Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was filled with love and good works by the Spirit’s power. I had a good day on campus and Ashley, Chris and Andrew each prayed with me to receive Jesus. Please pray each of these students will grow in their faith and rest in Jesus. Their stories are below if you have time.  Timothy a student studying to be a fire fighter seemed close to receiving Christ but his Uber rolled up and he had to run.

Ashley was sitting halfway down the hallway that runs to the bookstore in one of the sofa chairs in front of a round ottoman. She had curly dark brown hair that fell down just past her jaw line. She had a pretty face with a pointed chin and was wearing a black dress to her calves with a satin back jacket and white crocks. She was just slightly heavyset and wearing dark red lipstick. She said she commuted from Indiana 2 days a week for school. She wanted to go into Architecture as a Major.  She’d been looking for a church having had a bad experience at her last one. I asked her “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?” “That’s a good question,” she replied and thought a moment before saying, “I’m not perfect… I’ve never done blaspheme. I’ve chosen to forgive my rapist.” “Wow, that’s a lot,” I replied. She thought she had an 80% chance of going to Heaven. I began going through the Gospel with her. When I asked her what Jesus had done back in History to take away the sins of the world she started thinking and then pounded her hand in her palm a couple times looking for the word then saying, “He was crucified.” I said, “You were doing the nails in His hands?” she agreed. I began going through the Gospel with her as I always do, explaining the blood that cleansed her and paid God what we owed. His righteousness was to her credit. I said she could receive these things by faith. I asked if she would want to be forgiven for her sins trusting in what Jesus had done, then He would live inside her with His Spirit and give her strength, take her to Heaven when she died. Or did she think something else? She reached out with a painted nail and touched under the circle with the cross on the throne or the driver’s seat of her life. I said if she wanted to be forgiven there was a prayer she could pray and talked her through it. I asked if it expressed the desire of her heart and she nodded so I said she could pray it silently and I wouldn’t hear her but God would hear and she’d know she was forgiven. “Wanna do it?” I asked. “Um hum,” she said as she nodded and she took the booklet and prayed to receive Jesus. As soon as she finished I said, “The likelihood you will now go to Heaven is 100%, trusting in the blood and righteousness of Jesus.” She smiled at that. I began to go through the Christian life with her. She had a Bible but I gave her Bible Promises for You writing her name and the date and “forgiven” in the front. She took on a warm smile when I gave that to her. I also gave her a Bible Study, explaining it a bit and The Case for Christ Answer Booklet. I told her I would pray a Bible verse for her each day from now until Spring and one year after asking God to bless her. I said if I saw her I would say hi. I got up to go and she said, “Thank you for your time.” “Thank you for yours,” I replied with a smile and I headed off. She walked by at the end of the day as I was talking to someone and I waved at her and her face lit up in a grin and she waved back.

