Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope you had a great day walking with Jesus.  I had a good day on campus following Him and Kathy and Taylor prayed to receive Christ.  Kathy is Vietnamese, cute kid, straight shoulder-length hair and glasses, French nails.  She was sitting messing around with her phone in the corner of a lounge with a glass wall that looks out on one of the courtyards in the BIC (which looks like it cost about $25 grand to lay out by a landscape architect.)  I sat down at her table with the sun pouring in through the glass wall to talk.  Though her family is Buddhist, she had taken the initiative to attend the Vietnamese church in town.  But I guess internal squabbles of one kind or another led her to leave.  I used some of this to help her realize that she had recognized her relationship with God as her Creator but had not trusted in Jesus as her Savior.  After I went through the Gospel with her, (she had not been able to come up with how God took away her sins with Jesus when I asked) we talked more and she decided to pray to receive Christ and did.  She confessed she’d realized her prayers had really been selfish and about what she was doing, not what He had done.  I gave her a Bible study on Doubt and got her e-mail address to send her more things, encouraging her to come to Bible study.  I also explained the work of the Holy Spirit to sanctify her, as I always do if there is time.  She was still in contact with her pastor so that was good.

Taylor was a quiet, big, African American guy with a full thick beard and short cropped hair.  He was a football fan so we talked about the game a bit.  When I asked him what he would say if God asked him why he should be let into Heaven, he struggled some and finally said, “I don’t know.”  I told him about the Bible study and said I’d show him some verses that would probably settle it for him.  He had had some minimal interaction with Christianity but didn’t really know anything, and lately had felt he would like to begin going to church.  He wanted to have a family.  He was very interested to hear the Gospel and tuned right in.  We had a good conversation.  He wanted to be forgiven and prayed to receive Jesus as his Savior and Lord after I walked him through the prayer.  He did not have a Bible so I gave him one, and also the book Playing with Purpose that has the testimonies of stars in the NBA in it, and a Bible study.

So thanks for praying for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance.  God has really been a blessing this year and I know the prayers of His people are bringing power to the time I spend on campus.

Blessings,

Bob Bollow

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

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I hope you day was blessed of the Lord today and you felt the presence of His Spirit.  I had a really good day on campus and Nia and Joy prayed to receive Christ.  Nia was the first person I talked to.  She was waiting for some friends to get out of class.  She is a very petite, pretty Filipino girl, long brown hair, small mouth.  She was pretty intense and seemed a little fearful from stuff she said, but a caring loving person.  She went to a Catholic church when she was younger but hadn’t any idea how God took away her sin.  But she lasered in on the Gospel.  I asked her, “Have you ever had someone do something really cruel to you and you felt like it killed you a little bit?”  She said she had.  I said, “Well when we sin we created death in the world and Jesus is God and the source of all life.  So when He gives His life for the world He restores life to all the places we have created death in us and others.  And then because we are under the penalty of death for our sins, He dies in our place.”  “Makes sense,” she replied.  So I continued to explain how she needed to trust in what Jesus had done for her to make her right with God, and offered her the prayer at the back of the booklet to accept God’s forgiveness in faith.  She acknowledged the prayer was the desire of her heart when I asked, and said, “Thank you.” She took the booklet from me and prayed to receive Christ.  I explained the Holy Spirit to her and gave her a Bible study on Doubt and the book More Than a Carpenter to read.  Her friends came out of class and she had to run after them.

