Because I’m a good person.”  But when I had finished going through the Gospel I explained, “You know someday you’ll hope to find someone and get married, and what you want out of them more than anything else is you want them to believe you and you want to believe them. That is what God wants most from you. He wants you to believe Him.”  They nodded to that.  I finished explaining everything to them and said, “So the question for you ladies is, do you wish to have the free gift of eternal life?” Both of them said they wanted to be forgiven but were hesitant to pray. I think honestly enough it wasn’t very private, as we were in the line of chairs in the foyer leading to the cafeteria and people they knew had been walking by. (Ada who had prayed to receive Christ last week was one of them, so that helped a bit.)  They both promised to pray later.  We talked more and I explained a bit more of Christianity to them and asked, “If I asked, ‘Do you believe Jesus was God, He died for your sins and rose from the dead’ do you believe that?”  They each said they did.  “And will… do you now trust in that to take away your sins and make you right with God?”  They each said they did. So I said, “The Bible teaches if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead you will be saved.  So if you have trusted in this, God knows you have faith, can see your heart and forgives you.  The prayer is important to say to God, but God knows your heart.”  Nirali looked me in the eyes and her face brightened in realization.  I gave them each a copy then of a Bible study and the book 20 Things God Can’t Do. which they each wanted to have when I offered them books.  They said they would email me after praying, so I will pray they are moved to do that. But in my experience, most forget, as kids say that and I come upon them later asking if they have prayed and most have but never let me know.  I said I would pray for them each night if they prayed, but in truth I will be praying for them anyway.  I apologized for taking so much time and Evelyn said, “Oh you’re good.”  And I headed down the hall, first asking Nirali again to pronounce her name for me.

Dinah was sitting on the second floor overlooking the revolving doors. She had a slight accent and is from Ghana and goes to what she called a “Pentecost Church” that she said was from her country.  She had a warm, friendly face with a bit more pronounced features.  She wore brown stretch pants and a t-shirt.  She said she’d tell God, if He asked why He should let her into Heaven, “Because I was truthful.”  I said she should run for office and she smiled.  She knew the story of Jesus and when if I asked if she wanted to be forgiven and have God live inside her, or if God was on the outside of her life she said “God inside.” As I finished, I said, “I think you knew the story right?” and she nodded.  So I said, asking her if she had been believing in the Gospel to take away her sins, “But have you been trusting in the story?”  She thought for a moment and I asked, “When you pray for forgiveness, have you been thinking; ‘Well, I have been pretty good and God is good, so I hope He will forgive me.’ Or have you thought ‘I know Jesus has died for me, so I know I am forgiven’?  Were you trusting you were good enough, or in Jesus?”  She looked up at the ceiling, tilted her head back and smiled saying, “That I was good enough.” “Would you like to put your trust in Him?” I asked. She nodded so I walked her through the prayer, saying she could pray it silently and she did.  I explained the Holy Spirit’s power to work in her saying, “We don’t do good things hoping they will make us good people and God will forgive us, but we ask God to transform us with His Spirit on the inside and this makes us good people who do good things [for Him].  Christianity is the inside out, not the outside in.”  And I wrote “Inside out” on the inside of the booklet.  She wanted a copy of Bible Promises for You to read and I gave her a Bible study and got her email address.

I talked for a while with Nicolas, after hearing the end of a couple songs by a student cover band with a faculty horn section that was great out on the lawn by the MAC arts building.  He’s one of the guys from bible study and walked up to chat me up about his communist History teacher.  I said goodbye to him after about 30 minutes and talked with a girl on the lawn about the Cubs since she wasn’t interested in God (I know this is a pale second. But hey, sometimes a friendly conversation means they talk to me the next time).  And the I felt like I was supposed to go to the PE building before I left school, though feeling pretty spent.

