Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your week was blessed walking in the Spirit of the Lord. I had a shorter week of work of one type as we had to go on the road for a former student’s (now friend’s) wedding at the beginning of the week. We saw several former students there in Florida. And we visited other former students in South Carolina on the way down finally seeing their cute kids. This week doing evangelism, two students committed to Christ saying they would pray later. Friday Olivia* committed to Christ saying she believed. Thursday Jade* trusted in Christ by faith. So I hope bother of these girls will talk to the Lord about their trust in the work of Christ as they professed to me.  Also on Friday Peter prayed to receive Jesus. Their stories are below. Please pray they are drawn closer to God in Christ.

Olivia is a very cute, tiny, square faced blonde girl with blue eyes a gold ring on the right side of her nose. She was wearing grey leggings and a grey shirt of the same material. She had yellow nails and a row of 3 piercings in her left earlobe that was showing her stick straight hair tucked over her ear on that side. She had been raised Catholic but said she was now going to a Christian Church. She sat in what used to be the Student services Lounge which is mostly now under construction. I asked her what she would say to God if He asked “Why should I let you into Heaven?” “That’s a really hard question,” she replied. She thought for a long while and said, “Everything I do is for God, everything I do is for Him, I try at least. That’s all I can think of.” She thought she had a 75% chance of going to Heaven. She knew Jesus had died to take away the sins of the world. After hearing the Gospel and about the righteousness of God Christ earned she said, “Oh wow.” And she had been nodding in agreement all the way through. I asked her if she thought she had ever asked God to forgive her trusting in Jesus. She thought she might have done that once because she “prayed all the time”. After explaining the prayer to her she thought she wanted to pray it and would at dinner. So I asked if she believed Jesus was God had died for her sins and rose from the dead and she said, “Yes.” I then asked her, after hearing what I explained to her, if she trusted in what Jesus had done to be forgiven for her sins and she said, “Yes.” So I said to her, “The Bible says if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead—after He died for your sins on the cross, you will be saved. So now all you have to do is talk to God about it.” She was happy and I gave her Bible Promises for You and my contact information and a Bible Study and The Case for Christ Answer Booklet. I explained living “Inside > Out” by the Spirit’s power. I told her I would add her to my prayer list if she let me know she’d prayed but then realized as I left her I’d be praying for her anyway. “Thank you. You have a good rest of your weekend, it’s a beautiful day outside.” “Thanks,” I said and headed off.

Jade was a cute Latina girl. Slight, wearing a tank top and jeans up on the 3^rd floor. She had read sections dyed all through her hair. She had a cute small face and wore clear pinkish plastic rimmed near circle glasses. I asked her what she would say to God if asked, “Why should I let you into Heaven?” “I would say… um…um…um” she began thinking out loud. “I would say that I, that’s a hard one to answer.” Then she finally settled on, “I tried my best to follow your words… there’s definitely more I could have done. Yeah.” She thought she had a 65% chance of going to Heaven. She knew Jesus had died to take away the sins of the world and listened closely to the Gospel and wanted to be forgiven. I talked her through the prayer too and she thought she would pray on her own and then asked, “How is this different from Roman Catholic?” I said it really depended upon what you thought the Roman Catholic Church taught. I explained the present Pope seems to think we have the same God is Islam (I had already explained how we did not). Some priests would tell her what I did and I’d had students tell me what I had said to them was exactly like what their priests taught. The basic teaching of the Roman Church (this is since Vatican II though I did not go into it, which teaches all sincerely religious people are children of the Church) was that everyone goes to Heaven. I explained there was no condemnation for her if she trusted in Christ and His blood and righteousness to save her. I said what any given Church teaches might just depend upon the priest. Some Roman Catholic Churches would tell you, you had to do good works to go to Heaven, but there is no list provided to be certain you have done enough, and there is no such list in the Bible. But if she would believe on Jesus He would forgive her and she could have His forgiveness. I explained the life in the Spirit living by His power and gave her, Bible Promises for You. She seemed to accept that and was grateful and I thanked her for her time and said I would see her around.

Peter was in a lounge alone against the wall on the 3^rd floor of the BIC. He was a heavyset guy wearing dark blue shorts, a red t-shirt and a blue drivers cap. He had rectangle lenses for glasses framed with wide sides. He had a mustache that could have passed for eyebrows but the beard on his jaw line, though bushy and curly, was very thin and stringy. I asked him what he would say to God, “I have done bad in the past. I’m not perfect. I’ve acknowledged that, I hope to not make the same mistakes again. It’s not the perfect reason but it’s something at least,” he replied. He thought he had a 50/50 chance of going to Heaven saying he had made first confirmation in the Church but now only went on holidays. I asked him what Jesus had done to take away the sins of the world. “He died for our sins,” he replied. “He was the gift of God. I try to follow in His steps, to the best of my ability, during His time on earth. Not that I can perfectly. He took all our sins on Him he was the perfect gift of God’s love.” He listened closely to the Gospel and I asked him if he wanted to be forgiven for his sins trusting in Jesus. “Well, I might not be someone who practices my faith as much, but [I believe] as long as I place my trust in God and Jesus, he is my friend. Or He is my teacher I am His student. I don’t know that He is outside me or inside me but I hold him close.” I said that if he wanted to be forgiven trusting I what Jesus had done to save him there was a prayer he could pray and I talked him through it. “It says here, ‘Does this prayer express the desire of your heart?’ would you say that it did?” “I think so,” he said in an affirming tone. I said he could pray it silently. Also saying if he wanted to have God’s Spirit inside him and know he was forgiven trusting in Jesus he could pray. A girl had entered the lounge but fortunately he had the earmuff headphones that make it completely impossible to hear anything around you so it was like we were still alone. “Wanna do that?” I asked. “Yeah,” he replied and prayed to receive Jesus. I offered him a promise book but he said, “No I’m alright. But thank you this was nice.” “You’re welcome,” I replied and I headed out wishing him a good day.

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

In Him,

Bob