Joy was sitting in the middle of the science lounge on the stairs made for seating.  She was pretty and had very full facial features and long hair past her shoulders, wearing a knit cap.  Joy was really friendly and wanted to learn.  She was willing to talk and we talked a long time about life and doctrine.  She is from Ghana and wants to become a Nurse Practitioner and return there to run a clinic.  She was very admirable in her goals.  She professed Christianity, but she was trusting in her own efforts to make her right with God and didn’t have much assurance of salvation.  She did not know how God took away her sin.  Even after I explained the Gospel to her, it took a few moments of explaining it again for me to help her understand that she had not been trusting in Jesus to make her right with God even though she was trying hard to do good things.  She was getting a daily reading from Joyce Meyers.  I cautioned her about Meyers prosperity gospel ideas.  Much of her doctrine is false.  But I am careful not to break too horribly bad on a teacher, with a student I just met, whom they have gotten some positive messages from.  Still, if you would like a critique of Meyers this is good: http://churchismessy.com/2013/08/05/why-i-called-out-joel-osteen-and-joyce-meyer/

I have Joy’s e-mail so I will send her the link too. Once she realized she had not been trusting in the work of Christ for her on the Cross, she wanted to pray to receive Him and did.  She was enthusiastic about coming to Bible Study so I am hopeful she will come and get more grounded.

Please pray for Nia and Joy to grow in their new found faith in the blood of Christ to save them and allow God to live inside them, trusting in His righteousness and not their own.

So thanks so much for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance, God bless again today and I had a couple other really good conversations where students came closer to the kingdom of God.

Blessings,

Bob Bollow

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

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed walking with the Lord.  I had a good day on campus sharing the faith and Mike and Maursheka, two African-American students, prayed to receive Christ.  Mike was sitting on the stairs in front of the book store, waiting for a friend.  The guy who eventually showed up was huge, so I think he might play offensive line like Mike.  Mike was a big guy, he had really light skin, loosely curly hair.  When I asked him why God should let him into Heaven, he said he hadn’t done anything really good.  He had been to church as a child.  He listened well to the Gospel as I went through it, and said he wanted to be forgiven for his sins.  He’d had no idea how God took his sins away.  I asked, as I often do, what God did with Jesus to take away his sins but he had no idea.  I told him he could simply ask God to be in a relationship with Him and accept His forgiveness.  I walked him through the prayer and he wanted to be forgiven and prayed it silently.  I explained the Holy Spirit to him and I gave him a Bible study to read.  He said his mom had many Bibles at home and he could get one.  His buddy walked up and gave him a hand to his feet.  So I offered Mike a book and he took More Than a Carpenter to read on his own.  I’ll be praying he gets back into church and finds real fellowship.

Maursheka (mar sheik ah) was sitting in the eastern-most hallway on the second floor of the BIC building.  She had straight hair, tinted in the front and a high forehead, her hair parted on the side.  She was thin, with round cheeks and a long face.  She was very interested in the Gospel and really tuned in.  She seemed like a good person and, like Mike, her mom had taken her to church when she was a child.  She had not remembered any of the Gospel though when I tried to prime the pump of her memory with leading questions.  I couldn’t talk very loud, as we were in a hallway with open classroom doors, but she leaned in, interested in everything I had to say.  So I think the Lord was working strongly in her heart and mind as I taught her the Gospel.  She wanted to be forgiven of her sins and have God live inside her.  When I went through the prayer with her and asked her if she would like to pray to be forgiven she just said, “Yeah.” and prayed to receive Christ.  She had a Bible on her phone but wanted a book, so I gave her one and I gave her two Bible studies to read.  She gave me her e-mail address too so I’ll send her stuff that way as well.  I told her I would pray for her through the end of this school year and through the next, so that made her happy.

So thanks so much for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance.  I know God is using prayers of His people to lead and guide me on campus and I am truly grateful for all your help as I go out.

