Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your weekend has been blessed and you and walking in some joy. I had a good day on campus Thursday John prayed to receive Christ and Mariana committed to Christ.

I bumped into Justin (in the PE lounge) a guy who had trusted Christ as his savior last year. He is on the track team but got a full ride to Wisconsin and was just hanging out to visit with a few of his friends after practice. I told him I was praying for him and he said he prayed for me too and grinned at me. Rachel walked up and sat down after a while. She had prayed to receive Christ last year. I told her I was praying for her when she said was surprised I remembered her name. After a bit Lionel walked up and sat down at Justin’s table across from me (he has not trusted Christ yet but said he kept the booklet with my notes in it from last year) and a bit later John sat down and Lionel pretty much was just bent over having been destroyed from running in practice, he hadn’t been in shape at all in summer. John seemed fit as a fiddle though. He had a rough topped afro, chin beard and mustache, smaller guy but he had his shirt off and a back pack and shorts on and he was ripped, chest and abs. After a bit I said I was gonna head out and look for some peeps to talk to and tell how to get to Heaven. I asked John if he knew how to go to heaven and he said, “Yeah you believe.” Believe what?” I asked. He wasn’t sure so I began to talk him through the Gospel. He hadn’t remembered how God took away his sins. Rachel and Justin trailed off in their own conversation and since John had pulled up a chair about 5 feel from the table I went over on my knees to show him some of the same verses I had quoted him and review using the booklet so he would have it. Lionel was still bent over looking down trying to recover in a chair several feet away so when he said he would want to be forgiven for his sins I encouraged him to pray to receive Jesus taking Him through the prayer. “Now, right here?” “Sure.” I said, “They won’t even notice.” “Out loud?” “No just silently between you and God,” I replied and he prayed to receive Christ. I gave him a Bible study. He had a bible it was his family bible but he said he took it with him when he left for school as no one else read it. I gave him 20 Things God Can’t Do and wrote his name and “forgiven” in the front along with by the Spirit’s power” having explained His power was the only way to live the Christian life. He took the booklet too and I said I would pray for him and I headed off saying goodbye to everyone and I would keep them in my prayers as I had also been praying for Lionel.

Mariana was studying on her computer and did not look up at me but I felt compelled to go back and talk with her, she was in a side hall between classrooms in the BIC building. She was a short Latina with a horizontal stripped shirt on and skinny jeans. She had an oval sweet face and brown and tan eye shadow. I asked her if she wanted to do a student survey but she was busy so I offered her a booklet and quickly explained what Jesus had done for her to pay for her sins. She went to Church on the holidays. So after the short conversation I asked her if she believed Jesus was God died for her sins and rose from the dead. “Well I didn’t before but I do now (after you explained this),” she replied. And would you want to trust in that for your sins to be forgiven. She said she would so I talked her through the prayer suggesting she could pray it later when she had time. I gave her a Bible study to and she thanked me and I headed off after inviting her to Bible Study. I walked a bit down the hallway and thought I could get away with giving her a Bible Promises for You book. So I walked back and offered it to her. She took it gratefully and thanked me and I wrote her name in the front and mine. Then I headed out leaving the rest to the Spirit and our prayers.

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

In Him,

Bob

Hey Brothers and sisters in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed walking with the Lord. I had a great day on campus and William and Alexis each prayed with me to receive Jesus.

It seemed like almost no one wanted to talk to me today having all done spiritual interest surveys with some person working with/for the organization once called Campus Crusade for Christ. None of these go through the Gospel with a student. Yesterday I talked a girl into listening to the Gospel anyway who received the Lord but today many people seemed a little annoyed to be asked again. William had also done a survey which he told me when I first walked up. I said this was different and explained a little, that it was about how you get to heaven. He agreed to listen saying, “I have some ideas.” So I sat at his feet.  He was sitting along the wall by the cafeteria. He wore light green skinny jeans with elastic ankles, he was a smaller black guy with a rough cut afro and a ball cap on and a backpack. He wore a black hoodie that said GOD on the front and had a bit of facial hair, mustache and goatee. I began explaining the Gospel to him with some verses, that God loved him, wanted him to believe in Him and to know and live inside him. I asked him what Jesus had done to take away his sins so that could happen and he didn’t seem to know. A big nerdy looking white guy who had wedged in next to him answered, “Jesus died on the cross.” (He had walked up after me trying to sit next to an attractive girl with headphones on, on William’s right, who ignored him when he first approached asking to sit down in a space to small for him. William then moved over some, he wedged in, she got up and left.)  William gave him a look like, if you say so at his unrequested help. I told the nerd guy he was supposed to let William come to the idea on his own and tracked back to the explanation. Moments later while I was in the middle of an illustration on imputation a Cru staff person walked up behind us, interrupted me and asked if we would do a survey. We had to tell her no twice. The booklet her organization prints up that I had just used in part to go through some of the Gospel with William was sitting open on top of my backpack in front of me as she interrupted. I thought I might of lost him at the second interruption by a professing Christian but he tuned right back in after she went away, genuinely interested. Fortunately God is at work and it is not up to me. I explained that anything God asks us to do He gives us the power to do explaining the Holy Spirit and the life in Christ. Then I asked him if he would want to be forgiven trusting in what Jesus had done. “I’d want to be forgiven, yeah,” he replied. So I talked him through the prayer and asked if he’d like to pray that silently between him and God to be forgiven and he nodded and took the booklet and prayed to receive Jesus. I told him he could keep the booklet there was some more stuff in it about faith and explained living “Inside out” by the Spirit. I gave him a Bible because he did not have one showing him the section in the back called “Where to Turn” that answers questions and that Christ’s words were in red. I wrote his name in the front and the date and “Forgiven” telling him he could remember. I gave him a Bible study explaining that, he did not want to get another in an email. And I gave him the book 20 Things God Can’t Do and wrote “By the Spirit’s Power” in the front. “That’s about it,” he said. I told him he could email me any questions he might have. We stood up and he shook my hand and thanked me and I said Yeah and I’d see him Heaven. And we went our separate ways.

I chatted up some peeps I knew from last year outside and then found Alexis sitting in the corner of the BIC building at the entrance to the tunnel that goes over to the PE building. She looked Latina, had long brown hair up in a bun cut a bit over her ears, a pretty oval face and black framed rectangle glasses, she had a sweatshirt on and black leggings and was reading a tablet. It turned out she had left the Catholic Church due to her parents disinterest but her grandparents were religious and had gotten her back into it now that she was older she had just made confession of faith and her first communion. But I’m not sure she was going to Church. When I asked her what she thought she’d say to God if she died to get into Heaven she said, “Hmmm” and smiled, saying something like, “I don’t know how that would work.” I told her that probably is not what happens but the question is really asking you what you think it is that gets you into Heaven, “I’d have to right my wrongs, that’s basically it.” She knew Christ had died to take away our sins and listen to the Gospel. I explained the priest’s role in confession as I did yesterday to Daniella and imputed righteousness and the cleansing blood of Christ. I said that she was right; she’d have to right her wrongs to get into Heaven the problem is we can’t do it, or turn our bad stuff into good but God can. She said she would want to be forgiven with God inside emphatically pointing at that circle. So I showed her the prayer she could pray. She’d told me about her recent Church experience so I said, “Well it seems like you’ve done the things that the Church would have you do religiously but do you think you have told God that you want to be forgiven for your sins trusting in Jesus?” asking if she had personally expressed that to God or if she hadn’t really done that. She thought and said, “Haven’t really done that.” So I offered the prayer to her saying she could pray silently like I wasn’t there and she nodded and took the booklet and prayed to receive Christ. I talked to her about the Christian life and God giving her the power to live it. I gave her 20 Things God Can’t Do and wrote “By the Spirit’s Power” in the front and her name and the date and “Forgiven” in the front. I gave her a Bible Study and she gave me her email to get another one. “Nice to meet you,” I said getting up to go. ‘Nice to meet you too,” She said. “Thanks.” I replied. “Thank you.” She said. And I headed down the hallway towards my truck.

