Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope you had a blessed day walking with the Lord. I had a good day on campus and Brady, George and Tabitha Prayed to receive Jesus today. Thanks for your prayers.

Brady was the first guy I talked to sitting at a table surrounded by 4 chairs. I spotted him as I looked North down the hall headed out of the BIC on the first floor towards the Cafeteria. I walked down thinking I would ask him and if he said no head to the Lunch room. He said he’d do a survey. So I sat in one of the chairs. He was a computer guy and kind of looked the part; he was slight and had short light brown hair flat to his head like a cap. He had a warm smile, oval face and was friendly if a little awkward; he was obviously intelligent and did the sound boards for the services at his Methodist Church. He had on a half red and blue (on the top) Iowa State hoodie with a half zippered front and jeans his laptop open on the coffee table. When I asked him what he would say to God if asked if He should let him into Heaven he said, “Because I believe in God–according to the Bible anyone who truly believes in a God gets into Heaven.” He thought he had a 50/50 chance of getting into Heaven. I went through the Gospel with him and he took it all in. As I finished talking about how the blood of Jesus cleansed him he said, “OK I think I get it.” I explained the righteousness of God to his credit and that he had to believe in Jesus by faith. I asked if he’d be forgiven with God inside or thought something else and he said, “Currently I’m the first one.”  So I said there was a prayer he could pray if he wanted to tell God he had decided to trust in what Jesus had done for him on the cross to be forgiven, now as a man, not a child in the church anymore just going along with things. I talked him through the prayer and asked if it was the desire of his heart. ‘Yes,” he replied. Saying he could pray it silently and know he was forgiven I asked if he’d want to and he said, “I think that I’ll pray, but quietly.” And he took the booklet and prayed to receive Jesus. Holding on to the booklet he said, “There seems to be some more here I’d like to read.” I said there was and explained the Christian life living “inside out”. I gave him 20 Things God Can’t Do writing his name and the date and “forgiven” on the inside and “Just Ask”. I explained now trusting in the righteousness of Jesus to be his righteousness the likelihood he would go to Heaven was 100%. I told him I would keep him in my prayers until next year in the spring and he thanked me and I headed out.

I looped around and went into the Cafeteria and found George sitting at a table. He had a mop of bleach blonde hair that must have been brown before as it looked kind of like straw. He had kind of a squared up face with a five o’clock shadow on his lip his beard not showing anywhere else He had rectangular glasses and was engaged to be married. He was wearing a gray zippered hoodie and black sweat pants. He was a nice average looking guy. I asked him what he would say to God to get into Heaven and he said, “I mean if He doesn’t I understand. I tried to live my best. If he doesn’t think that it was enough, I’m sorry, that’s all you can say.” I asked him what the likelihood he would go to Heaven was and he said, “I don’t know it’s up to Him not me.” He knew Jesus had died when I asked him what he had done to take away his sins. I went through the Gospel with me and he stopped me after I talked about the blood of Christ and he asked me if there was a time in my life when I prayed and God had a different plan than what I asked for, I told him 3 life changing redirections I did not want one of which was not being able to have kids. He told me his future wife might have fertility problems and I gave him the name of a couple alternative medical doctors I wished I’d known of years before. I wrote down Romans 8:28 and explained I believed God worked things for good. He told me about a Church he watched on TV and I told him I had met the pastor there and, knowing what I did he’d queried me about the need for a decision for Christ. I said that pastor had told me he thought of the Christian life like a strand of DNA. I agreed it progressed like a ladder but every ladder has the first step. The pastor agreed with me then seeing the need for a beginning. “It’s like a chain snapped, a shot from a gun the race begin,” I told him. I explained the righteousness of God to his credit. He said he’d been raised Catholic and there was a lot of guilt in that church. I explained salvation by grace through faith and I asked if he’d want to be forgiven with God inside or thought something else. “Be forgiven,” he said. I asked if he’d want to trust in Christ. He told me about a friend who he admired who was guided by God. I said God wanted us to become like a child asking for His help in all things. He said he thought it was actions that counted and I said the Bible does say faith without works is dead, but it also says without faith it is impossible to please Him. If you don’t ask for God’s help since you cannot control outcomes you could never be certain you’d done something good and I gave him an illustration of a disaster that could come for a perceived good action. I redirected him to the question for him. “I’ve been taking small steps,” he said. I said yes sometimes you need to get a running start, in a relay race only the first runner begins exactly when the gun goes off, the next takes a lot of little steps but then he is handed the baton, but you are not in the race until you take the baton. “I am trying to pass you the baton,” I said. I said that then with God’s power in him he could live. He was persuaded then so I read through the prayer with him and he said, “That’s pretty good.” So I said he could pray it silently and he said, “Sure.” He prayed then to receive Jesus. I gave him a Bible Promise Book, he had a bible and I gave him a Bible Study to read on the deity of Christ. He shook my hand to thank me and told me there was a movie he’d seen on YouTube called “Do you Believe” he thought I’d like it. I got his girl’s name “Emily” and said I’d pray for her when I prayed for him. And I headed out withim.

