Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope you had a good day walking in His will by the Word of God. I had a good day on campus. Gwen* (she said she would pray later, please pray she does) and Thania (pronounced like Tanya) each trusted Christ today. So that was good. I gave a NT Psalms and Proverbs (he wanted the KJV and I otherwise only had the NKJV in a complete Bible) to a lapsed Catholic guy named Ryan. I had interacted with briefly him last year. I also encouraged some Christians. Gwen and Thania’s stories are below if you have time. Please pray these students are brought nearer to the Lord and He brings the increase in their lives.

Gwen was sitting under the stairs by the doors near the bookstore. You could just see the roots in her blonde shoulder length hair She had a pretty face and a warm smile and wore jeans and a tan cable knit sweater, she had broad shoulders and kind of a softball player build to her. She had been through religious education in the Catholic Church until High school. I asked her what she would say to God if she died and He asked, “Why should I let you into Heaven?” She struggled to answer saying “Um I don’t know, um…” Finally she said, I don’t know I’ve kinda been feeling lost lately.” She said she wanted to get closer to God and that she thought she had an 80% chance of going to Heaven. I began to go through the Gospel with her and she did not know what Jesus had done to take away the sins of the world. I said I thought it would come back to her and the cross did seem familiar a bit later. I finished explaining the resurrection and the righteousness of Christ and His blood cleansing her of sin. I asked if she thought she would want to be forgiven for her sins so that the Holy Spirit could live inside her or thought something else. “I would like to be forgiven for my sins,” she replied. So I said if she’d like to be forgiven there was a prayer she could pray. I talked her though it, asking if it expressed the desire of her heart. She said it did so I said she could pray it now. “I’ll pray it later,” she said. So I said “That’s fine” and explained the Christian life by the Spirit’s power. She said she lived in Glen Ellyn and her church was closing and she asked if I knew of one and I told her one I thought was Biblical. I gave her a Bible promise book and said I would keep her in my prayers and asked, “Do you believe Jesus was God died for your sins and rose from the dead?” “Yes,” she replied and would you want to place your trust in that to be forgiven?” She said yes again so I said, “Great then all that’s left to do is to pray and tell God about it. Maybe I’ll see you again and ask if you got to do it.” She agreed so I hope I’ll bump into her again. I told her I would pray for her and thanked her for talking with me and she thanked me and I said “You’re welcome,” and headed up the stairs.

I came across a faithful Christian guy I always seem to see and encourage, Alex, and that took a bit as we talked. But the timing was then just right for me to bump into Thania. She was sitting across from the adult learning classrooms on the hallway to the cafeteria. Thania is a cute Latina girl, shoulder length hair parted in the middle with wavy bangs. She had a slightly wider face one might have guessed to be Filipino with a septum piercing between her nostrils and a bar piercing on the left below her lip. She wore a zippered hoodie. I asked her what she would say to God if he asked her why He should let her into Heaven. “That’s a hard one,” she replied and she thought about it. “I would tell [ask] them what they think first. [To] reflect on my life and ask what He thinks. It depends on Him.” She thought she had a 60% chance of going to Heaven. She said she had not been to Church for a few years and then had recently been to celebrate Mary’s birthday. She had come under conviction then that she needed to believe and depend on one God. She said she had been trusting in many gods. Her mom wanted her to come back to Church and had asked her why she had left. It turned out she had been praying that her mom would be protected and then she got in a car accident and she felt like God had not heard her prayer, so she left her church. But when she told her mom this, her mom said that when she got in the accident she had seen Jesus had He had protected her (she was not badly hurt) and told her she needed to be kinder. She said this had changed her life. “So then I realized God had answered my prayer,” she said, finishing the story. I said that I had something I thought would help her be closer to God and I began to go through the Gospel with her. She did not know what Jesus had done to take away the sins of the world. So I explained that God loved us and Jesus had died as a payment for our sins. I said she could receive Jesus, “So if someone would ask why should God let you into Heave you’d say, “Because Jesus died for me.” “Oh,” she said with something of an exclamation of understanding. I said this would mean she had faith in Jesus and it was by grace she was saved by faith. I asked her if she would want to be forgiven trusting in what Jesus had done. She nodded she would. So I said there was a prayer she could pray and I talked her through it saying she could pray it silently. “Right now?” she asked and I said, “Sure,” and she prayed to receive Jesus. I explained the Christian life to her and gave her a Bible and wrote her name and the date and “forgiven!” in the front. I said she could live by the Spirit asking God for the strength to do anything He was asking her to do. “If you fail, God knew a million years ago you would fail and He’s not disappointed He forgives you and has a plan to fix it.” I told her the likelihood now she would go to Heaven was 100%. Trusting in the blood and righteousness of Jesus. “I’m much older than you and I sin every year so I have sinned much more than you but if we both died right now in an earthquake or something Jesus Blood and Righteousness is enough to cover us both. She smiled at that. I told her I would pray for her each day until a year from Spring and she thanked me and I said if I saw her again I would just wave. “Of course,” she said. I said I would see her in Heaven and 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