Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope you had a good week and the Lord has made His faithfulness clear in your heart. I had a goof week as 5 students in total prayed to receive Jesus. On Thursday, though delayed again by clearing my driveway of snow, Sabas (Sebastian), a semi-pro soccer player prayed to receive Jesus. I also had an hour long talk with Abbey.

Abbey’s mother had died when she was young, leaving her an agnostic, sexually active and denying the Christian values she grew up with. When we parted I had given her The Case for Christianity Answer Book she was touched to get and a side-by-side hug. I gave her my contact info if she had any questions. She had auburn colored hair an oval face and was a bit heavyset. God helped me make many points with her. As we got up to go another student walked up and asked me for my card to talk sometime. She talked then about her mother and he said, “She’s still with you.” I said the Bible says “there is a great cloud of witnesses watching us in the Book of Hebrews”. “I just got chills when you said that,” she replied. She’d been looking for something miraculous to tell her there was a God and I think God was beginning to answer. I told her I often asked God to say hi to my dead father and mother or to tell them thank you for me for something. I said we were told not to talk to the dead because we could not be sure if we were talking to a loved one or an evil spirit impersonating them. But we can talk to the dead in Heaven through God. I told her what Jesus had said about Him being the God of the Living. I felt directed to that lounge and went there expressly looking for someone to talk to in the computer center. When I arrived she was the only one there and was willing to talk. Please pray for her and Sabas. His story is below if you have time.

 Sabas was sitting in the cafeteria eating area when I came across him. I’d prayed for God to lead me to someone a bit after I had arrived and felt a nudge to go to the cafeteria. I’d been headed the other direction toward the Book Store and turned around and headed to the cafeteria seeing it in my head sort of. That happens sometimes.  Sabas was a good looking guy, slight build and had two tone hair sort of a mop with bangs, otherwise classically Latino in hair coloring he had light brown tints that seemed random. He had a pencil thin mustache and a bit of chin hair, a narrow handsome face with sharp features. His left arm had two dark bands of tattoo making stripes around his arm (possibly it covered something he no longer wanted seen. Closer to the wrist there was a cross on an angle, 2 by 3 inches. He wore a white T-shirt with some printing on it and blue nylon sweats with stripes down the sides. He sat at a table alone. He said he’d do a student survey. I asked what he would say to God if asked “Why should I let you into Heaven?”  “Not only [because] am I Catholic,” he replied, then thinking a second he added,  “I know going to Church and praying does not make you go to Heaven… but I pray.  I do a couple prayers before bed, before I eat as well.” I asked the likelihood he would go to Heaven when he died. He at first said, “I’m not too sure, I’d confess first… 60-70%” then said, “I didn’t really do anything that would be [sic] going to Hell.” Then he added its 70%, the high 70’s” he said changing his mind a bit. He listened to the Gospel and when I asked him what Jesus had done to take away his sins he said, “He died on the cross.” “Right,” I said and then explained the way Christ blood was how God got paid so that He was just to forgive us. I explained that it was by grace we are saved by faith not by works so no one can boast. “So we should do good things to please God, I’m sure God is please that you are praying to Him, but the good things you do don’t fix your bad things.” He shook his head in agreement to that. “Say you got a girl friend for about 3 weeks, you thought she was pretty cool but then you find out she’s cheating on you and stealing your stuff. So you cut her loose. Then she comes around in about a week and she says, ‘Sabras, I know I did you wrong. I was even stealing your stuff and selling it for drugs but I just want you to know—I’m gonna be nice to my next 3 boyfriends.’ You’d say yeah that doesn’t help me at all,” and he agreed with a grin. “But some people think that way but God says he’ll turn your bad stuff into good stuff.” And I quoted Romans 8:28 to him saying God controlled the future. I asked then if he would want to be “forgiven trusting in what Jesus had done so He could help you with everything in life” or thought something else. He leaned in and pointed at the circle with God inside. I said if he wanted to be forgiven there was a prayer he could pray and I read it through asking if it was the desire of his heart. “What?” he asked. I repeated is the prayer something you would want to be forgiven. He paused and read it through again and said, “Yeah.” So I said he could pray it silently if he wanted to and He took the booklet and prayed to receive Jesus. I talk through the Christian life with him explaining God giving him power to live by the Holy Spirit. I explained that he could pray for God to help him see the field in Soccer or anything else he needed to do. Then if one day he won a championship and someone put a microphone in his face and said ‘how’d you do it?’ you can tell them it was Jesus and God will get the glory.’ He nodded in agreement. I said God would give him as much help to succeed as would be good for him and that some people were destroyed by success so God could only give them so much of it.  I gave him Bible Promises for You and I wrote his name and the date and forgiven. Also I gave him The Case for Christianity Answer Booklet and a Bible study and told him I would be praying for him. I also pointed how the Mass was symbolic of what Jesus had done and so when he took it he should just say thank you. I got up to go and he said, “Thank you very much.” “Oh you’re welcome,” I replied. “God bless you.” “God bless you as well,” he said and I headed off.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism this past week if you had a chance. God truly blessed.

In Him,

Bob