Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Hey, hope ya had a nice warm day where ever you are. It is cold here. 16 degrees when I left for school and it didn’t even go up 10 degrees from there.  I went through the Gospel with some peeps today and Brian prayed to receive Christ.  He was in a lounge on the second floor over by the vending machines.  Pretty dressed up by COD standards; nice sweater and shirt and dress pants.  He looked to be in his late 20’s, short hair looked like your average business casual guy at lunch., He did not think he deserved to go to Heaven and was really matter of fact.  I explained the Gospel to him, that his sins were paid for and asked him if he would like to be forgiven for his sins.  he said he would and prayed to receive Christ.  He didn’t want a book, but he took a Bible Study on the deity of Christ and I told him I would keep him in my prayers.

I also bumped into Ina today, a girl I had gone through the Gospel with who is Albanian.  Basically a little adorable girl who was planning on signing up for the Marines.  I walked her to the science building and back and met her boyfriend, Will.  I have been praying for her to come to Christ and not to go into the Marines, as she is about 5’3″ and with the new woman-in-combat policy I felt it was dangerous for her and other men, as well as probably a good way to be violated by a less than Marine-worthy male.  She had some misgivings and did not sign up to enlist as planned yet, and said of my praying (that she would not), “It’s probably working.”  So I hope she will trust in Christ and look to civilian life.  She speaks 4 languages and under the old policy might have done ok at an embassy.

So thanks for your prayers today for the Ministry, the Holy Spirit led me.  Please pray for Brian to grow in his new commitment to Christ.

Bob

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
How’s your day been?  I had a good day.  We had an interesting Bible study and then I walked around doing evangelism, as the guy I was gonna meet for lunch couldn’t make it.  I found some of the peeps that have come to Christ this year and like to talk to, and then I found Elvis who prayed to receive Christ.  He was sitting in a corner lounge on the first floor listening to his iphone, and he did a survey with me.  We talked about Elvis ( the former rock star who hailed from Memphis) a bit which was fun.
He went to a catholic church now and again and seemed like a really good guy who was trying to be good.  As to why God should let him into Heaven he said, “I really used a lot of my life to pay it forward so to speak, effort towards others.”  He was sure that would get him into Heaven.  So I talked with him about motives and how your good deeds can’t fix your bad and how everything we do is less than perfect.  I explained to him that two different people could look the same on the outside but inside have entirely different motives. I went through the Gospel with him and it turned out he had never thought about God forgiving him based on what Jesus had done for him on the Cross.  But he wanted to be forgiven and live his life asking God to direct him and give him strength to live.  So he prayed with me to receive Christ.  So that was great. I  gave him a Bible, as there was only a family Bible at his house, and I gave him the student edition of The Case for Faith to read and a Bible study on the deity of Christ.  I got his e-mail to hook him up with some other stuff too.

So thanks for your prayers today for the ministry and for evangelism if you had a chance.  Please pray for Elvis, that he might grow in faith and trust in the leading of God’s Spirit.

In Him,
Bob Bollow

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Well, I hope you had a productive day.  Mine went fine, though no one came to Christ.  It was one of those odd days when I was either speaking with a Christian or a Muslim.  I did get some seeds planted though with a couple peeps.  The day was ending with a good conversation with a guy from Pakistan, nice Muslim guy.  But his friend joined us and started in telling me stuff about Palestine which I was fairly certain was untrue.  He was a Muslim who did not seem to believe core things I have been taught about Islam, saying it was a religion of peace, though the consummate Muslim was Mohammed who was clearly a warrior, like David, not a peaceful guy.  So to emulate Mohammed you would not be peaceful.  One of the things he maintained was that the Palestinians had never used suicide bombers in Israel.  I just rolled with it saying well that went against what I had thought was true, correcting only the things he said that were in error about Christianity.  So I called my friend from Lebanon, Hicham, when I got home.  He happened to be driving right then with a man who had only been in the states one year and was Palestinian.  They told me, though there had not been any of late due to increased security measures, that there had been Many suicide bombers in Israel who were Palestinian.  These have been men, women and even children.  One big problem Islam has is that the Quran plainly misstates some major Doctrines of Christianity which can be historically proven.  Christians have consistently believed for nearly 2000 years that the Trinity is the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit for example — The Quran teaches we believe this to be in the Father, the Son and Mary.  It also teaches that the Romans did not actually kill Jesus, but clearly every historical statement concerning this fact teaches the Roman Crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth unto death.  This is true both inside and outside Christianity before Muhammad.  So the Quran is wrong about the teaching of another world religion and so cannot be infallible.  To get around this they say the Bible was changed, but the historical teaching of the Church on these issues has not changed and this information is easily obtained outside the Biblical record even were it provably corrupted.

