Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope ya had a great day walking with the Lord. Brooke and Rafel prayed with me to receive Jesus today. I’d be grateful for your prayers for them if you have a moment that they might grow stronger in the faith. Their stories are below if you have extra time today.

They got rid of the mask requirement at school today and a few kids said hi to me who I did not recognize only to realize I had never seen their faces before. I’ve always worn a face shield so students could see my face.

 Brooke was sitting in the lounge on the second floor of the science buildings that overlook the big lounge below from the SW corner. She had on a grey sweatshirt with black leggings. She had long brown hair, stick straight past her shoulders, very long white polished nails, full lips, no make-up and a country girl pretty smile. She was against the wall in a couch chair so I sat at her feet and did a student survey. She came from a Lutheran background and when I asked her what she would say to God if asked why He should let her into Heaven she said, “’Cause I have served you my whole life.” She thought she had a 50/50 chance of going to Heaven. I began to go through the Gospel with her and she tuned right in. I said God had to take away her sin so He could live inside her and asked her what Jesus had done to take away her sin and she didn’t seem to remember what He had done to take away her sins from church. So I explained how His blood and righteousness saved her and she followed along and said, “Yeah,” agreeing with the atonement. I explained she needed to receive Jesus as savoir by faith and that her works did not save her. I asked her if she wanted to be forgiven for her sins or thought something else explaining the way the Buddha sought enlightenment and not God, then how Islam differed in the way they thought of God and so had a different God who did not live inside you. I asked again then if she would want to be forgiven and she said something like “Oh that yeah.” I said there was a prayer she could pray to receive God’s forgiveness and walked her through it. I asked then if it was the desire of her heart ”Yeah,” she said nodding. So I asked if she would like to pray right then, “I wouldn’t hear you but God would hear and you would know you were forgiven.” “Umm Humm,” she said and took the booklet and prayed to receive Jesus. I said she could keep it and explained living the Christian life “Inside Out”. She had a Bible and I gave her Bible Promises for You writing her name and the date and “forgiven!” in the front and she thanked me. I gave her a Bible Study on the Deity of  Christ. I explained now trusting in the righteousness of Jesus to her credit the likelihood she would go to Heaven was 100%. I explained then How God got paid for all the imperfect things we had done that we owed him something perfect for and that this payment for damages was what our system of law was based on and that is why it sounds familiar. She liked that. She thanked me again and I said if I saw her around I’d just say “hi” and otherwise I would see her in Heaven and I got up and headed out.

Rafel was sitting by some vending machine in the first floor of the BIC on the North side. The lounge he was in connects to a hallway with skylights to the roof. He had a pencil thick mustache and a tiny soul patch. The underside of his chin had a beard he was working smaller than the palm of his hand. He had stick straight hair an inch and a half high cut very short on the sides. He had a long oval face and wore a black hoodie and gray nylon pants. I asked if he wanted to do a student survey before getting his name and he asked me if I was with another group. I talked small talk to him and said, “The big question is; ‘You’re walking down the road and you get hit by a bus, so you’re dead and you stand before God and He says, Why should I let you into Heaven?’ What would you say?” He talked about faith and trying to do good but landed on, “How much faith you have in Him. That’s what will get you into Heaven.” I said, “Christianity is like a blood transfusion, where God wants to live inside you with His Holy Spirit, transfuse His life into you but first He has to make you His type and take away your sin.” I asked him what Jesus had done to take away his sin but he could not think of anything. So I began to explain the Gospel to him and show him some verses and write others down using part of the booklet. I asked him too if he would want to be forgiven with God inside when I had finished the Gospel. He looked up tilting his head back a bit and finally said, “I just don’t know that God would forgive me, why would He?” I referred him back to what I had said about the blood and righteousness of Jesus to his credit. “Because of His righteousness,” he said realizing “Some people are Just worth more,” I said. “If we kidnap Donald Trump we could get a lot of money but if we kidnap me not so much.” He grinned and laughed. . I said, “Jesus righteousness was worth an infinite amount because He was God so His blood can pay for everyone.” I asked again if He would want to be forgiven. “Ok then, be forgiven,” he replied. I said there was a prayer he could pray then and I offered it to him explaining what it said and asking if it was the desire of his heart. He said, “Yes.” I said he could pray it right then and he nodded and took the booklet and I looked down, when he crossed himself seeing his hands move I looked up. I began to explain living “Inside out” by the Holy Spirit transforming him on the inside. He explained then that the example I had used where he’d broken up with a fictitious girl who had cheated on him and stole his stuff for drug money, then she says after he breaks it off with her that she’d be nice to her next 3 boyfriends to make it up to him. He said it had happened to him. He said he’d really cared for a girl who was now in rehab who had cheated on him a couple time and he forgave her. (The lesson was you can’t do good things for someone to make up for the bad things you have done to someone else. But he had cared for her so he hoped she would be better.) The girl had almost got him kicked out of school so he had to break it off. He got an A in a class that pulled up his GPA for a D in another one bailing him out. Then he said he found his faith (though he’d not understood it 10 minutes before I walked up) . To him it was doing good staying on the right track but now he was forgiven. I said I thought God had really helped him keeping him in School or he might have gone back to her and he agreed. I explained a symbolic view of the Mass saying when he took it he could just say “Thank You” as it commemorated Jesus had died for him and so he was forgiven. I gave him Bible Promises for You writing his name and the date and “forgiven!” in the front and gave him a Bible study on the Deity of Christ. He thanked me and I headed out.

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

In Him,

Bob