Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed with every good and perfect gift and your tomatoes made it through the freeze last night. I had a good day on campus. Ben [a girl I had talked to earlier in the semester and said she’d think about it] said she’d prayed to receive Jesus. Later Simona prayed to receive Jesus. Thanks so much for your prayers for the students these girls’ stories are below. I met a guy named Casey sitting with a guy who comes to Bible study (Brandon) and went through the Gospel with him and he said he’d think about it. He’s a Roman Catholic and had the idea God magnanimously forgives if he asked for forgiveness but you could not be sure you were forgiven. He then remembered when I asked that Jesus had died to take away his sin. He had a withered right hand. He’s a thinker and it would be great if he’d come to Bible Study.

I first talked to Ben on the 18^th of September in the SSC lounge sitting along the wall. She is finishing her culinary classes but switching over to a fashion major. Today she had on the small checked pants you wear as a uniform in culinary classes and a t-shirt. She’s slight in build, she wears her hair in a pixy cut it was tucked behind both ears and she had a piercing in the left side of her lower lip. She has pretty freckles like beauty marks in the right places. Taking the booklet, she seemed to be saying she thought she would pray later last we spoke and today when I bumped into her in the hallway headed towards the entrance to the bookstore she said she had prayed the prayer in the booklet and also had read through The Case for Christ Answer Booklet and really liked it saying she liked the evidence for the resurrection. I told her most scholars agree the tomb was empty, they just won’t say how. I said that the disciples had all fled and God had women find the empty tomb. That’s significant because the times were sexist and women were less likely to be believed but God honored them anyway. Her answer to the question what she would say to God if asked: Why should I let you into Heaven was originally, “Because I tried to be good, I wouldn’t say I was [always] successful but I tried.” Now she is trusting in Jesus so I gave her the book, Bible promises for You and wrote her name and “forgiven!” on the inside and gave her a Bible Study. She can’t come to our Bible Study as her class conflict but she said if she got out early she would come by. We talked for a while and she was really friendly.

Simona was Lithuanian and had gone to a Lithuanian Christian church when she was younger. She had grey sweats on and a zip up hoodie and a white t-shirt. She had kind of a pan oval face with a small nose cute kid, sun blonde hair the top a bit darker, blue eyes. She had and expressive way of reacting with her mouth, I’m not sure how to explain it more than that. She sat in a stuffed chair in a pair of chairs on the corner around from the stairwell of the Student Services Center Lounge. I sat in the other one to her left with a coffee table between us that I sat on later moving closer as I went through the booklet. It had a swivel table on the top and balancing on it threw out my back a bit, still hurts. When I asked her what she would say to God if asked why He should let her into Heaven she said, “I always kept God like in my heart. I feel like because I’ve always had Him with me He should let me in.” She thought she had an 80% chance of going to Heaven. I went through the gospel with her and it was hard to tell if she was not just listening to be polite but I prayed and rested in the Lord asking that He’d work in her as I spoke the Gospel. I asked if she knew what Jesus had done to take away her sins and she just said “Yes,” in an undefined way so I just began to explain that Jesus was a sacrifice for our sins, His blood cleansing us and also a payment to God on our behalf. As I finished I said “Well the last question of the survey is would you like to be forgiven for your sins trusting in what Jesus has done or do you think something else.” I gave her time to think going through a couple options. “Probably forgiven,” she replied. “Well, if you’d like to be forgiven there’s a prayer you could pray,” I replied and turned the page and read through it explaining a bit and asked, “It says here, does this prayer express the desire of your heart? Do you think it does?” “Yeah,” she replied. So I said she could pray it silently and God would hear and asked if she wanted to. “Yeah,” she said firmly, deciding. And she took the booklet and prayed to receive Jesus. When she’d finished I said she could keep the booklet and that the likelihood she would go to Heaven now trusting in the righteousness of Jesus and His sacrifice for her was 100%. I explained the Christian life to her and she said she had her own Bible. I explained living by the Spirit’s power, “Inside > Out”. I gave her Bible Promises for You and wrote her name and the date and “forgiven!” on the inside and gave her The Case for Christ Answer Booklet. I also gave her a Bible study. “Well I don’t know if I’ll see you again but I’ll pray for you each day from now until Spring and one year after, just pray a Bible verse for you so you will be blessed.” “Thank you,” she replied. “Sure, thanks for your time in talking with me. “Thank you,” she replied with emphasis on the “you.” And I 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