Blessings,

Bob Bollow

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

“It is possible [through prayer] for the most obscure person in a church, with a heart right toward God, to exercise as much power for the evangelization of the world, as it is for those who stand in the most prominent positions.”
… John R. Mott

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed walking in the Spirit.  I had a great day walking around talking to peeps.  Joe and Dan came to Christ.  Joe attends a Lutheran Church each week, in a small farm community when he goes home on the weekend, but he stays with his grandparents locally all week.  He was just chilling out in the newly revamped PE center at school.  They just spent $59 million on the art center (called the Mac) and the PE building.  They took down my favorite sculpture too, sad story.  I hope they didn’t trash it, but it was WAY too big for my house so it’s not like I could have taken it off their hands.  Back to Joe though, he was wearing a Blackhawks sweater (looked like a real one) and had blonde hair and short, blonde beard.  He was up for talking.  He did not know when I asked him “What was the big thing God did to take away your sins?”.  “I’m drawing a blank,” he said.  So I continued to explain the Gospel to him and the imputation of Christ’s righteousness.  He had thought he was a good guy, thinking he had always chosen the good in situations where there was an option.  But I explained to him he owed God a perfect life as Jesus commands, “So you are to be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect”.  He hadn’t done that, and after I explained he could be forgiven by faith if he would trust Jesus work on the cross he said, “I’ll take it.”  And then he prayed to receive Christ as His Savior and Lord.  He was really friendly and I invited him to Bible study.  And got his email.  He took a copy of Playing with Purpose, a book on testimonies of players in the NBA, and a Bible Study on the Deity of Jesus.  So hopefully he will come to a bible study.

Dan is Roman Catholic and goes to church on Christmas and Easter.  Brown hair, shorter, perfect skin, looked young and Italian if I had to guess.  He was a good kid and once again hadn’t thought of himself as having done anything wrong.  He did not know the Gospel either, but tuned in really well.  He prayed to receive Jesus in the end when I offered the prayer to him.  He wanted to keep the booklet, but did not want a Bible study.  It is hard with some of the Roman Catholic kids I talk to.  They obviously look at the Bible as authoritative, but have not been raised to believe they need to study it.  Many pray, and those that do certainly seem to receive the Gospel in genuine faith.  And Dan was happy to pray.  I offer students the opportunity to pray but never persuade anyone to do so who is the least bit hesitant, but then just encourage them to think about it.  But I often feel like I have left them with so little.  Still I know the Holy Spirit has entered them if they genuinely believed, and this, with prayer, will carry them.  This is why I ask for prayer for whoever has prayed to receive Christ, and pray each night for them through the end of the following school year.  It is often the only way I have of watering what was planted, asking God to bring the growth through some kind of guy like Apollos watering (1Cor. 3:6  “I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth”).

I bumped into a guy who had prayed to receive Jesus a couple years back [DJ] and he was still walking with the Lord.  So I gave him a Bible study.  His friend, who I’ve chatted up b4 about the Gospel of God and follows Christ, Kaylee, came into the room where we were in the Mac by the pond and they told me how they see me around and how much they liked talking to me and were really encouraging.  So that was a good thing today too.

So thanks for your prayers for the Ministry and for Evangelism today if you got a chance.  I am truly grateful, and I know it is how God works.

