Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed and filled with the Spirit’s power. I had a good day on campus though our Bible Study failed to materialize. Carlos and Jalen and each prayed with me to receive Christ today. Please pray for them to be blessed and grow in their faith if you have a moment. If you got the time, their stories are below. Jalen questions were interesting.

Carlos was sitting in a lounge that connects to some natural light skylights in a hall with offices. I walked through from one direction off the hall and asked one student who said no passing a table where Carlos and a friend were sitting. He looked at me slowly as I walked out the other side of the lounge. I knew God was telling me to go ask him. So in spite of the fact that ya feel stupid walking back to someone you just passed, I did and he agreed. His friend was doing homework and he said we could split off to another table but his friend said it wouldn’t bother him so we stayed. He had a curly mop of hair and a finger width mustache, a curly beard a half inch off his cheeks that looked ungroomed liked he’d been camping 3 weeks and hadn’t shaved yet. He said he was Orthodox and I came to find out later he was Egyptian Orthodox. He had a hoodie with blue sleeves and a red torso on and dark blue runners sweats. He said he wanted to “find true happiness”. When I asked him what he would say to God to get into Heaven he said, “I’ve always believed unto you.” Then after pausing he said, “I’d ask for forgiveness too.” He thought he had a 60% chance of going to heaven saying, “I’m sure I’m on the better side.” (Meaning over 60%.) He had his arms crossed as we went through the gospel but got more comfortable. When I asked him what Jesus had done to take away his sins he nodded “yes” in the way students will if they don’t know what to answer. So I just said, “This is how it works.” I explained the Gospel how God is paid for what we owe Him by the sacrifice of the perfect life of Christ. I explained the inherited righteousness of Christ and that by faith he could receive Christ and be saved. I asked him if he wanted to be forgiven for his sins trusting in Christ to be forgiven or thought something else and he said, “Yeah,” and he pointed to that circle. I said if he wanted to be forgiven there was a prayer he could pray and walked him through it saying, “It says here is this prayer the desire of your heart?” He nodded so I said he could pray it silently and only God would here. His friend was engulfed in his homework, I don’t think he had heard anything we’d said. He took the booklet and prayed to receive Jesus. I explained the Christian life to him, the fruit of the Spirit and then living “inside out”. I gave him Bible Promises for You and a Bible study. Saying he could read a few of the short topics or find more on line I gave him The Case for Christianity Answer Booklet. I told him I would keep him in my prayers until a year from Spring and he said he’d pray for me and I thanked him and stood up to leave. “Thank you. You really helped me a lot,” he said. And I said, “You’re welcome,” and headed out.

I went basically down the main hall and around the corner and was going to head to the PE lounge through the tunnel but felt nudged to go right into another lounge with more vending machines on the other side of the BIC from the one I was just in. There were a couple tables there so I thought I would check. Jalen was sitting at one with a ball cap on turned backwards and a full black cowl, showing only an oval around his eyes. He is African American, he had modest, classic black features he showed me as I left, a finger thick mustache, good looking guy, was wearing white zip up nylon hoodie with black trim. He hoped to try out for the football team in May. He wanted to know how long it would take. I can get through the gospel and a survey in 5-7 minutes but he began asking me questions and it took near an hour. I asked him what he would say to God to get into Heaven and he said, “’Cause I’m a child of Him. I repented of all my sins. I look to Him to live a happy peaceful holy life. I asked him the likelihood he would get into Heaven and he said, “100% if I keep doing what I’m doing, if I treat people right… as I keep doing these kind of things why shouldn’t I [get in].” I began to go through the Gospel with him and he did not know what Jesus had done to take away his sins. He asked me questions as I went through and explained God became a man. “Jesus is God?” he asked and I explained a Trinitarian idea by analogy, saying He was. He asked if his mom died if she would be able to communicate with him from Heaven, guide him. I said once she was there she would be so convinced God was helping and guiding him that she wouldn’t try to get a word in, though here it was her job. “But if she dies you could ask God to tell her hi.” He seemed to have dialogued some in Chicago (where he was from) with the “Black Israelites” and I explained why they were wrong and that they could not prove they were genetically related to the Jews. They say they keep the Old Testament Law. I explained how an internal combustion car worked and said they were starting a fire on the Sabbath when they drove to Church, which breaks the Sabbath law. I was certain they had never thought of that and he thought that was amusing. I explained Jesus was our Sabbath rest (Hebrews 4) and we are the temple of God. So every day is the Sabbath rest for us in Christ so it did not matter that people did not go to worship on Saturday as the Jews had done.  I went through the Gospel with him explaining the Blood and Righteousness of God to save him, how God was paid by the death of Christ. I asked if he would want to be forgiven trusting in what Jesus had done or thought something else speaking about what Islam said about God and that they had a different God. “So there is more than one God?” He asked. I said no “their god is a false god.” He later asked about Allah and I explained some more obvious errors in the Quran. “Would you want to be forgiven for your sins trusting in Jesus,” I asked. “For sure,” he said. So I said then there was a prayer he could pray. “It says here is this prayer the desire of your heart, so if it is you could pray it silently and God would hear.” “Yeah for sure,” he replied. He took the booklet and prayed to receive Christ. “I appreciate it.” He said. I explained the Christian life living “inside out”. More questions came. I missed the first part of one and only heard “black or white?” I asked him to repeat what had been garbled through his mask and he asked what color I thought Jesus was black or white. I thought he was probably “caramel colored,” I replied. And he gave me a look that showed he did not know what I meant. I said He would have been brown skinned like Arabs unlike the Jewish people who were in the Holy Land today who were primarily lighter having come from a group that converted to Christianity in Europe. “But Jesus walked everywhere in the sun and got really tan” I said. I pointed out that I, being Swedish, really only got kind of reddish brown, not anything like a nice tan and he laughed. “So if you are only giving me two options I would say he was closer to your color than mine,” I finished. Jalen wasn’t as dark as some guys. Later after we had talked more he said that (color question) was a test question to see if I was legit and he could trust what I was saying. If I had said Jesus was a white guy I guess he would have rejected the rest of the message so I am glad I did not make that mistake. Interesting test I thought. I said some of the European painting might have reflected the fact that the painters only knew European Jews who were no darker than they were. He asked who had written the Bible and I gave him a Rose Pamphlet “Why Trust the Bible”. I gave him a Bible and showed him the “Where to Turn” section and the Messianic passages section. I gave him ad Bible Study on the Deity of Christ and Bible Promises for You and wrote his name and the date and “Forgiven! in the front as I had in the book. I explained now trusting in the righteousness of Jesus the likelihood he would go to Heaven was 100%.  “I appreciated it,” he said again as I got up to go. And I shook his hand and said, “Thanks for being cool to me.” “For sure,” he replied and I headed out.

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

In Him,

Bob