Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Well, I hope you had a great day walking with the Lord.  I had some great conversations today and Desiree prayed to receive Christ.  She was a very pretty, brown-haired girl who was sitting in a hooded COD sweatshirt with a yellow colored Mac on her lap, sneakers on her feet dangling above the floor sitting on one foot.  She said her legs had braces but I could not see them.  She was a very tiny girl and it turned out, after we had talked, her life was something of a miracle.  She died at birth and they gave her a shunt for hydrocephalus that kept alive after she was revived.  She also has spina bifida and was not expected to live past her third birthday.  She said she got very depressed and ran a bit wild in High School and tried to kill herself, I imagine due in part to her condition.  In telling me this she pulled up her sleeve and showed me the scars on one arm from the cuts that almost ended her life.  “I guess I will always have the scars,” she said.  But God once again had mercy on her, and though she bleed nearly completely out, she was saved. When I asked her what she would say if God asked her why He should let her into Heaven she said, “Because I am a practicing Catholic.”  She helps her parents teach a class at Church but did not know what Jesus had done to take away her sin.  Desiree had had people tell her that because of all she had done, God would not forgive her.  I told her of many people God forgave who had done evil things in the Bible, worse than what she had done.  She thought she had a 50/50 chance of going to Heaven.  I told her the Gospel and she tracked very closely with me and followed right along.  I asked her if she would want to be forgiven for her sins, trusting in what Jesus had done for her on the Cross  and she said she would.  And so I asked her at the end if, when she asked for forgiveness, she had been trusting in what Jesus had done for her on the Cross or was hoping she was good enough.  “I never really thought about it,” she answered.  So I explained she could pray to ask for God’s forgiveness and walking her through the prayer I asked her if it was the desire of her heart and she said yes and said about the prayer, “I really like that.”  She prayed silently to receive forgiveness and gave me her email to send her stuff.  I walked her through a Bible study and gave her More Than a Carpenter to read.  She said she had been reading about other religions.  I explained some of the differences and that we could know God wrote the Bible because it is the only holy book of a religion that predicts the future.  I told her I would send her a Bible study with verses that were fulfilled in Jesus.  She thanked me and I said it was nice to meet her and I would pray for her.  “Nice to meet you too,” she replied.

So thanks for your prayers for the Ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance.  God truly blessed and I was so grateful to be able to tell the Gospel to Desiree so God could bring her to Himself.

In Him,

Bob Bollow

To donate to our college ministry:
http://www.razoo.com/story/Third-Watch-Ministries-Nfp

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Well, I hope you were blessed today by the Lord.  We went and got lunch with one of our friends and then I headed off to school to give Study Bibles to two of the girls who have trusted Christ, (one this year and one a couple years back) and show them a bit how they can use them.  They really liked their new Bibles and I chatted them up a bit and then went off to talk to some peeps and Magali prayed to receive Christ. ( http://www.pronouncenames.com/pronounce/magali )  She was cute when she smiled and she did a bit after awhile.  She has straight brown hair, a Latino Catholic girl.  She has a broad nose and was wearing a sweatshirt.  No make-up on at all,  she was just chilling watching something on her tablet but said she’d take a minute to talk.  When I asked her what she would say to God if He asked her why He should let her into Heaven she took a while to answer and said, “I don’t know, I’m stuck,” and kept thinking.  So I asked her about church and what she thought her church might say.  She said, “It depends.” “What do you think?” I ask and she said, “…From what I think, I think I should be allowed to go in.”  She said she hadn’t gone to church since summer but was raised catholic.  I walked her through the Gospel and got her to smile a few times.  She seemed to know that it was Christ’s death that had taken away sin but had not trusted in this personally.  She said she would want to be forgiven when I finished going through the Gospel so I asked, “Do you believe that Jesus is God and that He died and rose from the dead to take away your sin?” “I do,” she replied.  So I asked, “Would you be willing to trust in what Jesus has done to make you right with God?”  “I would,” she answered.  So I explained she could pray and begin to have a relationship with God based on that forgiveness.  I walked her through the prayer and she decided she wanted to pray to have God live inside her and forgive her.  I explained the Christian life to her through the Spirit.  That if she went back to her church, during the mass, to remember that she was forgiven by His Body, broken for her, symbolized in the wafer and His Blood, shed for her, symbolized in the wine and be thankful.  She took the Student Edition of The Case for Christ to read and a Bible study.  I went back to give her a Bible but she had already left.  So I will look for her again, as I have her email.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and evangelism today if you had a chance.  God really blessed with some good conversations.