Bob Bollow

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

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Hope ya had a great day today walking with Jesus.  I had a good day on campus and Larry prayed to receive Christ today.  His father is a pastor, but Larry did not know the Gospel, or how God took away his sins.  When I explained that Christ’s righteousness was his he said, “That’s great.” never having understood this before.  He is an African American guy from out of the area, here to play football.  He was standing on the second floor balcony, overlooking the stairs next to the elevator by the bookstore, dressed in a College of Dupage hoody.  Just a regular looking guy, kind of a round face, maybe 5′ 10″, 2 inch afro.  He said he prayed every day and had a Bible at home (many of the athletes from out of COD’s area live in Apartments across the street from school as he does).  I talked, as I sometimes do, about meeting Derrick Rose at a club we were at and we both have Bulls caps on.  “Turns out Rose has extra tickets for his sky box, and we look like fans.  He wants to know if we want to go that night, so we say we do and he takes our names saying he will leave them at the gate.  So we show up and we say our names and that there are tickets left for us.  The girl at the gate asks, “Who left you the tickets?” I say, “Hey I’m Bob don’t you have a ticket for Bob in there?”  She says, “I could have 15 Bobs in here, you have to say the name of who left you the ticket.”  So finally I say, “Derrick Rose,” and she finds the tickets and we go in.  That is like our salvation.  We have to claim the name of who provided it for us by His death on the Cross, or we can’t pick up our ticket to Heaven.  We have to trust in Him and His righteousness and death for us.” I also said, “Good works are like if you know a guy who owns a train line and he gives you a ticket to ride anywhere.  You get to the train station and see some garbage laying around and think of your friend who owns the line and figure he’d appreciate it if you would pick it up.  So you spend 20 minutes picking garbage up.  But you are not trying to earn your ticket, the owner already gave you a free one.  You are just trying to show you appreciate the ticket and you love your friend.”  Larry liked the analogies and we talked a bit after I explained to him that, not knowing the Gospel, he had never asked for his sins to be forgiven in faith.  So he read the prayer through again after I explained it, and then prayed it when he agreed that was what he believed.  When I said many people attend Church but are not trusting in Christ’s work on the Cross to forgive them, he said, “I was just telling my roommate that going to church did not mean you were a Christian.”  “Yes,” I said “but you meant that he also needed to be moral and live to please God.  And I agree.  If a guy does not live to please his master, it probably shows he does not really believe he has a master or love him.  But it is Christ’s righteousness, not yours, that gets you to Heaven,” explaining this by ‘extra credit in a class’ as I sometimes do.  I got his e-mail and gave him a Bible study on the Deity of Christ.  I gave him the book, Playing with Purpose, as many athletes have told me they liked it this year.  I gave him an extra booklet to talk to his roommate with as well.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance.  God used them.  Please pray Larry will grow in his faith.

In Him,
Bob Bollow

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

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
How’s the life?  I hope you had a blessed day walking in the Spirit.  I had a good day walking about on campus where two girls, Erika and Denaisha (Den-asia), prayed to receive Christ.  I also had some good encouraging talks with some peeps.  I started to talk to a guy who I later learned was Anton, an athletic looking African American guy with an afro.  He said, “I’m interested but I have to go to class.”  So I gave him a booklet to read in the hope I would run into him later.  He passed me in the hall later in the afternoon walking with two other black student friends, Louis, a tall thin guy and Jemari, a bit shorter and stocky with a shaved head.  Anton said, “Hey I read through part of that booklet it was good.”  So I stopped them with a question, “Great, so how does God take away your sin, what is the big thing Jesus does?” “He died,” he answered. I said, “Right” and then I went into some analogies about how God’s Spirit in us is like a blood transfusion.  We have to be made His type by Him taking our sins away so He can transfuse his life into us and live inside us.  I told them “It’s like you are the energizer bunny and God is the batteries.  If he lives inside you–you keep going and going and when you die it is like you don’t die because you go to Heaven.” I talked them through Imputation; like extra credit in a class where you were getting a zero but you are given another student’s extra credit who dies and is the teacher’s pet and had 1,000 extra points in a class where only 10 peeps are left.  They were really enthusiastic and Jemari said, “Hey can I have one of those booklets too?” and Louis said, “Me too.”  They were from a church background but had not clearly heard the Gospel before where they received the righteousness of God by Christ’s imputed righteousness which was to their Credit.  I showed the prayer they could pray to be certain they had committed to trusting in what Christ had done for them.  So I am hopeful they either came to saving faith or at least understood things better.  I gave them each Bible studies I had in my satchel, a couple on the prophecies of the Messiah and to Anton one on the deity of Christ.