Well, thanks for your prayers.  I’ll be out again tomorrow.

In Him,
Bob Bollow

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Hope your day has gone well and you had a good day yesterday.  I’m a bit late with this since my computer is being temperamental, need a new one actually.  But Thursday went well on campus and Jose and Nick both prayed to receive Christ as Savior.

Jose was the first person I got to talk to and he was sitting in the cafeteria eating a Subway sandwich.  He is from Spain and looked it to me.  Nice guy, straight brown hair over his ears a bit.  He had no accent though and understood English fine.  At first he told me he had “never sinned” in response to the question; “Why should God let you into heaven?”  But I asked him if he had ever lied and he confessed he had, so I said, “So what you mean is you haven’t done anything too big, not that you are perfect,”  and he shook his head.  I went through the Gospel with him and he thought that confession might take away his sins.  He hadn’t thought at all about Jesus.  In the end he wanted to be forgiven for his sins and prayed to receive Christ.  He took a copy of The Case for a Creator to read and a Bible study and a Bible as he did not have one of his own.  He’d been going to the Catholic Church some.  I encouraged him to begin reading in the Gospel of John and talked to him about the Holy Spirit.  He was enthusiastic and I got his e-mail to send him stuff

Nick was sitting just outside the cafeteria in chairs against the stairs where you head up to the second floor.  Dark brown hair and a days-growth of beard on his face.  He is Roman Catholic also and did not really understand the Gospel.  He was really interested in the heart motivations for ethics, and the religious forms he had been doing seemed empty to him.  He had no confidence of salvation, which was accurate.  We talked for some time and I answered a lot of his questions and told him the Gospel.  In the end I asked if he had ever asked God to forgive his sins based on what Jesus had done for him on the Cross, and he said he hadn’t.  I asked him if he believed Christ was God and had died for his sins to make him right with God and trusted in that and he said, “Yes.”   “Well,” I said, “if you would want to be forgiven, all you have to do is ask,” and I showed him a prayer he could pray.  He did pray, and I gave him some direction ethically after that, giving him a copy of Enjoying Your Walk With God, as he had not understood walking in the Spirit.  I also gave him The Case for Faith and a Bible study.

I had a good day talking with some other students as well. Thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism if you had a chance Thursday.  God was with me and used us.

Blessings,
Bob Bollow

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I hope you were blessed today and felt the presence of the Lord always with the children of God.  I had a good day of sharing, spending a half hour or so with Jen, a girl who prayed to receive Jesus last semester, teaching her.  Also, Manny prayed to receive Christ.

Manny was sitting on the couches on the ground floor and I came across him first thing today as I was headed towards the Book Store.  He took a moment hemming and hawing as to whether he wanted to talk.  Sometimes I just wait on that and see if God is drawing them.  He was, in Manny’s case.  It turned out he had just begun attending the Compass Church in Naperville the last few weeks.  It was formerly the Evangelical Free Church of Naperville.  I asked him if he knew the big thing Jesus had done to take away our sin and he said, “He took our punishment.”  So he knew the Gospel in some measure.  We connected really well, and after teaching him the Gospel I asked him if he had ever asked God to forgive his sins based on what Jesus had done for him on the Cross. “I’m working toward that,” he replied.  I said “Well would you like to ask God to forgive your sins right now?  If you would there is a prayer you can pray.”  I walked him through the prayer to receive forgiveness from Christ and thank God for the gift of eternal life and said, “So what do you think?”  “I love it,” he replied, and he prayed to receive Christ.  He took a copy of The Case for a Creator. I got his e-mail to send him some stuff so that was great and I think he is probably going to a pretty good church.

