Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope ya had a good day walking in the grace that has been provided by the Father of Lights. It rained here again today and though there is nothing about the blessing of fall rains in Scripture I can remember my grass needed it. I had a good day on campus and I came across Savannah who now has prayed to receive Jesus after saying she’d pray later on September 3^rd and Lena and Joseph each prayed to receive Christ today. Please pray they grow in their faith. Their stories are blow if you have the time.

Savannah was sitting at a table alone across the room from where I had met her in the ground floor PE lounge. She has long blonde wavy hair and a traditional pretty girl face, high cheekbones and a point to her chin. She has an athletic softball players build. When I asked her what she would say to God to get into Heaven back on the 3^rd she said, “I knew this day was coming. Honestly I don’t think He should. Even though I’m religious I haven’t done my part to praise and preach Him.” She thought she had a 50% chance of going to Heaven, “I still [am] loving Him, He’s forgiving. So I have time to fix my religion.” Seeing her today she said she had prayed and was very cheerful and bright and happy to see me. I gave her Bible Promises for You and wrote September 2024 and “forgiven!” on the inside front, which she really liked. I also gave her, The case for Christ Answer Booklet and a Bible Study. She was really grateful and I headed off saying if I saw her I would give her a wave and she said something like, “For sure.”.

Leaving the PE lounge after finding no one upstairs I saw two black girls, LaShan and Lena under the stairs. LeShan had braids of her own hair to her shoulders, corn rows on her head and an off the shoulder wide neck shirt on, vary fair skin though dark around the eyes and some freckles, her features looked like those of a Latina but you could tell her hair was African American in heredity. Lena had a light grey hoodie on, her hair dyed bright red. Lena’s face was triangular ending in a box chin, she was made up, her eyelashes little points, had a full more classic African American mouth with lipstick. She had light brown coloring. I bumped my head under the stairs as I walked up to them. I said a few self-deprecating things about regularly hitting my head that made them laugh. They were up for doing a survey though I’m not sure if Leshan would have done it if Lena had not said yes right away. When I asked what they would say to God to get into Heaven LaShan said, “Because I was a good and faithful servant.” Then adding in a moment, “I love the Lord.” Lena said she’d say, “I’m trying, I always walk by faith, I never gave up.” I somehow skipped the question of how likely it was they would go to Heaven. But as it turned out LeShan was losing patience with my telling them the Gospel. I was praying she would not cut me off as I could tell Lena wanted to hear and was staring intently at me as I spoke. When I asked Lena what the big thing was that God had done, then added prompting, “What Jesus did,” that took away her sins, she said, “He lives inside you?” But LaShan as I recall said something about what he’d done that was sort of on target. I was trying to keep up and take notes on both of them and failing. When I turned the page and said they had to live a perfect life. “You are to be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect,” and so Jesus lived a perfect life for them but LaShan cut me off saying Jesus dies for you, Like I know this already. But I continued to explain the blood, that when you borrow someone’s stuff if you damage it (like a car you dent) you have to fix it to give it back to them perfect. Since everything belongs to God if we hurt anyone or anything in the world we owe God for its perfect repair but we can’t pay. So Jesus poured out His blood and pays God back for all the imperfect things we have done we owe God something perfect for. God forgives us because He got paid.  I sensed LaShan was trying to dismiss me for telling them what she already knew, having failed to demonstrate she trusted in it originally. So I was praying silently God would stop her from sabotaging the Gospel presentation I felt Lena thought she needed to hear. Maybe there was some pride of the Christian life in LaShan. But my prayer let me finish and I explained the righteousness of God. Saying they needed to receive Jesus and believe on His name. “Not that you just know that story but that if someone would say to you, ‘Why should God let you into Heaven?’ you would say, “Because Jesus died for me.” This silenced LaShan a bit as she’d got the answer wrong having appealed to her religious works. They were saved by faith and your good stuff would not fix their bad stuff but God could work it all into Good. I asked if they would want to be forgiven or thought something else saying what Islam taught as an example. “We already do.” LaShan replied. I looked Lena in the eye and said, “Would you like to be forgiven?” She nodded. So I said if she wanted to be forgiven there was a prayer she could pray and I talked her through it saying, “It says here, ‘Does this prayer express the desire of you heart?’ Would you say it does?” I asked Lena. “Yeah,” she replied So I said, “If you want you could pray this silently and no one would hear but God would hear and you’d know you were forgiven, wanna do that?” “Yeah,” she said looking me in the eye. So I said, “OK,” and handed her the booklet and she prayed to receive Jesus. I handed LaShan a booklet I had not written in so she would not interrupt. When Lena finished I explained the Christian life “By the Spirit’s Power” living “Inside Out”. I gave them each Bible Promises for You. I wrote Lean’s name and the date and “forgiven!” in the front. I said to LaShan, “Well you were already forgiven.” So I wrote “forgiven” in the front hoping she had told me the truth. I also gave them The Case for Christ Answer Booklet and explained Strobel’s story. I offered them a Bible study. That was when LaShan informed me they both went to Dad’s church where he was pastor and they would not need Bible Studies. I told them I would keep them in my prayers. LaShan interrupted me again saying, “You don’t’ need to pray for me my parents and my family pray for me.” “Ok well I will pray for you,” I said to Lena. “I’ll pray for you each day until Spring and one year after asking God to bless you.” “Thank you it was nice to meet you,” Lena said with a sweet smile. “It was nice to meet you too,” I replied and I headed off.

I came across Joseph at the end of the day. I had to cut it short as I went to get treatment for my sciatica at 2 PM. Sadly treatment has not helped that much. Joseph was sitting at the counter of the cafeteria. A darker Latino in coloring he had a mop of curly hair and it stopped at his ears. He had something of a square good-looking face and black rimmed glasses. He wore jeans and Champion brand, black, zip up fleece. I asked him what he would say to God to get into Heaven. He thought briefly and said, “Jesus love us.” “Yes he does,” I said writing down his reply. He thought he had a 50/50 chance of going to Heaven and went to a “Saint” something or other church and so was probably raise Catholic. Telling him that God had to take away his sins so He could live inside him I asked him what Jesus had done to accomplish that and he said, “His sacrifice.” I agreed. He was lazar-ed in paying close attention to every word, really interested. I explained what Jesus had done by His blood and righteousness. Finishing the Gospel message of saved by faith in Jesus. I asked if he would want to be forgiven or thought something else, giving the Islamic and Buddhist generic options. “That one,” he replied pointing at the circle with Christ inside him. So I said, “If you want to be forgiven there’s a prayer you can pray.” I read it through for him clarifying the terms and asked if he would want to pray it silently “I wouldn’t hear you but God would hear and you’d know you were forgiven. Wanna do it?” “Yeah,” he replied and prayed to receive Jesus. He did not have a Bible so I gave him one and wrote his name and the date and “forgiven!” in the front. I showed him the study helps. I explained living the Christian life, “By the Spirit’s Power” and “Inside out” asking God to transform him so he would become a good man who did good things, he agreed. I said then the likelihood he would go to Heaven was 100% trusting in the blood and righteousness of Jesus. “Nice,” he said. I gave him Bible Promises for You and The Case for Christ Answer Booklet and a Bible Study on Jesus Deity with a quick telling of Walking on the Water as Job said God did in the OT. “See ya around,” I said getting up to go.” “Definitely,” he replied. “I’ll just give ya a wave.” “Sounds good,” he replied and I headed off.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance. God truly blessed. I told the story of the girls under the stair to a Christian student and he said, “It’s all God’s work.” “Every inch,” I replied.

In Him,

Bob