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

In Him,

Bob

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed and you felt near to God. I had a good day on campus and Jackie prayed with me to receive Jesus. Daniella committed to Christ, shyly saying she would pray later.

Daniella was sitting in the hallway outside the bookstore where this year they have set out come counter-height tables with a couple of chairs. She sat at one of these and I asked her if she’d want to do a student survey. She’d done one she said. Cru does surveys but then don’t tell people the Gospel. So quite a few students were not interested to talk to me to hear the Gospel, saying they’d already done a survey. I said this was different and I asked her if she’d like to know how the Bible said you got to Heaven.  “Sure, I don’t have anything else to do,” she replied. She was wearing a shawl wrapped around her shoulders. The AC was pretty cold there, as that stretch is technically underground. Her long, wavy hair was pulled back behind her head. She had a small nose and kind of a heart-shaped small mouth, looked like a country girl.  She went to a Roman Catholic Church. When I asked her what she would say to God to get into Heaven she said, “I mean I guess He doesn’t have to, I mean I wasn’t the best person but you know…”  She was pretty certain she would go to Heaven, 99% she thought nonetheless. I asked how God took away her sin and she said, “Baptism?” I said that was what the Church said took away her original sin, but what about the sins she committed day to day? “Confession?” she guessed again. I said “Well the priest says your sins are forgiven, but the Church teaches only God can forgive your sins. So he is really saying God forgives you. He’s like an insurance agent that sells you insurance for your car. When you crash you call the agent, but he doesn’t pay, the company pays. So God pays for your sin. See, everything belongs to God, even us, so when we sin, even hurting only ourselves, we damage God’s stuff. We owe Him for the damage. But God is just. So what is it that Jesus did that allows God to pay for your sins?” She didn’t know, so I explained the Gospel to her and the imputed righteousness of Christ and she understood it all clearly for the first time. She said she wanted to be forgiven for her sins, so I said she could just pray, telling God she wanted to be forgiven for her sins. I walked her through the prayer, but she was uncomfortable praying just then. So I asked, “Do you believe Jesus is God, died for your sins and rose from the dead? And do you trust in that to be forgiven for your sins?” “Yes,” she said. “Ok well you can talk to God about it later” I said. I explained the Christian life to her, that God gave her the power to do everything he was asking her to do, by His Spirit. I gave her a book Bible Promises for You showing her the Bible verses and how you could pray them if you wanted.  “You are giving me this?” she said. “Yeah, sure, free book,” I said writing her name in the front. I also wrote the date and said, “When you pray later you can write ‘forgiven’ under it later so you can remember.” I also gave her a Bible study explaining that to her. I got up to go. “Thanks,” she said. I nodded in reply and headed off.

I had a couple of good conversations where I got some seeds planted and finally found Jackie at the end of the afternoon. She was sitting along the wall outside the cafeteria killing some time before heading home. She had tan lace up boots on that were unzipped and untied with the laces undone. She wore a spaghetti strap blouse and had an over-shirt pulled off her shoulders half way down her arms. Her skinny jeans were cuffed at the top of her boots. Bright white teeth in a perfect smile, very fair skin and long straight dark hair, pretty. I walked past her not thinking she looked the type to want to talk about God, then silently rebuked myself for the stereotype, turned and asked her to do a survey and she said yes. She told me her name was Jackie and I said, “Like Jackie Kennedy.” “My mom named me after her,” she replied. “She was a pretty lady, you’re pretty too,” I said matter of factly. She actually looked a lot like Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, if a bit smaller in stature. She thanked me. She’d tried college a few times before she said. When I asked her if she died, what she would say to God to get into Heaven she said, “That’s a good question…” she thought for a while and then said, “I tried to be a good person.” She said she was 100% sure she would go to Heaven. I went through the Gospel with her and she knew Jesus had died to take away her sins. She listened to the Gospel and took it all in and I asked her if she’d like to be forgiven for her sins or if she thought something else. “Forgiven,” she replied. So I said, “Do you believe Jesus is God, He died for your sins and rose from the Dead?” “There was a time when I did, I think part me still does inside,” she said, “Baby steps.” As if saying she had belief. So I said if she would want to be forgiven and ask God for faith to believe there was a prayer she could pray and talked her through it and asked if she’d like to pray silently like I wasn’t there. She agreed and prayed to receive Jesus. When she finished I said, “You can keep the booklet.” “I can,” she said enthusiastically, “great.” It was the first unguarded thing she’d said. I said I could give her some books and gave her a bible study on the deity of Christ she liked. Then I thought to ask her if she liked to read and she didn’t and said she was really busy so I gave her the book Bible Promises for You, showing her some of the verses and giving her examples how she might pray them. “Like AA,” she said. “AA says to trust in a higher power so this fits with that,” I said, thinking she might have just told me why it was her third try at college. We had a good talk. I told her I would keep her in my prayers for the next school year and the one after. I wrote her name in the front and the date and ‘forgiven” under it and handing it to her got ready to go. I told her that if she was trusting in the righteousness of Christ to be her righteousness, the likelihood she would go to Heaven was 100%. “It was nice to meet you,” she said offering me her hand to shake. I shook it and said, “It was nice to meet you too,” I said shaking it. I headed down the hall, stopped and wrote some stuff down, but it was late and I had to print up the Bible study so I headed out a side door and saw Jackie crossing to the parking lot in sunglasses. I waved to her and she waved back and headed south.

We had a good time at the bible study, even though no one from last year can come until next week.  We brought pizza and ate together in case anyone else came. A guy I’d just met today David, (big dude, free curly afro who had not received Christ, was walking through the lounge with another black student, Caitlyn (pretty round face long braids they were both big but not fat) and so I called him over for some pizza. They both sat. And ate. I told them Bible Stories and we talked about polygamy and some other stuff they asked about. David left for class and thanked me for the pizza. Caitlyn stayed, so I began to go through the Gospel with her and when her mom called, she invited her in for pizza. Her mom finally found us and took a couple pieces to go. I finished the Gospel with Caitlyn and she understood it much better I think, saying she had asked God to forgive her before trusting in Jesus. She took a Bible study and her mom chatted and said she really felt blessed and complimented Ellen for having such a sweet spirit.

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

In Him,

Bob

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed and you felt the nearness of God. Thanks so very much if you had a chance to pray. God blessed. Maya, Paul, Alec and Nashoana (na show na) all prayed with me to receive Christ today.

Several peeps turned me down (kindly enough, the students are pretty nice at COD) and I finally went through the Gospel with a Christian (Eliza), so that got the rust off a bit. It also helped push out the caffeine from aspirin I had taken for the headache I woke up with, to work it off.

