Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed and you are somewhere diggin’ the weather. We are grateful it has not turned very cold yet. I had a good day on campus and John and Roger both prayed with me to receive Jesus. They were both really enthusiastic and grateful to join the kingdom so that was great. Their stories are below if you have some time. Please pray they grow stronger in their faith.

John was sitting at a counter height table in the hallway leading to the bookstore from the BIC. He was a good-looking black guy wearing a black hoodie and black sweats and he had larger rectangular black rimmed glasses. His hair was in dreadlocks, pencil thin about 6 inches long. He wore a mustache and had a bit of a chin beard. So many guys this year can be described with the same facial hair it’s tough to keep them straight in my mind. He was friendly about my size. I asked him what he would say to God if he died and were asked why should I let you into Heaven. He thought for a bit struggling with an answer and landed on “Because I’m one of your children.” He was sure he’d go to Heaven 100%. Knowing God is that He lives inside us, I explained. For God to live inside us He has to take away our sin. I asked what Jesus had done to do that. “He stays with us for the journey of like, well He forgives. Well I don’t know if He forgives me but He knows I know what I did,” he replied struggling for words throughout. It seemed he had been to church though less lately saying, “I’ve been to church some and I feel like it’s a good thing.” I began to go through the Gospel with him explaining the cleansing and atoning blood of Christ. Then saying He earned the righteousness of God and that he was clothed with Jesus [Gal. 3:27 where literally in the Greek we are clothed with Jesus as a garment fulfilling Isa. 61:10]. So he would not go to Heaven because he was good but because Jesus was good and he was connected to Him. I said, “Everyone is a child of God in a sense because He is their creator [Acts 17:28]. But God gives the rights of the Children of God to those He adopts who believe.” [john 1:12] So I said all Christ had done could be his by faith and asked if he wanted to be forgiven for his sins or thought something else. “So would you want to be forgiven for your sins trusting in Jesus?” I asked. “Of course, of course!” he said cheerfully. So I said if he wanted to be forgiven there was a prayer he could pray. Walking him through the prayer I asked if it was the desire of his heart. He said, “Yeah.” I said he could pray it silently and know he was forgiven. “Pray it right now?” asked. “Silently, so only God will hear,” I replied. “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” he replied and he prayed to receive Jesus. I explained when he finished that now trusting in the blood and righteousness of Jesus the likelihood that he would go to Heaven really was 100%. I gave him Bible Promises for You and wrote his name and the date and “forgiven!” on the inside. I explained living by the Spirit’s power to ask for His help in everything. I gave him a Strobel’s Case for Christ Answer Booklet. I gave him a Bible Study on the deity of Christ and explained it with the miracle of walking on the water. and I would pray for him until a year from Spring and he said, “Thank you. Appreciate you,” he said. I could tell he was really grateful and he reached out with a fist I bumped and saying, “See you,” as I got packed to go. I bumped his fist and with a smile said, “See ya around.”

Later in the day I came across Roger. He had kind of an everyman look for a Latino guy. His face was more or less oval his features were smooth. I could see from the shadow he could grow a full beard but he was clean-shaven and the side of his hair was military short, the mop on top swept to the right. He was of modest height and looked pretty solid. He had on a green short sleeve T-shirt and blue jeans, white tennis shoes. He was a bit older student and had been in Texas doing construction when 2020 shut things down so he came home. He was from a Mexican heritage but seemed to have a lot of Venezuelan friends. It seemed like his family had tried a few they were invited to and hadn’t attended one Church growing up. He talked more than any student I have gone through the Gospel with in a long time. He also said he did not sleep much and had an off hour shift he worked. He just had conversational energy. I asked him what he would say to God to get into Heaven. He thought a bit then said, “The reason is I always had a good heart. If I ever am wrong I regret it and I did something to make it better. I do to people the best I could. I am not perfect, but I tried. Maybe more that last one. It’s like balancing to live your life, be yourself, take care of yourself.” He thought he would go to Heaven 100% He talked throughout the presentation of the Gospel interjecting thoughts. I asked what Jesus had done to take away his sins and he said “Sacrifice?” He followed a guy on Twitter (I know it is X now but no one calls it that) who was a friend living in Montana, kind of an outdoorsman who posted a lot about his faith. This guy had him thinking. I began to explain that God became a man. His sacrifice for our sins was then worth an infinite amount because His life and blood were worth an infinite amount because he was God. “Oh that’s what I never got, infinite,” he said. It seemed like the math had not held up for him—that one man could die for the sins of the world. His friend had recently posted that everyone should remember that one man had paid for all our sins. So the idea of the sacrifice of Christ he seemed to have picked up from his friend’s posts from Montana. Then I explained the righteousness of God to His credit through adoption and then he needed to receive Jesus by faith, “If you believe Jesus is God died for your sins and rose from the dead. Not that you just know the story but that’s what you put your trust in.” I explained your good stuff could not fix your bad stuff but that God could turn your bad things into good things because he controlled the future and I wrote down Romans 8;28. He fixed on that and wanted to write it down as I said it again so I wrote it on the back of the booklet saying he could do good with God’s power then knowing God could control the outcome of an action. I explained that I sometimes thought about something I had done in the past that hurt someone like a car accident. I asked God to bless them and make up for what I had done and make it into Good, not to only forgive me. This seemed to really strike him as he thought about his past. He was taking a lot but the rest of the day he’d said he had nothing set. So I didn’t feel the tension as I often do that I need get the Gospel in before a student has to up and suddenly leave. I finally got to ask him if he would want to be forgiven then trusting in what Jesus had done. He said he would so I said there was a prayer he could pray and started to explain it, but he seemed to have a thought and missed the explanation, I think captured by a scene in his past for a moment. I asked again if the prayer expressed the desire of his heart. He read it and said it did. So I said he could pray it silently and be forgiven.  So he took the booklet and prayed it, when I glanced over he had his eyes closed too I think he was adding to it in his heart. He finished. I explained then to him that the likelihood he would go to Heaven was 100%, now placing his faith on the blood and righteousness of Christ. He said he thought there might be a Bible around his house but he wanted one more recently updated language wise, they might have been in Spanish. I gave him the NKJV and explained the study helps and wrote his name and the date and “forgiven!” in the front. He was grateful and I gave him Bible Promises for You and The Case for Christ Answer Booklet recommending Strobel in a YouTube search. I talked him through the Bible study too. We talked some more, he thanked me saying, “This really made my day.” He told me he thought we were entering into a time when people were realizing a lot of things. He saw it with guys he worked with in their desire to learn English, maybe meaning they were making longer term plans for life in the US. He was heading back to Mexico over Christmas with his family to try and reconnect with their extended family down there. Finally I got up to go we’d talked for at least an hour. I told him I would pray a prayer for him each day using a Bible verse to bless him until a year from Spring. “Awesome,” he replied.   “I’ll see you around,” I said. He said I definitely would and I headed out.

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

In Him,

Bob