Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope you had a good day yesterday in as much as I had some good conversations I did too. Carl, in the science building a guy with a mop of blonde hair a struggling piecemeal beard and cowboy boots seemed close and at the end said he was trusting in Jesus, but I think he understood a commitment to Christ for the first time, believing before he only had a 50/50 chance of going to Heaven. And Pat a guy with sandy curly hair and beard who was born in the UK but grew up here to Catholic parents seemed to go from trusting in his works to trusting in the Gospel. I think those were good seeds at least, so I hope God will use hearing the Gospel to bring them closer to Himself. I spent nearly 2 hours (when I went back and calculated the time late last night) talking with Dorcas, whose brother had trusted Christ this year [McPaul]. She had called me over and wanted to hear what I had to say saying we’d met at the book table. Ellen later said she remembered Dorcas and then I placed her later once home realizing she’d been McPaul’s sister. She was saving herself sexually for marriage and wanted to know if it was worth it in part. She’s an attractive Black girl and everyone she knows is sleeping around, though she hoped it wasn’t true of the couples at church but she wasn’t optimistic. She had a lot of other questions too. Jenna her girl friend was sitting with her and mostly tuned us out. She claimed to be a Syrian Muslim, [had dyed blonde hair and was pretty and opinionated] though I knew more about Islam than she did. She suddenly piped in and objected when at some point our discussion had touched on the idea that the god of Islam (who is in fact not bounded by reason justice or love) was nothing like the Christian God. Her idea had morphed living in the US and seemed to have Christianized rhetorically. She drank and did not practice the 5 pillars of Islam. I doubt she could have listed them. It turned into a completely relative discussion about interpretation of the Bible. In the end if I would have agreed with her both Islam and Christianity would amount to whatever anyone who claims to be Christian or Islamic/Muslim said they believed. Much like someone claiming they were any sex they wanted–there was no objectivity. We talked about the difference academically between the soft and hard sciences. She did not like the terms (was studying psych) but I did not make them up, so hey. We parted peaceful after an hour and fifteen minutes of her sort of listening and working on her laptop.  As I later parted with Dorcas, she thanked me and said, “You’re cool” then kind of marveling at all I had explained to her. It was sad though as there are so few young men in her community not “on the make”. I told her that God might have very well planted in her heart the desire to hold fast to what was right in remaining a virgin because he had a guy for her that was doing the same thing. I have known a couple here and there through the years at school that told me they were.

So in the end I went through the Gospel with 5 students and answered questions for a couple hours from 2 until 4 and left pretty tapped out. I hope God will use the time for good.

I’d be grateful for your prayers today as I go out to share the Gospel. Please pray the Spirit guides me and gives me His Words.

Thanks of your help in prayer.

In Him,

Bob