Denaisha was sitting by the doors waiting for a ride and said she’d answer some questions.  Shy, thin, quiet girl, African American but her features were white though she was dark skinned.  She wore her long hair in braids that were curled and fell down past her shoulders, her hair had some highlights and looked like about 16 hours of work.  She was 100% sure she was going to Heaven and had been attending a Baptist church in St. Louis.  But they had not found a new Church up here.  She didn’t know how God took away her sins however, even when I tried to prompt her by saying, “What is the big thing Jesus did to take away the sins of the world?”  So I explained the Gospel to her slowly and clearly with the analogies I use and the Bible verses in the booklet and some others I throw in.  She said she wanted to be forgiven when I asked and so I said she could ask to do so and walked her through the prayer reading, “Does this prayer express the desire of your heart?”  She read it through again to herself and said, ‘Yes.”  So I offered her the prayer to pray, asking her if she would like to pray it in her head to God and she said she would and did.  As I explained the Holy Spirit to her and trusting in God’s power to live the Christian life, her ride called.  I gave her a Bible study and the book More Than a Carpenter to read.  She did not want to get emails and ran for her ride and I told her I’d pray for her.

Erika was sitting in one of the cubbyhole overlook, looking down onto the science building lounge.  She is studying to be a nurse. Long dark hair, cute, olive-colored skin.  Her dad is a pastor and when I asked her if she stood b4 God, why should he let her into Heaven, she struggled a bit and said, “I followed the Bible.”  I said, “That’s a good answer,” and asked her if she thought she was going to Heaven.  She was sure she was and so I asked her how God took away her sin.  She knew Jesus died and I started talking her through how God lived inside her and said, “Here I’ll just show you this booklet to help you share your faith.”  I walked her all the way through and she enjoyed it.  Then at the end I asked her if she had been truly trusting in what Jesus had done for her on the Cross to save her and make her right with God, asking Him to forgive her based on that, or if she had been going to church and was raised a Christian and just thought she was ok.  She thought about it for a moment and said, “I have never done that.”  I said “Well you can” and I walked her through the prayer and asked her if she would like to pray it.  She said, “Yes,” and did.  She had to run for class, but I got an explanation of the fruit of the Spirit in, and she (not liking to read much) took a Bible study and a copy of a new DVD we just got to hand out this year “Jesus Fact or Fiction”  It has the Jesus film on it and 50 short answers to questions about the Christian faith.  She gave me her email and as she ran off she said, “Thank you, that helped a lot.”

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry today and for evangelism if you got a chance.  I had a great day.  Please pray for Erika and Denaisha to grow in Christ and for the guys Anton, Louis, Jemari to truly commit their lives to Him.

Blessings,
Bob Bollow

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

Hey Brothers and Sisters n Christ,
I hope your day was blessed and you felt the nearness of the Lord.  I had a good day on campus.  Got some good seeds planted giving away some books and Samantha and Angelica prayed to receive Christ.  Samantha was sitting looking out the window by the Book Store just killing time.  She said she’d answer some questions about God.  She is a pretty girl, long brown straight hair. She went to a roman catholic church around the corner from her.  She had no assurance of salvation, however, and had never thought about why she might go to Heaven much if at all.  But I could tell she was a really nice person.  She’s the first girl I’ve met that actually went skydiving.  But she was interested in the Gospel and had a Bible at home.  She did not know how her sins were forgiven.  Her friend walked up and heard about half of the Gospel as she waited for Samantha.  After I went through some bible verses with her, when I asked, she said she wanted God to live inside her and be forgiven.  I showed her a prayer and explained it to her and said she could pray it in her head as if I wasn’t there.  She did and I gave her a bible study and got her e-mail to send her stuff.  I offered her friend a booklet and she took it saying, “Yeah. I heard about half of what you said.”  I told her if she had any questions she could ask Samantha.  So that was great.

Angelica was sitting by one of the second floor exits facing south.  She looked a bit like Selena Gomez in this picture.
I did not mention this however, as the person pictured went out with Justin Bieber so it might be an insult.  She was playing with her phone a lot but answered questions and listened to the Gospel.  I was a bit surprised she wanted to pray to be forgiven at the end.  I have kind of learned my perception of how much people are taking in is not perfectly on target.  But she did pray with me and took a Bible and a Bible study.  She had gone to church when she was younger and gave me her email to send her some stuff once in a while.  So I’ll be praying that an understanding of the Gospel grows in her and really takes root.  If people are at all hesitant I encourage them to pray about it and wait.  She wasn’t though, it was just hard to sense she was into what I was saying until the end. She was a nice kid.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a moment.  I know through the Spirit and prayer the Lord works.  My class begins next Tuesday.