In Him,
Bob Bollow

To donate to college ministry:
http://www.razoo.com/story/Third-Watch-Ministries-Nfp

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope you had a good day today walking with the Lord.  I had a good day sharing the faith with the peeps on campus and Joe prayed to receive Christ.  He was sitting with his coat on, on the second floor overlooking the revolving doors in the SRC near the Book Store.  He wore glasses and looked like he would be studying computer science.  Really nice guy, slim, wearing jeans and had a light brown kind of a mop head of hair.  He attends a Catholic Church, and when I asked him what he would tell God to get into Heaven he thought for a moment and said, “I did some volunteer work”.  This may not sound very impressive to you, but I would venture to guess most people could not say they’d even done that.  He later said, “I never did anything terrible.”  Put that way it seems like Heaven is less a reward than kind of a default position for just not having massively screwed up.  He was a good-hearted guy and I pointed out to him, when I explained Christ’s imputed righteousness, what I often say, “So you don’t go to Heaven because you’re good but because Jesus is good.  Otherwise it would be prideful to claim we were going to Heaven thinking we were worthy.”  And I pointed out he was trusting in his own goodness, thinking some volunteer work would help him get in to Heaven and he agreed.  When I asked him if he wanted to be forgiven, he said enthusiastically, “Yeah definitely that,” pointing to the circle where Christ lived inside him, forgiving him.  After he had prayed to receive Christ, I helped him to think of the mass as a time to remember Jesus had died for him and be grateful he was forgiven.  I walked him through a Bible study on the deity of Christ and explained the work of the Holy Spirit to him in living the Christian life.  He said he did not have a Bible of his own, but his dad did.  So I offered him one and he wanted one to read.  I also gave him a copy of More than a Carpenter.  He shook my hand and thanked me and we agreed to see each other in Heaven.

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

In Him,

Bob Bollow

To donate to our college ministry:
http://www.razoo.com/story/Third-Watch-Ministries-Nfp

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Hope you are having a blessed weekend walking with the Lord.  I had a good day Thursday on campus, though it was cut short by an eye appointment (had a broken stitch in my eye from surgery they had to pluck out).  But Danny prayed to receive Christ with me.  He was sitting on the ground floor of the BIC building in a lounge on the back side of the 1st floor.  He had a coat on and a dock cap, but he talked to me for awhile even though he was bundled up to head out.  He wore skinny jeans, was a good lookin’ kid.  He is from a Catholic background and goes to church regularly.  He said he couldn’t tell God why He should let him into Heaven and felt like it would be selfish to do so.  As I went through the Gospel I asked him how God took away his sins and he kinda guessed.  “He forgives you?”  I explained the work of Jesus on the Cross for him and His imputed righteousness telling him, “You don’t go to Heaven because you’re good.  You go to Heaven because Jesus is good.”  So I asked him if he would like to be forgiven and trust in what Jesus had done for him to forgive his sins and make him right with God.  He said he would and prayed to receive Christ.  He was a nice guy and into the NBA so I gave him a copy of Playing With Purpose to read and walked I him through a Bible study on Jesus’ claims to be God in the NT.  I explained the work of the Holy Spirit to him and asking for the fruit of the Spirit to give you the strength to live the Christian life.  I told him that God wanted a relationship with him and just like in a relationship with a girl, the thing he would want most is for her to believe him and him to be able to believe her.  That is what God wants too.  He wants you to believe Him, to have faith.  I got his email to send him some stuff.

I hope the Gospel firmly took root in Danny on Thursday and God will continue to grow him up in Christ by His Spirit.

Thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for Evangelism yesterday if you Got a chance.  God blessed the work, though my time on campus was shorter than I’d have liked.

In Him,

Bob Bollow

To donate to our college ministry:
http://www.razoo.com/story/Third-Watch-Ministries-Nfp

