Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed today and if you live near Chicago you are keeping cool. It was so hot and humid today that the school’s cooling system could not seem to keep up. It had to be over 85 in places in the school. It varied in different hallways. Kiya, Marchall, and Ashlyn each prayed with me to receive Jesus today. Their stories are below if you want to take the time. Thanks so much for your prayers. God has truly blessed this first week as 9 students have prayed to receive Jesus in the last 3 days. Today also Victoria, an attractive blonde girl from Moldova who was Russian Orthodox said she would pray tonight. Another tiny girl Gabby, pretty Latina (in coloring) long wavy hair said she’d think about it but that she believed the story.

Kiya was sitting in the PE lounge on a counter height table. She’s African American and had long braids past her shoulders and a cap on. She had a pretty, wide, mature looking face and wore braces on her teeth. She had a black t-shirt on the front of which was covered with daisy’s and wore black leggings. She was nice. I asked her what she would say to God if he asked, “Why should I let you into Heaven?” She struggled a bit saying, “Because I never lost sight of you. I’ve always had you in my life.” Then she said she wished she had a more spot on way of saying it. I said I would give her one in a minute. She thought she had a 60% chance of going to Heaven. As I went through the Gospel with her she seemed familiar with the Gospel story. I asked what Jesus had done to take away her sins and she thought for a minute and said, “He was crucified.” I explained how God was paid, by the blood of Christ and about His righteousness. She got into the analogies somewhat and seemed under conviction. I quoted John 1:12 and said she had to believe in his name, not just know the Story but place her trust in that Jesus was God had died for her sins and rose from the dead. “So if someone asked you why God should let you into Heaven you’d just say, “Because Jesus died for me.” I said that was the thing she could say in brief and she seemed to have a moment of realization. Saying forgiveness was by faith I asked her if she wanted to be forgiven and she did. She said she felt like she had been “on the ledge” not truly giving herself over to God. I said something like “It’s kinda like you have not fully trusted in what Jesus had done to forgive you or told the Lord you wanted to trust in what he had done for you to be forgiven.” Yeah that,” she replied.  So I said there was a prayer she could pray and talked her through it and said she could pray it silently and be forgiven. She nodded and took the booklet and prayed in a soft voice to receive Jesus. I said the likelihood she would go to Heaven now was 100% trusting in the righteousness of Jesus. I explained living by the Spirit’s power now in her “Inside>Out” and I gave her ­Bible Promises for You I wrote her name and the date and forgiven and she was really happy with that. I gave her a Bible Study and The Case for Christ Answer Booklet and told her I would pray for her to be blessed each day until Spring and the entire next year. She thanked me. And I headed out of the PE building after saying hi to a couple girls I knew.

Sitting alone at a table, Marshall had his hair pulled back into a ponytail. His hair has some wave to it. If I had to guess he was mixed race in coloring. He had fair skin and a wide smile. Good looking kid with a sharp jaw line and the occasional freckle. His face had newbie sideburns and a patch under his chin and a thin mustache. He was sitting in front of a receipt-book for his power washing business and had on a white T-shirt and black sweats. He was talkative and friendly, energetic guy and threw off a young vibe. He went to a Vineyard Church. I asked him what He would say to God if he died and was asked why should I let you into Heaven. He started right in like he was talking, “Well God, like I been looking out my faith for a while and I follow the word of God and in your footsteps every day.” Then talking to me more he said, “I don’t feel entitled to heaven but I feel like I should.” “Like you belong there?” I asked and he agreed. He thought the likelihood he was going to Heaven was 100%. As I began to go through the Gospel with him he tuned right in and knew John 3:16. Then when I asked what the big thing was that God had done to take away his sins. He struggled then to be more clear, “What did Jesus do?”  he did not know. He tossed out some things someone would do. I pointed out those were things you would expect someone to do if they were a Christian but I’m asking you what God did. I started explaining to him then that Jesus had died and His blood cleansed him from sin and was a payment for sin.  I explained the righteousness of Christ to his Credit. And He had risen from the dead. Marshall did not seem to be familiar with the Gospel. I asked if he would want to be forgiven so God could live inside him. He said, “Yeah.” I said it did not seem like he had put all this together before, he nodded that he hadn’t. I explained there was a prayer he could pray and after going through it I asked if it was “The desire of his heart.” “Umhmm,” he replied. So I said he could pray it silently and only God would hear and he took the booklet and prayed in a soft voice and received Jesus. I explained the Christian life to him too living “Inside ≥ Out” by the Spirit’s power. I gave him Bible Promises for You which he said he thought was great and he’d keep it in his car and use the index to find a verse each day. He took a Bible Study and The Case for Christ Answer Booklet. I told him I would pray for him through a year from Spring. I’m not sure what kind of classes he’d signed up for but they began on campus in September. He told me he’d like to contact me then to do a Bible Study once in a while so I gave him my number. He went on to tell me about his business and some friends he had and he thanked me and I headed out of the cafeteria where we were sitting.

