Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed and you had joy in serving Jesus in whatever He was asking you to do, even if it was just to live without fear. I had a good day on the beach and Jordon and Larry prayed to receive Jesus.  Liam* was close, and took a booklet to think about. He was a big thick-bearded guy, the “GI Joe with life-like hair” look. Taking a booklet to think was Jared.  He’s a young black guy, half a head shorter than me, with a curly top afro and perfect skin. He looked young, just out of high school. His Christian friend Carmen listened to the tail end of it and I said she’d pray for him and she agreed. I gave him The Case for Christianity Answer Booklet. He was very close, saying initially he wasn’t religious. He’d not understood the Gospel at all. But at the end when I asked, “Do you believe Jesus is God He died for your sins and Rose from the dead? Do you believe that’s true?” He pursed his lips and said, “Yeah.” I said “If you’d want to place your trust in that to be sure you were going to Heaven, there’s a prayer you could pray.” He was going to feel on it a while he said. So I said if he did decide to pray, there was my email and he could let me know he had and I would pray for him over the next year no strings attached. (I bumped into the 4 girls from yesterday when they waved at me and shouted me down and were really nice and happy to see me again. Turns out I got Kailey’s name spelled wrong from yesterday.) 5 people today were Christians who I went through the Gospel with, 2 more were friendly and took booklets to have, Bella, a Jewish girl and her girl friend Finn. I went through the Gospel with 7 guys, 2 doing a survey. Jacob and Mathew who were not interested. Then Liam took a booklet as I said and Justin, Seth, Adam and Blake said they believed already.

Jordon had shoulder length hair, the thin kind, kept in place with a tie around his head. He had an oval face, said he was athletic but had his shirt off and didn’t have any definition. He seemed very laid back.  He was sitting at the end of a group on a towel near a very good-looking black guy K.C. He was cut, and had a well done rose tattoo on his left wrist and Roman numbers inked on his side and turned out to be a believer. They had 4 young women with them that were among the prettiest you’d see on the beach who probably, to the men’s disappointment, did not seem interested in either of them. K.C. was open first and then I asked Jordon if he was interested as I began and he was.  K.C.’s answers showed he knew the Gospel well and was 100% sure he’d go to Heaven. When I asked Jordon what he would say to God to get in he said, “I don’t judge others, the way people judge people.” He seemed to feel that was what God wanted out of him. He thought he had a 70/30% chance of going to Heaven.  He listened closely to the Gospel and the righteousness and blood of Christ to save him.  I asked if he believed Jesus was God, had died for his sins and rose from the dead. He said he did. I asked if he would like to trust in that to be forgiven and have God live inside him to give him strength to live, and he said yes. So I said there was a prayer he could pray and walked him through it and said he could pray it silently. He took the booklet, asking which paragraph it was (I had been about a towel length away when talking, holding the book open). And then he prayed to receive Jesus. I explained a life in the Spirit’s power to him and gave him The Case for Christianity Answer Booklet and also Bible Promises for You, writing his name in the front and “Just Ask.” He was happy for the books. I complimented the girls on being so pretty, which they all enjoyed and I headed off.

Larry was a middle-aged black father keeping his eye on a cute little girl in long, numerous braids, playing near us in the shallow waves. He looked a bit like Redd Foxx. He had a salt and pepper jaw line beard and a fisherman’s hat on, white T-shirt and print bathing suit. A bit shorter than me so I went toward the water to look up at him. I asked him if he would want to do a survey about God and he said he was very positive about God. I began to go into the Gospel with him asking the question, “Say you are walking down the road and get hit by a bus and you stand before God and He says, ‘Why should I let you into Heaven?’ What would you say?” He said he would say he was righteous and tried to do good. He said he had had a brain aneurysm and showed me the scar down the back of his neck, about 6 inches worth.. It had changed his life and he was now serious about God. It seemed he had gone to church before but now was trying to please God. As I went through the Gospel with him he did not know what Jesus had done to take away his sins. I explained that Christianity was like a blood transfusion where God wanted to transfuse his life into you but first had to make you His type by taking away your sins. I explained the Cross and perfect life of Jesus we could not live. I asked if he would want to trust in Jesus and His righteousness to be forgiven, believing He was God, had died for his sins and rose from the dead. Larry said he did, so I said there was a prayer he could pray to know he was forgiven and began to read it through and explain it. Finishing, I explained he could pray it silently. “I just did, as you read it.” “Ok” I said enthusiastically, “Amen?” “Amen,” he replied with a smile. He asked to keep the booklet and I explained a life walking by the Spirit and wrote “Just ask” beneath the last paragraph, saying God would give him the power by the Spirit to do anything he needed to do. Last paragraph is: “Your walk with Christ depends on what you allow Him to do in and through you empowered by the Holy Spirit, not what you do for Him through self effort.”

Thanks for your prayers and help. God blessed the work today.

Bob