Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed and you had His life and peace. I had a good day and Marnita trusted in Christ today and said she would pray later; she was surrounded by friends. I’ll probably bump into her again to see if she meant it since she hangs out in the PE lounge with another girl I know. Once a girl said she would pray later this year and did another time a different girl did not so it depends. I also had a chance to go through the Gospel with a new Christian, Gianna. She was thankful saying it helped her understand everything. Thanks for your prayers. The stories are below if you have time.

Marnita [she pronounces her name as if the t is silent and sounds like a d] She had a square small chin and sharp features, 4-inch braids on tip of her head. She had on black spandex shorts and a flannel shirt over a black tight shirt like you’d work out in and a bare midriff. She was sitting with Daija a girl who came to a Bible Study a few times last year. Daija asked me if I had seen a girl we both know recently. So we talked a bit. All the girls at the table were African American and they were in the PE lounge at a table by a post. Evoni sat beside Daija and Marnita across from her. I turned to them and asked if they wanted to answer the big metaphysical question. Evoni immediately said yes and Marnita agreed. I asked, “So you’re walking down the road and you get hit by a bus. So you’re dead. And you stand before God and He asks, ‘Why should I let you into Heaven?’ What would you say?” Daija got the answer wrong, though I had gone through the Gospel with her more than once. I’m not sure where she is at to be honest. The other girls were not sure what to say so I asked them if they would want to know the answer from the Bible. They agreed to listen. I took out the booklet and different things drew their attention here and there as I spoke, though Marnita looked me in the eyes whenever I talked and seemed interested. I asked them what Jesus had done to take away their sins and Marnita knew Jesus had died on the cross. Evoni left saying she had to go to the bathroom, she seemed disinterested. A guy walked up and said nothing, for no reason (except that the girls were attractive possibly) and was standing off Marnita’s shoulder. So I finished going through the Gospel with Marnita and she wanted to be forgiven for her sins. I showed her the prayer and went through it, though in the middle of that Daija did something to distracter her, then grinned and apologized after Marnita said she was distracting her. As I had been in the middle I read through it again and asked Marnita if she would want to pray it silently and she said she would later. This seemed just as well to me that she’d think about it unmolested. I said no worries and handed her the booklet to keep. Evoni had not returned. Daija then said, “She’ll pray later, she prays all the time.” And then added, “Thanks for explaining things to my friends, Bob.” I said “Sure thing.” And I headed off.

Gianna was a lovely girl with a diamond shaped face and almond eyes and a dragon tattoo on her left forearm. She wore a lot of bracelets. She had the coloring of a Latina. Her hair was tied back flat to her head. She was sitting in a medium sized lounge off the west atrium on the first floor of the BIC building. She said she had a Bible Study she went to. I asked her the name. She did not know but had a notebook sized flyer for the study saying she did not go to the church meetings (also listed on it) but met individually with some people. It’s likely that it’s just another name for the Chicago Church of Christ cult. They’re works righteousness, and are big on being baptized into their church, after which they try to control your life. But since the Church is in Chicago it does not seem to get traction at COD. They change their name every year and then lie and say they are a new group on campus. I’m not sure what is going on there except that people like me were warning students when they went by their real name. I asked her if she wanted to answer the one big question to think about during the day. I asked, “So you’re walking down the road and you get hit by a bus. You’re dead. And you stand before God and He asks, ‘Why should I let you into Heaven?’ What would you say?” She thought for a moment and said, “Because I stood with Him.” I asked if I could show her some Bible verses that answer the question and she cheerfully agreed. It turned out she was a new Christian. I asked her what the big thing was that Jesus had done to take away her sin and she said, “He forgives you?” I said He did and went on to explain the blood of Christ and as I explained the cross she seemed to remember Jesus had died seeing the cross. Possibly I had confused her with the way I asked her what He had done. I finished everything and she said she had prayed a prayer like that before and she had only been a Christian a little while. She was really grateful to understand more saying something like, “You really helped me understand more all the levels.” But she expressed had understood the base thing. I asked if I could give her a book with some more Bible verses in it and she agreed so I gave her Bible Promises for You writing her name in the front. She happily took it and I was on my way. But hopefully I’ll bump into her and can check up on her. Since she was not interested in attending their church she might be OK, though the Bible studies are vacuous in my experience with the group.

So, thanks for your prayers for the ministry and evangelism today. God blessed me with some good conversation and I encouraged some other believers as well.

In Him,

Bob