I went down one of the connecting halls on the ground floor of the BIC and there is a lounge half way down one of them. As I walked by I saw a couple girls sitting on couches so I thought I would go in and ask one of them. Ashlyn was the first person I asked and she was up for doing a survey. She was tall and quite pretty, had blonde hair and a diamond shaped face with a pointed chin, broad smile and the occasional freckle in just the right place. She wore a White T-shirt and had black pants that flared at the bottom. She had a “good person” vibe, describing herself as “Patient, Kind and Respectful” when I asked the 3 words to describe yourself question. I asked one thing she would like to do before she died and she said, “Get closer to God actually.” I asked her what she would say to God if asked why should I let her into Heaven. “I would say… umm, that’s a good question.” Then after a second she said, “Because I’ve walked with you for my whole life.” I asked what the likelihood was she would get into Heaven and she said “99.9%”. She said she lived a couple blocks from a church in Naperville that had actually let me baptize a girl there after their service. Her sister went there and she had gone “About 3 times”. As I went through the Gospel with her I assumed she was tracking well and asked what Jesus had done to take away her sins so the Spirit could live inside her. She struggled with that and said, “Well I know He loves you.” I agreed He did, and then began to explain how Jesus was a perfect payment for her sin and that we had to be perfect and we owed God something perfect for anything we did that damaged his stuff.   I explained that Heaven was not just a place but was the presence of God. You had to be transformed to be there, to be purified. Like if it was water and you had to be able to breath water. You had to be able to breath in God and if you were not made pure you’d be like a paper bag trying to hold fire. I explained all I usually say about the righteousness of God. I said that she had to believe this by faith. I explained that her good stuff could not fix her bad stuff. “Say you had a boyfriend for about 3 weeks, you thought he was pretty cool but then it turned out he was cheating on you and stealing your stuff, so you cut him loose,” She nodded that that would definitely happen. “Then he comes back in about a week and He says, ‘Ashlyn I know I did you wrong, I was even stealing your stuff and selling it for drug but I just want you to know I’m gonna be nice to my next 3 girlfriends.’” “That’s really horrible,” she exclaimed. “Right,” I said. “But some people think God is like that that if they do a bunch of good stuff it will make up for their bad stuff but when you make it personal you realize that would not work.” I told her then God has to change our bad stuff into good stuff, quoting Romans 8:28 and saying God controlled the future. I asked then if she would want to be forgiven trusting in what Jesus had done. She said she would. So I said it did not seem like she had put all this together before, and she nodded. I said there was a prayer she could pray to be forgiven and explained it asking if it was the desire of her heart. She said it was so I said she could pray it silently and be forgiven. She took the booklet then nodding and closed it. I said without thinking, “No, pray it right now,” I almost never have told someone to pray. But it might have been from the Lord as I don’t think she hadn’t understood she could because she was like “Oh,” and prayed to receive Jesus. I gave her Bible Promises for You writing her name and the date and “forgiven!” in the front and a Bible study and The Case for Christ Answer Booklet.  I told her I would be praying for her each day through the Spring and a year after and she thanked me.  I thanked her for talking with me and headed out as her class was gathering outside the door.

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

In Him,

Bob