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

In Him,
Bob Bollow

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Hope ya had a good day.  We had some students at Bible study and then I walked around telling peeps about Jesus.  Diamon, a black girl, and Monsi, a Latina girl, prayed to receive Christ today.

Diamon was sitting on one of the couches down from the book store waiting for a bus. Tall, straight hair pulled back into a hair band all bundled up in a puffy coat.  She thought of herself as a child of God.  I asked her some questions and went through the Gospel.  I asked her if she knew how God took away her sins.  She wasn’t sure, so I said, “What’s the big thing Jesus does to take away the sins of the world?”  She said she couldn’t remember, but after talking her through the Gospel it was obvious she had never heard it before. She wanted to be forgiven and prayed to receive Jesus as her savior.  I began talking to her about the Holy Spirit and she asked me to walk with her to watch for the bus and then it came pretty quick.  So I gave her a copy of Enjoying Your Walk With God and a Bible study as she ran out and she thanked me.

Monsi is Roman Catholic.  She was a nice, friendly, pretty, brown hair girl.  She said her Grandma had named her after an Island in Spain that sounded pretty: Monserrat.  (I googled it and it is a pretty island).  She had been trusting in being religious to make her right with God.  Though she knew Jesus had died to take away her sins, she was not trusting in Him and His work on the Cross but that God was forgiving and she was religious.  But she openly received the Gospel and prayed with me.  She wanted to read The Case for Christ and I gave her it and a Bible study to read.  She gave me her e-mail to send her some stuff as well, and I told her I would pray for her, so that was great.

I had some other good conversations with some who were close to believing and gave them some books today too.  The day went well.  So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a moment.  I’m grateful for the help.
In Him,
Bob Bollow

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Hope you are safe and warm if you live around Chicago, ha or anywhere else it is easier to do.  I had a bit of a shorter day due to the wet blizzard and the cops, but Tim prayed to receive Christ today so that was cool.

When I got to school I had a sense I should go right up to the third floor, so I did.  I talked with Demi right away, small auburn haired girl, braces on her teeth.  She was willing to talk about God because her boyfriend was really religious, though God was not important to her.  She was sitting in a little lounge adjacent to two offices overlooking the big one where we have Bible Study.  She laughed pretty loudly as we talked and I offered her the prayer to think about after going through the Gospel.  I had walked down the hall and had a voice in my head sort of, (a distinct impression anyway) said to give her the book I had just got this morning in the mail.  Campus Crusade for Christ was moving a warehouse and had a sale for a $1.20 on a book their president wrote: Enjoying Your Walk With God.  I bought a bunch cause they were cheap.  I hadn’t read it yet but I knew the author gave it to people who asked him about God. [The UPS guy dropped them off a half hour b4 I left so I grabbed one.]  I walked back and gave her the book, which she took openly and thanked me for, and I left.  I did a loop, and in the hall south from there where Tim prayed to receive Christ.  I walked up the hall and talked with a strong Christian, Ericka, and encouraged her about forgiveness a bit and prayed with her in the same lounge Demi had left. I guess that was too much for some bureaucrat who had been watching.  As we talked, Erika gave a hard look at a cop who walked through.  I couldn’t see his face.  I didn’t think much of it and walked off to go down to my locker.  As I was coming out of the room, the cop asked for my ID and starts in with “do you know why I am talking to you”.  I said I didn’t.  He said I had said something offensive to someone in earshot of my conversations, trying to suggest you could not say anything offensive to anyone.  I pointed out that was impossible to do and that students were saying offensive things to almost everyone all the time.  He said he got called out to talk to them too about the use of profanity and the like.  He tried to suggest I could not talk to random people, because they might be offended, said I was on a campus open to the public and asked if I had been talked to b4.  I said I had last year.  I talked him through it and he suggested they had told me not to talk to people.  I said they hadn’t.  That gave him pause, so he pulled back a bit saying “well you have been talked to about this 2 times, don’t make it 3.”  He suggested I use my indoor voice, which was funny in hindsight.  You can have conversations if no one else can overhear you?  I shook his hand and left.  I wasn’t going to argue with him or point out he was trying to limit my constitutional right to freedom of speech and religion, why bother?  But obviously if this is a policy, it is unenforceable and holds no penalty.  Last year I checked.  It is not a policy in writing anywhere.  He did not threaten me with “after a 3rd time then this thing [he can do] will happen,” I believe because nothing can happen.  If I am polite to him and he has no one I actually talked to complaining, they can’t write a ticket.  So I guess the plan is to simply try to intimidate you and waste your time.  Really bugs me though, and it is draining, but I have to try to stay under the radar.  It was looking worse and worse weather wise so I wasn’t going to stay much longer.  I went by a table where a few of the students I know often sit.  Ironically they were having a conversation about a word one of them had just used (which I had thankfully missed) that they all thought was too nasty to use in public.  I left before I had to hear it so I would not have to call a cop, lol.