 I came across Chris outside the cafeteria. He’s a friend of a guy I bumped into regularly last year, Jordan, and they are always talking about Christianity to I would occasionally give them my two cents. Chris has modest classic black features, he has perfect skin like milk chocolate and a mustache, bit of beard beneath his chin, good looking guy. He had on a black hoodie pull up over his head today. He asked how my day was going and I said a girl had prayed to receive Christ. He asked how I went about that. I explained I did a student survey and told him the questions. “Do I need to do something like that?” he asked, “I was baptized,” he replied. “Well baptism is either you are purified if you are sprinkled or you go under the water and that means you die with Christ and then you come out of the water you rise with Him so that is what it is symbolic of.” His face was blank and nothing I said seemed like it was familiar. “Well, you’re a Christian,” I went on, “So I don’t think… but hey tell me what’s that answer to the question. ‘So you’re walking down the road, 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?’” “Well I was baptized,” he repeated. “I think it is what comes from your heart, I have a good heart, good intentions.” “Well, that’s what you do but what did Jesus do?” he didn’t get the question. So I said, “You need to hear this then, you got a few minutes?” “Yeah,” he said. “Where can we sit down?” I asked. “Right here,” he said and we sat in a circle of connected benches and table-tops around a circular ottoman right outside the cafeteria. I began to go through the Gospel with him in the booklet and explaining that God wanted to live inside him with His Holy Spirit but first had to take away his sins (like a blood transfusion). I asked, “What’s the big thing Jesus does back in History to take away the sins of the world?” “He baptizes you?” he guessed. “No, that is how you identify with Christ,” I replied. “So I began to explain all I do with illustrations and stories explaining the blood and righteousness of Christ. “Wow,” he said at one point. I explained that he needed to receive Christ by faith believing He was God, had died for his sins and rose from the dead. “Not that you just know the story but that that’s what you put your trust in so if someone would say to you, ‘Why should God let you into Heaven?’ You’d say, ‘Because Jesus died for me.’ That would mean you had faith in Jesus. And you are saved by faith.” I explained how his good works were not perfect and could not pay God anything. I said that last question was, “Which person are you or would you want to be,” and told him the false message of Islam and the Buddha and then asked, “Or would you want to be forgiven trusting in what Jesus has done? Then He lives inside you and gives you strength takes you to Heaven when you die.” “Yeah, be forgiven,” he said. So I talked him through the prayer asking does this prayer and said he could pray it silently. “I read it,” he said. “OK, Amen?” I asked. “Amen,” he replied with a grin. “OK. So do you believe Jesus is God died for your sins and rose from the dead? Do you think that’s true?” I asked. He nodded. “Say, ‘I do,’” I said. “I do,” he replied. So the Bible says if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, that He is God, and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, because He had to die for your sins, you will be saved.” I gave him Bible Promises for You and wrote his name and the date and “forgiven!” in the front. I also gave him The Case for Christ Answer Booklet and I explained the Bible study to him one of the illustrations was Jesus walking on the water. I told him I would keep him in my prayers praying a Bible verse for him each day asking God to bless him. “That was beautiful man,” he replied. He said the illustrations were great and then said, “Thank you for sharing this good word.” He gave me a hug. “No problem you have a blessed day,” I replied and he hugged me again and said, “I will.”  As he walked away he said, “Wow.”

Andrew was sitting at the counter looking out towards the parking lot in the cafeteria. He got off his chair and introduced himself when I asked his name shaking my hand after he agreed to do a survey with a “Nice to meet you.” He had light brown hair in a mop kind of here and there but short on the sides, blue eyes and a day’s growth of light beard. He was wearing a black puffy coat and blue jeans, smaller guy with a kind of an everyman face with full lips, nice guy. He wanted to become an airline pilot. 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?” “I don’t know what I would say,” he replied. I asked him what he thought it was that got someone into Heaven. He said he’d watched some videos and that he thought, “One key fundamental is accepting Jesus into your life.” I asked what he thought the likelihood was he would be let into Heaven when he died. “I’m not sure,” he replied. “I need to have more time with people in Church.” He’d said he’d been meaning to get into Church a bit. “Well the last part of this is what you think about Christianity,” I said and he jumped in and said, “I think it’s a great religion, nothing against it.” I began to explain the Gospel to him. He knew Jesus had died for the sins of the world. So went through all I usually say of the blood and righteousness of Christ and adoption and resurrection. I said he needed to be saved by faith. I asked if he would want to be forgiven trusting in what Jesus had done or thought something else giving him the CliffsNotes version of Islam and the Buddha. He said he would want to be forgiven. I said if he wanted to be forgiven there was a prayer he could pray and I talked him through it asking if it expressed the desire of his heart. “Yeah,” he replied. So I said he could pray it silently, I wouldn’t hear him but God would hear and he’d know he was forgiven, “Wanna do that?” “Sure,” he replied and he took the booklet and prayed to receive Christ finishing out loud with “Amen.” I told him then the likelihood he would go to Heaven was 100% trusting in the blood and righteousness of Jesus. I began to explain the Christian life to him and he did not have a Bible so I offered him one. I wrote his name and the date and “forgiven” on the inside after I showed him the cross-references and maps and a study help I place in the back. He was happy with the Bible. I also gave him Bible Promises for You showing him how he could turn one into a prayer or read them for comfort. I gave him The Case for Christ Answer Booklet and explained a Bible study to him on the deity of Christ. I told him I would pray a Bible verse for him each day from now until Spring and one year after asking God to bless him. I got up to go. “Alright Bob, thanks for your time,” he said reaching out to shake my hand again. “Alright,” I replied, “I’ll see you in Heaven.” “Alright, see you there,” he said with a grin 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