Maya was sitting in the hall down from the dental office at school. She is Latina and had on sandals, a yellow drop-neck blouse with straight leg jeans.  She had a cute wide face, nice smile, tan face, was a sweet person. She went to a Catholic church. When I asked her what she would say to God if asked, “Why should I let you into Heaven?” she said, “I’d say that I’m… I think I’ve lived my life to the point where I’ve helped people. I wanted to help people too. [I think] I deserve to be in, but it’s all right [if He says no] because I know some people deserve to be in more than I do.” I said a lot of people deserve to be in more than me. She thought she had about an 80% chance of going to Heaven. I went through the Gospel with her and the imputed righteousness of Christ and explained we did not go to heaven because of what we had done for God, but because of what we have asked Him to do for us by His blood. She had believed, I think, that Christ had died to take away sin, so I asked her if she was trusting in what Jesus had done for her on the Cross or if she was hoping she’d be good enough. “I think I was hoping,” she replied meekly. I explained she could receive God’s forgiveness trusting in Christ, and the Holy Spirit would live inside her and give her the strength to do anything God was asking her to do. I walked her through the prayer, asking her if she’d like to pray silently and then she silently prayed to receive Jesus. I explained the Christian life to her and walking by the Spirit. I gave her a bible study and 20 Things God Can’t Do, writing her name and the date and “Forgiven” in the front. I explained the content and wrote “By the Spirit’s Power” on the title page.  I explained a symbolic view of the mass, telling her that when it came in the service, it was reminding her Jesus had died for her so she knew she was forgiven and she could just tell God “Thank you.” I told her I would be praying for her and she was grateful.  I got her email to send her a bible study and invited her to ours. As I got up to go she said, “Thank you, it was nice to meet you Bob.” “It was nice to meet you too,” I replied. “I don’t know if I will see you again, but I’ll see ya in Heaven.”

Paul was sitting at a table on the other side of a wall up against the Science building lounge by the vending machines. He had a flower-print Cub hat on turned backward and a Hawaiian shirt (keeping with the theme). He had a beard, kind face, was a nice guy. I asked if he wanted to do a student survey for our Bible study group and he said he went to Church regularly. It was a church I have known of from the past. I told him to tell some peeps hi. When I asked him why God should let him into Heaven, he said, “It’s not my choice to make, it’s my choices that I’ve made.” “So it’s what you have done in life?” I asked. “What I’ve done,” he agreed. “I’ve forgiven myself through Jesus. It’s their decision [the Trinity maybe or the peeps up there?] when I get there for the final test.” He went on to say the test was that there would be a movie of his life and he would have to justify all his decisions. I went through the Gospel with Paul, explaining God had to take away his sin so He could live inside him with His Spirit and asked him how God took away his sin. He told me he had an aunt who was sitting close to God and telling him what to do. It seemed he was talking about the source of his conscience. “Like Karma,” he said. So basically at this point he was wrong about everything he had said. I said the Bible said there was a great cloud of witnesses who might be seeing us but that “this is what has to happen theologically to take away your sins.” I then went through the Gospel, the Cross, the blood of Christ and the righteousness of God imputed to him. He began to say he thought he had started out there, with the Gospel and had kind of gotten away from it. I thought he’d had a kind of “Come to Jesus” emotional moment (from how he described it) and possibly later heard some of the Gospel which he was recollecting. I pointed out that none of his responses to my questions were right, and that he had not, based on them, been trusting in what Christ had done for him to be forgiven. I said, “Say there was some kind of thing at school here and they got Rizzo to come speak (the Cubs First baseman). So we get to be friends and we go and were the first ones in line.” I went on to say that Rizzo offered us spare Skybox seats he had for a game, asking if we want them. We say for sure and tell him our names and he says they’ll be waiting for us at the gate. We show up and give our names and the gate woman says, “Who left them for you? I might have 15 Paul and Bob tickets in here.” “Oh yeah” we say and say “it was Rizzo.” Then you tell her you want to show Rizzo you appreciate it and want to pay something for the tickets. She says that will get her fired, but if you wanna show Rizzo you appreciate the Sky Box tickets, behave well in the sky box. Don’t curse at the umpires or spit on the crowd or something. So I explained that without giving Rizzo’s name, we don’t get the ticket to get in. We can’t pay for the ticket, but we can show our gratitude by our behavior. He saw the metaphor. I also taught him the Matt. 22 parable where the guy in the wrong garment gets thrown into Hell. I explained that the “Wedding Garment” is the righteousness of Christ, and from everything he had said he planned to show up in his own clothes of good works and that is exactly what kept that guy out of Heaven. He realized he had not understood things right and, after I walked him through the prayer, decided to pray to receive Jesus and start over somewhat. He did and I gave him the book 20 Things God Can’t Do and wrote his name, the date and “Forgiven” in the front and “By the Spirit’s power.” I explained then that if he was trusting in Christ’s work and His righteousness, the likelihood he would go to Heaven was 100%. He said he would work on remembering that, and I said “No, ask God to help you to remember it. Everything is by the Spirit’s power.” I gave him a bible study and wrote “Grace” on the top explaining that. I know in the end Paul got it, so I’ll pray knowledge will take root. He thought he might be able to make it to the Bible Study and I hope he comes. I told him I would keep him in my prayers.

Heading out over the bridge I saw Alec, who looked really familiar as I walked by the doors below which led into the SRC right by the bookstore. He had a roman nose from the profile and stick straight light brown hair, wearing jeans and a t-shit, smaller guy. I asked if we’d talked before and he said he had a twin brother [Chris] and people always confused them. He was up for answering some questions though. I sat down and we talked in chairs against the window. I asked him what he would say to God if he died to get into Heaven and he said, “Let’s see… I’ve been faithful this whole time. I’ve kept my faith. I’ve lived a good life. I don’t know what else I’d say.” He thought he had about an 80-90% chance of going to Heaven “at least.” When I explained God had to take away his sins to live inside him, I asked what God had done to take away his sins. He said something like, “He comes inside you.” More or less repeating the question back as a description. So I went through the Gospel with him and it seemed novel. But he accepted everything and wanted to be forgiven for his sins, agreeing he had not understood it all before. So I walked him through the prayer and he prayed to receive Jesus. So that was great. I also gave him 20 Things God Can’t Do and wrote his name and the date and “Forgiven” in the front. Alec goes to a good church I know of, so I’ll pray he grows there. I gave him a bible study and got his email to send him another one and a story and some other stuff. I got up to leave and turned to him and he said, “Thank you.” And I said he was welcome and looped round the rest of the BIC for about 45 minutes, finding no one else to talk to.