I walked up the hill and through the upstairs door and passed a girl and guy chatting with another girl who turned me down. Then I went down the stairs and came up to Megan and Brionna, two a pretty black girls who prayed to receive Jesus last year, who I pray for and are nice to me.  They were with a couple white girls who were nice and walked off, and a couple black girls I haven’t met.  One of them I saw before when I bumped into Megan the first time this year in the cafeteria, Leshunna, (pronounced Leshon) though I hadn’t gotten her name before.  I sat on the floor with them a minute. They were busy talking about and texting boys (I gotta say I am about as out of place as you can get, sitting in the middle of a bunch of teenaged black girls. So it’s a miracle God has made them talk to me.)  Megan and Brionna are boy-magnet cute, which isn’t necessarily a blessing. So I stood up to talk to this guy Patel, who is an Indian guy and a wanna-be rapper.  He’d been talking up some of the athletes on the opposite side of the stairwell and was asking me what I had done in the summer and what I was doing now.  We’d never talked about what I did at school before.  He punched a cop at school year before last when the cop grabbed him, but prayed with me to receive Jesus back then so we are Facebook friends and I talk with him once in a while.  He is getting less crazy it seems and talks about how God is helping him.  I had stopped praying for him after a  year and a half of it, but I realize now I need to place him on the list again and I told him I would.  We were talking a few steps away from the girls and I headed out to go, preaching Patel up a bit on how Jesus claimed to be God, the “I AM”, and told him I would send him the Bible study on it as he thought it might make a good rap.  I went to go as Leshunna walked up, so I asked her her name and she kinda was asking who I was, as Megan and Brionna told her I pray for them.  So I told her I talk to people about Jesus and asked her what she would say to God if she died and God asked her why He should let her into Heaven.  She couldn’t answer it, so I asked her if she would like to know how to go to Heaven and she looked at me a little wide eyed and nodded a couple times.  She is a nice looking girl was wearing some print kind of leggings and a fleece.  She was a bit shy and glancing around (it didn’t help that there were some good looking guys sitting on the floor leaning against the wall across from where they were all congregating under the stairs).  But she listened to the Gospel and I explained it all to her and asked her if she would “want to be forgiven for your sins” (having showed her a couple verses already and quoted a bunch of other ones), “everything she had ever done.”  She glanced around and shook her head yes.  So I showed her the prayer, explaining it to her. I leaned in and I whispered to her, “So if you want to, you could pray this right now and God will forgive you and live inside you.”  She took the booklet and looked at Brionna who laughed at something unrelated on her phone and I said “Brionna prayed this last year.”  She read it, then sat down looked over at the boys and I sat next to her on a seat under the stairs, she looking at the booklet, and I asked, “Did you finish praying?” She stood up and turned her back to the boys and as I saw her finish, I quietly said “Amen.”  I stood and explained a bit more to her, but she did not want a book and had a small bible she liked at home. She didn’t seem to have anything with her to carry books in.  So I said I would see her later and said good bye to the others and left.

I had a good conversation with Sergio, a big guy who had played semi-pro football in Chicago and was walking by faith, (earlier in the day) in the science lounge.  He said, “You can say you have all the love in the world [for God] but if you don’t have trust, what’s the point?”  Good line, right?

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,

Hope ya had a great day walking with the Lord of Hosts.  I had a good day on campus and Khyla prayed with me to receive Jesus.

