Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your day was a blessed one walking in the knowledge of His righteousness gifted to us by the work of Christ and our faith [2Cor. 5:21]. I had a good day on campus and Antonio and Precious each prayed to receive Jesus. Please pray they grow in faith and trust in Him.

 I was at a split I the hallway and asked God which way to turn, towards the bookstore or the cafeteria. Sometimes I do that and have no sense at all either way but I had a nudge toward the cafeteria. I hadn’t been able to find someone to go through the Gospel with yet, just talking to students I knew who had received Christ this year. So I went with it and found Antonio was sitting at a table in the cafeteria killing time. He wore a light grey hooded sweatshirt and black cargo pocket sweats. Wasn’t a big guy, he had brown reddish hair, a wavy mop on top short on the sides.  He had gaps between his teeth otherwise perfectly spaced. He looked like he could have been related to Charlie Kirk, a brother with a shorter face. He had full lips and was upbeat. I asked him if he’d wanna do a student survey about God and he said, “Sure I don’t have anything to do.” I began, getting his name and he said he wanted to hold public office. I said I didn’t and we needed good people so that was great. I asked, “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?” He said that was “really a good question actually,” and then said, “I’m not sure.” I asked if had gone to church at all and he said not since he was a little kid so I asked what he thought it was that got you into Heaven. He thought and said, “Staying close to the Lord. Living by His morals and His commandments,” he replied. I asked the likelihood he would go to Heaven. “According to the Bible we all go to Heaven, so 100%, right?” I said some people might say that but that if everyone went to Heaven it would be just like Earth. He agreed that wouldn’t be good. I pointed out some people hate God and do not want to be there. “People that accept Him then,” he replied. “OK,” I said. “The last part of this is what you think of Christianity. It’s 4 quick points and ya say what ya think.” He agreed and I began to go through the Gospel with him saying, “knowing God” was that He lived inside you. I explained that God wanted to transfuse His life into you, live inside you with His Holy Spirit, but first He had to make you His “type”. Like a blood transfusion, so God had to take away his sin. “Interesting,” he said. I asked what Jesus had done back in History to take away the sins of the world. “He was crucified,” He replied. I agreed and then explained the blood of Christ as cleansing for his sins and a payment with an illustration. “God has to be just to forgive you so there has to be a payment. “Got it,” he replied. I told him of and righteousness of Christ and how God adopted him. I said all this was received by faith, faith God’s gift saved him. I asked if he wanted to be forgiven trusting in what Jesus had done or thought something else and gave him the quick version of Islam and the Buddha. He liked seeing a quick way to think about them. “So would you like to be forgiven for your sins trusting in Jesus?” I asked. “Yeah absolutely,” he replied. So I said if he wanted to be forgiven there was a prayer he could pray. I talked him through it and asked if it expressed the desire of his heart. “Yeah,” he replied. I said he could pray it silently, “Wanna do that?” “Yeah, absolutely,” he replied again and he prayed then to receive Jesus. I told him the likelihood he would now go to Heaven trusting in the blood and righteousness of Jesus was 100%. “That’s awesome,” he replied enthusiastically. He had a Bible and I encouraged him to read in the book of John. I explained the Christian life living by the Spirit’s power, “Inside out.” I gave him Bible Promises for You and wrote his name and the date and “forgiven!” in the front showing him how he could turn the verses into prayers. I gave him a Bible study and The Case for Christ Answer Booklet which he was very interested to read. I told him I would keep him in my prayers each day praying a Bible verse for him until Spring and one year after. “This is an awesome story. Thanks, God bless you,” he said. “God bless you too,” I said. He was one of the most receptive upbeat guys I had talked to all year. I hope he gets in office.

 I came across Precious later in one of the cutouts on the Third floor that overlooks the lounge. It’s a great place to sit, you can see out the glass 3 story wall looking east. Precious is a pretty girl, a darker skinned Latina. Some Latina girls I speak to at school are really indistinguishable from a Spanish European. But she had pretty tan skin and a cute small head with a pointed chin. Her straight dark hair was pulled back behind her head with a high forehead. Her teeth were a bit crowded. She wore back rimmed semi-round glasses that slid down her nose, which she pushed up a few times as we talked and she wore a navy blue pull over hooded sweatshirt and had light grey baggy sweats. She took one of her larger bags off the chair beside her so I could sit and informed me I had talked with her boyfriend, Drew, and I had given him a Bible, “Well Andrew,” she corrected. I then knew who she meant saying I knew him, he’d been sitting in the cafeteria earlier this semester. (Another guy last school year named Drew had prayed with me also but I hadn’t given him a Bible.) She said she went to Calvary Church. She thought she’d like to travel. 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?” She thought for a bit and said, “I think I’ll say, ‘I believe in you with all my heart.’” But she only thought she had a 50/50 chance of going to Heaven. I went through all the Gospel with her and she knew Jesus had died to take away the sins of the world. She took it all in. I came to the end and asked, “Which kind of person are you or would you want to be. Would you want to be forgiven for your sins trusting in what Jesus has done? Then He will live inside you and give you strength and take you to heaven when you die, or do you think something else?” I gave her the CliffsNotes version of Islam and the Buddha and said, “When you’re asking for forgiveness for your sins are you thinking in your heart you are a good person and going to Church and you believe in God or are you thinking, I know I’ll be forgiven because Jesus died for me?” She took a bit and said, “I’m thinking.” “Sure take your time,” I replied. After a bit she said, “I think it’s both.” I believe thinking she had split the horns of the dilemma. “Yes it is both,” I replied. “If you believe in Jesus you will do good things but were you believing in Jesus so that you could do good things?” She thought just a second and said, “No.” “Ok well if you want to be forgiven trusting in what Jesus has done there’s a prayer you can pray,” I said and I talked her through it and asked if it expressed the desire of her heart. “Yeah,” she replied. So I said she could pray it silently and she took the booklet and prayed to receive Jesus. She was happy then and I told her the likelihood she would go to Heaven now was 100% trusting in the blood and righteousness of Jesus. I gave her Bible Promises for You and wrote her name and the date and “forgiven!” in the front showing her also how she could turn the verses into a prayer. She really liked that and said, “Thank you.” I gave her a Bible study and explained it to her with the miracle of walking on the water. I gave The Case for Christ Answer Booklet. I explained Strobel’s story and how it was a comfort to have a really smart person researching Christianity and finding it true. I told her I would keep her in my prayers each day praying a Bible verse for her until Spring and one year after. “Thank you,” she said again. I told her I would see her in Heaven. “OK,” she said with a smile and I headed off.

 So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance. God truly blessed the work, telling the awesome story of the Gospel.

 In Him,

Bob