I headed back towards where I’d parked by the science building and had kind of a picture in my head to go down stairs and loop around half the building and out. I talked to one Christian who lacked assurance and seemed works-oriented (Saved by faith, stay saved by works kind of thing.) But he had to run to class, so I left him with some quick thoughts and will hope to see him again. Nashoana was sitting just a couple doors down and I walked past her, feeling kind of tanked and planning on going home. But I felt prompted to go ask her to talk, so I told God I would ask but when she turned me down I was done for the day. But she was up for talking. She is African American, from Liberia at one time I think, and her long hair was in kind of loose bending curls. She had kind of a frank, pretty face, with nice features. She wore a t-shirt and jeans. It turned out she came from a religious family. Later, when I offered her a Bible, she said she had one. It was the only one that her family had and it was in her room. I asked if she wanted her own, but she said no, she was the only one who read it. When I asked her what she would say to God to get into Heaven she said, “Oh, ummm… I did my best in life. The best I could, given the circumstances.” She said she thought she had about a 60% chance of going to Heaven. “I feel like it should be higher though,” she added. I began to go through the Gospel with her and when I asked her how God took away her sins, she guessed saying, “I was born.” “Well you have to be born-again” I replied.” “I died?” she guessed again, not understanding me. She really took to the Gospel of what Christ had done to save her though, as I explained God could make good things out of whatever she had done or had happened to her. I explained that God’s not like a bad boyfriend, where, when you say you are sorry and he says, “Well, we’ll see how you do.” God says you are forgiven and He knows the future and has a good plan. I asked if she wanted to be forgiven or if she thought something else, and she pointed with the end of her pen to the circle with God living inside her. So I asked, “Do you believe Jesus is God, He died for your sins and rose from the dead?” “Yes.” she said. “Would you want to place your trust in that to be forgiven?” I asked.  “Yeah. Definitely,” she said with conviction. So I walked her through the prayer and she prayed with me to receive Jesus. I gave her the book Bible Promises for You and showed her some verses and how she might pray them. Putting a star by Eph. 2:10 “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” and showing her that God had good works for her to do, He had prepared knowing the future, and she could pray that He would lead her to them. I explained the other religious texts that did not predict the future. I gave her a bible study and explained it some and she of course kept the booklet. She thought she might be able to come to Bible Study too, so I hope she will. “Well God bless you Nashoana,” I said, giving her a fist bump. “God bless you too,” she replied and I said He had, meeting her, as I headed out.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance. God truly blessed. It was a great way to begin the year.

In Him,

Bob

Third Watch Ministries, NFP                                                      Bob & Ellen Bollow

P.O. Box 1283                                                                                           May 15, 2018

Wheaton, IL 60187-1283  

 ^“Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.  For in this case the saying is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’  I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.” John 4:35-38

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope you are feeling the blessings of the Lord and rejoicing in the knowledge that (if you don’t live in Death Valley, California) summer by summer, life is sweet! I am looking forward to resting from the “always ready” feeling of daily evangelism to do a bit of painting in the summer months. I’ve gotten a bit broken down for it, so I can’t go at it as hard as I once could. Ellen, who does not get paid for her work with Third Watch, will rest from setting up the food for Bible Study and having that commitment each week. Really, without her volunteering to do the not-for-profit administration and accounting, we would have no ministry. We couldn’t afford it.  Her work is a part-time job in itself. So our break is less of a “dead stall” and more of a “switching gears.” She has her other paid, part-time job as well, and we cobble it all together to make ends meet.

I read the verses above from John 4 this week and thought about how God prepares hearts and that many, even most, of the students I speak to have some kind of background in Christian thought as preparation to hear. Many already would say they believe Jesus is God, died for their sins and rose from the dead. But they are still trusting in their works and have not known grace. Some seem to come under the conviction that is true as I speak with them, teaching them the Gospel. A good number of those who receive Jesus are going to church. I went through the Gospel with 480 or so students this year, including over 20 Muslims.  Of these, 155 students prayed to receive Jesus this school year. I am hopeful God will make them complete in Christ and pray for them each by name every night.

I think the thing I teach students that they least often know, in going through the Gospel, is the imputed righteousness of Christ. We are told prophetically in Isaiah 61:10 that one day we will be wrapped in a robe of God’s righteousness. Then in the Romans 13:14 we are told to be clothed with Jesus. The parable Jesus tells concerning this is very instructive in Matthew 22. Here we read that the King (God) sends out His servants to invite people to His wedding feast. The response is shocking, in that the servants are turned down, ignored and some are beaten and even killed. These servants are the prophets of the Old Covenant age. The King sends out his armies to kill the murderers (destroying Jerusalem in 70 AD) and sends the servants out again to round up the otherwise uninvited, scooping them up off the street as it were, to bring them to the banquet. There they are given wedding garments from the King. These garments are the Righteousness of God spoken of elsewhere in the scriptures. But one man shows up in his own clothes. His motive is unknown; possibly somehow he thought his own clothes were good enough. The King asks him, “Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?” And Jesus says, “The man was speechless.” Then sadly he is thrown into “outer darkness” where there is “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” All for wearing the wrong clothes? Yes. We must wear the righteousness of Christ, not think our own works of righteousness are in any way sufficient. One student, who had grown up in a Polish Catholic home, Wojtek, upon hearing this story this year said, “That’s a great story!” realizing he could now trust in the righteousness that was from Christ by faith. Once, we had a washing machine where the spin cycle was spinning so fast it put small BB-sized holes in our clothes. We got rid of it, but every once in awhile a hole appears in a shirt I had not noticed before. I had two in the back of the shirt I wore to church a couple weeks back and Ellen told me when I got home. This is like our righteous deeds. Even our best deeds are like clothes with holes we have never noticed. They are insufficient for Heaven. We must have the righteousness of Christ imputed to us.

These are the peeps that prayed to receive Jesus this school year as a result of going through the Gospel with them. Their stories can be found at http://thethirdwatch.org.  (The names with an ‘*’ said they would pray later.)

Dante, Alex, Xavier, Josh, Samantha, Kayla, Korin, Maria*, Ruben, Nicole, Emrah, Aristaia, Lisa, Phillip, Alex, Brigitte, Razy, Oni, Thomas, Daisy, Caitlin, Joe, Mason, Tom, Jimmy, Luis, Felix, Dan, Jordan, Abby, David, Katie, Stephanie*, Remy, Issac, Tae, Zay, Shannon, Kyle, Jocellyn, Jay, Michelle, Brian, Taylor, Samantha, Jasmine, Zac, Jared*, Walter, Jenee, Annalisa, Nick, Mark, Celine, Peter, Deionte, Zach, Miracle, DeAnte, Kaylin, Chris, Juan, Imani, Honey, Sherin, Mike, Axel, Khardajah, Jenna, Olivia, Conner, Cloe*, Alexus, Destini, Richard, Sal, David, Liam, Hira, Mikaela, Frank, Mathew, Tom, Andrew, Larry, Cole, Alexis, Jennifer, Marcus, Christina, Joseph, Rachel*, Savannah, Grace, John, Emmett, Ramy, Tatyana, Shoniece, Thomas, Naila, Sean*, Gordon, Trinity, Christine*, Michael, Angelica, Tammy, Amani, Hope, Jordann, Fernando, Josh, Jake, Jennifer, Andrea, Jehieli, Abby, Ryan*,Jasna, Serena*, Jacob, Rich, Alan, Thomas, Billy, Justin, Chase, Mallory, Peter, Tony, Kam, Jacob, Terri, Victoria, Daniela, Ashley, Ayowole, Erick, Alli, Belgo, Maria, Aiden, Alisha, Pam, Tamon, Johnny, Nick, Rachel, Rebeca, David, Dan, Frank, Nick, Laila, Torre, Karen, Teresa, Wojtek, Maddie, Fabias, Micah, Jacob and Joe

Thank you for your prayers & financial support, and for sowing & reaping with us this year.  May the Lord bless & keep you this summer.