Khyla was sitting in the hallway and agreed to do a student survey for our Bible Study group.  She is African American, looked pretty tall though she was sitting. (She actually looked big and strong come to think of it.) She had long, straightened hair just past her shoulders and had a kind face.  I sat at her feet.  About half way through the Gospel, a teacher came out of the room across from us and stood staring at my back.  Sensing him there, I turned and said politely, “Can I help you with something?”  He asked if I had permission to do what I was doing, speaking through his big bushy beard and glasses.  This, though he hadn’t heard me say enough to know what I was doing topically, so he was just a hater. I informed him that yes, I had gotten a lawyer who contacted student activities for me and I now carry a letter from the Vice President of student activities giving me permission.  Surprisingly he backed off, after informing me that had I not done that, proselytizing was not permitted on campus, and others were doing it and they need to do what I had done.  Of course, I could have mentioned that not being the cops he had no authority to enforce anything going on in the hallways, and in fact he was wrong about the campus “rules for proselytizing” of which there are in fact none.  If you do simple math you cannot selectively restrict speech between students about religion or anything else without restricting everything else. But I did not want to argue with him, and there were cult girls walking around today pushing their “Mother goddess” lie around to a works salvation beat. So hey, maybe he’ll hassle them, though I doubt it as being satanic he’s on their team.  So I simply said “I do not know what other people were required to do, I just know what I did.”  He then left me in peace, fortunately, as Khyla had a lot to talk about.  Her response to the question what she would tell God to get into Heaven was telling.  “It’s a hard question,” she started. “I would say my life is righteous but I think some of the things… I don’t know.  I am kinda young.  My mother has a true, strong faith in God I would hope to get.  Then, I think it is hard to get it together being so young.  I think I’d be scared standing in front of Him.  It’s a really hard question.”  As I went through the Gospel, she agreed with the things I said; that God loved her and wanted to live inside her with His Holy Spirit. But Khyla could not tell me how God took away her sins at all when I asked “What was the big thing Jesus did back in the day that paid for your sins?” She literally just sat and thought and couldn’t come up with anything. (I was about to explain that part when the bearded, self appointed hall monitor interrupted.)  I went on to tell her the rest after he left, and she stopped me after I mentioned Jesus lived a perfect life asking what I believed about homosexuality.  This is pretty loaded these days, but I said, “Well it’s America, and Homosexuals are free to practice this in America. So I can’t tell them they cannot. Part of the problem for the church,” I went on to say, “is that they have not often said, ‘God’s law is His loving preservation of us.’ And they have not spoke out against other things that the Bible says were destructive and wrong.  Like you are not supposed to get a divorce.  If I lose feelings for my wife, I should pray to get them back and ask for God’s power to love her, not just leave her.  Unless there was adultery then that breaks the marriage and God says you are able to divorce.”   I said that I thought, “This is pretty common in the Black community as there are so few fathers. And without a dominant male influence in the home, boys are 50% more likely to chose homosexuality.” She went on to say that her mother had married a pastor and things seemed fine for awhile. But it turned out he was a homosexual and was having homosexual affairs behind her back.  This really hurt her and her mother and she divorced him.  I told her how sorry I was.  “His father died when he was little, ” she replied. I said that would fit.  “I can tell them that the Bible says that acting out on homosexual feelings is destructive to people who have them. And the Bible teaches you should do things because they are loving to do and if you follow the Bible you will not destroy yourself.” “He is sick now and dying,” she replied. I imagined from his at-risk behavior, and I said that was sad. “I believe the Bible also teaches it is impossible to follow the Bible’s teaching without the power of the Holy Spirit living inside you.  So since that is true, it is not realistic for me to tell a homosexual person they should just suck it up and be ‘celibate’ because I don’t believe they would have the power to do this realistically without God.” (And society would not support them either.)  “So according to the Bible, it is not loving to practice these things. But they could simply respond that they do not believe the Bible.  In the 1950’s, everyone believed this behavior was destructive and the Bible agreed with society. But now someone might tell me I was bigoted to tell someone this. But I’m not saying I hate them or even that society must stop them from doing these things. I am just saying the Bible says it will destroy them.”   We talked some more, but I could tell she was running out of time based on some body language (I think she was waiting for someone to go home.) So I interrupted her and said, “Well just let me finish this, because there is something you need to do.”   I finished going through the Gospel with her, explaining Christ’s imputed righteousness, the offer of forgiveness through His blood, and that she hadn’t done this. She wanted to be forgiven with God inside her, and so I said she could ask for that forgiveness by a prayer and she read through it with me as I explained what it meant.  “I pray a prayer like this every day, for forgiveness,” she said. I said that that was good, and I thought God led me to her to answer her prayer and show her how she could be forgiven through Christ, so He could live inside her and give her eternal life.  She agreed and then prayed it quietly.  I explained the power of the Holy Spirit to her and gave her the Book 20 Things God Can’t Do and a Bible study.  I told her I would be praying for her and got her email to send her some stuff.  I said I would be praying for her to be able to forgive the man her mom used to be married to, since he had not only sinned against her mother but against her too since he was her step-father and she under him in his family.  She was happy to know I would be praying for her and I told her she could send me a prayer request of any kind, that I would pray it.  She was happy and finished putting her phone into her back-pack and I got up to leave and she thanked me and I said,  “God bless you, thanks for talking with me.”

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance.  I touched base today with some others who had come to Christ or were Christians at school.  It was a good day.

Blessings in Christ,

Bob

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed.  We had a good day at College of DuPage. Thanks for your prayers.  Victoria prayed with us to receive Jesus today.  My broken jaw seemed to get a little screwed up from all the talking I did today though, so I hope God will heal it up.