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Hope you had a great day walking with the Lord.  I had a good day on campus and Zquan, an African American guy came to Christ.  He was fair skinned and had a short, rough afro and a light beard and was sitting in his wheelchair on the 3rd floor of the BIC building.  He was in front of the vending machines, facing out to the hall in a lounge and was up for doing a survey, so I sat beside him.  When he told me his name I asked if it was a family name, but he said he was the first one to have it.  He had a big smile and said his grandfather was a preacher and his family went to church every Sunday.  When I asked him why God should let him into Heaven, it seemed he thought of it like most people do, a reward for being good, saying, “I’ve been through a lot of adversities.  I would love to get in.  I’m a wonderful person at heart that cares for people.”  It seemed like he was going the sales pitch route, though, because after that he only thought he had a 50% chance to get in.  Hard to say a college kid in a wheelchair hasn’t seen his share of adversity, notwithstanding.  He listened to the Gospel and did seem to remember Jesus died for sin and wanted to be forgiven.  So I asked him, “When you ask God for forgiveness, have you been trusting that Jesus died for you and took away your sin or have you thought hey I come from a good family and I’m a good person and God is good so I hope I’ll be ok?”  “I’ve been thinking the last one,” he replied.   I agreed, reminding him what he had previously said he would say to get into Heaven, explaining that that was kind of like trusting in good works.  So I walked him through the prayer he could pray to accept the forgiveness of God and he prayed to receive Christ.
I explained the work of the Holy Spirit to him and gave him a Bible study to go through on his own.  He said he was a big fan of the NBA so I gave him the book PlayingWith Purpose to read on the testimonies of NBA stars.  I thanked him for talking with me and he said, “Thank you,” and shook my hand.

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

In Him,

Bob Bollow

To donate to our college ministry:
http://www.razoo.com/story/Third-Watch-Ministries-Nfp

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I hope you are having a great weekend walking with the Lord.  I had a short day on campus.  But Jacob and Keith both prayed to receive Christ.  Then Ellen and I took some of the girls out to lunch.  Two girls who have come to Christ, one awhile back, one this year and one we are praying for.

Jacob was on a couch in the PE lounge upstairs, sitting with a friend of his who was Roman Catholic and did not want to do a student survey. But Jacob did, and his friend listened in.  Jacob had gone to church when he was younger.  He had sweats on and stick straight light sandy hair, kind of an all-American looking guy.  He basically said he lived by the golden rule, though he wouldn’t have called it that.  “I’m honest with people and I treat people the way I like to be treated.”  He didn’t have any idea how God took away his sins though, and the Gospel was news to him.  But he wanted to be forgiven and prayed to receive Christ.  His friend took a booklet from me too and they both took Bible Studies.  Jacob took a copy of The Case for Christ to read.  His friend explained he was Catholic and knew “All this stuff” but wanted to ask me a question.  I said, “Sure what ya got?”  He basically had been through a hard time in some way he did not specify and wanted to know why God was not close to him through it.  I explained that since he had not trusted in Christ to take away his sins, God did not live inside him.  I told him a story to illustrate it..too long to tell here..and I said if God acted like He was his Father and met his need, drawing close to him and comforting him, but he was not saved he would still go to Hell when he died.  It would be unfair for God to give him this closeness and then he think things were right between him and God.  “Then when you stood before God He would say, ‘I never knew you.’ Then you might object telling God He had given you a feeling of comfort and closeness and you had felt like He was your Father.  But it turns out God was not your Father. God is withholding the closeness you want from Him so you will come to Him on His terms and will be saved.  Sometimes you may not feel God is close and it is just thoughts of Satan.  Once you trust in Christ you sometimes need to cling to the fact of that through painful circumstances.  But you have not trusted in Christ yet to forgive you for your sins so He can enter you.”  Jacob’s friend seemed to accept the explanation when I asked if that made sense.  I gave him a copy of Enjoying Your Walk with God by Steve B. Douglass that he wanted to read.

Keith was sitting in the hallway of the BIC waiting for his girlfriend to get out of class (Tara, who it turned out I had gone through the Gospel with before).  He was going to a good church and had come to it from Roman Catholicism.  We talked about a bunch of things and the specific words he used descriptively seemed very “Christian”.  He is African American, had stone washed jeans on, said, “I’m trying to bring them back” and a Bulls cap (though it turned out he was not much of an NBA fan).  He had a jacket on too.  We hit it off pretty well and as I went through the Gospel, explaining God wanted to live inside Him with His Holy Spirit but could not because of his sin (Rom. 6:23), I said, “So sin kills ya and God gives you life.  God can’t be in the same place as sin, so he takes away your sin so He can live inside.  Kinda like a blood transfusion.  I have A+ blood, so if you have A+ blood and you give me a blood transfusion I’m great.  But if you have B- blood I’m dead.  God wants to transfuse His life into you, but first he has to make you His type.  So he takes away your sin.  Then you are perfect and holy inside and He can live inside you.”  But Keith did not know how God took away his sin, so I taught him the Gospel and pointed out he had been trusting in his good works to save him.  He’d said he hoped his “rights would outweigh his wrongs,” and he hoped in God’s favor through that.  He was convicted and trusted in Christ.  When he prayed he took longer than anyone has, reading it through and reading then each section and closing his eyes and praying it.  I think possibly in his own words.  His countenance had changed when he was finished and he was extremely sober.  He took a copy of More Than a Carpenter from me to read and a bible study.  I explained the work of the Holy Spirit in him too.  Tara came then and I greeted her as she remembered me and gave her a quick hug.  Then I hugged Keith too and said I would see him in Heaven and ran to lunch.  He had real joy.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for Evangelism on Friday if you had a chance.  God truly blessed.

