Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your weekend has been blessed with all good things from the Lord. We have been blessed with God’s provision. I’m glad it is sunny not snowing today and happily Milly trusted Christ on campus Thursday after first appealing to good works Gingis and Jamal each prayed with me to receive Jesus. Please pray their faith is affirmed and they now walk by it. All were very grateful. Their stories are below if you have the time.

 Milly is 74 years old African American. She had on a wig and a long leather looking skirt and a jacket. She had classic black features, high cheek bones, a nice smile. She has a locker at COD. She said she lives with her daughter and it seems she maintains some privacy that way. That was kind of a vague story but COD would be a pretty safe place to have a locker. If you stopped paying because something happened to you they would open it and contact you to get the contents. I guess you can get one as a community service to retirement era folks. She had nothing but time on her hands, possibly waiting for a bus as we sat under the stairs by the doors near the Bookstore. She said she’d do a survey and she ended up having more questions for me than I had for her. We talked for over an hour. The Mormons had gotten her number and called her but she sent them packing. I said they were liars and she agreed. But I didn’t go into what they taught since she seemed to have discarded any idea they could be correct. She told me a couple dreams she’d had and since their content was things in the Bible I said, “When that happened in the Bible it meant…” She was very happy with looking at her dreams that way. I asked her what she would say to get into Heaven and she said, “Because I served you I am a servant I obeyed your statues and commandments.” I began explaining the Gospel to her. She objected and I would then explain the reasoning and then she changed her mind. She did not at first think God could live inside you and I explained the Trinity and it did not mean we were God to be one with Him. I explained how faith in what Jesus had done for her was what would bring her to Heaven not her good deeds and it was His righteousness not hers she needed to trust in.  At the end she said, “You have changed my thinking and now I understand the truth.” I walked her through the prayer and she said she believed it and committed to trusting in Christ by faith and resting in His righteousness not hers. I gave her Bible Promises for You. I wrote her name and the date and “Forgiven trusting in the Blood of Jesus by faith,” in the front. “I have heard many pastors and no one ever explained things this clearly to me,” she said. I said that was because the Holy Spirit was working in her so she would understand. I told her I taught a Bible study for a Biker club and one on campus for students. “Well other people need to hear than just bikers,” she said. “You need to start a Church.” I told her I would pray about it and if God gave me one I would do it. She said she’d email me in the fall to find out if He had. As far as I can tell no one else is talking to the students about the Gospel so I think my calling at school is still the place to be. We parted as I told her I was going to look for some kids to talk to and she thanked me.

 Gingis was an Egyptian who was sitting at the top of the stairs at a table in the lounge against the fitness equipment in the PE building. He had a sweptback hairstyle of thick hair and a jaw line beard, a pencil thick mustache that ended with his mouth, his cheeks clean shaven, small features. He had on a blue shirt like a mechanic would wear at work and was busy on a laptop. He was Greek Orthodox and believed it to be the original Church telling me they had buildings thousands of years old. I said I imagined that if there was a question of which church was the oldest going back to the time of the Apostles, Egypt being so near the Holy land was a good possibility since the Jerusalem Church was basically destroyed with nearly every Jew in Jerusalem in 79AD. The earliest Bible manuscript fragments are Egyptian papyri. He said he had another Bible study group he went to but could not recall the name. So I said, “You wanna just answer one big question?” “Sure I can answer a question,” he replied. So I asked, “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?” “I think he would look at my good deeds and my bad deeds and weigh them out,” he replied. I said so you think your good deeds will hopefully get you into Heaven?” I asked. “Yes,” he said. So I said the Bible says something a little bit different, would you want to hear some Bible verses about how you get into Heaven?” “Sure,” he replied. So I began to go through the Gospel with him. He seemed to know the verses and understand Jesus had died for him to take away his sins. So then I explained Jesus righteousness and how he could not pay God will anything perfect in his life though he owed God a perfect life, and the restitution of the damage of his sins. So God had to become a man Jesus who lived a perfect life for him. His blood cleansed him (1John 1:7) and pays God for all the imperfect things we have done that we owe God perfect payment for doing. “The real reason God can forgive you is He got paid, but He had to pay Himself. God is just.” I explained Jesus righteousness is his righteousness. He wanted to trust in Jesus by faith as I finished going through the Gospel with him. He read through the prayer with me and he said he agreed and I said, “Amen?” “Amen,” he replied “I appreciate you man thank you!” he said enthusiastically. I gave him Bible Promises for You and wrote his name and the Date and “Forgiven” on the inside and gave him a Bible study. I said, “God Bless you man,” getting up to go. “Thank you. I appreciate you man,” He said again happily. And I headed off down the stairs.

I went out to the tunnel over to the BIC and Jamal was sitting on a row of chairs as you come out of the tunnel. He was in sweats all black but the sweatshirt had some colorful lettering here and there. He had braids making a chess board block pattern on the top of his head coming out about6 inches. Clean shaven oval face, good looking guy. He said had been asked to do a survey before and if he’d done it, it left him no enthusiasm for another. So I asked, “Ya just wanna take a booklet?” “Yeah I’ll take one,” he said. So I gave one to him and began to explain the Gospel to him saying, “Christianity is like a blood transfusion, I have A+ blood so if you fill me with B- blood I would clot up and die. God wants to fill you full of His Spirit then since He is eternal and the source of life you would have eternal life. But first he has to make you His type, so he takes way your sin.” I could see he was really interested by that so I knew the Spirit was moving him and I continued to go through the Gospel until I had finished it with the Booklet. I asked if he would want to be forgiven trusting in Jesus and he said yes. And so I said if he wanted to be forgiven there was a prayer he could pray and talked him through it saying he could pray it right now and he’d be forgiven. He took the booklet and began to pray. Cam who had prayed to receive Jesus in the fall walked by and knew him and said hi. Jamal looked up from praying said hi and went right back to it. Then Cam greeted me, he’s always really friendly. He is a huge offensive lineman (fair skinned black guy ) with kind of a loose afro of curls. It goes straight up and makes him look about 5 inches taller. We shook hands and I told him I was still praying for him each night and he thanked me and headed down the tunnel. Jamal had finished so I explained living “inside out” where God transforms us on the inside, we become good men, and do good things on the outside. I gave him Bible Promises for You and wrote his name and the date and “Forgiven” on the inside. “Thank you so much,” he said in return. I gave him a Bible study and told him I would be praying for him each night, one of the prayers of Paul as I did for Cam. “Thank you so much,” he said again and I said he was welcome and headed down the hall north out of sight.

So thanks for your prayers for the Ministry last week and for evangelism. Though I had a day that was just evangelistic discussions and was under the weather another day 4 people trusted Christ all together and God truly blessed.

In Him,

Bob