Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your day has been blessed today with all good things from above. Marnita and Joseph prayed with me to receive Christ today. So I was grateful. Please pray they are blessed in their walk with the Lord.

Marnita, a pretty black girl who I often run into in the PE lounge, had said she trusted in Jesus after I explained the Gospel to her on October 3^rd. Her diamond shaped face ended in a small square chin and she had braids on her head rimmed with curls flat to her forehead and a small pug nose. But I’d bumped into her a couple times before today and she said she hadn’t prayed though she said she had the booklet in her purse so she intended to.  But she was always sitting with another girl I know. So today I asked her again finding her alone on a couch upstairs and suggested she could pray right now. “Do you think I should?” she asked. I said it was up to her but since she kept forgetting it she’d finally remember. “Your right,” she replied. She rummaged in her purse unable to find the booklet. I gave her another, open to the page, and she prayed then to receive Jesus. When she finished she had a satisfied smile on her face. I explained the Christian life in the back of the booklet and gave her a copy of Bible Promises for You with her name and the date and “forgiven!” in the front and a Bible study. Do you like to read I said explaining what the study was about. “Well, I’m gonna have to read this,” she replied. I told her I had been praying for her and I promised to pray a Bible verse for her each day until spring and one year after, so she would be blessed. She thanked me and we talked about her plans to go to a Halloween party tonight and my plan to hand out candy, she thought she might get some trick or treating. “Well, it’s hard to say no to a pretty girl,” I said matter-of-factly. “Thanks,” she said with a smile. I headed out of the lounge, down the stairs and out. 

Joseph was the last person I talked to. The school had emptied out for the most part. He was standing at a counter high table by the student activities window. He had a black short sleeve shirt on and wore sweats with stripes on the sides. He had an oval face and a mustache and goatee dark brown hair, and reminded me of the actor Eric Balfour. He had more than a dozen different tattoos on his bare arms and said he was going back for more near Thanksgiving to fill in the sleeve. When I asked him what he would say to God if asked, “Why should I let you into Heaven?” He said he thought God would know and “It seems I shouldn’t, I don’t know what the word is…” I think he might have been searching for something like “presumptuous”, I tried “Prideful” and that wasn’t it. It seemed he thought no one should be telling God what to do. I said, “Well the question is really asking what it is you think gets someone into Heaven, philosophically speaking.”  “Spread the word and be a good person,” he replied. Then he kind of quipped, “I helped a lot of people please let me in.” I asked him what the likelihood was he would go to Heaven and he said, “Me personally, I’d get a B grade, 80%. I am a good person but everyone does things wrong.” I asked if he went to church at all and he said he’d been to different ones and been baptized twice, which I took to mean as an infant and as an adult. I began to go through the Gospel with him and asked him what Jesus had done to take away his sins, “Crucified,” he replied. “Right,” I said and I began to talk through how the blood of Jesus had cleansed him from sin and was a payment to God for his sins. I talked about the righteousness of Christ, and that he would not go to Heaven because he was good but because Jesus was good and he was connected to him. And salvation was by faith. I asked if he would want to be forgiven for his sins trusting in what Jesus had done or if God was more on the outside of his life. To help him think about it I asked, “When you ask for forgiveness for your sins are you thinking I know I will be forgiven because Jesus died for me and I am trusting in that. Or are you thinking, Well I’m sincere about wanting to be forgiven and I’m going to try to do better and God’s is forgiving and loving so I hope He’ll forgive me.” “Before you said all this I would have been the second one but now I would say I was trusting in Jesus,” he replied smiling. ‘Well, if you’d like to be forgiven trusting in Jesus there’s a prayer you could pray,” I replied and talked him through it and asked if it expressed the desire of his heart. “Yeah,” he replied. “Well, you could pray it silently right now, I wouldn’t hear you but God would hear and you’d know you were forgiven. Wanna do it?” “Yeah,” he replied and he took the booklet and prayed to receive Jesus. When he finished I said, “Your sins are forgiven,” and he smiled broadly. I explained the Christian life to him living “Inside > Out” where God transforms you on the inside you become a good person and do good things by the Spirit’s Power. I gave him a copy of Bible Promises for You writing his name and the date and “forgiven!” in the front. I gave him a Bible Study on the Deity of Christ and The Case for Christ Answer Booklet. I said I would keep him in my prayers each day until spring and a year after. “Thank you so much Bob,” he said enthusiastically. “Yeah, you’re welcome, you knew the story you were just skipping the part where you trust in it to be forgiven.” I said and we fist bumped and he said, “Thank you.” And I headed off. It was a great way to end the day.

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

In Him,

Bob