In Him,

Bob & Ellen

bob.thirdwatch@sbcglobal.net                                                                                           thethirdwatch.org

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed yesterday and you are having a good day today.  Thanks for your faithfulness in prayer. To God be all the Glory, great things He has done, so loved He the world that He gave us His Son. These 5 students each prayed with me to receive Jesus today, Maddie, Fabias, Micah, Jacob, Joe. Sorry this got kind of long for obvious reasons, a bit redundant, but if you’d just pray for these young peeps it would be great.

Maddie was sitting in the hall of the BIC. When I first walked up to her she was the only one sitting there and the hall was empty all the way up and down. She asked how long it would take do do a survey and then consented. She had kind of gold/blonde hair parted on the side shoulder length, cute intelligent, “straight shooter” kind of face wearing a jacket and jeans with her backpack ready to leave. She answered the questioner I do in a snap. “I tried to be a good person,” she quickly replied when I asked her what she’d say to God to get into Heaven. She said she went to a Catholic Church and did want to be cocky so she’d say she had a 70% chance of going to Heaven when she died. So I jumped into the Gospel and the imputed righteousness of God. She knew Jesus had died to take away her sins but she was’t trusting in that and knew it when I finished, she’d been receptive and engaged as I talked so I said “So which person are you or would you want to be? Would you want to trust in what Jesus has done so he’s on the driver seat or the throne of your life living in you with the Holy Spirit? Or is God on the outside of your life? Islam thinks god’s a mystery, his spirit doesn’t come inside people so they have a different god, or the Buddha–he left his wife and child to seek enlightenment so He’s just off trying to get his head straight. He’s not looking for God at all. So would you want to be forgiven or do you think something else.” “I’d want God in the driver’s seat,” she said with a smirky grin. So I said if she wanted she could pray a prayer, saying she could pray it silently so only God would hear and He would forgive her and live inside, would she want to do that. She said, “Yeah,” and prayed silently to receive Christ. She said she had a bible saying the Church had given every one of the 7 kids in her family a Bible (I believe she said when they went through confirmation) so  she said they had “a bunch of Bibles at home” with a smile. I told her she could read in John, explained that the “Word of God” was a nick-name for jesus Jeremiah used and that’s where John got it. Gave her the verses for the Fruit of the Spirit and the book 20 Things God Can’t Do. I wrote her name the Date and “forgiven” in the front and “By the Spirit’s power”. I told her a symbolic view of the Mass, saying it commemorated that Jesus had died and taken away her sins and so when she took it she could just say, “thank you”. I gave her a Bible study and and she was grateful and I got up to leave saying I’d see her in Heaven and she grinned and said, “OK.” She was a great kid.

Over in the PE lounge it was pretty much empty. I stepped into a brief lull in a discussion Fabius and Micah were  having and asked them if they’d like to do a student survey on what they thought about God and stuff. Squinting at me a bit skeptically Fabius relied, “I might be…” He was sitting on the counter with his back to the doors. (A coach later walked half way into the lounge and told him to sit in a chair with gestures he immediately obeyed. I was sitting on the table top across from him by that point and I also obediently took a chair. Micah was more or less sitting pushed back a bit from the table and I looked back and forth as I spoke, Micah on my left Fabias on my right.) To get it going I said, standing between them, “Well it’s questions. So kind of like, ‘Say you are walking down the road and get hit by a bus, so you’re dead and you stand before God and He says why should I let you into Heaven what would you say?'” Micah was wearing athletic shorts and a hoodie jacket, had a beard thicker on his jaw line and a mustache. Micah also had a baseball cap turned backwards curly hair pouring out a bit from beneath, he looked Latino somewhat superficially. Fabias had his hair in braids and they were tied up behind his head the ends tinted, his features were African American (muscular dude) and he wore tight old school cotton sweats and a pull over hooded sweat shirt both dark blue. Micah said, “Oh that is a good question!” and Fabias began to answer saying he didn’t want to boast but he’d been a good person, he didn’t deliberately hurt others. Micah said he tried to do his best and describing that said twice he had tried to “spread His word”. He seemed less convinced of his answer. I summed up for them that they basically hoped they’d be good enough to go to Heaven and they agreed. So I asked them if they’d be interested in what the Bible said about it and they agreed to hear me out. I began to preach them up and I could feel a brief surge of the Spirit as I did, which made me grateful as when that comes (only does occasionally) I sense I am on the right track and felt they might come to Christ. They were receptive (the only interruption was the brief insertion of the coach to where Fabias was sitting, the football coaches are always cool to me and I think he might have been trying to help me out as it made him sit closer). They tracked with me. So finishing with the Gospel and the imputed righteousness of Christ I asked if they would want to trust in Christ’s work to be forgiven for their sins. “I would want to Micah said in a reserved tone, he seemed convicted. I turned to Fabias and said what about you? “Yeah,” he replied solidly. I showed them the prayer they could pray walking them through it and saying they could pray it silently and they each prayed to receive Christ. I explained living inside out and offered them a book, they each chose the book Bible Promises for You and so I wrote their names and the date and “forgiven” in the front, first to Fabias and gave him a Bible study too and he had to get some where and took off. Then did the same again for Micah at the table. He was pleased and I said I would be keeping him in my prayers for the next year and thanked him for talking with me and headed out of the lounge grateful.

I looked around a while and it was getting later. The School had nearly completely emptied out. I kind of have to make myself leave after 3-4 hours because I am just too trashed. I am not sure why it takes so much out of me but it was the last day and I still had some adrenalin going so I thought I’d look for one more person. Jacob was at a table in a big lounge by himself in ground floor of the BIC on the south side (this is sort of the basement on that side, it is built into a hill). He had on a long sleeve, pull over, crew neck white knit shirt, it was tight and he was a big white guy. He had light freckles and an even growth of mustache the end of which broke before touching the beard. Looked like the all-american guy. Light brown hair, straight short on top. Played offensive line. He had this practiced relax going with the faux yawn (which he did here and there as I spoke). The nothing to get excited about here approach, kind of a put on. He said he’d do a survey after checking out how long it would go and answered, what would you say to God to get into Heaven with,”That’s a good question.” He paused and said, “If I were being honest I couldn’t give you a solid reason. I don’t think I’ve done anything that significant with my life yet.” I asked him what the likelihood was he would get to Heaven. He said he wasn’t sure what qualified him to get to Heaven, hoped he’d have a 50% chance and was not super religious. His parents had stopped going to Church, when he was about 10 for some reason he remembered and did not detail. He thought it might have been a Lutheran Church. He listened to the Gospel watching me and threw in the occasional faux yawn. Still I knew he was interested. When I finished I asked if he’d want to be forgiven or thought something else. “I’d want to be forgiven I guess,” casually he replied. If someone is a bit too laid back I pray that God would guide them as I am talking. I did this with Jacob. I don’t want them to pray insincerely. There have been times someone did not pray with me and I was a little relieved. This is also part of the reason I pray for each student who prayed with me each night for a year or more in the hopes that if they have not genuinely come to Christ they will. (Praying Ephesians 3:16-19  often for students.) So I offered Him the prayer talking through what it meant asking if he’d like to pray silently like I wasn’t there and he said, “Sure. Yeah.” He took the booklet and prayed to receive Christ. I explained walking by the Spirit and living inside out. He did not have a Bible so I gave him one writing his name and the date and “forgiven” in the front. I told him the coaches had a Bible study he might like and gave him a card for Compass Church. He asked when the Bible study was and when it would start up. I also gave him 20 Things God Can’t Do. I wrote “By the Spirit’s Power” and illustrated that for him in a couple chapters (none of the Chapters mention a Spirit filled life I don’t want to send a kid into powerless, frustrating, religious obligations). Finally I gave him a Bible study and got his email which he was up for my having which was a good sign. I said I’d pray for him each night. “I don’t know if I’ll see ya again but I’ll pray for ya.” He smiled genuinely at that and said, “Nice to meet ya Bob.” “Nice to meet you too,” I said and headed out. I walked about for a few more minutes and felt the adrenalin crash and I was very tired so I headed home.