When we got to the school today, they had not given us a table. This isn’t uncommon.  Seems nearly every year they don’t place us somewhere (anticipating this we came an hour early). They have a new rule we did not comply with, but it didn’t matter since they said we could take a random table of our choosing downstairs.  So we took one right at the base of the stairs and we had good traffic. We were across from the popcorn machine and next to the Henna Tattoo artist, so lots of kids walked by. We actually got a better spot than they would have given us anyway upstairs.  By the time I came in from parking, Ellen had already explained to the new woman in Student activities the impossibility of complying with the new rules. Ha, but it didn’t matter.  I could be lead to the opinion they sort of blacklisted our group (this is Ellen’s opinion) and I did have to get the cops off my back with a Lawyer. But hey, God is able. So thanks for praying because it worked out good.

Victoria actually came down for a henna tattoo, and then after she got it she came over to ask about the Bible study. She was an African American with her hair pulled back in a hair band.  Her hair was natural, she dressed in jeans and a t-shirt.  El thought she looked a little older or mature physically (bigger) than someone right out of High School.  She was very nice. So I told her when and where the Bible study was (we were right down the stairs from where we meet, easy to point to)  and asked her if she died and God said to her, “Why should I let you into Heaven?” what she would say?  “I don’t know. I guess I would hope I did enough good things to get in,” she replied. “So you kind of hope your good stuff will outweigh your bad stuff?” I asked. She agreed she thought that, so I asked her if she would like to know how to get to Heaven.  She said yes and so I walked her through the Gospel.  She said she wanted to be forgiven for her sins and that she believed Jesus was God and had died for her sins.  I asked her if she would like to trust in that to be forgiven.  She wanted to do that and I walked her through the prayer, encouraging her to pray like I wasn’t there. As I sat down she prayed out loud, just under the din of all the conversation and noise around us, saying “Amen” as she finished.  I told her she could take a book to read, since we had a dozen different books out on the table.  She took a copy of a book someone gave me called Experiencing Christ Within Workbook. It had some good stuff in it, so I decided to leave it out on the table and that is the book God lead her to take.  I gave her a Bible Study and our contact information, so hopefully she’ll come.

About a half dozen student seemed interested to come to bible study once in a while. Hopefully that will bring a few more in to discipleship.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry if you had a moment today.  God worked and we are grateful for the power others in the church bring to our efforts on campus.

Blessings,

Bob

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope you were blessed today as you walked with Him.  I has a good day on campus today, and Ada prayed to receive Christ. Two other girls said they would pray after class and ran to theirs: Xesia (Excess e ah) and Sydney.  Tomorrow we’ll do a book table to try to get some more peeps to Bible Study and share the Gospel with those who drop by.  We had a good group at Bible study tonight.

Ada was walking down the hall with one of the girls I know who is from Nigeria, Emike.  Ada had long braids past her shoulders and looked a bit like Emike, who is her cousin, with a bit wider nose and a narrow face. Cute, wearing shredded up jeans.  I was introduced and Emike said she’d gotten into a fender-bender on the way to school. I began talking to Ada as we stood, asking her some questions leading to the Gospel. She goes to the Teen Church meeting at local large church, it turns out, but didn’t understand the Gospel.  I explained that God wanted to live inside her to give her eternal life and she asked Emike, “Did you know this?”  To which Emike’s reply expressed both that she knew it and it was true.  So at one point Ada dramatically rushed away.  I said “Do you think she’ll come back?  “Probably” Emike said. So we talked some more and then I said we should go around the corner to look for Ada. She’d sat down there on some chairs and been distracted by her phone, and was a little freaked out by the Gospel it seemed. But Emike assured her, “He tells this to everyone.”  I completed going through the Gospel with Ada and she said she had not understood it before and wanted to be forgiven.  I walked her through the prayer and she prayed to receive Christ. She wanted a book and had a Bible, so I gave her 20 things God Can’t Do and she put it in her purse happily.  Kind of strange, but they traveled on their way and I told them I’d be praying for them. (Ada is in a good church).  I already  pray for Emike.  I’m sure I’ll see them around.

Xescia (Excess e ah) was sitting at one of the counter-height tables in the MAC arts center.  She had a wide, rounder head with very curly hair and looked a bit Latino.  A happy person, it seemed.  She said she’d gone to a bad church in Cicero as a kid. That left her disinterested in Church.  She was up for talking about God, though she didn’t take my questions seriously, saying she’d ask God to let her into heaven so she could “meet David Bowie.” To which I said he might have had a shot, but I was not sure he was there but in the other place  where there is no community, so you couldn’t run into him.  She genuinely listened to the Gospel until a bit after her class began, through the prayer explanation saying she wanted to be forgiven and believed Jesus was God and had died for her sins, “I’ll definitely do this, but I have to run to class” and she ran off.  But sometimes the art students are possible to meet again in the lounge, so I hope I’ll run into her later to see if she was genuinely interested and prayed.

