Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope ya had a great day living a life by the Spirit’s power. “These are the good old days” as we still have freedom to speak the Gospel. Andrew, Sam and Anish each prayed with me to receive Jesus on campus today. Please pray they are blessed with faith and joy and peace in believing. Their stories are below if you have time to read them. Thanks for your prayers.

Andrew was sitting in a first floor lounge across the room from some vending machines on the edge of the hallway. He had a boyish face like an anime character, slight build and light brown hair parted down the middle. He wore a blue t-shirt and dark blue sweats with white stripes on the sides. He was very reserved. He asked how long the survey would take and I said 5 or 6 minutes for the questions but if he wanted the short version he could just answer the big question. So I asked him what he would say to God if he was killed by a bus and was asked “Why should I let you into Heaven?” He wasn’t sure what he’d say so I said the last part of the survey was what he thought of Christianity. His parents had taken him to Church. He listened patiently to the Gospel and knew Jesus had died to take away his sins. I asked him if he’d want to be forgiven for his sins trusting in what Jesus had done for him on the cross or thought something else and then said, “So what do you think would you want to be forgiven for your sins.” “Well the obvious answer is to be forgiven,” he said. So I said if he wanted to be forgiven there was a prayer he could pray and talked him through it asking if it was the desire of his heart. He said it was so I asked if he wanted to pray it silently, “I wouldn’t hear you but God would hear you and you’d know you were forgiven. Wanna do it?” “I could do it yeah,” he replied. And he prayed to receive Jesus. I explained a Christian life walking by the Spirit’s power inside out. He wasn’t interested in anything to read or even a Bible study but just took the booklet. I said I’d keep him in my prayers until spring and one year after. He was gracious and I left.

I came across Sam sitting on the edge of the big lounge in the Student Service Center in the sofa chairs. He was a solid built guy, my height, had a square jaw and a slightly rounded end nose. He had a mop of curls popping out the front of a gray hoodie and grey shorts on. He said he’d already done a survey so I explained this was something different. “The big question is: 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 went on to say, “So it’s really the answer to that question have any interest in what the Bible say is the way to Heaven or not so much?” He said sure. So I went through the Gospel with him. He knew Jesus had died to take away our sin. I went on to explain that Jesus blood cleansed us from all sin. I said, “It’s really how God got paid. Say you borrow your friend’s car and you dent the fender then you pay the deductible and they pop out the dent spray it and it’s like new again, you give it back to your friend. So when you wreck somebody’s stuff you have to pay them back with something perfect. Well everything belongs to God, so when we hurt someone or ourselves or hurt the world in some way we have to pay God back with something perfect. But we can’t do anything perfect so we can’t pay. But God loves us. So He becomes a perfect man and when he dies his blood pays God back, over pays really, for all the imperfect things we’ve done that we owe God something perfect for. So the real reason God forgives you is he got paid.” “Wow,” Sam replied. I went on to explain the righteousness of God that was to his credit. When I gave the analogy for that he said wow again. I finished and so I asked if he would want to be forgiven or thought something else but before I could describe the other religions he said, “Be forgiven.” I said that then there was a prayer he could pray and talked him through it. I asked if it was the desire of his heart and he said, “Yeah.” So I said he could pray it right now and as I was handing it to him he asked, “Can I keep this?” I said, “Sure.” “Because I’m in the habit of praying a prayer at night and I could pray this tonight.” “Or you could break your habit and pray it right now,” I suggested. He nodded crossed himself and prayed to receive Jesus, crossing himself as he finished. I explained the Christian life by the Spirit’s power and offered him a Bible Promises for You Book and he wanted it so I wrote his name and the date and “forgiven!” in the front. I also gave him a Bible study. I said I assumed he was Catholic by the way he prayed. He said he was so I said, “ So when you take the Mass the wafer is symbolic of his blood,” then I corrected myself to say, “Body” and he did also at the same time, “and the wine symbolic of His blood, right sorry.” I said when he took it, it commemorated Jesus had died for him and so he was forgiven and could just say Thank You. He liked that. I told him I would pray for him. “Thanks for talking with me man,”  I said, getting up with him to go. “Of course. I appreciate it,” he replied and we headed off different directions.

I was over in the Science Buildings lounge finding no one to talk to and felt a prompting to cut across to the cafeteria and look for someone there. I went out the southeast door and took the sidewalk to cross the street and came across Anish sitting at a picnic table under the roof along the glass to the cafeteria. He was a very well groomed guy, seemed young. A white mask was pulled down under his chin and he had a mustache and smattering of beard I could see. He had heavy eyebrows and looked Indian or Pakistani, his dark hair was short on the sides and curls on top. At first he wasn’t interested in a survey so I said, “No worries,” and began to walk away. He stopped me and said, “I can do a survey.” I said ok and began to interview him. He was very clear in speaking, had no accent. When I asked him what He would say to God to get into Heaven and he said, “I’ve always supported my loved ones and I pray every night so I ask that you’d let me join your prosperous paradise.” He thought he had a 50% chance of going to Heaven. I hadn’t heard that description of Heaven before and based on his appearance I said, “Well, based on your saying ‘prosperous paradise’ I assume you are Muslim?” “No I go to a Catholic Church,” he said. “Oh ok well the rest of this is about what you think about Christianity so you’ll probably dig it, it’s just a bunch of Bible Verses.” He later said he prayed with his mother every night also. I began to go through the Gospel with him and saying God wanted to live inside him but first had to make him his type I asked, “What does Jesus do to take away your sins?” “He was crucified,” he replied. “Right,” I said and began to explain that Jesus perfect Blood paid for his sins and how God got paid. “Cool,” he replied. I explained the righteousness of Christ to our credit and he said “Cool,” again. I asked if he wanted to be forgiven or thought something else and he said he did. So I offered him the prayer saying if he had never asked Jesus to forgive him based on what He had done on the cross he could pray silently and be forgiven. “Wanna do it?” “Sure,” he replied and prayed to receive Christ. I began going through the Christian life with him and he only had a New Testament. He said he would like the Old Testament too. I gave him a Study Bible then showing him how the cross references worked and the 99 Doctrines in the front and the tools in back. I put his name and the date and “forgiven!” in the front and he was grateful. I also gave him a Bible Promises for You book and a Bible study and since he said he liked to read, The Case for Christ Answer Booklet. He was thankful and I said I would see him in Heaven and he said, “Ok,” with enthusiasm and I headed out to my truck.

So Thanks for your prayers for the Ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance, God truly blessed.

In Him,

Bob