Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed walking with the Lord. I had a really good day and Jenee, {Ja nay} Annalisa  and Nick each prayed with me to receive Christ today.

Jenee was sitting on a bench in the Mac right by the elevators on the ground floor where a couple other students have prayed to receive Jesus this semester. She was wearing a ball cap with a large rose that covered the front and a stem that went down onto the brim. She was wearing leggings and had a pull-over hoodie that said Ashland Oregon on it. She had shoulder length, thick light brown hair that famed her face. Her chin came to something of a point and she wore rectangle framed black plastic glasses. She was not very responsive at all and I was thinking it was kind of a tough way to start the day. She didn’t laugh at anything kids often laugh at that I commonly say and her mouth barely made an expression while I spoke. I couldn’t tell if she had any interest in the Gospel. She said she only went to Church on Christmas to a Catholic Church. When I asked her what she would say to God if asked why He should let her into Heaven she just said, “I don’t know.” She seemed to know Jesus had done something to take away her sins but didn’t know what. She thought she had a 50/50 chance of going to Heaven. As I finished going through the Gospel I asked if she’d want to be forgiven with God living inside her or if she thought something else. “Forgiven,” She replied. I asked if she believed Jesus was God, had died for her sins and rose from the dead and she said, “Yes,” So I explained if she wanted to trust in Christ and what He had done to forgive her she could pray a prayer to receive His forgiveness and walked her through it. She said OK, took the booklet and quietly prayed as I looked down and could barely hear her.  I explained the Christian life to her living inside out and wrote “By the Spirit’s Power” in the front of 20 Things God Can’t Do. I gave her a Bible study and a Bible writing her name in the front and the date she’d been forgiven. I explained that if she was trusting in the Righteousness of Christ to be her righteousness by faith the likelihood she would go to Heaven was 100%. I gave her a card with the Website for Compass Church saying she could listen to some sermons and maybe would like to go there. “I live in Naperville,” she replied. I said they had a church there too. I told her I would pray for her each night and gave her hand a squeeze and said, “God Bless you.” “You too,” she replied with just a slight move of her mouth that might be called a smile and gently squeezed my hand back and I headed up the stairs.

Annalisa was the complete opposite of Jenee as she was responsive throughout so at least I could tell she was tracking. She had walked by me when I was taking a couple bites of an energy bar sitting in a sill seat overlooking the lounge that joins the Science Buildings. I didn’t get more than a glance at the back of her, I think she was walking a guy to class and she turned the corner, but then came back out and sat at one of the tables looking out over the lounge putting her head down like she was gonna nap. I still couldn’t see her face but in the off chance I wouldn’t be ignored I said, “Would ya like to do a student survey for a Bible study group? What ya think about God and stuff?” She looked up at me and said, “Sure.” She seemed like a really nice person and went to Mary Queen of Heaven in Elmhurst. She had long dark brown hair, full lips, red lipstick, looked Italian and had an off the shoulder peasant style blouse on and leggings, pretty. She said she’d like to see the Northern lights. I asked her what she would say to God if He asked her why He should let her into Heaven and she said, “Oh I don’t know.” That is a first response for a lot of people but after a moment she said she really wouldn’t know what to say. “I mean I’m the type of person that always gives to others, I never expect anything I guess.” I said, “The Bible says each of you should consider one another as more important than himself, so that is Christianity, or part of it.” I Went on to explain the Gospel to her but she could not think of what Jesus had done to take away her sins, though it came back to her a bit as I continued. She said she would like to be forgiven as I finished so asked if she thought in the past she would be forgiven because she was a good person and God would forgive her because of that? She agreed that was true. So I explained she could ask for forgiveness based on what Jesus had done for her by praying and talked her through the prayer. She took the booklet and prayed it. I explained living Inside out, by the Spirit’s Power writing that in the front of 20 Things God Can’t Do and the date she had been forgiven with her name, and also gave her a bible study on the Deity of Christ.  I explained a symbolic view of the mass saying even if she was a bit sleepy on a Sunday she could remember that Jesus had died for her and she was forgiven and just say “thank you” when she took it. She gave me her email to send her some stuff. I gave her the book Pocket Prayers too. I got up to go then and she said, “Thank you, I really appreciate it. Thank you so much.” I said “You’re welcome, maybe I’ll see you in Heaven and you could tell me what you’ve been up to and she said, “Of course.” And smiled.

I had been at school for a while and decided to head out so I crossed over to the SRC building and went down the elevator seeing Nick outside the bookstore. He had on sweats and had a shorter mop of hair and glasses, looked a bit like “Where’s Waldo” though not quite as long of a face. He was sitting in some chairs but said he had just done a survey when I asked. “So they told you how to get to heaven and stuff?” He said they had. I asked if he went to church it turned out he was Lutheran and went to church some, “But I mostly just read the Bible.” So I said I had a book he might like and set my pack on the coffee table in front of him to pull out Pocket Prayers showing it to him. So I just decided to ask what he would say to God if he died and was asked by God “Why should I let you into heaven?” “I got confirmed, I was baptized…” he said uncertainly. I said Christianity is like a blood transfusion where you have to have the same kind of blood, God wanted to transfuse his life into him, live inside him with His Holy Spirit but first He had to make him God’s “Type” by taking away his sins. “So what was the big thing Jesus did to take away your sins?” I asked. He didn’t know or remember. So I pulled out a booklet to show him some bible verses and went through the rest of the Gospel and Christ’s imputed righteousness. He wanted to be forgiven so I asked if he had been trusting in Christ or hoping he was good enough to be forgiven. He said he hadn’t been trusting in Christ so I offered him a prayer he could pray and he did. I explained the Christian life living by the Spirit. He said he had 3 Bibles at home so I gave him 20 Things God Can’t Do writing his name and the date he’d been forgiven in the front. He took a Bible Study too but he had to run for his ride. “Thanks for talking,” he said. “Yeah. Sorry I kind of butted in on you,” I replied. “No that’s OK.” And I said I’d keep him in my prayers and he ran down toward the doors for his ride that had texted him.

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

In Him,

Bob