Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was a good one walking in the joy of the Lord as your strength. I had a good day on campus and Favian prayed to receive Christ. Also Juan a guy I had gone through the Gospel with and talk to off and on said he had trusted in Christ a while after we talked the first time. He has kind of teddy bear good looks and is great at soccer, wears his hair shaved on the sides and a crew cut on top. Last I spoke to him he told me he had been reading proverbs so I gave him a Bible promise book. So I’m grateful he has decided to follow Christ. We had a talk today on guidance and promiscuity, he is living a pure life so I helped him see the benefits long term of holding to that. Favian’s story is below if you have time.

 Favian was sitting in the cafeteria and I began talking to him waiting for our Bible study to begin in the same room. His questions tied me up for a while and I was late but Ellen sat with the girls that are now coming and held down the fort. Favian was a bit on the shorter side he had a crew cut and soft features. He was a pretty average looking guy but for a couple freckle birthmarks. He wore glasses with metal rims wore a t-shirt. He had been to Catholic church as a kid. When I asked him what he would say to God if he died and was asked, “Why should I let you into Heaven” He paused for a min. with a “Hmm, what would I say to God.” The he replied, “Because to the best of my ability I treated people the way I want to be treated. I treated them with respect hopefully with enough care to make them feel they mattered.” He thought he at a 35% chance of getting into Heaven. When I asked what Jesus had done to take away his sins he said, He carried his cross.” I said, “Yeah, He died for you.” He listened closely to the Gospel and I asked him if he would want to be forgiven trusting in Jesus for forgiveness. He then said, “I personally don’t agree with being forgiven just by faith or [by] believing in God.” I replied that he was not being forgiven just because he had faith, he was being forgiven because there was a terrible price in the death and suffering of Christ that allowed God to forgive him because He had been paid (which I had already explained). He said he hated handouts where there was nothing in return. I pointed out that there were all kinds of things given to him in this life he would never be able to repay or simply couldn’t. One was his parents care for him as a child, changing his diapers and feeding him among other things. I talked to him about the infrastructure of America and how much we had been granted just be living here, highways and electric power everywhere. I then said that he would be expected to give a lot in return if he gave his life to God. God would be his boss and could ask anything of him and some of it would require sacrifice different than what others were doing. I said these things God would ask him might be very difficult and that we were headed into very hard times as a country where the things God was asking him to do might cost him a lot. His actions could only demonstrate to God that he was genuinely grateful for eternal life, but could not pay God back for the suffering of Christ. He asked if God would appreciate what someone had done by basically being good. I said, “There is an old saying that all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. But there is another much more common way evil triumphs, it’s when good men to the wrong thing.” I explained God was playing 3^-d chess and he could end up being the rook that went to the wrong square and it ended up sacrificing the queen. We could only hope to contribute to the good God was doing in the world if he was guiding and directing us. He wanted to do an Iron man completion and I used examples from that of God being with him. He asked about people who had not heard in other countries. I said there were 10’s of thousands of people coming to Christ in Iran by God appearing to them in dreams saying, “Pray to me alone.” These then would come across a Christian who could not publically proclaim their faith or be killed there and clandestinely enter the underground church. I said I believed that anyone who was genuinely seeking God, God would find them. But most are not. I explained the trade off of living for God now when compared to the far longer eternity that awaits. He had some other good questions. I had read through the prayer with him earlier and guided him back to it asking if he would want to be forgiven where God lived inside him and gave him strength and guidance. “For sure,” he finally replied after about 30 minutes of answering things. And he prayed then to receive Christ. Ellen was only a couple tables away but I realized then how late I was and I gave him a Bible study and wrote his name and the date and “forgiven!” in the front of Bible Promises for You. He was grateful and happy and I headed over to teach the girls.

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

In Him,

Bob