Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your week was blessed with grace and peace. I had a good day on campus on Thursday and

Neeha, Justin, KB, and Mariah, each prayed with me to receive Jesus. Please pray these students are blessed.  Thanks for your prayers of blessing. I’m very grateful, especially because next week we are out of town. So I might not be able to go through the Gospel with anyone. Though there is a college near Ellen’s relatives we are going to visit. The stories are below.

Neeha was sitting in the NW corner lounge in the science buildings. No one else was in there at first and she wanted to do a survey. She is short, her family is from Nepal where she wanted to return for a visit. She had shoulder lent straight dark hair. She was wearing jeans torn in the knees and a green North Face hoodie. Her face was flat with small boxers’ nose, cute kid. I asked her for 3 words to describe herself and she confessed, “Kind, I’m not kind,” like she’d been thinking about it. I asked if she was going to be a nurse and she said she was. I said “Nurses can’t always be kind.” We talked about her wanting to return to Nepal. I asked her what she would say to God if asked why should He let her into Heaven. “I would say you shouldn’t, I’ve done a lot of wrong things He knows already—had seen.” She thought she had a 50% chance of going to Heaven. She said she went to a Nepalese church that she said was hard to describe, it seemed it was not like churches typical to the US. I began to go through the Gospel with her and she knew John 3:16 saying it was “translated into every language”. I began to go through the Gospel with her telling her that to know God was for the Holy Spirit to live inside her, so God had to take away her sin so that was possible. I asked what Jesus had done to take away her sins, “He gives you strength by His Spirit to do good things?” She said tentatively. I said the Spirit did do that but this is how it works and I began to explain God became a man Jesus who lived a perfect life, was an offering for sin, cleansed her and paid for her sin. I explained the righteousness of God, what faith was and that she was saved by it. I asked her if she would want to be forgiven trusting in what Jesus had done so His Spirit could live inside her and give her strength to live or thought something else then said again, “Would you want to be forgiven trusting in Jesus. “Yes,” she said, without hesitating. So I said if she wanted to be forgiven there was a prayer she could pray and asked if it expressed the desire of her heart after explaining it. “Yes,” she replied again. I said she could pray it silently and know she was forgiven and asked if she wanted to. “Um hmm, she replied and she prayed aloud to receive Christ, though the lounge had someone else in it now at a table10 feet from us. My pens kept running out of ink at the tip but I kept shaking them and managed to explain the Christina life. Talking about the fruit of the Spirit, which she was familiar. When I listed kindness I said, “You can just ask for it when you need it, you have to make those patients do what they’re supposed to.” She smiled. I said Christianity was living “Inside > Out” where you ask the Holy Spirit to transform you, then you become a good person and do good things on the outside “By the Spirit’s Power.” She had a Bible and I explained life in the Spirit and that she should obey but when she failed God would always forgive her. I gave her Bible Promises for You writing her name and the date and “forgiven” in the front. And she thanked me and I gave her a Bible study also, explaining that a bit and The Case for Christ Answer Booklet. I told her I would be praying for her each day a Bible verse from now until spring and one year after and I said the likelihood she would go to Heaven now was 100% trusting in the righteousness of Jesus. “I’ll pray for you thanks so much for talking with me and I’ll see you in Heaven,” I told her getting up to go. “Thank you,” she said sincerely and I headed out.

KB was sitting in the hallway of the BIC on the first floor in a row of chairs and agreed to do a survey on the Bible. There was a classroom across from us but he didn’t have a backpack or seem to have any books or class stuff. He had short braids in a pattern on his head and classic black nose and mouth, a narrow face, a mustache and beard. He wore a red track suit the front had some rectangular sections of grey and white on the chest and sleeves. He had grey and white trainers on with the laces open. I asked him one thing he wanted to do before he died. “The ultimate goal is just to get closer to God for real,” he replied. I asked him what he would say to God to get into Heaven. “Me as of right now, I’m a sinner, everybody sins every day. I spread the word as best I can to the best of my ability and live my life according to God to the best of my ability,” he replied. I asked him a % for the likelihood he would go to Heaven and he said, “60-40”. I asked if he ever went to Church and it seemed he did sometimes with his mother who went to a Presbyterian church. I began to go through the Gospel and asked him what Jesus had done to take away the sins of the world and he said, “He was crucified.” I went on to tell him what that meant, the cleansing blood a payment for sin and the righteousness of God to His credit. He was saved by faith I said explaining that and it was not by works. “You are trying to spread the word and please God but your good stuff does not fix your bad stuff,” I explained. He was very serious through the entire thing listening carefully. The teacher’s voice was loud coming through the door ajar but I tried to keep my voice a bit lower. I asked if he wanted to be forgiven trusting in what Jesus did or thought something else. He said he would want to be forgiven. I said that if he wanted to be forgiven there was a prayer he could pray. I talked him through it and said if he would want to be forgiven not trusting in good things he’d done but fully in Jesus he could pray it silently and know he was forgiven for his sins. “Wanna pray it?” I asked. “Yeah,” he replied. And he prayed to receive Jesus. He said he had a Bible so I explained the Christian life to him also living “Inside > Out”. Since he did not have anything to carry books in I just gave him Bible Promises for You writing his name and the date and “forgiven” in the front. I told him the likelihood he now would go to Heaven was 100% trusting in the righteousness of Jesus and His blood. I said that being old I had sinned way more than him. But because Jesus’ righteousness is worth and infinite amount if we both died today He would forgive us both. I asked if I could give him a Bible study to tuck inside and he agreed so I gave him one showing him the passage in Job where God walks on the water, saying Jesus had done the same to tell us He was the God of the Old Testament. I told him I would pray for him each day also and I shook his hand saying I’d see him in Heaven and he said “Thank you.” “Have a good one man,” I said getting up to go. “You too,” he replied and I headed off. I passed him later walking in the hall and said a friendly, “Hey Brother,” and he flashed me a big smile.

