Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope you’ve had a good day walking with Jesus. I had a good day on campus and Liz and Raymond prayed with me to receive Jesus Thursday. Please pray they grow in their faith. Their stories are below if you have time today.

Liz was sitting with her back against an indent in the wall for benches on the 2^nd floor of the BIC. She has an oval (nearly round) sweet face, Latina in appearance. Her long brown hair was up in a bun. She had on a blue hooded sweatshirt and black leggings. She was a kind friendly young woman. She said her family had people from 2 faith traditions in it and she hadn’t gone either way. I think she may have meant Catholic and some other Christian tradition. When I asked her what she would say to God to get into Heaven she said, “I definitely believe in God.” So I asked if she would say that, “I definitely believed in you.” And she said “Yeah.” She thought she had a 90% chance of going to Heaven. I began to explain the Gospel to her and assumed she did not know anything as she said she had not been to Church at all. She took it all in and was engaged. I asked if she would want to be forgiven for her sins trusting in Jesus or if she thought something else and she said, “Be forgiven from God.” “Do you believe Jesus is God, died for your sins and rose from the dead? Do you think that is a true story?” “Yes,” she replied. I said if she’d like to be forgiven there is a prayer she could pray and I talked her through it and ask if it was the desire of her heart. “Yeah,” she replied. I said if she wanted she could pray it silently right then, I wouldn’t hear her but God would hear and she’d know she was forgiven. “Wanna do it?” She nodded and took the booklet and prayed to receive Jesus as her Savior. I explained living “inside out” asking for the transforming power of the Spirit to change her and give her strength. She was majoring in Psych and said she did a lot of reading so I gave her the hard back copy of The Case for Christianity Answer Book. I gave her Bible Promises for You and put her name and the date and “forgiven!” in the front. I also gave her a Bible study and told her that now trusting in the righteousness of Jesus to be her righteousness the likelihood she would go to Heaven was 100%. I told her I would pray for her for the next year and she thanked me. “Thanks for taking time to talk with me,” I said getting up to leave. “Thank you.” She said with gratitude. And I headed out.

At the very end of the day I found Raymond sitting up against the outside glass wall of the lounge on the SE corner of the BIC building. It has vending machines and a glass wall on the hallway and another that runs parallel to the lockers making up the wall going in. There’s no way to walk through with nonchalance, you have to walk in and walk out which always feels awkward if no one will talk to me. More than 90% of the people I ask each day say no. But He said he’d do it. He had black rimmed glasses and a conservative mop of dark hair that looked recently windblown. There was a day or two growth of beard on him and his skin was darker, Latino, warm smile. He had kind of the everyman look, square features. He had on a light grey hoodie and dark sweats. When I asked him what he would say to God if asked why He should let him into Heaven he said, “Because even though I’ve made poor choices in life I’ve always had good intentions.” He thought he had a 65% chance of getting into heaven. Usually a C in community college. He said he had gone to Catholic Church 12 years and then had gone to a Community Church. He was an engaging friendly guy and tracked with everything and I got him to grin a few times. He knew Jesus had died for our sins when I asked him what He had done to take them away. I explained the Gospel to him, the sacrifice for his sins the blood that cleansed him and the Righteousness of God that surrounds those who believe by faith.  I asked him if he wanted to be forgiven for his sins or thought something else and he said nothing for a while that seemed like one of the longer pauses I’ve gotten in response then said solidly, “I would like to be forgiven for my sins.” I said, “Well if you’d like to be forgiven there’s a prayer you can pray.” I talked him through it reading the question after, “Is this prayer the desire of your heart?” He nodded and I said he could pray it silently. He took the booklet and prayed to receive Jesus. I took it back and explained the fruit of the Spirit for the asking and living “inside out” and trusting in the righteousness of Jesus to be his righteousness the likelihood he would go to Heaven was 100%. I told him I would pray for him for the next year until spring. I gave him Bible Promises for You writing his name and the date and “forgiven!” in the front. I gave him The Case for Christianity Answer Booklet and a Bible study. “I’ll see you in Heaven,” I said getting up to go. “Alright,” he said shaking my hand gratefully and said “You too.”

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism Thursday if you had a chance. God truly blessed. 149 people have prayed to receive Jesus this year doing evangelism. I hope next week to find a few more as the semester ends.

In Him,

Bob