Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Thanks for your prayers for the ministry if you had a chance today. Sandra & Monsieur each prayed with me to receive Jesus today so that was great.

Sandra was wearing a pink Peasant style short sleeve blouse and blue jeans. She had long blonde hair parted a bit to her left and then zagging back toward center. She had those beauty mark freckles some peeps have, really pretty girl in kind of country girl kind of way. When I first asked her if she wanted to do a survey she said she’d already done one but would do another. (As a side note: there have been over 15 students who did not want to do a survey from a Bible study group because they’d already done one that did not present the gospel. Doing these kind of surveys as another group on campus does, keeps students from hearing the Gospel later from me, often. Paul says of his own work in Acts 20:26 “Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of everyone’s blood, 27 for I did not shrink back from declaring to you the whole plan of God.” If we do things that keep people from hearing the Gospel we are responsible for their blood.) When I asked Sandra what she would say to God if He asked her why He should let her into Heaven she said,” Well, because when I look at others I do not treat them [differently] one person better than the others, everyone’s equal.” She thought she had an 85% chance of going to Heaven and knew Jesus had died for her. She attended a Roman Catholic Church. She listened to the Gospel and affirmed the points I made, knowing Jesus had died. “You should be a priest,” she said. “You make this so relatable.” I said, “I’m a pastor.” “I’ve thought before being a priest would organize everything for you but my wife does that and I wouldn’t want not to be married, I really like my wife, she’s really nice to me.” She accepted that as a good reasoning. So I asked her if she would want to be forgiven for her sins trusting in Jesus to forgive her. She pointed with a long powder blue finger nail touching the circle that represented trusting in Christ. So I asked her if when she asked for forgiveness for her sins if she was hoping she was good enough to be forgiven or had really been trusting in Jesus. It was hard to help her understand what I meant. “I’d really say that I’m as far away from being a good person as I can be. (She meant far along at being a good person) People have abused my good nature for years.” Earlier in talking she seems to have an abusive parent and had had a bad boyfriend. I said that she was trying to live a Christian life on her own and I read the quote in the back of the booklet “Your walk with Christ depends on what you allow Him to do in and through you empowered by the Holy Spirit, not what you do…through your own self effort.” I said Christianity was living inside out by the Spirits power where first you become a good person by asking Him to change you and then you do good things. I said God could also give her the power to forgive the people who had hurt her which otherwise was almost impossible. I explained the prayer to her to receive Christ and she said “That’s right.” I encouraged her that if she receive Christ the Spirit could live inside her giving her strength to be good, not trusting in our own goodness. I encouraged her to pray when she said she had to go to class soon saying if she would I would pray for her each night until spring and one year after that asking God to give her strength to trust in Him. She decided to pray to receive Jesus. Please pray for her to seek God for the strength to forgive. I quickly gave her a Bible study then and said I had a book for her, “You’re going to give me a book!” she said enthusiastically. I gave her 20 Things God Can’t Do showing her the page on forgiveness and saying when I found it hard to forgive I asked God for a Spirit of forgiveness and for his power. I Wrote her name and the date and “forgiven” in the front and gave her a card with our numbers on it saying she could text Ellen or I a prayer request anytime. She stood to go as we were sitting at a table in the Cafeteria and reached over the table to shake my hand saying, “Nice to meet you. Thank you.” “Nice to meet you too,” I replied and she headed off. And seemed happy.

Monsieur was sitting in the MAC arts building lounge. He was a big burly black dude with a thick beard and mustache, wider nose, dark tanned skin. Had a nice smile though, kind face. He wore black jeans and a black t-shirt and a ball cap with a company name on it. He went to a church that was Bible based every Sunday. When I asked him what he would say to God if he died and was asked why He should let him into Heaven, he said, “I would..” thought about this too… “I did right by everyone else and treated everyone like I wanted to be treated; I never held animosity toward myself.” He thought he had a 99% chance of going to Heaven. He knew Jesus had died for him and after I had gone through the Gospel with him I asked if he wanted to be forgiven or thought something else and he said something like “Yeah that one,” pointing at the right circle with God inside. So I said “When you asked God to forgive you before were you thinking I’m a pretty good person and go to church and based on my past record I think he’ll forgive me or were you thinking I know I’ll be forgiven because Jesus died for me?” The first one he said with a “caught me” kind of grin. So I said, “Would you want to be forgiven though, trusting in Jesus.”Yeah,” he replied. So I talked him through the prayer and said he could pray it right now and only God would hear, “Give it a shot?” I asked. “Out loud?” he asked holding the booklet. I said no just silently. And he took the booklet and prayed to receive Christ. When he finished I said enthusiastically, “Your sins are forgiven man! And gave him a fist bump. I went on to explain the Christian life living by the Spirit. He had his own Bible and I encouraged him to read in the book of John and explained the fruit of the Spirit and living inside out. I told him I would be praying for him. I gave him a Bible study and 20 Things God Can’t Do writing his name and the date and “forgiven” in the front. I explained that now he was trusting in the righteousness of Jesus to be his righteousness and the likelihood he would go to Heaven was 100%. “Thanks so much,” he said sincerely. “God bless you man,” I said in return. “Best of luck to you,” he said and I headed out.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance, God truly blessed and bright 2 more peeps to Himself.

In Him,

Bob