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