Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope you were blessed today and are resting in Christ who holds our future. I had a good day on campus. Thea, Eduardo and Daniel each prayed to receive Jesus today. Their stories are below if you want to make the time to read them. Please pray they are blessed in their faith and grow near to the Lord.

When I got to campus I felt like I was being directed to the hallway that heads toward the book store on campus. So I headed that way and the first person I talked to was Thea. She was sitting on a sofa couch with a mask on and I never saw her face. But she wasn’t wearing any make-up and had mouse brown hair. Her hair looked untouched, like she’d been late for school and just rolled out of bed, threw some jeans on and her orange sweatshirt. She had kind eyes and a really sweet meek personality, seemed like a really happy person. Petite. She struggled to answer nearly all the questions on my short questionnaire. Though she did know she wanted to travel. When I asked what she would say to God to get into Heaven she shrugged and said, “I don’t know what I would say.” “Do you ever go to Church?” I asked. She said, she was Orthodox and regularly went to church. “What do you think they would tell you at church you have to do to get into Heaven?” She was not sure but she thought probably obeying God would be part of it. I asked her if she thought she would go to Heaven: “100% you’re sure, 10% unlikely 50/50 you got a shot,” I said. “I don’t know,” she replied. “Some people say if you believe in God you will go to Heaven. I’m not sure I guess 50/50.” I began to go through the Gospel with her and she was really interested. A girl kind of strangely walked up saying she wanted to talk to her and Thea somehow made it obvious she wanted to talk to me and the girl said she could come back. I said that would be good and we kept on. Possibly the girl thought she would rescue Thea. It happened once before this semester. So I continued to go through the Gospel with Thea who God had made interested to hear. I asked her if she would want to trust in Christ to be forgiven believing He was God had died for her sins and rose from the dead. She nodded, she did. I said if she wanted to be forgiven there was a prayer she could pray and I walked her though it. “It says here, ‘Is this prayer the desire of your heart?’ Would you say this it is?” She nodded again. So I said if she wanted she could pray it silently, I wouldn’t hear her but God would hear and she’d know she was forgiven. “Wanna do it?” I asked. “Ok,” she said with just a titch of a laugh. And she took the booklet and prayed to receive Christ. I explained the Christian life to her living inside out. I explained now trusting in the righteousness of Jesus to be her righteousness the likelihood she would go to Heaven was 100%. She did not want a book, she’d basically said she didn’t like to read so I gave her a Bible Study and explained it a bit. I told her I would pray for her until a year from this spring asking God to bless her. “Thank you,” she replied. “It was so nice to meet you,” I said, getting up to go. “Thank you,” she said with a bit of a laugh and I headed out.

 Eduardo was laying face down on a bench looking at his phone in the east science building. He was willing to do a survey and got up and sat on the bench and we faced looking out to the North through the glass wall. I sat beside him on the table that is attached to the end. He was Latino and had swept back brown hair and black glasses. I never really saw his face with his mask off. He had on a pink t-shirt and black sweats with red tennis shoes. He said he’d gone to church with his family when his grandmother was alive. I have heard that a few times this year, a grandma was bringing the family to church and then died and they more or less stopped. He was raised Catholic and though they did not go to church as much they still prayed he said. He said he wanted to have a family. I asked him what he would say to God to get into Heaven and he said. “I guess, I just went to school, studied hard for my family. I tried everything in my power to be a good person.” But when I asked him what the likelihood was he was going to Heaven he said, “40%.” I’m tempted to ask when people say that if they don’t think they are very good or if they don’t think goodness seems like enough of a reason to get into Heaven. He listened to the Gospel attentively and keyed in, when I asked him what Jesus had done to take away his sins he had no idea. So I explained the perfect life of Christ and His blood and righteousness that saves us. I asked him if he would want to be forgiven trusting in What Jesus had done for him or thought something else and he said. “Yeah.” So I said there was a prayer he could pray but I think he was thinking about what I had said and had kind of missed the explanation so when I asked if it was the desire of his heart he said, “What is that now?” So I explained it again. Asked if it was how he believed and he nodded. I said he could pray it silently. “Yeah,” He replied and he prayed to receive Christ. I gave him the booklet (I always give people the booklet and the notes I made) and explained living by the Spirit’s power and that the likelihood now he would go to Heaven was 100%. “Yeah,” he laughed, “Thanks.” He had to run then so I gave him Bible Promises for You writing his name and the date and forgiven in the front. I said I would pray for him each day and he said “Yeah, thank you.” I said, “You’re welcome,” As he grabbed his black puffy coat and hit it down the hall. “Thank you, thank you,” He called back and he was gone.

 Daniel was sitting at the other end of the school near the tunnel that goes from the BIC into the MAC arts building. He seemed to be killing time and it was 45 minutes to the next class. He was dressed all in black. Black fleece, black sweats and trainers. He had a flat lifeless mop of hair, looked like a regular guy, Latino, couple day’s growth of light beard. He was a good dude, upbeat and tracked well with everything. He had gone to years of Catholic school but when I asked him what he would say to God to get into Heaven he thought about it and said, “I’m not too sure.” He thought he had a 90% chance of going to Heaven. He did not know what Jesus had done to take away his sins. I explained the righteousness of God earned by the perfect life of Christ and His blood shed to save him. I suggested that was symbolized in the mass the wafer was Jesus body given for him and the wine symbolized his blood so when he took it he should just say, “Thank You.” I explained how “God got paid” by the perfect life of Jesus. He died and paid for all the imperfect things we had done to damage God’s world that we owed God something perfect for. I explained that only God could forgive sins and that was Catholic doctrine. I compared confessing to a priest to buying insurance for your car from an agent. When you wreck your car you call the agent and he says he’ll notify the company and they will be in touch but we don’t expect the agent to pay, the company pays. God is the company. He liked all the examples and when I asked if he wanted to be forgiven or thought something else he said, “Yeah, forgiven.” I said there was a prayer he could pray, and asked if it was the desire of his heart. “Yeah,” he replied. I said he could pray it silently and he nodded and prayed to receive Jesus. I explained living by the Spirit inside out. He did not have a Bible so I gave him one showing him the “Where to Turn” section and writing his name and the date and “forgiven” in the front. I gave him Bible Promises for You and a Bible study and said I would be praying for him. We hit it off and talked a bit and he was thankful and I headed off.

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

In Him,

Bob