Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed yesterday and life was good. I had a headache that finally lapsed after a few hours, so I went to campus and Chase and Gillam each prayed with me to receive Jesus. So that was great. 11 students prayed to receive Jesus this week and 2 others committed to Christ saying they would pray later.

Gilliam was sitting in the cafeteria at the counter looking outside, about to study something. But she said she’d do a student survey. Her blondish hair was up in a bun and she had on running shorts and a v-neck shirt. She had a pretty smile, cute perky looking kid, small nose looked kinda sporty. She was faithfully attending a Roman Catholic Church. When I asked her what she would say to God if He asked “Why should I let you into Heaven?” she said, “I don’t know,” and then pausing said, “I mean it’s really up to Him.” She thought she had about a 65% chance of getting into Heaven. She was not sure what Jesus had done to take away her sins, but the story seemed to come back to her a bit. And after I explained that Jesus had lived a perfect life, had died in her place and His blood cleansed her, I said, “That’s really what the mass symbolizes. The wafer is His body broken for you and the wine symbolizes his blood that cleansed you. It is reminding you He died for you and so you are forgiven, so sometimes you don’t know what to do in the service right then but you can just say ‘thank you'”. “Thank you,” she repeated in a bright tone of understanding. I then explained how Jesus’ righteousness was to her credit. He made good things out of our bad things and we were saved by faith. I asked her if she’d want to be forgiven, with Christ inside, trusting in Him or thought something else and she said, ‘I’d want to be forgiven.” I said, “Well, you grow up in the Church and maybe don’t think about it much. But now you are in college and have to decide for yourself. So if you wanted to place your trust in that, there is a prayer you can pray.” I explained it, reading it through and she said, “I like that.” I said she could pray it silently now and she’d know she was forgiven. “Right now?” I said, “Sure, not like I’d hear you, but God would hear.” She checked again if she should pray it out loud and I told her no only God needed to hear. And she prayed to receive Jesus. I gave her 20 Things God Can’t Do writing her name and the date and “forgiven” in the front and a Bible study she could read. I explained living by the Spirit’s power to her. Just asking for help from Him. I said that if she was trusting now in Jesus righteousness to be her righteousness, the likelihood she would go to Heaven was 100%. “God bless you,” I said. “God bless you too,” she replied. “Thanks for talking with me,” I said in leaving. “Of course,” she replied. And I headed out.

I had some long talks with some students I knew from last year who were not Christians.  I walked one theist, who had not settled on Jesus yet [Bill] but was in another philosophy of religion class, to the bus stop, and he gave me his thoughts on where he was at. He was in the middle of 5 books and did not want another one.

I headed into the BIC and the hall was pretty empty as it was getting into the afternoon. But I found Chase sitting on a bench with a basket ball sitting beside him, his duffle bag at his feet. He had a short afro and a bit of facial hair lip and chin, good looking guy, lean with a round head. Friendly, warm smile, seemed laid back. He had on basketball shorts and a plain white t-shit. He was over 6’4″. Friendly. He’d gone to Church in life, and his mom made sure “we all had bibles”. When I asked him why God should let him into Heaven he said, “I would hope to say, ‘I did what He asked me to do… hopefully.” He thought he had a 50/50 shot to go to Heaven. As I went through each point of the Gospel he repeatedly said, “Makes sense.” And said he want to be forgiven when I asked at the end. I said it seemed like he hadn’t had a chance to put all this together before so he could trust in it and he agreed. So I said if he wanted to place his trust in Jesus there was a prayer he could pray and walked him through it. He said, “Makes sense.” again and when I said he could pray it quietly and be forgiven he said, “I’ll do it.” And he did.  I said he could keep the booklet and he held out his hand to shake mine and said, “Thank you.” I shook his hand and I explained the Christian life was asking for God’s power through the Spirit to do anything He was asking us to do. I gave him a Bible Promises for You book writing his name and the date and “forgiven” in the front and “By the Spirit’s power.” I also gave him a Bible study, which he liked. Then it seemed like he had to get somewhere. I told him I would keep him in my prayers through next year and he said, “Thank you, thank you,” and threw the book in his duffle with the Bible study and headed down the hall. My headache was coming back and the school was basically empty so I headed home.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism on Thursday of you had a chance. God truly blessed.

In Him,

Bob