In Him,

Bob Bollow

To donate to our college ministry:
http://www.razoo.com/story/Third-Watch-Ministries-Nfp

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Hope you found Joy today walking with Christ.  I had a really interesting day as I bumped into Kiara who prayed to receive Christ in the fall, in the shade on the grass stairs outside the MAC arts building one sunny day last September.  She had told me her name rhymes with her twin sister’s name Tiera (like the crown).  So today, walking through the science building, she happened to be sitting with her fraternal twin sister.  It took me a minute to recognize her as she had cut her long hair to shoulder length.  But it had also been several months.  She recognized me right away and got her sister to do a student survey with me, I’m sure wanting her to hear the Gospel.  Tiera is African American, had black glasses and her hair pulled up into curls above her head.  She felt like she trusted in God, but when I asked her how God took away her sin, she could not tell me.  So I went through the Gospel with her as Kiara occupied herself with her phone.  She said she would want to be forgiven and I helped her think through and understand what truly trusting in Christ meant, though she had gone to church and thought of herself as someone following God.  She prayed to receive Christ, quietly in her heart, and I gave her a Bible Study and asked her if she would like a book.  She chose the same book her sister had, the Student Edition of The Case for Faith, which her sister thought was great.  I asked her if she would like a different one, saying she could read Kiara’s, but Tiera wanted her own.  I talked to them a bit about their lives as twins and having to share a lot of stuff.  It was great to know they both had understood the Gospel and could encourage each other in faith.  I told them I would pray for them and left them chatting.

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

In Him,

Bob Bollow

To donate to our college ministry:
http://www.razoo.com/story/Third-Watch-Ministries-Nfp

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Well, I hope you made it through the day and could rest in the Spirit.  I had a headache all day and basically had a brain fog, having slept poorly.  But in spite of that God was faithful.  I had some good conversations and Sheljo prayed with me to receive Christ.  His family is Roman Catholic from India, kind of interesting.  He had a really short haircut and was wearing a gray wool coat with a hood, jeans and work boots.  But they were the shinny hipster kind now popular, unlaced with the jeans bunched up at the open boot top, not the blue collar beat up kind.  We were in the large science building lounge . He didn’t have much to say and looked around alot as I spoke with him, kind of distracting given we were in a basically empty lounge later in the afternoon.  But I could tell he continued to listen so I just kept rolling.  He had large eyes.  I was just trusting God to come across to him, my head was weary and I did not feel very capable of putting my best foot forward.  He said he wanted to serve God with His life and seemed like a nice guy.  After I had gone through the Gospel with him he said he would want to be forgiven when I asked.  I asked him if he had ever asked God to forgive him based on what Jesus had done on the Cross.  “Well, I have gone to confession,” he said.  I explained to him the priest could tell him he was forgiven like an insurance agent can tell you you are covered for car insurance.  But when you damage your car the agent does not pay, the company pays.  “The priest is just acting as God’s agent, telling you God forgives you.  And he can only do that because Jesus died for you.”  He’d actually already said, when I asked him what he’d say to God if asked why He should let him into Heaven, “I feel sorry for what I did.”  I walked him through the prayer and asked him if he’d like to pray it and he said, “I did as you read it.”  So I said “Amen?”  And he said, “Amen”.  He was interested in a book and really brightened up when I offered him the book on the testimonies of Christians in the NBA, Playing with Purpose.  I guess it’s nice to have something you think will be fun to read, but as we looked at the book together he really seemed to think it was great that some of these players were Christians.  People like to think someone they admire for a talent like a sport also lives with the same view they do.  I gave him a Bible study to read and he was grateful.   We shook hands and I told him I would see him in Heaven.  He had a bit of an accent and there is a pretty huge cultural gap between us, and my head had a knot of pain by my eye.  But God still used me to speak to him, which was kind of Him to do.  And I was grateful.