In Him,
Bob Bollow

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

”’For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare

 and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope.’” Jeremiah 29:11

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

How’s your autumn going?  I looked it up, (somehow I forget this because I have looked it up in the past) when winter starts and autumn begins.  Having spent the morning snow blowing the driveway, my kindly neighbor did the east to west part of my sidewalk (thanks Tom!)  I now doubt my googled discovery of December 21^st, the winter solstice, still a good week away as I write.  The Scripture says we should know the seasons of life in a metaphorical sense.  We read in 2 Tim. 4:2:  “…preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.”.  This obviously is a lot to do, and just like living in Chicago, takes some elasticity because life holds the unexpected.  I’m not sure where it is still autumn, but in Chicago it is winter and going down to 8 degrees tonight.

One of the first things to remember in being in the will of God and walking by the Spirit is to continue to trust that God has a plan.  This is not easily done when we encounter sorrow, or get hassled by cops for talking to peeps about God on campus.  But if we believe God has a plan we know it makes sense.  I move around a lot from building to building so as not to give a bureaucrat opportunity to call the police on me.  And if they do not have a complaint they leave me alone, so far.  Not that God doesn’t do things we don’t expect.  This will always be true, but He will also warn us and give guidance.  If we are often sick, possibly we should seek out better nutrition, or think about wearing a warmer coat.  We can hope in wisdom to fit into the world and God’s work in it.  We don’t believe God is utterly random and chaotic.  This gives us comfort to trust that we have done our part and the rest is simply God’s plan, though it may include pain or grief.  I once heard Warren Wiersbe opine, “God heals every disease but the last.”  We can ask for things to see what God’s will may be.  Paul writes concerning his wish to come to Rome in Romans 1:10: “…always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you.”

God wants us to take comfort by His Holy Spirit, but that comfort is a deeper faith in Him, not necessarily in changing our circumstances as we may wish.  “But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you.  Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you: not as the world gives, give I unto you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful.” John 14:26&27

Fortunately for us Faith is a gift, (Eph. 2:8) not something we just need to suck up and gain by force of our own will.  So we can ask for more Faith , ask our faith to increase beyond measure: as that is what the Greek word huperauxano actually means, translated “greatly enlarged” in. “We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, as is only fitting, because your faith is greatly enlarged, and the love of each one of you toward one another grows ever greater;” 2Thessalonians 1:3

We have been blessed this year and been able to continue in the work on campus.  Next semester I am going to take a credit class so I will be a student talking to students on campus, hoping this gives me more rights, and being of this mind – continued courage.  We will be hosting a Christmas party in our home for current & former students on Dec. 21st.  We feel so fortunate to have these relationships

These are the names of the 51 students who have prayed to receive Jesus this semester.  (An * means they did not pray with me but committed to Christ as Savior.) This was made possible by the Power of God through your prayers & help.  As you read through their names would you please pray for their faith to increase beyond measure?  You can read their stories on our website: http://www.thethirdwatch.org/

Michelle, Soe, Kristine*, Samantha, Teddy, Misael, Aja, Shaya,

 Mark, Kamera, Dontrel, Ryan, Kayla, Zach, Jewellel, Brian*,

Frangela, Theresa, Brittany, CJ, Lucia, Luis, Ryann, Nick,

 Laversa , Martin, Ana, Karen, Zach, Kyra, Precious , Meishan , Brandon, Edwardo, Andy, Maria , Edwardo*, Rob, Maribel, Kyanna,

 Joel*, Montez, Dylan, Dionnie, Kevin, Matt, Taylor, Tracy,

 LaDonte, Shanice, Amber, Andrew, Teresa, Nadia and Patrick

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours!  May you feel the love of God surround you fully this season and in 2014.

