Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed today walking with the Lord. I had a good day on campus and Luciana, Briaunna, Oedrey each prayed with me to receive Jesus today so that was great.

Luciana was sitting in the ground floor hall just down from the student activities lounge leading into the BIC on a bench. She had a pink hoodie on and black Adidas sweats with white stripes up the sides. Slight, pretty girl, square sharp features small with blonde hair tinted half way up from where it fell on her shoulders. She didn’t have much time but said she’d do a student survey. She was friendly. When I asked her what she would say to God if he asked her why He should let her into Heaven she said, “Because I care about other people more than myself and I make sure to give them my best.” She went to a Catholic Church and thought she had a little more than a 50% chance of going to Heaven. She was affirming and enthusiastic about the Gospel as I went through it with her (it seemed novel to her). When I asked her what Jesus had done to take away her sins she said “Confession, my grandma always makes me go to confession.” Then seeing the page with the Cross on it as I turned it she said, “Oh, He died.” I went on to explain the Gospel and the Blood of Christ and how it was symbolically represented in the Mass so when she took it she should say, “Thank you.” Because it was reaffirming that Jesus had died for her and so she was forgiven. I explained His imputed righteousness saying it was too her credit. When I asked her if she would want to be forgiven for her sins trusting in Jesus so he could live inside her she said very firmly, “Yes!” So I said, “Seems like you hadn’t had a chance to trust in all this to be forgiven?” “Yes,” she replied. So I said there was a prayer she could pray if she wanted to silently and only God would hear and forgive her and live inside her giving her the strength to live the Christian life. I walked her thought it explaining it as I went and asked her if she’d like to pray. “Yes,” she said excited. “Thank you so much, thank you,” she said taking the booklet then holding it before she prayed she said again to me, “Thank you so much for this.” Then she prayed to receive Jesus. I explained living the Christian life “inside out” where everything God was asking her to do He’d give her the power to do. She was late for something then and started to grab her pack and stood up. “Let me just give you a book of Bible Promises,” I said and she waited and I wrote her name quickly in the front and handed it to her. “Thanks you so much she said happily and ran off. She was so grateful and joyful it was infectious and made my day.

Briaunna was sitting up on the third floor and somehow caught my eye through the top of the couches she was sitting on just down and one floor up from where we have Bible study. She was a pretty brown haired girl with her hair up held up by a head band. Looked a little like a Caucasian Selena Gomez. She had on a navy blue nylon long sleeved shirt and navy blue workout pants. When I asked her what she would say to God to get into Heaven she said, “That’s a hard question. I don’t know, I’d probably say it’s not up to me, it’s up to youth decide. I don’t think I could convince you.” She thought she had a 60% chance of going to Heaven. “Just passing,” I said and she said, “Well a bit over 60.” I asked her if she went to church ever and she said her Grandpa was a pastor in the Pentecostal church. When I asked her what the big thing was that Jesus had done to take away her sins she said, “He hung on the cross,” she replied. She listened to the Gospel, the blood that cleansed her and the imputed righteousness of Christ to her credit. As I finished I asked if she’d want to be forgiven for her sins or thought something else. I wasn’t sure what she’d say since she seems to have something of a negative reaction to the strictness of her grandparent’s faith. But she said, “I want to be forgiven.” So I said it seemed like she’d never really put all this together before to trust in it and she agreed. So I said if she wanted to be forgiven there was a prayer she could pray and I talked her through the prayer line by line saying at the end she could pray it silently and only God would hear. “Out loud?” she said, taking the booklet. I said no, no one else needed to hear it. “Well I read it as you did,” she replied. “Ok, Amen?” “Amen,” she said. “That counts,” I said and I explain the Christian life to her living inside out by the Spirit’s power and gave her a Bible Study and 20 Things God Can’t Do writing by the Spirit’s power in the front and her name and the date and “forgiven”. So I said as I got up to go, “So do you believe Jesus is God, He died for your sins and rose from the dead and do you trust in that to be forgiven?” ‘Yes,” she said. “Then this is 100%,” I said, pointing at the question of the likelihood she would go to Heaven when she died. “Because you’re trusting in the righteousness of Jesus to be your righteousness and how righteous is Jesus? 100% righteous,” I said. “And what’s His righteousness worth? An infinite amount. So there’s enough to an old guy like me who’s done a bunch of stuff wrong and someone like you that hasn’t even done hardly anything wrong yet.” I told her I would be praying for her each night until spring and then one year after, just praying the prayers of Paul to bless her and she really liked that and I headed off.

Later in the day I planned to head up to touch base with our advisor who said far fewer students had asked him about Bible Study groups this year. Before talking with him I found Oedrey sitting on a couch in the hall on the floor beneath his office. He was a Latino guy who split his time between two different churches. He had stick straight hair, pretty short, bangs poking straight out over his forehead and square features tanned skin a narrow face. Thin, in a blue t-shirt and blue jeans. I asked him what he would say to God if He asked why he should let him into heaven and he said, “Aside from my going to church every Sunday and treating people like they are good neighbors of mine, personally I don’t know. I’ve done everything I knew to do to be a good person. I don’t know if I’ve done enough.” He was sure he would go to Heaven though, 100%. I guess thinking if you have tried all you knew to do you get in. When I asked him what Jesus had done to take away his sins he knew He had died for us. He listened closely to the Gospel and was happy to hear it all and when I got to the end I asked if he’d want to be forgiven. “I want to be forgiven trusting in Jesus and what He did on the cross for us.” He said. I asked him if he had been trusting in that to be forgiven and he said, “I want to be forgiven trusting in Jesus.” So I showed him the prayer he could pray talking him through it and I asked if he’d like to pray it silently and he took the booklet and prayed to receive Jesus. He was happy. I told him a symbolic view of the Mass. I began to talk him through living the Christian life. He did not have a Bible so I gave him one showing him the “Where to Turn” section and the one on Messianic passages in the back. I wrote his name and the date and “forgiven” in the front. I told him Jesus words were in red and he’d never seen that before and thought that was interesting. I gave him a Bible Study and 20 Things God Can’t Do and wrote “By the Spirit’s Power” and “Just Ask” in the front. He was really grateful, “Thank you,” He said. “Thanks for your time,” I replied shaking his hand. “You’re welcome, thank you,” he said again and I headed off.

So thanks for your prayers for the Ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance. God truly blessed me.

In Him,

Bob