Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was well spent in Joy. I had a good day on campus, though very few of the students were interested in talking to me.  But Maria and Lasar each prayed with me to receive Jesus today.

Maria was sitting on a bench outside her classroom in the Science building on the second floor just east of the lounge. Her teacher seemed to be late and everyone was sitting around or milling about as the benches filled. She had a warm kind face and thin, long brown hair. She was Latina, short, and wore a fleece and leggings, fair skin. She was very nice and thought she’d like to travel to Cuba and I assumed she had family from there. I asked her what she would say to get into Heaven and she was unsure. So I asked what she thought it was that got you into Heaven. “All the kind acts one does,” she replied. She thought she had a 50% chance of going to Heaven when she died, and she said she went to a Catholic Church called “Church of the Holy Spirit”. She listened carefully to the Gospel and she wasn’t sure how she was forgiven for her sins. I explained that Jesus had died for her and His blood cleansed her. That we owed God something perfect for anything in the world we misused or damaged, as everything was His. We could not pay because we can’t do anything perfect. So God becomes a man and lives a perfect life, which is worth an infinite amount. And when He dies, it pays for all that we owe. So all our sins are forgiven. I explained that His righteousness was to her credit and that the Mass was symbolic of Jesus’ Body and Blood, reminding us He had died for our sins and so we were forgiven. So in taking it, she should just say thank you. I explained she needed to trust in this by faith and her good things could not pay for her bad things. She said, “No,” agreeing they did not. I asked if she would want to be forgiven with God inside or thought something else. The crowd around us was growing and was pretty loud, waiting to get into class and it kind of helped as no one seemed to be listening to us. “I would want to be forgiven,” she replied. So I said there was a prayer she could pray to be forgiven and having explained I read, “Does this prayer express the desire of your Heart?” “It does, yeah,” she replied. So I said she could pray it silently so only God would hear. Would she like too? “Yeah,” she replied and she silently prayed to receive Jesus. Suddenly the area around us emptied as the teacher arrived. I quickly explained living inside out and gave her 20 Things God Can’t Do writing her name and the date and “forgiven” in the front and “Just Ask”. I said the likelihood she would go to Heaven was 100% trusting in Jesus and His righteousness. And I told her I would pray for her.  I said if I saw her around I’d wave and she smiled at that. “Thank you so much,” she said getting up to go. And she ran into the classroom, the last one in the door.

I felt prompted to go to the PE building from about half way through the BIC building and somehow knew not to stop. So I went right there and found Lazar sitting upstairs on the couches. He said he only had 3 minutes so I said “You wanna just answer the big metaphysical question?” He agreed. I said, “You are walking down the road and you get hit by a bus–so you’re dead. You stand before God and He says, ‘Why should I let you into Heaven?’ What would you say?” He had black cotton sweats on, teenage skin problems but was a good looking kid, kind of looked like James Dean. He thought for a bit and said, “I don’t know.” He said he went to church on holidays.  I said, “Well, Christianity is like a blood transfusion. I got A+ blood, so if you fill me full of B- I would clot up and die. God wants to fill you full of His Spirit but He has to make you His type and live inside you. But the problem is your sin. So He takes away your sin and then you match God and He can live inside you. Then it’s like you’re the Energizer Bunny and God is the batteries. You keep going and going and when you die it’s like ya don’t die ‘cause God’s inside.” I grabbed a booklet and without reading the verses, expecting to leave it with him and he’d read them later, I flipped through the points of the pages saying, “God loves you. He wants to know and live inside you but He can’t ‘cause of sin,” turning through the pages. So Jesus dies for your sin and His blood cleanses you and He rises from the Dead.” I explained that he needed to believe in this and receive it by faith. “You know when someday you get married. What are you going to want most from your wife and what will she want from you? You want to believe in her and she believe you. Faith.” He nodded, agreeing. “And that’s what God wants. To have a relationship with you too and forgive you. Faith.” I explained his good stuff did not fix his bad stuff and then I said, “So would you want to be forgiven for your sins?” ‘Yes,” he replied. I read through the prayer with him, saying if he wanted to he could pray it right now and be forgiven and he said, “OK,” and prayed to receive Christ. He had to go, and my 3 minutes was up. So I wrote his name, and the date and “forgiven” in the front and got to quickly explain everything in the Christian life was by the Spirit’s power. I gave him The Case for Christianity Answer Booklet saying he might like to read some in there. I let him go and he said, “Thanks.” I said I’d keep him in my prayers. “What kind of Church do you go to when you go to Church?” I asked as we parted ways. “Orthodox,” he replied. “Ok so this all makes sense to you then.” “Yeah,” he replied. And I headed out. He heard the Gospel in the lightening round, but having all the categories already he was ready to trust in Christ and God brought him to Himself.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today. I know God was at work.

In Him,

Bob