Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed having an everlasting rock in God the Lord. I had a good day on campus and Vincent prayed to receive Jesus today. His story is below if you want to spend the time. Please pray he grows in faith. I had a long discipleship conversation with another student as well. I gave the Gospel to an English as a second language student who could read better than understand English. I explained it as best as I could before she ran for her ride.

Victor was sitting pretty much alone in his section of the North 2^nd floor hallway of the BIC. He was a big Latino guy with a thin mustache and what appeared in the front of his grey hoodie (which shaded his face a bit) as a mop of brown hair. He had a wider face and a ball chin. He wore black frame glasses rectangle lens. He wore sweat pants. He was on his phone but was open to doing a survey. He wanted to travel. I asked him “You’re walking down the road and you get hit by a bus. So you’re dead. And you stand before God and He says, ‘Why should I let you into Heaven?’ What would you say?” “Man!” he said, “That’s a hard one.” It was a good early sign he took the question seriously. He thought for a bit and said, “I feel like I’ve helped a lot of people in my lifespan and brought more positive than negative.” He had gone to church as a kid and he felt like it had given him a base for his life, how to live in terms of others. His family still went to Church and wanted him to go but the Roman Catholic Church didn’t do anything for him. He thought the likelihood he would go to Heaven was 90% When I asked what Jesus had done back in History to take away the sins of the world he said, “Crucified.” He followed everything I said and was engaged listening to the metaphors. I finished all I say about the blood and righteousness of Christ and receiving Him by faith. I asked if he would want to be forgiven for his sins. He objected to the set in stone idea feeling it advantaged some over others. He felt like others who had more wealth and advantages would do better and others worse in life. It did not seem a fair system. He was talking about the advantages of societal wealth. I said I could see what he was saying but that when it came to being a better person advantages of wealth and having a smooth path laid out for you did not seem to produce better people. I said they were not people I wanted to be. I used a negative term to describe what most of them turned into thinking of the ultra-rich. I said statistically rich people give less to charity by percentage of income than poor people, for all their privilege they were not better. So I did not think of wealth as an advantage, people who have less have to depend upon God. Having less was often a better starting point for being a good person because you have to depend on God more and don’t get off track. He added that they were more there for each other. I said I agreed that (those who were less entitled) had better communities. I said if he would want to be forgiven having God’s strength in him he’d be given the power to help others. I explained only God (being all powerful and all knowing) could know and do “the good” in an evil world. I read through the prayer and in looking at it he said something like, “There it is again, I don’t want to be made into something I’m not.” I said the thing he was missing was that asking God to make him the kind of person He (God) wanted him to be was really the person he (Vincent) wanted to be. I said he had said that the life he had, growing up in a religious family, had given him the basis for life and for who he was and wanted to be, God wanted the same thing for him. He immediately saw the point. I said there was a theologian that had said God energizes us in our essential being to be the best person we can be. He works with who we are. I said if he wanted he could pray the prayer silently or pray it later. I was holding the booklet and he looked hard at it and I could tell by his lips moving he was praying to receive Christ. I told him then the likelihood he would now go to Heaven was 100% trusting in the blood and righteousness of Jesus. I told him I would pray a Bible verse for him each day from now until Spring and one year after. I began to go through the Christian life with him he only had a pocket Bible so I gave him one showing him some of the study helps and the ribbon marker was in John. I wrote his name and the date and “forgiven!” on the inside. I explained living by the Spirit to help him in all things and told him the “footprints in the sand” illustration that seemed to register now since he had prayed. I said now God lived inside him and when he stood before God He would not ask, “Why should Iet you into Heaven.” He would say, “Vincent! I know you,” Because God had been walking with him through life. That brought a smile. I also gave him Bible Promises for You and a Bible Study and Case for Christ Answer Booklet and Strobel’s story. He was grateful and got up to go saying, “God bless you and your year of school.” “God bless you,” 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.

In Him,

Bob