Results of the Work – 10/21/21

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed with all good things from above. I had a good day on campus and Karina and Vernon each prayed with me to receive Jesus as Savior and Lord. Thanks for your prayers. Their stories are below if you have time.

 Karina was sitting in the circle of couches outside the door of the cafeteria. I asked if she wanted to do a student survey and she said she had already received information about the Bible Study on campus. I said, “This is a little different and a different group on campus. The main question is ‘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? So it really about how the Bible says you get into Heaven. Would you like to know or not so much?” “Ok,” she replied and I sat on the table in the middle of the couches and we talked. She wore a southwestern patterned pullover fleece, kind of an Indian blanket look, and leggings. She had long brown flowing hair. She had a cute face with a pointed nose and chin and high cheekbones. I asked her what she would say to God and she said, “I don’t know.” She had gone to church a couple times as a kid but said she didn’t know what got you into Heaven. When I asked what she thought might get her in she said, “Probably good deeds.” She hoped she’d have a 50/50 shot getting into Heaven. I began to go through the Gospel with her and she listened to it all making eye contact the whole way through so I hope that was a good sign, unable to see through her mask. So as I finished explaining why Jesus had died how His blood cleansed us and righteousness surrounded us. I said we were saved by faith. I asked if she would want to be forgiven for her sins trusting in what Jesus had done so God could live inside her. She said, “Be forgiven for my sins.” I said, “Do you believe Jesus is God, died for your sins and rose from the dead? Do you think that is a true story?” She said she did saying by way of explanation, “Yeah. That’s what I was told growing up so it is what is in the back of my brain.” So I said if she wanted to be forgiven there was a prayer she could pray and I walked her through it and said if she’d like to she could pray it silently and God would hear and she’d know she was forgiven. “Yeah,” she replied and she took the booklet and prayed to receive Jesus. She did not have a Bible so I gave her one and showed her the “Where to Turn” section for questions she might have and wrote her name and the date and “forgiven” in the front and said she could also email me with any questions. “This is my first Bible,” she said happily. I explained living the Christian life “inside out” by the Spirit’s Power. I gave her Bible Promises for You and wrote her name in it. “Thank you so much,” she said taking the book. I gave her a Bible study and explained how Jesus claimed to be God. I said I would pray for her each day for a year asking God to bless her. Then I got up to go and she said, “Thank you so much, I really appreciate it!” I said, “Sure.” And if I saw her I’d say hi.

I had come across Vernon earlier in the day but he did not have time then. As I was walking into the tunnel connecting the PE to the BIC building I lost reception for a text I was going to send and came back out to stand by the outside door at the beginning of the tunnel. Vernon walked up and said, “This is Divine.” I did not know what he meant and he said, “You were gonna ask me some questions?” So then I vaguely remembered and we began to talk walking over to some chairs. He had a hat on that was a light brown knit version of Gilligan’s in the TV show with the shipwrecked tour boat. He had a mustache over his lip the width of a pencil and a here and there beard he was working on. He wore swats with a stripe up the side and a brown T-shirt and carried a jacket, had black military style boots on. He had the occasional tattoo on his arms and when he laughed his almond shaped eyes crushed into squint. When I asked him what he would say to get into Heaven he said, “I never ran from my sins, I fought back. I believe. I believe there is a higher power. Nobody is perfect but as long as we admit that we’ll be right. Hopefully that’ll get me in.” He thought he had an 85% chance of going to Heaven. Saying, “I definitely look out for people. I give them what I can, maybe not money, but I try to make somebody feel like they’re just not another number.” He began to listen to the Gospel and when I asked what Jesus had done to take away our sin he said, “He died.” I explained what the death of Jesus did and that “God got paid” by the perfect life of Jesus for all that we owed for what we had damaged with our lives. I said we did not go to Heaven because we were good but because Jesus was and we were connected to him. I said he could believe in faith. “So if someone were to ask you why God should let you into Heaven the answer would be, ‘Because Jesus died for me.’” “Hum,” he said getting it. I asked if he would want to be forgiven trusting in what Jesus had done or thought something else and he said. “Yeah the first one, forgiven.” So I said there was a prayer he could pray if he wanted to be forgiven and talked him through it offering it to him as something he could pray silently and he nodded and then spoke softly aloud praying the prayer. We were alone at the end of the hall. He finished and looked my way and I said, “Amen,” and he said, “Amen.” I explained the Christian life to him living by the Spirit’s Power, “inside out”. I gave him the book Bible Promises for You and wrote his name and the date and “forgiven” in the front and gave him a Bible study on the deity of Christ. We talked some for a while on how crazy things were getting. I told him if he saw me to flag me down and I would give him a Bible. I somehow forgot to get another one out of the Truck earlier after giving one to Karina. I said he was right to say it was divine that we met again, “A divine appointment” and I would see him in heaven and he could tell me how things went, saying I would be praying for him each night for a year. He liked that and we parted ways. He did not seem to have much in terms of possessions and I left praying God would care for him in the winter ahead as the supply chains are all being deliberately broken now by Government actions.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance. God truly blessed and keeps leading me to people and even leading them to me.

In Him,

Bob