Tim was an interesting guy. Tall, wearing a cap, eating a peanut butter sandwich.  He had not really gone to church much but had learned about God at a YMCA camp. There, as a kid, he and some friends had made a cross.  He somehow got to bring it home.  It seemed like they had a raffle and he got it.  He prayed at home and had the cross on his wall.  He did not know the Gospel at all and after I went through it he said he wanted to be forgiven and believed God and Christ were inside him.  As I read the prayer, he read it with me and said “Amen.”  I gave him The Case for Faith to read and got his e-mail to send him some stuff.  He got up to go to class and offered he his hand in thanks and we shook.  So I will be praying for him and will send him some stuff to read. So that was great.

So please pray for Tim and ask the Lord with me that Demi might be saved.

Then if you would pray I can stay out of ear shot of the liberal women at COD who like to call the cops on me, or that God would remove them. I know a lounge to stay out of this year, I guess, but it kind of bums me out to be looking over my shoulder.

In Him,

Bob Bollow

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Wasup?  Hope ya had a good day.  It was sunny today in Chicago, in the 40’s, and tonight we are supposed to get a snow storm, ha. But my buddy Tim plows snow, so all good for him.   And as for me I had a good day sharing the faith with peeps.  Marco and Shonika prayed to receive Christ as their Savior.

Marco was on a couch at the base of the stairs, just waiting to go to class.  He is a 6’4″ Mexican guy with fair skin, and Clark Kent glasses and kind of looked like him.  So hey, broke every stereotype, right?  He is from a Roman Catholic background and does not go to Church often but said he prayed.  He was friendly and interested and listened to the Gospel.  He wanted to be forgiven, and after hearing the Gospel, having never prayed to receive Christ, he did.  I had some time to explain the Holy Spirit to him and then he had to run to class, but he took a copy of The Case for a Creator with him to read and thanked me.  Please pray that the faith really takes root in him.  I encouraged him to look for a church and told him I would pray for him.

Shonika, a black student, was sitting at a table hours later. I was about to head home as it was after 3 and the school empties out, but she seemed like she had time to kill and she was up for doing a student survey about God.  She was really friendly, 5″4′ and “good at every sport” and a gifted musician.  Cute kid, straight hair pulled back into a tie.  She listened to the Gospel attentively and had heard it before, but had not been trusting in Christ to forgive her sins but was more hoping God was magnanimous.  She wanted to be forgiven for her sins based on what Jesus had done for her though, so she prayed to receive Christ.  She was thankful and took The Case for Faith to read and a Bible study, and thought she might be able to come to our Bible study. I  got her e-mail to remind her, so please pray she will come and grow.