As I got in the truck I remembered the girl staying with us until the end of the Semester, Hope, had said her older brother Joe was coming over to study. We’d both been praying he would come to Christ and there had not been a good sense to jump in when I first met him so I prayed God would make his heart receptive and decided I would tell him the gospel when I got home one way or another. I found them sitting on opposite couches when I got home and walking in I asked Joe if he wanted to answer my multi-million dollar question. “Sure,” he said. So I asked for the 400th or so time this semester, “Your walking down the road and you get hit by a bus, so your dead.” “Wait I’m dead?” “Right your dead. And you stand before God and He says why should I let you into heaven.” He said something about how he wasn’t sure about the conditions but he hoped that by the time that happened he would have lived a life helping people. “So you hope somehow you will be good enough to go to Heaven?” He agreed. “Ok well there is a way you get into heaven in the Bible so I’ll show if you want. Hope and I have talked about it and she’s not sure what you’d think.” Hope then said something reassuring about how it didn’t matter if he made up his mind right away. I went through the Gospel with him as he leaned forward to see what I wrote in the booklet on the little end table between us, me on a wicker ottoman we’ve had for as long as he’d been alive. He was wearing Jeans, a t-shirt and work boots, had a days growth of a heavy beard. He is half Latino, basically the classic good looking guy with Elvis hair, 5’9″, checks dimple when he smiles. I had some background on his life, his parents spit and such I could talk about while talking through the Gospel and Christ’s righteousness (using the parable in Matthew 22 where the wedding garment is the righteousness of Christ.) I talked about how God could make bad things into good. He said he’d want to be forgiven for his sins when I asked him. “Do you believe Jesus is God died for your sins and rose from the dead?” He thought only a second and said he did. I said if he wanted to be forgiven for his sins he could ask there was a prayer he could pray and I read it through to him and asked if that’s what he wanted. He said it was.  I said he could pray it silently and I’d give him space and go get a glass of water, “I’m thirsty and I imagine you are used to Hope being around.” When I came back in I asked if he’d prayed and he said he had and Hope said, “Yay!” and laughed. It was a great moment. More so as since Hope came to Christ from speaking with me this semester she’d been praying each of her family members who didn’t know would come to Christ and they had been.  I told him I pray for people when they come to Christ for a year and would be praying for him but that, “Ellen and I did not plan to stop praying for Hope so we’ll just through you in there even after a year went by.” He grinned broadly. I got some Bibles up from the basement for him to pick from and he picked a compact one with a cross on the front. I wrote his name in the front and “forgiven” which he really liked, I also showed him the “Where to Turn” section. I gave him 20 Things God Can’t Do and talked him through that as I do.

They went out for Ice Cream and when they got back Hope came upstairs saying Joe wanted to talk to me about sex before marriage. Then she left for work. So I went down and we talked that through at our kitchen table. He is in a long distance relationship with a girl he met when they lived in Texas. That is a longer story. He planned to call her last night. So we’ve been praying about that adjustment. He is a high truth person, had never really gone to church, but he honestly had never heard in his life before that you were not supposed to have sex before marriage. This is not even a little hard for me to believe. Please pray for him in this regard, it is not easy to back-up that truck.

So Thanks for your prayers for the ministry all this school year and for Evangelism Friday if you had a chance. God has wonderfully blessed. 155 Students have trusted Christ after talking with me on campus that I know of, God is Great.

In Him,

Bob

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed walking in the Spirit. I had a good day on campus and Wojtek (voytech) prayed with me to receive Christ.

Wojtek was sitting in the MAC on the second floor overlooking the lounge at a table. He said he’d answer some questions and seemed to have plenty of time. He was on the short side, said he was Polish and went to a Polish Catholic Church but his name was Czech, this because he had an uncle from Czechoslovakia though his peeps were near the Ukraine. So I think he was named after his uncle. He had a t-shirt and jeans on, short stick straight blondish hair on top, kind of a classic male face. Good looking guy. He had gone to a bible study at a local church on the book of Hebrews with his old girl friend for a while. He was impressed with all they knew about the Bible, “they quoted lot of verses from all over” and had spirited discussions. When I asked him what he would say if God asked him why He should let him into Heaven he said, “I’ve done good and I’ve done bad, I’m catholic, I go to confession. Hopefully I’ve done enough good and when that day comes He lets me through.” He thought he had a 75% chance of going to Heaven. I walked him through the gospel also explaining the righteousness of God that Christ earned. I explained his own religious righteousness was good but it was not what was required to get into Heaven. And that Isaiah taught (Isaiah 61:10) that one day we would be wrapped in a robe of God’s righteousness and in the New testament we are clothed with Jesus (Galatians 3:27).  I told him the parable Christ tells of the wedding feast (in Matthew 22) where one man was not wearing the wedding garment provided. I said,  “Then the head of the feast (the King) said to him ‘Why aren’t you wearing a wedding garment?’ And the Bible says the guy had nothing to say so he was thrown into outer darkness, so Hell basically. You can’t show up in Heaven wearing your own righteousness, even your best things are not good enough.” “Oh good story!” he said with realization. Of course it was a good story–since Jesus made that one up. I told him about a washing machine we used to have that put tiny holes in our clothes so they were ruined. I had gotten rid of most of the wrecked stuff but I had accidentally worn a shirt to Church last Sunday that had two holes I never noticed in the back of it. My wife told me when we got home. “That’s like the good things we do,” I said, “Even our best stuff has holes in it.” I gave him an example of a good action, like letting someone in traffic only to make the guy behind us miss the light which in turn ruined his day and then his life. We need God to control events to be certain any of our actions in an evil world will result in good things. When I was finished going through stuff I asked if he wanted to be forgiven or if he thought something else. He said, “Forgiven”. So I told him he needed then to trust in what Christ had done and tell God he was doing that in a prayer and I walked him through it. I asked him if he would want to do that and he said “Yeah,” kind of slowly realizing it as he spoke. I said, “Just pretend I’m not here.” and he prayed then to receive Jesus. I explained “living inside out”. He had a bible, “In both English and Polish,” he said.  I gave him the book Bible Promises for You, since he had admired the Bible studies he had gone to with his X (where apparently no one had explained his need of the Gospel to him, which was cool for me since I got to). I gave him 20 Things God Can’t Do writing, his name and “forgiven” and “By the Spirit’s Power” in the  front. I explained everything in the Christian life God asks you to do He also gives you the power to do. I explained that during the mass which commemorated that Jesus had died to take away his sins he could simply say, “Thank you.” I gave him a Bible study talking to him about it and got up to go saying, “I’ll see you in Heaven.” “Hopefully,” he replied. “No, for sure,” I said turning back to look at him with a gesture. “For sure,” he said pointing at me with a smile and I took off down the hall to head outside.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance, God truly blessed. There is one day left this year.

