Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed and things are good. I got some lights up at the house and Harry and Jimmy each prayed with me to receive Jesus. I got a good seed planed with Nick (a tall thin guy with a face like young Mick Jagger and dyed blonde big mop of hair) who took The Case for Christianity Answer Booklet. Please prey these guys all come to a deeper walk with God in Christ. Their stories are below if you have some time. Thanks for your prayers.

 Harry was sitting in the upstairs lounge with Raj a Hindu guy and a black dude who I could not recognize with his mask on. But the Black dude got them to do a survey when I walked up as I had done it with him. Raj answered the questions and said he wasn’t interested in Christianity as he was Hindu so I focused on Harry. Harry looked Filipino, had straight hair, straight-up on top and very short on the side. He had an oval face with a broad nose. He wore a black hoodie and athletic shorts, it seemed like their class in the Gym had been canceled. When I asked him what he would say to God to get into Heaven he said, “Whatever happens is God directing it. He has a reason for what He does. He’s got good ends for what happens.” I said then that he thought it would be up to God and he agreed. He thought he had a 50/50 chance of going to heaven. He went to church of some kind but had no idea what Jesus had done to take away his sins. He tuned into the Gospel. When I asked as we finished if he would want to be forgiven trusting in what Jesus had done or thought something else he said, “I want to be forgiven.” His Black friend jumped in then trying to help and muddied the water a bit but I explained there was a prayer he could pray to be forgiven and talked him through it. I asked if it was the “Desire of his heart?” and he said, “Yeah.” I asked if he’d like to pray it and he nodded. The time praying was kind of odd he stopped a couple times asking the guy I had surveyed before if he’d checked on the cancelled class. Maybe it was a spiritual distraction from the Enemy or ADD but he finished and I explained the Christian life trusting in God’s Power. I offered him a book with Bible verses in it as they got up to go and he wanted one so I wrote his name and the date and “forgiven” in the front saying, “That’s the date you were forgiven.” and he seemed really grateful for that sincerely thanking me. So I said I would keep him in my prayers and they headed out.

 Jimmy had been on his way to class in an empty hallway and stopped to finish a pool game on his phone with his friend in the 1^st floor of the BIC on a row of chairs. He said he’d do a survey and had about a half hour until class. When he finished, he lost on the 8 ball, he settled in. He had short hair cut close but not shaved dark blonde and a smaller doe-boy face, was wearing a black cotton hoodie and sweats. When I asked him what he would say to God to get into Heaven he said, “I mean everyone’s a sinner. I go to church every Sunday. I tried my best, I know I do sin. I feel like what’s really important is not what you say or do but that you follow your where your heart leads you. As long as you have good intentions I feel like you can’t go wrong with that in life.” He listened attentively to the Gospel, said he went to a Christian church in Elmhurst and he knew Jesus had died to take away his sins when I prompted his memory a bit. He asked after he had heard the Gospel if God was in control and knew we would sin how our choices made sense, why didn’t God just intervene and stop us. I talked to him about the limits of human knowledge and that the Bible said that one day in a gloried body we would “see him as He is” [1John 3:2] and “know Him as we have been known” [1Corinthians 13:12]. I talked to him about particle physics and the mystery of free will. I suggested the Bible is telling us to make choices and would not do that if we could not make choices, even with all the things determining us. Why we suddenly want some pizza or just have to watch a show several of our friends think is a waste of time. We don’t understand our world or ourselves. But when we ask God to live inside us we are one with A truly free Being and so will be able to make free choices, even if we cannot understand this side of Heaven how that was possible. I explained the prayer to him and he said, “I have seen a prayer like this before, so how do I know if I am ready for this?” I said that this was not deciding to become a monk but that God would help him and give him strength by His Spirit in life and transform him, But not all at once. God can’t tell you everything that is wrong with you or will be wrong with you on the first day or you would have a psychotic break down. It would be like if they put every book and every paper you will have to have to read in college on the first day of class at school. You’d look at the pile and say, “Yeah forget it.” But God will give you strength little by bit. (And I explained the Christian life living “Inside out”) You get married and you realize something else that has to change and you have a kid and you realize something else when he is acting out and you say “What are you doing?” and he comes back with, “That’s what you do!” And you are like, “crap.” So this is not asking for you to change everything in your life all at once but to start to change. Some things you may have to go back further and say Lord make me the kind of guy who will ask you to change me in this way. And little by bit He changes us. So this is really saying, “I want to be forgiven and I want to start walking with You. Are you ready for that?” I asked. “Yeah,” he replied. “Then I would pray,” I said. And he did. I gave him a Bible Study then, he is not at school when we have ours now on Friday. I gave him the book Bible Promises for You and wrote his name and the date and “forgiven” in the front. He took it and shook my hand. “I’m not gonna lie, I really needed this today,” he said. Then, “I really appreciate your sitting here and talking with me. My life has been kind of a roller coaster lately. But I feel like God has been with me.” I said God had led me to him and that God living in him might get him off the ride or at least give him strength and peace to keep him in the up and down. He shook my hand again and thanked me. I told him I would be praying for him each day until a year from this Spring. “This time next year I will still be praying for you. He thanked me again and shook my hand again and headed off to class.

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

In Him,

Bob