Third Watch Ministries, NFP Bob & Ellen Bollow
P.O. Box 1283 November 29, 2021
Wheaton, IL 60187-1283
Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Hope you are being blessed by the kind things of God as the Holidays start. I’ve begun them with a back problem that has got me moving tentatively off and on for the last week. I was kept home today with heat on my back, unable to stand up quickly out of a chair. Our Christmas tree waits in a bucket of water in the garage. Likewise, the star waits to be hung on the chimney until a day when a sudden spasm will not send me tumbling down to the yard below. But it’s not like I could put the ladder up anyway. So today I am home writing you. Fortunately God, knowing my limitations, has blessed evangelism on campus and 86 students have already trusted Christ as their Savior after hearing the Gospel from me. I hope to get back before the semester closes, but I am grateful God has already worked in the strange setting on campus. College of DuPage has only 50% of the students coming to school for class. Some days it is a ghost town for want of someone to talk to about the Truth. They plan on raising that to 75% next semester, but reactions to various Greek-lettered variants may bring different decrees down from above. New York has already declared a new state of emergency. Though early report of the “Omicron” seems like a simple flu. Something bugs typically do as they mutate is they become weaker. So there is hope in that prognosis.
COD is a commuter campus. Students often only have a short time before running to the next class or the bus or their ride when I come across them. There is a pressure I feel each time I talk with someone, hoping they won’t have to hurry off. The moments they have to hear the truth are often compressed. We live in a time of that kind of attention span as well. I often recall Warren Wiersbe, saying, “It is a sin to bore people with the Gospel.” He, the one time pastor of Moody Church now with the Lord, is now never bored. One day we will all stand before Christ and recognize we are stupid and boring by comparison. But if you are telling the greatest story you ever heard, it would seem to be inexcusable to screw it up. Fortunately, in evangelism God is more directly concerned to communicate than He might be in the telling of other tales in our lives. I think a glorified body might lead to glorified storytelling in Heaven. There, the illustrations I use on campus will pale presumably unless they are a part of someone’s overheard salvation story. The sermon I have often thought would be most interesting to hear was the explanations of Jesus to Cleopas and his friend on the road to Emmaus. There Jesus “beginning at Moses and all the prophets… “expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” If we for a moment doubt this was a good sermon we have only to read the response of the hearers in Luke 24:32 “And they said one to another, “Were our hearts not burning within us when He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?” It is my hope that Jesus, in the moment I speak to students on campus, makes their hearts burn unto salvation as I quote to them the verses they might believe to be saved. So I pray for each by name, every day, some piece of scripture or a prayer of Paul that they might grow.
Thanks so much for your prayers and gifts to make these moments possible again on campus this fall. These are the names of the students I know of who confessed faith in Christ and prayed. Please pray they are blessed. (An * means they said they would pray later and I have yet to know.)
Brieana, Delyla, Jermaine, Tryvis, Dajon, Edwin, Solomon, Adiel*, Brandon, Joe, AJ, Rafael, Keyshawn, Edmund, Fiyin, Cedric, Marshawn, Derek, Micheal, Anecia, Adrian, Amarillus, Richard, Joe, Victor, Natalie, Katie, Abraham, Eddie, Beth, Devion, Karina, Arielle, Slone, Henry, Leo, Jake, Anthony, Laila, Cam, Fashawn, Aniya, Amaya, Garrett, Gabriel, Ryan, Travis, Jack, Juan, Armen, Nathan, Roman, Fabi, Noah, Ben, Eugenia, Alexis, Bobby, Jeremy, Alma, JJ, Yaritza, Maritza, Karina, Vernon, Sam, Brooklyn, Keagan, D’Andre, Ash, Matt, Tyler, Nuvia, Dom, Kaliyah, Jenn, Romel, Kendall, Thea, Eduardo, Daniel, Marissa, Harry, Jimmy, Elena, Jordan, Nya
In Him,
Bob & Ellen
P.S. Dec 9th update: 6 additional students who have prayed and Bob’s back is better!