In Him,

Bob

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed today and you are enjoying springtime in the USA. It’s been nice to be able to walk around outside on campus the College has a lot of flowering trees that really smell great right now, make me want to have a picnic under them with my wife. Theresa prayed with me to receive Jesus today. I also had an apologetic discussion that lasted well over an hour with a very pretty tall Muslim girl Maryam, who was sitting outside with her hair up and workout clothes on by the MAC arts building. She took my contact information saying she wanted me to talk with her father. Everything she had been told as an objection to the Bible was false but it gave me an opportunity to correct what she had been told and point to some of the flaws in the Quran. I also helped a guy who’d prayed to receive Jesus last year, Eddie, with his philosophy paper for a while.

Theresa was sitting in a chair looking at her phone in the shared lounge joining the Science Buildings. She was wearing jeans shredded over the thighs knees and down to her ankles and had a white blouse on. She looked a little bit Latina she was very short and had a big toothy smile; her brown hair was pulled over the top in front tied together in back. Cute kid with a very bright spirit. She went to Church in the City somewhere every week. When I asked her what she would say to God if she died and He asked her “Why should I let you into Heaven?” she said, “Ooh…gimmie a second.” Then after a moment she said, “I would say I tried to do what your word said, I tried to do the best I could.” She had a Bible with a bookmark sitting closed on the study table attached to the chair she was in and she thought she had about an 88% chance of going to Heaven. I began to go through the Gospel with her and she really tuned in to what I said. When I asked her what the big thing was that God did to take away her sins she said, “He just forgives you.” “Well what is the thing Jesus did so you could be forgiven?” I replied. She thought a second and said, “He died.” “Right he died for you,” I said. And I began to go through the Gospel and explain how Chris died so she would not have to die and that His blood cleansed her from sin making her alive inside and then that His righteousness was to her credit. As I finished I asked her if she would want to be forgiven for her sins with God inside or if she thought something else. “Forgiven with God inside,” she replied. So I asked her if when she asked for forgiveness if thought she was a pretty good person and God would forgive her or if she was trusting in what Christ had done for her and taken that to heart. “No I never thought of it that way,” she replied. So I said if she wanted to trust in what Jesus had done to forgive her there was a prayer she could pray asking God to live inside her and forgive her and I walked through the prayer with her and said she could pray it silently so only God would hear. She was hesitant and had described herself as quiet and shy at the first. So I said I could walk over and get a drink from the drinking fountain and leave her in private for a bit and she agreed. When I returned she had prayed to receive Jesus. I explained living inside out by the Spirit and gave her 20 Things God Can’t Do writing her name the date and “forgiven” and then “By the Spirit’s Power” on the inside encouraging her that anything God was asking her to do He would give her the Power to do by His Spirit. She said maybe next year she would come to the Bible Study and contact me by email, so I hope she will. I told her I would pray for her for the next year. “It was nice to meet you,” I said getting up to go, “It was nice to meet you too,” She said with a big smile. I said, “God bless you.” God bless you too,” she replied and I headed out.

So Thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today, God truly blessed and I go a lot of good things done.

In Him,

Bob

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed and you felt the nearness of the Lord. Yesterday seemed kind of taxing, I was a bit sick a dizzy frankly, came home and had a big headache latter.  I did go through a ton of apologetic stuff with Aziz a Muslim. He had no answers and kind of clandestinely took the Gospel with him that I had used to show him one verse slipping it into his folder from where I had set in on the table. So that was cool. Otherwise it was kind of rough day.

Today I had a good day on campus encouraging some Christians and got a couple good seeds planted and it turned out. Karen prayed with me to receive Jesus but I did not know it at first because it happened after I left her. Also 3 of the students who have prayed with me to receive Jesus this semester were at the Bible study tonight, Hope, John and Rebeca so that was great.

Karen was sitting in the ground floor of the Science buildings in the SW corner lounge at a table studying. She was up for going through some questions with me. Her hair has mostly light brown highlights and she had a wide gap-toothed sweet smile, wider face. She was Latina and at COD in the Nursing program though she lived closer to Tinley Park south of us. She was wearing a blouse and jeans. She was friendly (though she described herself as hard headed) and when I asked her what she would say to God if He asked, “Why should I let you into Heaven?” she said. “Overall I try to do good where I can, try to follow His word as close as I can.” When I asked her the likelihood she would get into Heaven she said, “I don’t know, that’s a good question.” So she did not seem to know or be trusting in her salvation through Christ. So I went through the Gospel with her and she knew Jesus had died for her sins. She listened carefully and I explained that unlike what she had said she needed to be saved by faith in Christ and that His righteousness was a gift to her by faith. She realized all this so I asked her she wanted to be forgiven for her sins trusting in Jesus or thought something else and she said to be forgiven and insisted that she had been in the church her entire life and believed the Gospel already. She was adamant about it so I said, “OK. Well, maybe I just caught you off guard with the question. So this booklet is a way you can share your faith if you had a friend in the Hospital of something and they were afraid they might die, like if they had to be unconscious for a procedure. Then you could show them the verses and lead them to Christ and if they wanted to be forgiven there is a prayer they can pray.” I talked through the prayer and said, “It says here, ‘Is this prayer the desire of your heart?’ So if it was you could have them pray that and then take them to Church maybe.” She liked that idea. So I explained living “inside out” where we ask God to transform us on the inside and they we become good people who do good things on the outside. I gave her a Bible study on the Deity of Christ and she thanked me. Then I said, “So now if I ask you why should God let you into Heaven you’d say?” “Because Jesus died for me.” she replied. “Good girl,” I said affirmingly and she smiled. I got up to go and said maybe I would see her around. Then I talked with a girl just across the lounge, I know, whose name I can never remember, who I always bump into at school. She is a Christian and showed me a book for a class she was taking at Church on mission work and we chatted for a bit. We were only 6 steps away from where Karen was still sitting at another table. I encouraged her and talked about the Holy Spirit guiding her life a bit and left for the truck to head home. I was shot and had to write part of the Bible study yet on Eschatology and never glanced back at Karen. Then tonight, David, the president of our little group on campus mentioned this anonymous girl and neither of us could remember her name, but she’d been sitting near the table before Bible Study the other night. He said, “Yeah, I ran into her and she said a girl prayed to receive Jesus you went through the Gospel with after you left.” “What was her name?” I asked David. “She said her name was Karen” he replied. So I high fived him and said, “Cool.” So I think my nameless friend encouraged Karen a bit after I left, or herd her pray and she decided she had not been trusting in Jesus and now she has! So pretty Great. I wonder how often that has happened before. It is pretty common a student will give the “works saves me” response and then claims to be trusting in Jesus. It must happen at least a dozen times every year. But this time my Christian friend was there to discover it and God found a way to let me know. It actually happened with another guy, Gerardo, earlier in the day. I hope he genuinely trusted Christ too.

So Thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had chance, God blessed the Work.

