Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope you had a joyful day walking with the Lord. I had a good day on campus and Joe, Mark and Justin Each prayed to receive Jesus today. Please pray these guys all grow in their faith. Thanks so much for your prayers. God led me right to these guys and their stories are below if you want to take the time.

Joe was sitting along the counter against the windows in the cafeteria. He had a dark gray College of DuPage hoodie and light grey sweats. His curly mop of brown hair fell out long enough to fall past his eyes. He had kind of a baby face, ready smile nice guy.  I asked if he wanted to do a survey about God. He said no thanks he was religious and went to Church.  I asked him if he wanted to just hear the one question. He said no so I said, “Ya sure? I’ll just tell ya the question and I’ll say no more and walk away.” So then he agreed and I asked him, “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?” He struggled for a second but then said, “Because I trust in You?” I said the Bible was a had a different answer. I said I could tell him but I’d said I’d leave and I didn’t want to bug him. “No yeah OK,” he replied and I began to go through the booklet with him. When I told him he had to be cleansed of his sins so God could live inside him and give him eternal life he said, “Makes sense.” I asked him what the big thing Jesus did to take away his sins so God could live inside him and know him. He couldn’t think of anything saying, “He lives inside you?” So I repeated that first his sins had to be taken away so that could happen and just said, “…this is how it works.” I began to tell him, “…the Bible says we are to be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect.” We owed God for the hurting His stuff, ourselves others or any of the world but we could not pay. I used the example I often do about borrowing a car denting the fender and paying a body shop to give it back to the person the way it had been loaned to us. “If I rolled over your foot with my car I can’t fix it back again, it would be wrecked.” I said God becomes a perfect man. His blood is worth an infinite amount and when He pours out His blood it pays God back for all the imperfect things we’ve done that we owe God something perfect for.  Explained the Righteousness of God Christ earned could be to his credit. I said all God did for him could be received by faith if he believed Jesus was God had died for his sins and rose from the dead. I asked if he wanted to be forgiven or thought something else going superficially through Islam and Buddhism. Then I ended with “So would you want to be forgiven trusting in Jesus or do you think something else?” “I’d be Forgiven,” he said. I said there was a prayer he could pray and walked him through it and asked if it expressed the desire of his heart. “Yes,” he replied and so I said he could pray it right now I wouldn’t hear but God would. “Wanna do it?” “Yes,” he said again and he prayed to receive Christ. He took a Bible from me enthusiastically. I wrote his name and the date and “Forgiven!” in the front and he thanked me. I gave him Bible Promises for You and The Case for Christ Answer Booklet and a Bible Study. I explained the Christian life living inside out by the Spirit’s power. He thanked me and shook my hand. I told him I would be praying for him each day a Bible verse to bless him for the next year. “Thanks Bob,” he said and reached out to shake my hand again. “Yeah sure you’re welcome,” I replied. I got up to go and we had hit it off in spite of his hesitancy at first. I don’t blame students for not wanting to talk about religion since there are cults walking around and they don’t want to get sucked into a trick argument. “I appreciate your talking about that that really helped me a lot,” Joe said. “OK,” I replied with a smile. And picked up my pack to go. “Thanks Bob,” he said again sincerely. And I smiled and headed off. It was a great first conversation back from Spring Break.

I headed over to the Science buildings and looked for people to talk to. Most everyone there is usually studying but if they are looking on their phone I’ll ask them to talk. I talked to a Christian girl who was really cheerful and then going back through the lounge that connects the building I asked two guys who were sitting together. They did not look completely grown in stature; they might have been High School seniors who were visiting. But they both were up for doing a student survey. I sat at the table in the third chair the vending machines off my right shoulder to the west. Justin on my left had swept back brown hair, short on the sides and a t-shirt on with some printing I never made out and shorts on. He had an oval face, looked a bit like a young Dick Van Dyke somehow. Mark had a dark quilted coat with narrow horizontal lines. His hair was curly on top and short on the sides, shorter face sharper small features. Both had teenage skin but had gotten some sun recently. I asked them the question I’d gotten started with Joe. “That’s a good question,” Justin said. “Yeah that’s a good question,” Mark agreed. Justin said “I help out with kids as much as possible, do volunteer work, Feed My starving Children [You can volunteer with this NFP to pack food to send abroad] and other stuff.” Mark then said, “God I’m gonna be honest with you I don’t think you should let me in,” he replied. “Is there a ‘but’ there?” I asked. “No, I’ve done stuff I don’t think I should be let into Heaven,” he replied. I asked the likelihood they would be let into Heaven. Justin though he had a 75% chance. I asked Mark if he thought God might be merciful. He intonated there might be something he’d forgotten, God knew about, that might work in his favor and said he might have a 50/50 chance. Justin and his family had stopped going to church with the Covid lockdowns and never gotten back in the habit. Mark just said he didn’t go to church. I went through the Gospel then with them telling them all the good news. I explained the righteousness of God Christ had earned. I said then they would not go to Heaven because they were good but because Jesus was good and they were connected to Him. I asked if they would want to be forgiven trusting in Jesus or thought something else. “Forgiven,” one said and the other said, “Yeah.” I said then there was a prayer they could pray and talked them through it, saying they could pray it silently and God would hear. “Wanna do it?”  “I would, “Mark replied right away and Justin said “Sure.” I took out another booklet, handing it to Mark, and they each then prayed to receive Christ. I took Mark’s book back when they’d finished and wrote some verses in it I’d written before. “Thanks a lot. Yeah Thanks,” they said one after the other. Mark shook my hand. I explained the Christian life living inside out by the Spirit’s power.  They both had Bibles but I gave them each Bible Promises for You writing their name and the date and “Forgiven!” in the front. I gave them each a Bible Study and The Case for Christ Answer Book and told them they could email me if they had any questions. I told them the likelihood they would go to Heaven now trusting in the Righteousness of Jesus was 100%. I told them I would see them in Heaven and I’d get there first being old and show them around.  I probably would not see them again but I would pray a Bible verse for them each day for the next year. “Thank you again,” Mark said and again shook my hand again as I got up to go. I said “You’re welcome,” and headed off.

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

In Him,

Bob