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

In Him,

Bob Bollow

To donate to college ministry:
http://www.razoo.com/story/Third-Watch-Ministries-Nfp

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I hope your day was blessed walking with the Lord.  I had a good day on campus, though no one trusted Christ today.  I Bumped into several students I had seen pray to receive Jesus earlier.  One guy was Robert, an African American, short, with a rough top afro I found sitting in the Cafeteria.  He had not prayed with me to receive Christ last fall but had said he would later.  So I asked him if he had and he said he did two days after we talked.  I had been praying for him since last fall, so I was glad to hear he had trusted Christ in response to preaching to him then.  He is studying to become an airline pilot.  His mom is a flight attendant.  Two of his friends had prayed with me then, Matt and Dustin. I hope the other guy with them, Caleb, who also said he would later prayed, did as well and I’ll find out one day.

I chatted up Jade (who prayed to receive Christ Jan 15th) and got her email again and sent her stuff tonight.  I’d had her address wrong.  Leo, who came to Christ last year, and I spent about a half hour talking.  I gave him some advice and taught him about walking in the Spirit.  And two girls today said they believed but would pray later.  Vanesha, a pretty black girl with shiny silver Ugg boots and jeans and a fleece on, sitting in the science building and Madline, a thin, tall, cute, white kid, artsy.  She had brown hair and long bangs she twisted as we talked, easy laugh, wore all black shirts tights and a skirt.  So I don’t know if they will receive Jesus but I am hopeful, particularly for Madline who seemed likely and I talked through a lot of things with.  I gave them both Bible Studies to read where I explain Jesus claims to be God.  Maline said, “This is cool.”  So I will be praying for them to come.

So thanks for your prayers today for the ministry and for evangelism if you had a chance.  I am hopeful it was fruitful for those I encountered.

In Him,

Bob Bollow

To donate to college ministry:
http://www.razoo.com/story/Third-Watch-Ministries-Nfp

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Hope ya had a good day walkin’ with Jesus.  I had a great day talkin’ to some peeps and Christian, a good lookin’ black guy with a slight under bite and an easy way about him, prayed to receive Christ.  He was wearing skinny jeans and gray old-school styled sneakers with gray laces.  He had an inch and a half afro and his cap turned around backward.  He said he’d been looking to get back into church lately and had tried a few the last couple months.  When I asked him why God should let him into Heaven he said, “Because I believe.  Isn’t that what most people would say?”  I said, “Actually most people would say, ‘because I’ve been good.’  “The problem is you can’t be good enough.  Just like the problem with saying you believe is ‘what do you believe?'”  He grinned and said, “Yeah.”  I began to go through the Gospel with him and he agreed with every little point.  I actually assumed he was a Christian and knew the Gospel, but when I was finished and he said he’d want to be forgiven.  I said, “Well then the question is:  Have you been trusting in what Jesus did for you on the Cross or just in your own moral goodness, that you were a good person and God was Good, and hoping you’d go to Heaven?”  (He had said, as we began talking, he thought he had a 50% chance of going to Heaven).  At first he said he thought a little of both.  That would put him in the category of many peeps that go to church and meeting me was just a reminder of what he needed to be trusting in, but as we talked more he finally said he had really just been hoping he was good enough to go to Heaven.  So I showed him a prayer he could silently pray and he decided to do it.  I gave him the Student Edition of The Case for Faith and a Bible Study to read and explained the Holy Spirit to him.  Then he said he couldn’t come to Bible study when we had it, as they lifted for football.  He was a pretty big dude, half again of me.  But he said, “Is there a time we could get together and just study the Bible?”  I said sure and if he wanted he could give me a time.  I’d send him a Bible study if he gave me an email address and we could set up a time.  So we’ll see if that works out.  I gave him a Bible study and taught him some things about the Holy Spirit and growing in Christ and we shook hands and I headed out.

I bumped into a couple of my peeps that I pray for then, (in a corner lounge where they often sit.)  Bee, who trusted Christ praying with me 3 years ago, and Victoria who I had gone through the Gospel with last week.  So I asked her if she’d prayed and she said yes that she had “talked to God about it last night.”  So that is great.  She told me her mom used to put her shoes under her bed so when she went to get them in the morning she would be on her knees and remember to pray.  So if her mom has been praying for her that will help her walk.

So please pray for Christian and Victoria (who received Jesus on time release from when I spoke to her).  I took Bee and Namra (a muslim Indian girl I know) and Victoria out to a late afternoon lunch then (they are all BFF) and we talked about a lot of stuff for about an hour and a half at a Thai place in Wheaton.  So I will try to get Victoria a Bible and pray for her even more.

In Him,

Bob Bollow

To donate to college ministry:
http://www.razoo.com/story/Third-Watch-Ministries-Nfp