Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed with good things and the nearness of God was your good. We took a guy we are discipling out to lunch for his birthday. I did not know if I would get back to school for certain. The afternoon was pretty much over when I did but Lexi and Emerson each prayed with me to receive Christ. The Lord blessed in the little time I had. Please pray they are blessed in their walk with the Lord.

Lexi and Emerson were sitting together in the hallway around the bend from the student activities area, some ministries often set up just down the hall, the Gideons and some churches and the Jehovah’s Witnesses (who no one talks to). They were just chatting waiting for the next class and were willing to do a survey together. Lexi with long brown hair had high cheekbones and a cute face and Emerson with long blonde hair had a narrow oval face, they were attractive girls. Each wore black leggings and Emerson had a red hoodie from ISU and Lexi wore a black vest. They were nice girls and it turned out they went to Catholic Church. I sat “Indian style” (as we said as kids watching Westerns) on the floor in front of them. Lexi was a bit more talkative and took the lead a bit.  Both were intelligent. I asked what they would say to God to get into Heaven if they died. Lexi said, “I don’t think I’ve done anything to say why He should.” “Have any good reason why He should,” Emerson put in to clarify and agree. I asked what the likelihood was they would go to Heaven. Lexi said, “I think I would, there’s more I could do, I feel like I could do more.” “I agree,” Emerson said. “I’d [like to be] getting closer to God,” Lexi put in and Emerson agreed again. I began to go through the Gospel with them saying God had to take away their sin to make them “His type” so He could live inside them and asked What Jesus had done to take away the sins of the world. Neither of them could think of anything, the atonement is not always spoken of that way in the Catholic Church.  I have had students reply, “Reconciliation” not knowing what Jesus did but knowing from CCD that He did it. But once I begin to explain that Jesus died for their sins and this cleansed them and was a payment for sins they tuned in and tracked with all the Bible verses. I said then that all God had done for them was theirs by faith believing that Jesus was God had died for their sins and rose from the dead. They probably had the faith of their parents as kids but now if someone would ask them why God should let them into Heaven they should say, “Because Jesus died for me.” “Not that you just know the story but that that is what you place your trust in to be forgiven.” Then the Bible said “By grace you have been saved by faith… not by works so no one can boast.” I asked if they would want to be forgiven for their sins trusting in what Jesus had done for them on the cross or thought something else. “Be forgiven,” Lexi said “always.” I said then to Emerson would you want to be forgiven then too. “Yeah,” she replied in agreement. So I said there was a prayer they could pray, if they hadn’t had a chance as an adult, to say to God that they wanted to trust in what Jesus had done. I walked them through the prayer, asking if it was the desire of their hearts. They nodded.  I said they could pray it silently “and know you were forgiven and going to Heaven”. I compared this to the symbolism in the mass where it was commemorating that Jesus had died for them and so they were forgiven.  “Wanna do it?” “Sure,” Lexi said and I asked Emerson if she would like to do it too and she said, “Sure.” They each took a booklet and prayed to receive Jesus. I waited for them and Lexi when she’d finished asked Emerson if she had and she said, “Yeah I was just reading a bit more”. I told them they could keep the booklets and I said to Emerson I’ll just write a couple verses in yours and I took it back filling them in. Then I took Lexi’s book and talked about living “Inside > Out” by the Spirit’s power. I said God wanted them to ask Him for strength for everything they did in life. I explained that they might fail to obey God but they could confess their sins knowing God’s anger was poured out on the cross and he knew ahead of time they would fail and had a plan to fix it. They were thankful but had to go so I quickly gave each of them Bible Promises for You writing their name and the date and “forgiven!” in the front. And I gave them each a copy of The Case for Christ Answer Book and a Bible study with a quick explanation. I said I would pray a Bible verse for them each day from now until Spring and one year after asking that they would be blessed. I said I would see them in Heaven. They thanked me and headed off.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism. God blessed today.

In Him,

Bob