Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your week was blessed with good things from above. We survived the first snow. Even though a month from surgery I’m still a bit sore and sciatica on that side. But I did not have to shovel. Pain doesn’t make ya feel like you can change the world, but only God can do that anyway so it’s not like my perspective has changed. Jon prayed to receive Jesus Thursday, I got roped into a couple hours of apologetics and after Rachel in the PE was close saying she thought she might pray later. She was there as a photographer for one of the girls teams it seemed and had her hoodie up had an average cute homespun oval face. Thanks for your prayers for the students. Jon’s story is below.

Jon was the first guy I talked to after feeling I had a nudge toward the cafeteria. He was sitting on the corner of the hall in a row of chairs after the new construction. He wore a Ford trucker hat and khaki work pants, crisp like they’d come of the rack, and a heavy flannel shirt. In the face he looked like Prince Charming in the animated 1950’s Cinderella. He questioned me a bit what the survey was about. I told him the main question in the survey (you’re walkin’ down the road you get hit by a bus, so you’re dead and you stand before God and He asks, “Why should I let you into Heaven?’ what would you say?). “So the survey is really about the answer to that question from the Bible, have any interest in that or not so much?” Jon said ok and after the classic sky diving response for one thing he wanted to do before he died I asked why God would let him into Heaven if he died. “’Cause I try to be the best person to the best of my ability,” came the reply. Turned out he went to a Lutheran Church and he thought he had a 90% chance of going to Heaven. I began to go through the Gospel with Jon and after quoting Jesus in John 17:3 and saying “knowing God” was that He lived in you by the Holy Spirit I asked what Jesus had done to take away his sin he said, “He forgives you.” I said, “What does he do so he can forgive you?” He said did not know. I explained how the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin (1John 1:7) and is also how God gets paid. He cracked a very slight smile then after I suggested that if I rolled over his foot in the parking lot I did not have an extra spare foot to give to God but had wrecked His stuff. God loves me though and so Jesus blood pays what I owe. I explained how Jesus earned the righteousness of God. I said all this could be received by believing on His name, “So if you believe Jesus is God He died for your sins and rose from the dead. Not that you just know the story from being a kid at Church but that you believe on this as a man. So if God or someone would say to you, “Why should He let you into Heaven? You’d say, Because Jesus died for me. That would mean you had faith in Jesus—it’s just faith (Ephesians 2:8&9). I asked if he would want to be forgiven for his sins or thought something else. “The first option,” he replied. So I said if he wanted to be forgiven there was a prayer he could pray. I talked him through it asking if it was the desire of his heart and if it was he could pray it silently. “I wouldn’t hear you but God would hear and you’d know you were forgiven. Wanna do that?” “Um hum,” he said and I gave him the booklet and he prayed to receive Jesus. When he finished I said the likelihood now he would go to Heaven was 100%. I gave him a book of Bible promises saying he could give them to people or turn them into a prayer or just be encouraged reading them and I wrote his name and the date and “forgiven!” in the front. I handed it to him and he said, “Awesome, thanks Bob.” I also gave him The Case for Christ Answer Booklet. and a Bible study I briefly explained. He accepted them with another “Awesome,” his countenance had changed since praying and he had brightened up. I said I would pray a Bible Verse for him each day from now through Spring and one year after and he seemed grateful. “Thanks Bob,” he said again “Well you got a Bible and a church and so you are on your way man,” I said and shook his hand. “I’ll see you in Heaven. You can tell me how things went, all the good you did.” Thanks Bob you have a good one.” “Yeah thanks you too,” I replied and I got up and headed off.

So thanks for you prayers for the ministry and for evangelism this past week if you had a chance, God truly blessed.

In Him,

Bob