I had some other good conversations explaining the Gospel and had a fun day, so thanks so much for your prayers for the ministry and for Evangelism today if you had a chance.  And please say a prayer for Marco and Shonika that they might grow stronger in faith in Christ.

In Him,
Bob Bollow

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Well, I had a pretty good day of sharing the faith today.  Alex prayed to receive Christ as His Savior. He is a black guy kind of a thin faced with a mustache and a goatee. Seemed like a smart suburban kid. He was sitting in a lounge by the financial aid windows killing time but he said he’d do a student survey for the Bible study group. I went through the Gospel with him and he knew with some prompting that God had taken his sins away by the work of Jesus on the cross. He said he did not go to church often but his parents watched Joe Osteen on TV a lot and he did too on Sundays. After I went through the gospel he said he wanted to be forgiven for his sins and so I asked him if he had ever asked God to forgive him of his sins based on what Jesus had done and he said , “Honestly no.” He wanted to so I walked him through a prayer in the booklet I was using and he prayed with me to receive Christ. I explained the work of the Holy Spirit to him in living the Christian life and encouraged him to read the Bible. He said he wasn’t much of a reader and turned down a book but I gave him a Bible Study on the Deity of Christ to read and told him he could fire me off an e-mail if he wanted some more stuff and he said he would.

The next two hours were spent in the lounge where we have Bible Study. A couple of Christian guys I have talked to b4 began asking me questions and I answered them one after the other from 2 PM until 4 PM. One of the guys Sean said after we had talked about the Holy Spirit a couple weeks back as the means by which we live the Christian life he had done as I had asked and listened at two Churches he had attended for any mention of the Holy Spirit’s power to do as the sermon instructed. One of the Churches was Christ Church in Oak Brook. He said they had made no mention of the Holy Spirit. That was the beginning of quite a few questions on the Bible and he learned a lot and was grateful so that was a good use of time today.

Thanks for your prayers today for the ministry or for evangelism if you had a moment. The Spirit led me today.

In Him,
Bob Bollow

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Hope you had a nice Valentine’s Day.  El got some flowers and a poem (they don’t have to be that good since she love me) and we had some of those kick-back gift cards from credit card points to go to Macaroni Grill.

Mike came to Christ today.  I found him sitting in a corner table in a vending machine lounge off the outdoor atrium (the landscaping of which looks like about 40K of effort, my tax dollars at work).  He was a husky white guy with a crew cut and an oval face which was nearly expressionless.  He did smile once or twice, but I started praying for him in a subtext in my head while I went through the Gospel with him, realizing I was starting to worry about his lack of reaction.  I’m trying to relate to people and read them as I go when on campus.  I speed up or slow down, say something differently and most people track pretty well.  But I wonder some if it even matters and if I don’t cause myself pointless stress.  “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ” [Romans 10:17] and this is what brings people to the Lord.  So in one sense I am just along for the ride, watching the answers to prayer.  But Paul writes in 1Corinthians 9:22 “To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some.” So I believe I am supposed to be prayerful and use whatever intuition God has given me or ability to fit in, but by my view it is a miracle I can still get someone to talk to me on a campus at my age.  Mike smiled at my attempts at humor (ha, well most of them) but was pretty stone-faced otherwise. But he did not look around more than a glance or two and seemed at the very end to really tune in.  He had gone to church periodically at one near his house and he said the gospel contained things he thought he had heard b4.  So I asked him if, when he’d prayed for forgiveness, he held in his heart that Christ had died for his sins and that had made him right with God or if he just thought he was a pretty good guy and God was forgiving.  He thought more the second and decided he wanted be forgiven based on what Christ had done.  I gave him the Student Edition of The Case for Faith and a bible study. He reached out and shook my hand and said, “Thanks, I really appreciate it.” I said, “I hope I see ya in Heaven,” smiled and went out.

I went through the Gospel with 7 others and got some positive responses where they thought they might pray or wanted to believe so I gave them a book.  So it was a good day walking in the Spirit.

Thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism if you had a moment today.  It is still getting peeps to talk to me and receive Jesus.

In Him,
Bob Bollow