Sydney was a pretty, short girl waiting for class in the science building. She had leggings on and what looked a bit like workout clothes.  She had dark blonde hair, shoulder-length with curls in the ends of it.  I asked her if she’d like to know about God and she said “I want to, but how long does it take? I have to go to class.” So I offered her the speeded up version that I should have done faster, as she quickly nodded to every point and listened to me explain the prayer. She said she wanted to be forgiven and have God living inside her, and believed Jesus was God and had died for her., but she would have to pray later as she just had to get to class.  So I cut her loose, giving her some contact information and gave her the booklet and she took off to class.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a moment.  God blessed.  And I’ll be praying for Sydney and Xescia in the hope they will come too.

In Him,

Bob

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope ya had a good day walkin’ with the Lord.  I had a great day on campus talkin’ with the peeps and 3 girls prayed with me to receive Christ: Taranice, Mirna and Berenice.  So 8 have prayed with me this week, pretty great.  Thanks for praying.

Taranice was sitting in a lounge in the BIC building with another black girl who did not want to talk.  But Taranice said she’d do a survey with me.  She was a pretty girl with long eyelashes and long straightened hair.  She wore a gray one-piece outfit, kind of a loose-fitting jumpsuit and had a very thin ring in one nostril.  When I asked her what she might say to God if asked why He should let her into Heaven she said, “I stayed true to myself while I was on earth and tried to help people rather than just help myself.” She was sure she would go to Heaven.  It turned out she did not go to church and hadn’t before much, if at all. But as I went through the Gospel she assented to each point agreeing with it in some verbal way or with a nod. In the end she wanted to be forgiven but thought she trusted Christ. I was certain she never had and asked her if she had known the story before I explained it to her. She said she hadn’t.  “Well you can’t trust in something you don’t know, right?” It dawned on her that was true and she agreed she needed to ask God for forgiveness and tell Him she trusted in Him.  She prayed and was happy about it. It was kinda impressive. She’d been so convinced of what I had told her she’d in a moment thought she’d began the conversation in the same way it had ended.  We talked more about the Spirit in us and she then asked, “How do you know (God is leading you)?  I explained the Law was God’s loving guidance for us so that we would not do destructive things to ourselves. I gave her examples of robbing a bank or sleeping with someone she wasn’t married to, which she then admitted she’d done, but “not a lot.”  “Some thoughts are not from God, and when you have a thought you don’t think is from Him you should just pray for God to take the thoughts of Satan out of your heart.  I do that all the time.”  That seemed to clear up what she’d wondered about.  She had to run to class but I gave her the book 20 Things God Can’t Do, showing her some verses in it and a Bible study.  She was working on getting a car and hoped to come to the Bible study at school.  She showed me a prayer directed to St. Joseph (Jesus’ adopted father) with a drawing of him holding the Christ Child on one side.   Her Grandma had given it to her on a laminated card.  I said that was fine, but she should pray the prayer to Jesus instead.  “Yeah I was wondering why I’d pray to Joseph,” she said.  I didn’t have time to explain, as she was nearly late for class so I said, “Yeah, just pray it to Jesus.”  “Thanks for walking up!” she said enthusiastically gathering her things and I said she was welcome.

