Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope you had a blessed day serving the Lord with gladness. I had a good day on campus Eva, Abby and Jason each prayed to receive Jesus and Cecilio* (a classic Latino looking guy with a thin mustache and a chin beard, mop of dark hair parted down the middle) said he would pray later folding the booklet open at the prayer and tucking it half under his laptop. He seemed rushed so I gave him a promise book and headed off. The stories of the students who prayed are below if you have time. Please pray they grow in their faith.

Eva was sitting at a table in the cafeteria eating some pasta and meatballs. She had calf length baggy jean shorts on and a white half t-shirt that had Lauren Hill’s picture on it. She had dark brown (near black) ringlets of hair pulled back in a head band and the ends were dyed light brown blown out behind her head. She had cute Irish looking face with light freckles on her cheeks and a pointed chin, hoop earrings, about the size of a beer bottle bottom. She did not appear to have make-up on.  She was friendly and kind. I asked her what she would say to God to get into Heaven. “Don’t let me in,” she replied.  I asked for an explanation and she said, “I don’t believe in God [enough] to go to Heaven. I don’t deserve to be in Heaven—doing enough good things. I try to be a good person but I’m not there yet.” I asked her what the likelihood she would go to Heaven was, “Zero,” she replied. It turned out she was raised in a Christian home. I said, “The rest of this was about what you think of Christianity, you might not agree but it’s a good story.” And I began to explain the gospel to her. She seemed captivated right away so I felt like God was at work in her. Her mouth was just slightly open and she stared at me as I spoke. I went through the verses and explained things with word pictures. I asked her what Jesus had done to take away the sins to the world, “Isn’t that when He was crucified.” she replied. I said it was and explained the blood that cleansed her and paid God and the righteousness of God and Jesus earned that could be to her credit when God adopted her. I explained she was a child of God by faith. I asked her if she would want to be forgiven or thought something else. “You really made it sound attractive. That was a good explanation,” she replied.  I said that if she wanted to be forgiven there was a prayer she could pray. I talked her through it and asked if it was the desire of her heart. She said it was. I said she could pray it silently and be forgiven. She said she’d like to but thought she would “not really mean it”. It seemed this meant she didn’t have enough faith. So I explained how the Spirit could inside her and could transform her and that faith was a gift from God, showing her that verse again. “So if you need to you can ask for more faith,” I said. “Ok she replied and she took the booklet and prayed to receive Jesus. I explained what Jesus had said about the mustard seed being the smallest seed they planted on a farm and that if you had just that much faith you could be saved and I wrote “Mustard seed” in the booklet and she smiled. I showed her the things on the Christian life and she said she had a Bible. She wanted to come to the Bible Study so I hope she will. I gave her Bible Promises for You and wrote her name and the date and “forgiven!” on the inside. I gave her The Case for Christ Answer Booklet and she recognized Strobel’s name saying, “Didn’t he make a movie?” I said he did and there were YouTube’s out there where he explained different things.  I gave her a Bible Study on the deity of Christ and explained it and I told her the likelihood she would go to Heaven now was 100% trusting in the righteousness of Christ. She asked about deserving it. I said that no one really deserves anything they get. I said I was skinny because my mom was always skinny. Some people are better looking than others, but not because they deserve it. Life did not have a lot to do with what we deserve and she was right no one deserves Heaven. “Thank you so much,” she said shaking my hand. I said I would keep her in my prayers the next year praying a Bible verse for her. She was grateful and said again that she’d try to come to Bible study and I said OK and headed off.

Abby was in a lounge on the third floor sitting at a table in a lounge. She was a Latina, classically pretty with a Roman nose and her hair parted down the middle. She wore a pink hoodie and black leggings. I asked her what she would say to God if He asked her, “Why should I let you into Heaven?” “Because you have forgiven me, I don’t know,” she replied. She thought she had a 100% chance of going to Heaven. She said went to a Christian Church. So I said the last part of the survey was what she thought about Christianity and she might use the booklet to share her faith. I explained that eternal life was “knowing God” and that meant God wanted to live inside her but to do that He had to take away her sins. So I asked what the big thing was that Jesus had done to take away the sins of the world so He could forgive her. She could not think of anything to say and seemed to be struggling so I said, “I’m probably just asking the question wrong,” and I began to explain that Jesus had died for her sins and His blood cleansed her so then God could live inside her. I explained the imputed righteousness of God and this could be hers by faith.  I asked her then if she would want to be forgiven trusting in what Jesus had done or thought something else. I believe she just said, “The first one.” And so I said there was a prayer she could pray and talked her through it. “I said it says here, ‘Does this prayer express the desire of your heart?’ Do you think it does? She said it did so I said she could pray it in her heart silently and know she was forgiven and she took the booklet and prayed then to receive Jesus. I gave her Bible Promises for You and wrote her name and the date and forgiven in the front. I gave her, The Case for Christ Answer Booklet explaining it a bit and gave her a Bible study. I apologized for taking longer than I thought. She said, “That’s OK., thank you.” I told her I would pray for her for the next year and we said goodbye and I headed out.

Jason was sitting in the hallway alongside the construction they are doing. The racket from what I presume is the demolition in the area forced me to talk loudly most of the time. He asked how long the survey would take. I told him and he looked at the time on his phone and said, “OK, I can do a survey.” He was wearing a butterscotch-colored zip neck fleece and red framed prep-school glasses with black sides. He looked a bit older than a senior in college, in part because he looked as if he could grow a heavy beard. He had grey narrow at the ankle slacks and a tassel top black watch cap. He looked kind of like your average good-looking guy, though his features were not sharp more rounded. He thought the likelihood he would go to Heaven was 100%. I asked him what he would say to God, “’Cause I’m a Believer,” he replied. I asked him what Jesus had done to take away the sins of the world. He said, “He forgave us.” I asked how he did that and he said, “By our worship”. He was Roman Catholic in background but also went to a Christian church with friends. I began to go through the Gospel with him. He seemed in a bit of a rush saying, “Right,” as I made each point. The noise was a bit distracting. I explained that Jesus sacrifice paid for his sins and His blood cleansed him and He earned the righteousness of God, which could be to his credit. He was adopted by God to inherit these things and he could be saved by faith. I offered him the two circles one to trust in what Jesus had done for him on the cross and be forgiven with the Holy Spirit living inside him and the other with God outside his life. “This one,” he said touching the circle with God inside his life. So I said there was a prayer he could pray and began talking him through it. But I think with the noise and the people walking by he’d missed it. Though when I was done I’d asked if the prayer fit the desire of his heart. He had said it did but maybe was responding to the content of the booklet. So he thanked me and took the booklet. I asked if he had prayed the prayer as I had explained it. “Can I see it; can you show me which one?” I showed it to him again and he promptly prayed to receive Jesus. So maybe he’d thought he’d do it later and when I asked again he thought “OK” and decided to go for it then. So I gave him Bible Promises for You writing his name and the date and “forgiven!” on the inside. I asked if he liked to read and he said, “I could skim it.” So I gave him The Case for Christ Answer Booklet. I told him I would keep him in my prayers for the next year and he thanked me and I said he was welcome and sensing he was in a hurry I walked away. When I look back where he was sitting he was gone.

So Thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had the time. God truly blessed.

In Him,

Bob