Hey Sister and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed and ya got out in the sunshine. Josiah and Tyler prayed to receive Jesus today.

Tyler was in the cafeteria sitting with his back to the glass, looking outside at a table. He had long hair pulled back into a pony tail, wore cotton sweats and a plaid flannel shirt with a green t-shirt. He had a rectangular face, clean shaven with a random large freckle (you’d call a beauty mark on a girl). He looked kind of like the handsome dockworker in some Hollywood rags-to-riches story. When I asked him what he would say to God to get into Heaven, he said, “I try to give everybody a chance. I’m pretty open and accepting. I over-extend myself too sometimes to help others.”  When I asked the likelihood he would go to Heaven, he said maybe 25%, adding, “I haven’t been to church for a while.” He said he’d gone to Catholic school until he was 13. When I asked him what was the big thing that happened so God could forgive him, he didn’t seem to know saying, “He forgives you.” So I said that God had to be Just and Forgiving in Christianity. So “He gets paid” and I used the example I started to use this year saying say he borrowed a friend’s coat and then took it off at his other friends house and the dog chewed it up. Then you owe your friend a new coat. It is the same way with God. Everything belongs to Him, so when we hurt someone or misuse the world in any way we owe God something perfect to pay Him back. But we can’t do anything perfect so God has to pay Himself.  I explained Jesus lived a perfect life, died for our sins and His blood cleanses us. He listened to the Gospel and tuned right in. I asked if he wanted to be forgiven with God inside him or thought something else. I gave the illustration of Islamic teaching where God is arbitrary and they cannot know His essence. So when they die they can’t be sure what will happen. “It feels more sure to have God inside you,” he said. “It feels more sure to know how things are going and how they’ll play out.” I asked if he believed Jesus was God, had died for his sins and rose from the dead. He said he did. So I said if he wanted to be forgiven then there was a prayer he could pray. I explained it to him and how the Mass was symbolic of Jesus dying for him. I read, “Is this prayer the desire of your heart?” “Yeah,” he replied.  I said he could pray it silently so only God would hear and he said, “Sure.” And prayed to receive Jesus. I gave him a Bible then since he did not have one, writing his name and the date and “forgiven” in the front. I showed him Christ’s words in red, the “Where to Turn” section and the Messianic passages list in back. He thanked me for the Bible and I said, “You’re welcome.” I explained the Christian life to him living inside out and gave him 20 Things God Can’t Do writing “By the Spirit’s Power” and “Just Ask” in the front. I gave him a Bible study and he was grateful.  I told him I would keep him in my prayers. “Thank you,” he said. “See you in Heaven,” I said getting up to go. He smiled and said, “Yeah, you too.”

I was talking for a while with a Christian I know who goes to a different Bible study who was born in India. He was being taught mediation in his gym class and there was a future section on Yoga. I warned him not to empty himself, explaining that Christianity was always mediation on something not empting your head and thinking about nothing. He decided to talk to his teacher to see if he could skip the Yoga section and try to do some aerobics speaking to the instructor about his religious beliefs.

I headed downstairs and bumped into Kento—who I did not recognize without his hoodie tight over his head. He prayed to receive Jesus last semester at the table he was standing at the end of. A guy he knew was sitting at the table and I asked him if he wanted to do a student survey, saying Kento had done it. He hemmed and hawed so I asked if he wanted to know how to go to Heaven. “I know how to get to Heaven,” Josiah replied. “Oh yeah what happens?” I asked. “You follow the rules,” he replied kind of half messing with his phone. “How do you know what the rules are?” I asked. “You read the Bible,” he replied. “Do you read the Bible?” I asked. He said he did. I said the problem is you have to keep the rules perfectly. “Jesus says you are to be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect,” and I asked if he’d done that, saying say you stand before God and He says ‘Welcome to Heaven. You are supposed to live a perfect life. Where’s my perfect life? I explained we can’t live a life like that. So if you have to be perfect to live in Heaven, what was he gonna do? He didn’t know. So I asked if I could tell him what the Bible said. He said “OK,” then and I went through the Gospel with him. He had his hair real short on the sides and then worked out like a bowl was sitting on the top of his head. A lot of guys are wearing their afro’s that way now. He wore a black puffy Adidas jacket and a black t-shirt with some writing on it I couldn’t make out. He also wore heavy nylon workout pants. Josiah had a long angular face and a wide narrow flat nose. Good-looking guy. He was a receiver for the football team. He paid close attention then as I went thought the Gospel and wanted to be forgiven when I asked. I said he could pray it silently on the sly right then and no one would hear him but God. And as I held the booklet I could see he began to pray and read, his eyes going back and forth on the lines and said, “Amen,” when he was done. I gave him 20 Things God Can’t Do writing his name and the date and “forgiven” in the front. I explained the Christian life to him living inside out. I also wrote “By the Spirit’s Power” and “Just Ask” in the front of the book. He thanked me and I gave him a Bible study and I headed out.

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

In Him,

Bob