Mirna was from Guatemala and was sitting in the circle of sofas outside the cafeteria.  She has been in the US for three years.  She’d lived in Guatemala with her grandma and had come up to the states to live with her dad. He didn’t go to church as her grandma and uncles, who were singers in church, had. Mirna had a bit of an accent, Her words were clear but her sentences sometimes came in the syntax of her native speech. She was cute and had long dark braids on her head and a black and white print blouse on with ties in front.  She wore the larger-framed circular glasses that are popular now.  She felt bad about not going to church it seemed, but she tried to go there and talked to God when she felt bad about things. “Sometimes I feel like I need it.” she said.  When I asked her what she might say to God to get into Heaven she first said, thinking out loud, “I’ve done good things and bad things, so I don’t know…” Then she said, answering, “Because I help people a lot. I’ve done nice things.”  She thought she’d have a 70% chance of going to Heaven.  She took in the Gospel and the verses with interest. When I offered her the idea that there are two kind of people, describing the lost and forgiven people, I repeated them again to say “Would you like to be forgiven or do you think something else” and she immediately said “no” to the second option as I said it.  I suggested she had not really understood what I had explained to her before, as I could tell as I taught her the Gospel it was novel to her and she agreed.  “Well if you’d like to be forgiven, you can just ask God for it. There’s a prayer you can pray.” I walked her thorough it, telling her she could pray it right now, not so I heard her, but that God could hear her thoughts.  She took the booklet and prayed to receive Christ.  I offered her some books and she wanted both 20 Things God Can’t Do (I think for the list of 100 bible verses you should know in back) and the student edition of The Case for Christ.  I gave them to her and a Bible study. She gave me her email to send her some more stuff and was grateful.

Berenice was sitting on a bench as you go out the northeast door of the BIC building.  A Latina girl with a cute round face and a bit wider nose wearing glasses. She had very curly ringlets of brown hair that went to her shoulders.  She wore a sleeveless Bears t-shirt and jeans.  Really Cheerful. She went to a Roman Catholic Church and was sure she’d go to Heaven when she died.  It is interesting to me how many Roman Catholic kids are pretty sure they will go to Heaven when they die, since they were never taught that in church.  Roman Catholic doctrine is that most people (except the saints) go to purgatory, which is burning. It’s described like hell in their writings, but I don’t think I have ever had a student directly tell me, “Well I’ll go to purgatory first.”  But in a few cases, in talking through things, a couple thought they might be in purgatory.  Berenice didn’t. She was 100% sure she’d go to Heaven until I explained the Gospel to her and that to be in Heaven she’d have to be perfect.  She said she’d go there “Because, I feel that I helped people in life and I never did anything too bad.” As I went through the Gospel though it did not seem she knew any of it.  She had kind of a pretty musical voice and gave little exclamations as I talked that came out like notes, taking it very seriously.  She wanted to be forgiven for her sins and was glad to pray for forgiveness when I offered a prayer to her to ask for it.  She took the Book Bible Promises for You. I also gave her a Bible Study and got her email.  As I got up to go I said, “Oh and this, ” pointing to the questions asking the % likelihood you’d go to Heaven, “is 100%. Because if you are trusting in His righteousness. How righteous is Jesus?”  “100%” she said smiling.  “Right,” I said, “100%”.

I gave an agnostic, Chris, the student, edition of The Case for Faith. He was willing to read it after saying he believed nothing happened when you die, but admitted he’d never really thought about it or read anything.  I gave a Christian Nursing student The Case for a Creator today also.  He was a big Filipino dude named Sean.

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,

Hope ya had a great day hanging out in the Spirit.  I had a good day on campus, though it was shortened by a Doctor appointment to check my broken jaw, which seems to be healing well. (I can bite an apple in 3 more weeks.)  Meanwhile at College of DuPage, Alex, a nursing student, prayed with me to receive Christ.

She was sitting on a bench in the hall in the medical classroom portion of the science building and said she’d listen to how you get to Heaven.  When I asked her what she would say to God if asked why He should let her in she said, “I haven’t killed anybody.” “Yet,” I said. “But then I guess if you were a nurse it would be an accident.” “No, if you were negligent it is your fault,” she replied seriously.  She wanted to get a PhD in Nursing Education and seemed very ambitious.  She was a little heavy set, cute face, wearing a striped skirt (kinda reminded me of a zebra) with black tights and a black blouse.  Her dark brown hair framed her face in kind of a shag cut with bangs that split up on her forehead.  She was very articulate and to the point.  She thought she had a 50/50 shot of getting into Heaven.  I explained sin and the imputed righteousness of Christ to her.  “Your sins are paid for by the blood of Christ. ‘Life is in the blood’ the Bible says and Jesus is the source of all life because He is God. So when He pours out His blood, He pours out His life on the world and it makes life all the places we made death.  There is death inside us because of sin, so the Bible says the ‘Blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.’ It turns death into life. But you need standing before God.  It is like the idea that you are smart enough to complete college but that is not enough to get in. You need to prove graduation from High School and get good enough test scores.  Christ’s righteousness gives you something to present you to God, gives you standing.  Otherwise you would not even have one perfect day to show for your time on earth.”  I went through the Gospel with her and asked her if she wanted to be forgiven. She said she did, and so I asked her if she believed Jesus was God, had died for her sins and rose from the dead.  She thought for a moment and said “Yes.”  I asked “Would you want to trust in that then to be forgiven? If you do there is a prayer you can pray.”  I walked her through it and she thanked me and began to flip through the booklet saying, “We have a nursing prayer kind of like this I guess” she said.  So I explained the work of the Holy Spirit to her and then encouraged her that telling God she wanted to be forgiven, actually saying the words in your heart is important.  She turned to the prayer and quietly prayed it.  I told her I would pray for her every night through this school year and the next and she was glad for that.  We’d talked a long time and she said she had to get to work. So I quickly gave her a book 20 things God Can’t Do and a Bible study.  She said, “I want to take this, but I know I won’t read it. But I’ll never throw it out.” I said that was fine and that I got the books for a great deal in the summer and the best part of it was a list of 100 verses in the back she could look at. “Keep it on the shelf, maybe you’ll have time for it sometime” I offered. She started to leave and said, “Thank you so much!”  “God bless you,” I replied.  “You too” she said.