Justin was sitting in the hallway, right at the student activities area on the first floor. He had on a green hoodie and khaki pants and had a beard and mustache wore glasses. Had kind of a square head, looked a bit Latino and like “Everyman”.  He also looked, solid guy, not huge and his hair was swept up atop his head. He wanted to travel.  I asked what he would say to God to get into Heaven and he said, “Um, what would I say… well—I don’t really know how to answer right now.” I asked him the likelihood he would go to Heaven and he said “I think right now it’s 50%” He went to a Catholic Church last he had gone, “St. Mary’s”. He hadn’t had the time to go to Church for a while or attend a Bible Study he got text notices for at school (I had never heard of that was supposedly student led). As I went through the Gospel seemed pretty serious and I wasn’t sure if it was impatience or that he had to be somewhere, since he pulled on the top of his backpack at his feet once in a while. I asked him what Jesus had done to take away the sins of the world and he knew he had died.  The chairs had armrest tables and I was on his left using mine to write in the booklet. I skipped explaining the righteousness of God (I went back and explained it after he had prayed) as it seemed after I had explained the blood of Christ to cleanse him and be a payment to God he was intonating he knew the Gospel and I think he did. But he was not in a hurry. I though he was uneasy and wanted to get through salvation by faith, but I was misreading him as when I left he did not go anywhere. I explained salvation by faith and that his good stuff did not fix his bad stuff and said, “The last question is would you want to be forgiven for your sins trusting in Jesus or do you think something else (throwing in a couple lines on Islam and Buddhism to allow for time to think). He said he’d want to be forgiven so I said there was a prayer he could pray and talked him through it asking if he thought he’d had a chance to express this to God before, that he was trusting in Jesus. He thought he had in some way possibly, but had never had with much “thought or emotion” behind it.  I asked if he would like then to pray it silently right now and he said, “I think so yes.” He prayed then to receive Christ. I went back and explained the righteousness of God no longer worried he might have to run. I explained the Christian life. He had a Bible he said confessing, “I haven’t had a chance to read it much lately.” I gave him Bible Promises for You writing his name and the date and “forgiven!” in the front and he said, “Thank you.” I gave him a Bible study and The Case for Christ Answer Booklet. I told him I would pray a Bible verse for him every day until Spring and one year after. I got up to go and he said, “Thank you, nice to meet you.” “Thank you nice to meet you too. You’re welcome,” I replied and headed out.

Mariah was sitting on the corner of the tables they have put together in the PE lounge alongside the stair on the ground floor. She wore clear frame glasses had long straight hair and nice face, round with full features and hair over her lip, a headband on her forehead that went under her hair in back. There was nothing about her appearance that would particularly set her apart. She had a green school hoodie on and black shorts on. I asked her one thing she would like to do before she died, “Get extremely close with God,” she replied. I asked what she would say to God if she died and He asked ‘Why should I let you into Heaven?’ “I don’t know. You’re not supposed to tell him all the good that you did—be yourself I guess.” I asked her the likelihood she would go to Heaven and she said, “I think I got a good chance.” I began to go through the Gospel with her just by saying Christianity was like a blood transfusion. “I have A+ blood if you fill me up with B- blood by mistake in the hospital I would clot up and die so. God wants to know you, to live inside you with His Holy Spirit but first He has to make you his type. He has to take away your sin so He can live inside you. So do you know what the thing Jesus does to take away your sin. She said she did not know. I said I could explain it to her with a few Bible verses in this booklet (which was in my hand). Would it be ok if I did? She nodded and said, “Yeah.” So I just went to the middle and began to explain how Jesus had died for her and His Blood cleansed her and paid God for the damage we had done. Then I explained the righteousness of God and the resurrection. I said she had to believe this by faith, “Not that you just know the story a bit from back in the day at Church but that you place your trust in this (John 1:12). So if someone would ask you why should God let you into Heaven you’d say, “Because Jesus died for me.” I read, “By grace you are saved through faith,” explaining why doing good things could not make up for the bad things you’ve done. Her vibe was a bit standoffish. She might have been put out a bit that she did not know the answers to questions or just that she was talking to the old white guy but she stayed tuned in. Her phone was in her hand turned to the side and something seemed to be playing like distant inaudible chattering to my ear but she didn’t look at it. I asked if she would want to be forgiven trusting in what Jesus had done for her on the cross or thought something else. She pointed with her index finger touching the circle with Christ on the throne of her life. I said if she wanted to be a forgiven for her sins there was a prayer she could pray and I began to read through it explaining it. I said she could pray it silently. “I was just reading it,” she replied. “Amen then,” I said and she said, “Yeah.” I explained the Christian life to her. I told her the likelihood she would now go to Heaven was 100% trusting in the righteousness of Jesus. She said she had a Bible on her phone. I explained living Inside  > Out by the Spirit’s power inside her, transforming her. She was willing to take Bible Promises for You so I wrote her name and the date and “forgiven!” on the inside. I offered her The Case for Christ Answer Book and a Bible Study but she said. “I do everything on my phone.” Her friend had come in the middle, sat by her, looked all the while on her phone and left before she prayed. I told her I would pray for her a Bible verse each day until Spring and one year after. “If I see ya again I’ll just give you a wave so you won’t be embarrassed.” She sniffed a half laugh and said, “OK.” “I’ll see you in Heaven,” I said and I got up and left her at the table. She was now extremely close to God. He lived inside her by His Spirit.

So  thanks for your prayers for the ministry last week if you had a chance. This week 8 students prayed with me to receive Jesus and I’m truly grateful.

In Him,

Bob