In Him,

Bob & Ellen

email: bob.thirdwatch@sbcglobal.net

website:  www.thethirdwatch.org

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

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was a blessing from God, walking with Him.  I had a good day sharing the faith with some peeps.  Dylan prayed with me to receive Christ.  He had short, light-brown hair and a short growth of beard.  He was sitting in the cafeteria and I asked him if he wanted to answer some questions about God.  He said, “I’m really into God, I’ll do that.”  He then made sure the questions were endorsing God and not against Him and I said they were.  He had heard the Gospel and someone had been telling him some doctrine, but he seemed to be thinking he’d try his hardest and hoping he was forgiven.  He said he knew you could not just be good and get to Heaven.  So I went through the Gospel with him and asked him if he had been trusting in Christ and His death and on the Cross to make him right with God and forgive him.  He said he had thought about Christ and the cross b4.  So then I asked, “But you never really committed to it?” And he said, “No I haven’t.”  He’d only thought he had a 50/50 chance of going to Heaven.  But he did say he wanted to be forgiven, so I read the prayer in the middle of the booklet through with him and explained it and he said, mostly to himself, “Powerful stuff.”  And he prayed to receive Christ.  I explained the work of the Holy Spirit to him, encouraging him to go to church and gave him a Bible study and The Case for a Creator to read as he said he was interested in science but he believed God created the world.  I explained it would strengthen his faith to read the book.  He was really grateful and I asked him to email me and he said he would, and I left him to finish his french fries as he only had a few minutes left to make it to class.

I also got to go through the Gospel again with a guy Sam, who had been sitting with his friend Josh who had come to Christ last year.  I had been praying for him each night since last year, as I thought he was close.  He still did not commit to Christ but had been going to church pretty regularly with his Uncle.  So I felt like that was an answer to my prayers and I’ll keep praying for him.  We had a good Bible study today too so that was great.

So thanks so much for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance.  I can assure you they are having an impact as I go about led by the Spirit.

In Him,

Bob Bollow

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

How was your day?  Hope you were blessed with something good from the Lord.  I had a good day, I saw God make a dent on a couple of relationships I had prayed about a bit and Montez came to Christ.  He’s a light-skinned African American, curly hair and bit of a mustache, wearing a white hooded pullover sweatshirt.  He said he was getting out of the military officially tomorrow and planned to start “looking for a church”.  So I was happy I came upon him in God’s perfect timing as he was ready to hear the Gospel.  When I asked him if he knew how God took away his sin so He could live inside him he simply said, “No”.  I tried to feel him out about it a bit, but he had no knowledge of the work of Jesus to save him.  I told him he was required to live a perfect life but Jesus lived this life for him, explaining the imputed righteousness of Christ (Rom. 13:14, Is. 61:10).  It was pretty cool because as I explained the Gospel to him he kept saying, “Wow”.  And I was starting to be very hopeful he would pray to receive Jesus and after saying he would like to be forgiven for his sins I offered him the prayer in the booklet and he gratefully took it and prayed.  He repeatedly thanked me and I could tell he was happy to be forgiven.  I gave him the NBA book I have to give out this year, Playing with Purpose.  It has Christian testimonies of some NBA guys.  I got his e-mail to send him some stuff too.

I had a good conversation later with a Catholic guy, Steve, that really clarified things for him and a good day talking to a few of the peeps I know walking around.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism for me today and to keep the cops away from me too.

I think things are going to get harder over time in the US.  Here’s a news story that would suggest this of a guy trying to share the faith in a N.J. Mall: http://christiannews.net/2013/11/10/retired-police-officer-arrested-for-sharing-gospel-in-new-jersey-mall/

 
Blessings,
Bob Bollow