I had a good conversation with a guy who was forced to get around primarily in a wheelchair.  He had seen a lot of pain. He’d been to church and hadn’t received Christ.  Greg seemed open and even willing to come to Bible study, but there was more pain there than he would let on.  He was a good lookin’ guy with a beard and brown sandy hair. But his legs beneath the knees were withered and in braces.  He had to go after I had offered him the Gospel, and he said he’d think about it.  My heart really went out to him, so I’ll be praying he comes in.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance.  God led and blessed by His Spirit.

In Him,

Bob

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope you had a good day walking with the Lord.  I had a good day on campus and went through the Gospel with 7 students.  No one came to Christ, though 2 students, who seemed to have no clear understanding of the Gospel but were faithful Roman Catholics, claimed to be trusting in Jesus though they began seemedly to be trusting in their religious works.  Explaining salvation by faith to Religious students like this, along with imputation, is a about 15% of the conversations I have, since DuPage county is about 60% Roman Catholic.  Some pray with me – almost all respond positively.  The guys were Kevin, an average sandy-haired guy, and Thomas, a shorter guy dressed like an athlete with bright red hair.  Both were really interested and grateful, and they took Bible Studies from me on the Deity of Christ that they were drawn to.  Thomas said, “Thanks I’ll think about all this.”  Both said the same thing when I asked them, after going through the Gospel, “If you do something wrong and feel like you should ask for forgiveness, are you thinking ‘Well I’m good and do good things at Church and God is good so he will forgive me,’ or are you trusting that Jesus has died on the Cross for your sins and that is why you will be forgiven?”  Each then said, after thinking about it, “I trust in Jesus.”  So I hope that is a first step for their faith if it was not already present at a saving depth.

Ken was really searching today. He’s a big guy with dishwater blonde hair and a day’s growth of beard. He wore metal-rimmed glasses.  He started out in Art but decided there was a better future in Heating and Air Conditioning. He was sitting on the floor, against the wall in the big lounge where we have Bible Study.   When asked why God should let him into Heaven he said he would say and ask.  “I would consider myself a good enough person. It seems like I’d be a logical choice [to get into Heaven]. But if He has some standard I didn’t reach, if He could tell me what I didn’t do to reach it and what I did do.”  We talked a long time and about Faith and that was the rub he’d had a hard time getting to.  Strangely, some rude guy sat down on the floor with us, trying to interrupt, but gave up somehow and walked away.  The guy didn’t even introduce himself and just began talking over what we were saying to each other with some brand of universalism then left.  It turned out Ken had been listening to The Case for Faith as he drove to work (an hour each day) given to him by an old High School friend.  He said it was pretty good and had some good arguments, but he couldn’t quite get to faith.  I went through the Gospel with him, quoting Eph. 2:8.  I recommended he pray to God while he listened to the book and ask God to give him faith, since it was a gift from God.  I explained the rest of Gospel to him entirely, the Trinity and the Holy Spirit.  I gave him Michael Heiser’s podcast to listen also, and a couple Rose publication hand outs on the validity of the Bible and 100 Prophecies Jesus fulfilled.  He was really interested in them and anxious to read them.  I gave him my contact information and a Bible study, so I’ll be praying for Ken.  It was the best conversation because I saw that I was a piece God was using along with his old friend to lead Ken to Himself.  I know God will complete it.  In the end he said the idea of asking for faith as he drove and listened (to Strobel’s book) really seemed a good one and he said he would likely do it. Please pray he does.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for Evangelism today if you had a chance. God blessed and I felt it was a good use of time serving the Lord.

