Hey Sisters and brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed with all good things and you are enjoying the weather wherever you may be. There’s month early snows all over Europe, so I’m glad my yard still has green trees. I had a good day on campus and Jenn and Romel each prayed with me to receive Jesus as their savior. Please pray their faith is blessed with strength and assurance. Their stories are below if you have the time. Thanks for your help in prayer.

Jenn was sitting in the east-most atrium lounge in the BIC on the ground floor sitting at a table killing time before class on a laptop.  She wore an earth green sweater and black skinny jeans. She was not real skinny though. I never saw most of her face but she had one of those pretty birthmarks less than an inch right of her slightly wider nose and pretty long brown wavy hair. Looked Latina in complexion. She had just enough time to answer some questions. When I asked her what she would say to God to get into Heaven she said, “Let’s see… We all commit sins. But I don’t think I’ve committed really bad sin.” She thought she had a 60% chance of going to Heaven. She said she had gone to Catholic church but with the advent of the covid restrictions she and her family had gotten out of the habit. I began to go through the Gospel with her saying it would sound familiar. I told her God wanted to live inside her to know her but had to take away her sins to do so and asked if she knew what God had done to take away her sins. She nodded with a look in her eyes that said she didn’t know. So I just said something like “This is how He does it,” and explained the Gospel. When I was done explaining the blood and righteousness of Christ to her credit and salvation by faith I asked if she would want to be forgiven for her sins trusting in Jesus. “Yeah be forgiven,” she said. So I said there was a prayer she could pray and walked her through it saying she could pray it silently and she nodded and took the booklet and said. “I have to get to class,” and then began to pray. When she finished I quickly said, “This is 100% trusting in the righteousness of Jesus,” and writing 100% next to the question on the card questionnaire. I said she could now live by the Spirit’s power, showing her a statement in the back. I said let me just give you a book with Bible verses in it. And she said, “OK grabbing her things. I wrote her name and the date and “forgiven” in the front. “Thanks for talking with me,” I said getting up to go. And she said sure. I went down the hall and sat on the chairs to take some notes and she happened to be behind me a bit and passing me she sweetly said, “Thank you.” And I said, “You’re welcome.” And she headed around the corner to class just in time.

I went down the tunnel then over to the PE building and at the end of the hall past where you go to the pool was Romel. He was looking at some of the pictures, framed on the wall of the successful teams of past years. He said he was waiting to talk to a teacher. He had dozens of thin long braids coming out of his head showing a bit of afro that a black girl would wish she had. He wore an orange hoodie and black nylon tapered sweats. He played football. He didn’t have much time to talk but said he had seen me around and appreciated my spreading the word. I asked him what he would say to God to get into Heaven and he said, God would probably say no to him. He didn’t feel like he had been doing enough good things but said it more like he hadn’t been staying in contact. He spoke with an urban slant to his words I really can’t capture. I wished a couple times I was tape recording him. I asked if I could explain what the Bible said and if his teacher appeared he could break it off and he agreed. When I explained that God wanted to live inside him but first had to take away his sins, I asked what Jesus had done to take away his sins. In response he pretty much just reiterated what I had said about God purifying him and living inside him without saying how. So I just said this is how it works and I explained the blood of Jesus and His righteousness and how God got paid for the damage we had done. I said that we owed Him a perfect payment for the damage we could not pay. When I finished being saved by faith I asked him if he wanted to be forgiven trusting in Jesus. And he said he did so I talked him through the prayer then and he said ok. He took the booklet and prayed to receive Jesus very expressively. He shook my hand then and said, “Appreciate you man.” I went to take the booklet back and said he could keep it but I wanted to show him one more thing, “Yeah I was going to ask if I could keep it.” “Sure,” I replied. I said Jesus could live inside him and explained the power of the Spirit. He really liked that idea as I explained God would give him as much success as would not end in disaster for him. I gave him Bible Promises for You and he enthusiastically said, “This will be useful.” I wrote his name and the date and “forgiven” in the front. I gave him back the booklet and he said, “I was feeling it as you said it.” Talking about resonating with the things I taught him. “Everything happens for a reason, you walking up to me here man.” “Yeah,” I agreed. “I needed this today, appreciate you man. We have a relationship.” I said I would see him around and he was very enthusiastic and fist bumped me and I headed out. Several of the black guys say hi to me on campus. They seem not to care about an association with the old white preacher.

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

In Him,

Bob