In Him,

Bob

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope Friday was blessed for you and you sensed the leading of the Lord’s love. I had a slow day on campus and only found 2 people that I did not know, to go through the Gospel with but each of them prayed with me to receive Jesus. A girl Laila who attended a Methodist church and a corner-back on the football team Torre who was from St. Louis each came to Christ yesterday. This got pretty long but if you are up for their storied here they are.

Laila was sitting waiting for her ride in the corner of the BIC building by the doors closest to the MAC arts building where I had just come from cutting through the sunshine. She was wearing a black ball cap with a J on the front, her brown shoulder-length, fly-away hair pouring out from underneath. She had on a long sleeve, aqua blue, t-shirt and black sweats. Her face lit up with a bright smile when she laughed and she wore round glasses with brown frames (large, sort of Harry Potter like). When I asked if she’d like to do a student survey on God and stuff she said she only had 5 minutes so I said, “Well you wanna just answer a short version?” She said OK. So I asked her what she would say to God if she died and God asked her why He should let her into Heaven. “Honestly I’d probably say you shouldn’t. I don’t deserve that.” So I asked what was the likelihood she would get into Heaven and she said 20%.  I said, as I have to hundreds of students this year, “Well Christianity is like a blood transfusion, I have a+ blood so if you have B- blood and you give me a blood transfusion I would clot up and die. So God wants to transfuse His life into you, to live inside you with His Holy Spirit, but first He has to make you His type. But we all have sin in us. The Bible says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And the wages of sin is death. So sin kills ya and God give you life so God takes away your sins so He can live inside you.” I took out the booklet then and turned to the place with some verses on Sin to scribble in it as I talked. She seemed to be tracking with that so I said, “What’s the big thing Jesus does to take away you sin?” She knew Jesus had died to take away our sins and said something like, “He was crucified.” “Right,” I replied. “This is how it works.” I explained she had to live a perfect life from what Jesus said, “You are to be perfect as you heavenly Father is perfect.” She could not do that so Jesus lived a perfect life for her. I explained how Jesus had died so she did not have to die in Hell and when He poured out His blood he poured out His life on the world and His Blood becomes a life force that makes life, all the places we’ve made death. There’s death inside us from our sin and the Bible says, ‘The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin, it turns death into life.’ So now you are alive inside And God can live inside you, it’s like you’re the Energizer Bunny and God is the Batteries, if He lives inside you, you keep going and going and when you die it’s like you don’t die because God’s inside.” That made her smile. I explained then that the perfect life Jesus lived was too her credit. I went on until I had told her she needed to receive Christ by faith and asked her if she would want to be forgiven. She said she would. So I said I know you knew the story but when you sinned were you hoping you were good enough and would try not to do it again and God would forgive you or did you think, “I know I’ll be forgiven because Jesus died for me?” She said she had just hoped she was good enough. So I walked her through the prayer and asked if it was the desire of her heart. “I’d like it to be,” she replied. Then I explained living inside out asking God for His strength to do everything and that God would give her the power to do anything He was asking her to do. So I explained the prayer again and asked her if she would like to pray it silently and she said, “Yeah.” Then she prayed to receive Christ and she was happy. That was great. I Gave her a Bible Study and the book 20 Things God Can’t Do writing her name and the date and “forgiven” on the inside. Saying she could remember this was the day she had been forgiven. I also wrote “By the Spirit’s power” illustrating again that she only needed to ask for God’s power and strength, having told her about the fruit of the Spirit. Her ride had been waiting a bit by then so as she got up to go I gave her the Rose publication “100 Prophecies fulfilled by Jesus” told her that now the likelihood she would go to Heaven trusting as she was in Christ’s righteousness was 100% and encouraged her to email me. “Thank you so much.” She said. “You’re welcome,” I said cheerfully. So hey 7 minutes can change your life.

Torre was sitting in the PE lounge by himself at a table just chilling waiting for a ride. He had an inch high rough afro and a bit of a mustache and chin beard. Good looking kid. He said he went to St. John Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis and he kind of seemed superficially like a Baptist. His plaid shirt with small collar was buttoned up to the top, had jeans on and a black backpack separated us when I sat at the table. He seemed really conservative and reserved. Sometimes the Black students get really serious on me, which is better than the opposite effect. He’d come up here to play football saying it was the only community college in Illinois with a team. He had thin lean build of a defensive corner or a receiver. I asked him what he would say to God get into Heaven and he said, “’Cause I believe that I have learned why He put me on the earth, the reason I was there, like what was my purpose.” I asked him what that was and he said, “To help people and teach people what I know.” So I asked what he knew. “Just like many things how to help people and help people have a better life and why you are here on Earth.” He was 100% sure he would go to Heaven. Not hearing the Gospel in there anywhere I was reasonably certain he was not trusting in the work of Christ on the Cross to save him. I went into the Gospel and there did not seem to be any recognition of the verses as I began so I asked him what the big thing that God had done to take away his sins. He didn’t follow me asking a clarifying question and I said, “Well in History what was it that God did to pay for your sins?” He still wasn’t getting the question so I tried, “What did he do for you personally that took away your sins?” thinking maybe I should be saying “Jesus” and not “God”. But then he responded, “Being at gun point and Him reaching out to that person not to make that decision made a big impact on me. Being closer to death He opened my eyes up more.” He later said he had kind of talked the guy out of it a bit saying he was going to get out of the city and make something of his life. It seemed like someone with a gun, possibly in a gang, had thought Torre was following him when he’d circled around to get into the back of a commercial building, the front door being locked for some reason. “Well, I can see how that would have an impact on you. So you are kind of saying that made you feel closer to God.” He agreed. So I said, “Yeah that’s not what I am talking about,” and I went on to explain the death of Christ to pay for his sins His blood to cleanse him and His righteousness imputed to him. He tracked with me through that so I asked if he would want to be forgiven with God living inside him. “I believe God lives inside me.” He replied. At this point I was completely certain God had not been living inside him since he seemed to know nothing of the Gospel and was not trusting in Christ to save him. So I said that God had to take away his sins by faith in the work of Christ and that it was true that God was with Him as He is with everyone as their creator that this was taking the next step with God where he would be forgiven for his sins and live inside him. It took a bit more explaining and I explained the prayer to him and offered to him asking if it was the desire of his heart. It was. I said that he could pray it silently like I wasn’t even there. “I like to pray personally,” he said. The table was up against the wall of the Gym so I offered to go for a walk over to the other side of the lounge, which is a good 40 feet long, to give him privacy and he agreed. I walked off past the staircase and around it and he took quite a while to pray. I idled away by the vending machines until when I glanced over he had looked up and had finished and I approached him and said, “Amen?” and he acknowledged he prayed.   I showed him living the Christian life by the Spirit’s power. I gave him 20 Things God Can’t Do. Writing “By the Spirit’s power” and “forgiven” and the date in the front and explaining asking for God’s help in everything and that if he trusted in Christ’s righteousness, as Paul did by Faith in the Bible, the likelihood he would go to Heaven was in fact 100%. His ride was leaving but he said he’d get a ride with another guy and we talked some more. His Grandmother had given him his Bible, his parents were not together but his dad was in the picture. I gave him the book Bible Promises for You to give to his mom. He did not know if he’d come back next fall due to money. “Is there anything else I can do for you?” I asked finally. “No thanks I think you did a lot for me,” he replied. I said I would keep him in my prayers and got his Email to send him stuff and headed out.

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

In Him,

Bob