Third Watch Ministries, NFP Bob & Ellen Bollow
P.O. Box 1283 June 3, 2021
Wheaton, IL 60187-1283
“So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
it shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
Isaiah 55:11 NKJV
Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I hope your week has been blessed walking with the Lord. We had a pretty good semester. Thankfully, God blessed the trip to Florida with 31 people coming to Christ there. I have begun doing some ministry with a motorcycle club I have joined called Take Up Your Cross, as college ministry trailed off. But we have not given up on that and just had the last bible study, week before last. We’ll have students over for fires in the yard through the summer too and try to get a bible study going again next semester. Though the school looks to remain closed to the public and limiting in-person classes for the Fall semester.
I went to a political rally last Sunday at a fairground near here to do some evangelism with the Biker Club, where my nickname is now Ghost (because I am always talking about the Holy Ghost in part. And hey my hair is white now.) Though no one prayed with me to receive Jesus, I had a good day talking with people about salvation in Christ. It was also a religious rally, so most of the people there had knowledge of Christ and the Gospel was presented. But I walked around and went through the Gospel with people standing around or sitting at tables. A young guy, Derrick, who is 17 and is part of the youth group connected to my Biker Club, and Teri, a woman my age, wanted to come along and listen. So they walked with me too.
Of the people I spoke with, 4 could not tell me why they should be let into Heaven. One guy, Kyle, wearing a hat turned backwards over a bandanna as a sweat band, was short of being able to express the Gospel. He had stick-straight light brown hair coming to his shoulders from behind his ears. He wore a beard that was trimmed short, struggling to be much on his cheeks but full as a mustache and on his chin. He was apprenticing to be a union carpenter. He was what he described as a “digital warrior” doing counter propaganda on the web and in social media. I explained the Gospel to him. He felt like, though he had not prayed a prayer saying as much to God, he had been living in belief of the Gospel as he’d been slowly making his way out of Catholicism, saying he sometimes slipped into it. That was his explanation as to why he said something about doing the right things to get into Heaven when I asked him. He seemed sincere in his faith. He did not have a lot of input from Christians and lived in Joliet, too far to come to the bible study I have been teaching for Take Up Your Cross. But I gave him my contact information and the book Bible Promises for You. He was really excited to get the book, so I offered him The Case for Christianity Answer Booklet a half hour later as we talked. He was excited to get that too, having never heard of Lee Strobel. So I’m hopeful that will encourage and strengthen his faith and I have been praying for him.
Two older Catholics from Czechoslovakia were sitting at a table with a full-size political flag, wearing pro-life hats. Renata had an oval face and looked a bit worn in expression, her hair reddish brown. Vladimir had a grey mustache and sharper short features. They had been here for a few decades and still had a heavy accent. They explained to me that, being Catholics, they confessed to a priest. So I used the analogy I’ve used many times, saying that the priest was God’s agent. They agreed, so I went on to explain that when I bought insurance for my bike, I paid the agent. But if I got in a wreck, the agent did not pay, the insurance company paid. I asked them what it was God had done for them that the priest knew was enough to forgive them so he could say they were forgiven on God’s behalf. They did not know, so I went through the Gospel with them. The husband, Vladimir was receptive saying, “Oh I see that.” And so after I explained the prayer to them, saying it might be something to do later, he took the booklet. His wife, Renata, seemed a little more resistant. But I think she was a bit leery of all the evangelical Christians about her. I had talked with three before coming to their table.
Another guy, Matt, was a little shorter than me, mop of dark brown hair, clean shaven frank face, had a full-size political flag on his shoulder and standing on the edge of things. He said he’d be let into Heaven because of “the righteous life he had been living.” He said his life had turned around and his trajectory had changed. Much like Kyle, the conservative politics he had adopted had come with Christian trappings he also saw as true. Matt was really grateful for my explaining the Gospel to him and gave me a hug, and I think he really understood things probably for the first time. But in showing him a prayer he could pray, he said he thought he had prayed a prayer like it before. I did not press him to pray, as I believed by the time I was done talking to him he was believing the truth. He had joy and took the booklet.
I had a really interesting time talking to a guy who was a former Vice President of the Outlaws. Looked really hard core, tattoos up and down his arms and a jagged scar over his left eye into his scalp on his forehead. He told some striking stories of conversion. One of the ranking guys of Hells Angels, who had come to Christ in prison and whose life was threatened when he got out, having only served 6 years on a 24 year sentence. The Angels falsely assumed he’d gotten time off for being a rat and threatened his life. He now has a ministry in Florida after resolving his differences by going into the HA club house and having it out with the men still in power by threatening their lives. I was told he had once kidnapped a man and pulled out all his teeth (with pliers) but now was walking with Christ. Both the Outlaws and the HA are biker gangs of criminals in Illinois. The man I was talking to had also come to faith in Christ in prison. We told him we would pray for his son, Nicky who is now in prison and in the Outlaws. He is 34 years old and probably never getting out of prison, having been a killer on the outside. Please pray for him.
Derrick thanked me as he left saying he’d learned a lot. Teri had gotten caught up in other conversations and we lost track of her. But we did some good and I’m learning the ropes of rallies and talking with the folks there. There will be more of them as the political season winds into 2022. So I’m hoping to share the Gospel a bit more at biker events and rallies this summer.
So thanks for your prayers for Evangelism and for the ministry if you have gotten a chance. College work is over for the summer, but there is still stuff to do and I will continue to teach the bible study for the Biker Club. May the Lord bless & keep you this summer.
In Him,
Bob & Ellen