Towards the end of the day I came out of the science buildings over the bridge and down the stairs and bumped into a woman volunteer with another Christian group (the leader of which I am friends with) standing at a table with a pretty black girl seated there I had not met or seen before. Tabitha had long braids an oval face. She wore a brown sweater and jeans. She had fairly dark skin but her lips were white and she had a similar white dot over her right eye. When I saw her hands I realized she had a skin pigmentation disorder as her fingers were rippled with white as if someone had painted only the very tops of them. I believe she had the skin problem vitiligo. She was really nice they were discussing the Corona flu problems. The school was discussing shutting down for a couple extra weeks leading to Spring Break which the School has now decided to do beginning Monday. Most classes are going to online options until it warms up. The Coronavirus dies at 80 Degrees so a warm Spring would help eradicate it. She worked in a rest home and she said the flu could be quite dangerous to people there. The other campus worker had to leave but we talked a little longer I got her name and told her mine and said goodbye. I got about 12 steps away and I remembered that the other group the volunteer worked with did not really focus on evangelism. A couple students from it had prayed with me to receive Christ, the Gospel not being covered in their studies in a decision manner. So I walked back and asked if she wanted to answer my big metaphysical question I ask students on campus, she said “OK”. So I asked her  “You’re walking down the road you get hit by a bus so you’re dead, and you stand before God and He says, ‘Why should I let you into Heaven?’ What would you say?” She asked me to repeat it and thought for a moment and said, “I don’t know what I would say.” So I asked what she thought it was that got someone into Heaven and she said, “Following Jesus.” I asked what that would mean. “I recently turned back to God and decided to follow Him,” She explained but I’m just getting back into it, kind of on a journey.” So I explained Christianity was like a blood transfusion and like that God wanted to transfuse His life into her, live inside her with His Holy Spirit but first He had to make her His type by talking away her sin, then she could know Him because he was living inside her. She wasn’t sure How God had taken away her sins. I explained how Jesus had died for her and the rest of the Gospel, taking out a booklet and writing in it. At the end I asked her if she would want to be forgiven with God inside or thought something else. “Have God live inside me,” she said. So I said if she’d like to be forgiven trusting in Jesus there was a prayer she could pray and I talked her through it and asked if it was the desire of her heart. “Yes,” she said. So I said if she wanted she could pray it silently and God would hear and forgive her would she like to do that, “”OK,” she replied and I said she could pretend I wasn’t there and I stepped away and looked down and she prayed to receive Jesus. I explained the Christian life to her asking if she had a Bible and she said, “I have my mother’s Bible.” “Do you like that or would you like to have one of your own?” “Maybe both,” she said smiling. So I gave her a Bible showing her the Where to turn section and saying there were messianic passages she could look up. Or just read something from Jesus in red. I wrote her name and the date and “forgiven” in the front. I gave her 20 Things God Can’t Do and wrote “Just Ask” in the front. I told her I would keep her in my prayers until next Spring. “Thank you so much Bob,” she said 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