Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed today. I had a good day on campus and David [or Dawit as I think he later said his name was in Eritrea] prayed with me to receive Jesus as his savior.  I’ll be going out to teach the students the Good News of Jesus and His sacrificial love for us later today and I’d be grateful for your prayers.

He was sitting in a ground floor lounge on the North side of the BIC. He was wearing Jeans and a jacket and killing time before class. He had a thin build like me and was as dark as I am pale this time of year. He had kind of a rough afro. Nice and friendly his accent was a bit heavy. I was not sure how well he could understand, so I spoke steadily. It turned out that like many where English as a second language speakers he could understand what was spoken better than he could speak it. He seemed to have all the right answers. When I asked him one thing he wanted to do before he died he said, “Serve God.” And as to what he would say to God to get into heaven he did not think long and said, “Because I already accept God, I believe in Jesus, I hope He will let me into Heaven.” “100%” was his response as to the likelihood he would get into heaven. This almost lead to the rookie mistake of assuming he was a Christian breezing through a bit of the booklet and hitting the road with friendly greetings with another believer. But I’ve learned since the first couple years of contact evangelism. Even when people would get the answers wrong and or say they had believe in Jesus I take the opportunity to go through the Gospel with people, I know from experience some realize what I was talking about later after God’s Spirit percolates it in them for a while (when I speak with them after some time has passed). But in David’s case I thought I would just teach him a bit and let him hear the verses in English so he could communicate them, I thought he was redeemed. So though it was close to class time I went pretty slow and he took it all in. But pretty quickly I realized he did not understand the Gospel. I asked what was the big thing Jesus had done to take away his sin and he did not know at all. So I explained the atonement to him and he stopped me just before I could illustrate Christ’s imputed righteousness and said he only had a minute to get to class. So I stopped using illustrations and said it was not enough to believe in Jesus and that He would kindly let him into Heaven, he had to believe Jesus was God had died for his sins and rose from the dead and trust in that, this is what it meant to receive Him reading him John 1:12. Then I explained he could be saved by faith, reading Ephesians 2:8.9. He kept listening and said in explanation for why he had not understood and trusted in the Gospel, “I do not read my Bible. I go to church every week but I do not read my Bible.” I said if he wanted to trust in Christ there was a prayer he could pray and I read it through with him explaining as I went. “This is good!” he said as I finished. “Do you want to make this your prayer as you were reading it through with me?””Yes,” he replied. “Amen?” I asked. “Amen!” he replied confidently and with visible joy. It was great. I hurriedly gave him a Bible study and 20 Things God Can’t Do and the booklet I had used some of the verses from. I explained everything God asked him to do He gave him the power to do “By the Spirit” writing that in the front saying, “If God asks you to forgive ask Him for a forgiving spirit, if He asked you to trust Him so He can Guide you ask for more trust.” He smiled and shook his head standing to leave. I had just written his name and the date and “Forgiven” in the front. He very happily thanked me I said he could email me he said OK ran off to his class. I thanked God then that I had decided to go through the Gospel with him and not just leave him a booklet.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and yesterday for evangelism and today if you have a moment. God lead me to another who needed to hear.

In Him,

Bob