Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope ya had a great day walking with the Lord. Thanks for your prayers. I had a great day on campus talking to students and Cam, Nataly and Michelina each prayed with me to receive Jesus today. Reda (Red Ah) committed to Christ also, he is a Coptic Believer. When I asked him what he would say to God to get into Heaven he said, “I will think about what I did, I will apologize to Jesus. If he’s gonna forgive me or not. I know it’s not gonna happen (that God would ask something like that). Everybody makes mistakes and God’s gonna see what you did and take you like that.” He said in the Coptic religion there is not a % you would go to Heaven but God looks at your bad and your good and evaluates you. He had tight ringlets of brown curly hair, short on the sides and on a mop on top. Shorter than me and a bit thinner, he spoke in a slight Egyptian accent. Wore a black button shirt and dark jeans. He had a light beard and mustache, a sharp nose, dark skin like he’d been in the sun. He said he thought you should follow the Bible, what Christ said. So I explained the Gospel to him and the imputed righteousness of Christ. He then wanted to be forgiven and was really grateful for my explanations to him. He said that he wouldn’t pray a prayer in the manner I had offered it to him to receive Christ, though he wanted to be forgiven. He confessed at the end he would trust in the righteousness of Christ to be His righteousness and trust that Jesus had died for him to make him right with God and not that he had done more good than bad. The Bible nowhere says you must pray a prayer for salvation but I believe he trusted Jesus for the first time and His righteousness to make him right with God. I told him the parable in Matthew 22 when the man attending the wedding feast in his own clothes, not the wedding garment provided, is sent to Hell. We were upstairs in the PE lounge on a couch and as I stood up to go he stood put his hand over his heart and said, “Thank you.” And we shot hands and parted.

Cam was sitting on a row of chairs just off the hall near the student activities office. He had black Adidas sweats on and a white t-shirt and sandals. Slight build, a hand shorter than me. He had a chin beard he pulled on a bit from time to time, thinking, and a mustache, short afro that was in parallel lines across his head. He had some interesting ink tattooed on the inside of his forearms a squared lion head on the left and some patterns. He thought he had about a 60% chance of going to heaven. He wasn’t going to a formal church but regularly went to a Bible study. He did not know what Jesus had done to take away his sins. But he really tuned into the Gospel, His death, imputed righteousness, cleansing blood and resurrection. Cam believed. When I asked him if he would want to be forgiven for his sins with God inside or thought something else he said, “That one with God inside me,” pointing at the circle with God on the throne of your life. So I said if he wanted to be forgiven he could just, “…ask for forgiveness, receive God’s forgiveness, God’s like a pretty girl, He likes to be asked.”  I explained the prayer he cold pray saying he could pray it silently. “I will yeah, yeah, yeah,” he said. And he prayed then to receive Jesus. I explained the Christian life then, the fruit of the Spirit, explaining God would give him all the power he needed to do the things He wanted him to do. That if he would trust in the righteousness of Jesus to be his righteousness the likelihood he would go to Heaven was 100%. He took a Bible Study from me and  20 Things God Can’t Do and I wrote his name and the date and “forgiven” in the front along with “Just Ask” and “By the Spirit’s Power”. He had his own Bible and He thanked me. I told him I would pray for him and he thanked me again. We stood and shook hands and he headed off to class.

Nataly was sitting at a table by the stairs in the PE lounge. She was a pretty Latina girl. She had long brown hair, fair skin and wore a stripped bluish-purple pullover. It all worked to make her look a bit Native American in her features. I asked her what she would say to God to get into Heaven and she said, “You shouldn’t… I wish I could have repented sooner and… yeah.” I asked her what she thought the likelihood she would go to heaven, “10%’s low 100% for sure, 50/50 you got a shot?” I said. “I don’t have a shot.” She replied. She went on to tell me that she had rejected the Christian church and had been pretty rebellious when she was younger. She argued a lot with her parents and they kicked her out of the house. She crashed at friend’s houses and was living with one now. She said she talked to her parents once in a while. I began to go through the gospel with her and a tear rolled down her cheek, closest to me. I don’t know if it was regret for sin or just sadness for how her life had gone. Her girl friend had walked up and sat down across from us (Angelica) and she sat silently and listened as I spoke, I guy came up and started talking loudly, I think trying to make time with her but I shushed him pointing at him and he shut up, kind of dumbfounded and walked off and I kept explaining the Gospel. She wiped the tear away after a bit and listened. When I asked her if she would want to be forgiven or thought something else she said, “I would want to be forgiven.” So I said there was a prayer she could pray silently and be forgiven for her sins. You could pray this right now and God would hear you and forgive you. Wanna do it?” “Later, later, later,” she said. The way someone says it when they want to be nudged a bit.  “I think you should do it right now,” I replied not wanting Satan to have an opportunity. “OK,” she said and she prayed to receive Jesus. ‘Your sins are forgiven,” I said after she finished. I said she could keep the booklet and I explained living the Christian life “inside out” by the Spirit’s power quickly as it seemed they had to go. I offered a booklet to Angelica and offered to pray for her and she said, “I’m in CRU” assuming I would know something from that of her. But several CRU students have prayed with me to receive Christ. She heard the Gospel as I taught Nataly, so hey. I gave her a copy of Bible Promises for You. I wrote her name and the date and forgiven in the front. “You let this girl lead you around some, she seems solid,” I said to Nataly of her friend. They got up to go and she had a big smile on her face and seemed happy as they walked out the door.

I talked to Reda right after that up stairs for a while and then I would have probably headed out walking down the back walkway behind the BIC. I was tired.  But they’ve had it blocked off all year with fencing for some kind of repairs. So I went back in and upstairs to the bank doors thinking I would walk out to my truck past the waterfall. But glancing over I saw a couple people on the patio so I walked over to ask them to talk even though I really didn’t have any energy left. The first one turned me down but the next girl said she’d do a survey. She was a cute Latina girl had a black t-shirt on with the sleeves cuffed up showing some ink on her left bicep of a bear and black jeans with tears across the knees. She wore glasses that were basically big circles with a flat edge every couple centimeters. She had cute round cheeks and long brown hair, tanned skin, nice kid. When I asked her what she would say to God to get into Heaven she said, “Because I follow the 10 commandments.” She said she went to church once in a while at her brother-in-laws church which he “Owned”. She listened closely to the Gospel and when I asked her if she would want to be forgiven with God inside trusting in Jesus or thought something else she said, “Life entrusted to Jesus.” I offered the prayer to her talking her through it and she said, “I would but I am already 10 minutes late for class.” I apologized for making her late and she said it was ok, she figured she would be late when she started talking to me but wanted to do it. I asked since she was already late did she want to take two more minutes to pray and she smiled and said “OK.” I explained living by the Spirit and gave her a Bible Study and 20 Things God Can’t Do writing her name and the date and “forgiven” in the front with “By the Spirit’s Power” I explained that if she would trust in the righteousness of Jesus to be her righteousness the likelihood she would go to Heaven was 100%. I thanked her for praying saying I would be praying for her every night until next spring and then a year after. She said she might come to Bible study since she only lived 10 minutes away so I hope she will come. “Thank you so much,” she told me getting up to run to class. “You’re welcome thanks for talking with me,” I replied. And she ran off.

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

In Him,

Bob