In Him,

Bob

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed in the Lord.  I had a good day out sharing the Gospel. Karrina and Gabriela each prayed with me to receive Christ.  I had a couple other good conversations too. Perla grilled me with questions for an hour and was really grateful for the answers. She wasn’t ready to take the step of trusting in Christ, though she was a catholic that believed He was God and had died for her sins. So I hope my prayers for her this year will bring her in.

Karrina was sitting on the floor in the hall of the science building on the 1st floor waiting for class.  She had long, pretty dark-brown hair and eyebrows, a couple of well placed freckles and was wearing a retainer over her newly straightened teeth. She had some bling on her sandals and wearing jeans and a t-shirt.  She said she had been in the Free Church but now attended the Bible Church in town.  When I asked her what she would say to God if asked why He should let her into Heaven she said, “That I spread the word of God.”  It turned out she just meant being loving, because she did not have any ideas about how God took away her sin. When I asked she guessed “Holy water?” So she either got that from a movie, or had been to a roman catholic church.  She was reasonably sure she’d go to Heaven, guessing she had a 90% chance.  So I went through the Gospel with her and could tell she’d not heard it before.  She was really nice and attentive and said some things along the lines of “Oh I see how that works.”  When I had finished going through what she needed to know to be saved, and she’d said she wanted to be forgiven, I said, “It seems like you didn’t have the story down before?” She nodded in response and I said she could pray and accept God’s forgiveness, telling Him she had faith in Him.  She paused for a moment, praying in front of me, but decided to do it silently and did, and was happy after.  I told her she could keep the little booklet and I explained the Holy Spirit’s power in living the Christian life.  She was really grateful and gave me her email address to send her some stuff. I hope God might lead her to Bible study.  I gave her a copy of the book 20 Things God Can’t Do and a Bible study showing her how to read through it.  I got up to go and said “Nice to meet ya!” She said, “Thank you!  You too.”  I think sometimes some people need to hear things explained by an evangelist ,supported by prayers from God’s people, to come to understand.

Gabriela was sitting on a bench in the next building to the East, across the science building from where I had been talking to Karrina.  I’d bumped into a student I knew who I pray for (John) and gave him a book and chatted him up encouraging his faith.  I walked past Gabriela, who was sitting alone, and thought I should double back and ask her. So I sat down with a post about 15 feet between us and took a moment to eat a couple bites of a soft chew energy bar and pray a moment. Then I walked up and asked her if she’d like to do a student survey for our Bible Study group.  She was willing. I found out she had seen a bit of Europe, spoke German along with English and Spanish, and was from Venezuela.  I mentioned she was probably glad not to be there presently and she said “Yeah it’s bad there.”  She had just a slight accent and was quite pretty, with light-brown hair and wore a print sleeveless blouse and jeans with white and blue fabric slip-on shoes.  It seemed she had gone to church when she was younger. When I asked her what she would say to God to be let into Heaven, she said, “Because I lived my life to the fullest.”  It is not uncommon for a student to say something like this. Seems kind of like the beer commercial response. But I think for most it is more the idea that life is a gift from God and He expects you to do something with it, not just sit around. It does not occur to most people that what they have done with their lives they largely did simply to please themselves and enjoy some pleasure. They hadn’t served anyone.  She seemed to really enjoy the Gospel, and when I was done I asked her if she wanted to be forgiven and she said she did.  I asked if she believed that Jesus was God, that He had died for her sins.  She thought for a moment and decided she did. So I asked her if she would like to put her trust in that and be forgiven, and she said, without hesitation in a mater-of-fact way, “Yeah.”  I walked her through the prayer and said she could pray it “like I was not there” and she did.  I explained more of the Christian life to her and the Trinity, and encouraged her to read the Bible.  I gave her one, as she only had access to a family Bible. She wanted to read the student edition of The Case for Christ which I gave her and she took a Bible study from me, also giving me her email.  She thought she might be able to come to Bible study next week, so I hope she will.

Thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance. God truly blessed. We also had a new comer to Bible Study tonight.

In Him,

Bob