Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed with life and peace from Christ. It’s been beautiful weather here and God blessed again on campus today. Yahir (Ja ear), JT and Nick all prayed to receive Jesus today. Their responses are below if you have the time. Please pray they grow in their faith.

Yahir was sitting at a table overlooking the science lounge on the west side. The lounge connects the two buildings and there’s vending machines up on that side on the second floor. He was just looking at his phone so I asked if would do a student survey about what he thought about God. He had a curly mop of hair and a long face. He had on a grey T-shirt and jeans and had 3 gold long chains around his neck the shortest of which had a crucifix hanging on it.  His mustache was dark matching his hair and he had Latino coloring. 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?”  “Oh,” he replied and then almost to himself he said, “I’m going to be honest. I haven’t been in touch with my Bible… I always say I want to; my older Brother is in touch with his Bible.” He said something as an aside about his brother encouraging him. “If He asked me I wouldn’t think of a reason except I’ve always been there for my family. I’ve been mindful and been as kind as I could be to the rude people at work.” He seemed like he had a job with occasionally rude customers. I asked if he went to Church and it seemed like many students that had stopped with the covid closings and never resumed as a habit. He said his brother had had a dark time then and these had driven his brother back towards God. “I would like to say… but recently I don’t know. I always ask for forgiveness I’m not sure I deserve it.” I said no one deserved forgiveness. I asked the likelihood he would go to Heaven. “Currently as I stand now, 40%,” he replied and then said he thought that was probably an over estimation. I began to go through the Gospel with him and he agreed with everything I said. When I asked what Jesus had done to take away the sins of the world back in History he said, “Sacrifice.” “Right he died on the cross,” I replied. So I explained everything I usually said and he affirmed it. But he obviously had not been trusting he was saved by grace through faith but had been thinking about a form of religious faithfulness. He said his mom had always told him God was with him. He said he wanted to trust in what Jesus had done. So I asked if he had ever asked God to forgive him based on the work of Christ since he hadn’t believed he had forgiveness outside of religious faithfulness. He thought for a moment so I just said. If you haven’t asked there’s a prayer you can pray and I talked him through it and said he could pray it silently and know he was forgiven. He decided then to pray to receive Christ. When he finished I said, “It’s kind of like a girl you are a friend with in High School. You hang out a lot and you say to her at the end of the year, ‘So when are we going to go to prom?’ and she replies, ‘As soon as you ask me, maybe.” He laughed and agreed and I said, “God wants you to ask.” He said when I asked if he had a Bible he had a bilingual one in Spanish and English and I said I wished I knew Spanish. I explained the Christian life by the Spirit’s power living “Inside out” as I always do and I gave him Bible Promises for You and wrote his name and the date and “forgiven!” in the front. I gave him The Case for Christ Answer Booklet and I told him Strobel’s story and he could get more information on line through him. We were interrupted then by a girl in the nursing program who walked up and asked “Hey are you the God guy?” She was a bit heavy and had long red hair and wide, pink rim glasses. I said I probably was. She began to dominate the conversation and invited herself to sit down, saying talking to me a couple years ago had placed her on a different trajectory of faith. I told them some things about the untrustworthiness of a lot of what was said around them and showed them things in the Bible and tried to interestingly use the time well. Since Yahir was too kind to just get up, he just kept track of the time on his phone though he seemed interested to hear and eventually he went to class and said, “Thank you, Thanks for everything.” I said I would pray for him each day and I’d see him in Heaven. He was grateful and headed off. Abby claimed to have a lot of questions and didn’t really seem to be at peace. But she did not really seem to want to express specifics. She asked if we could have a Bible Study which I gathered to her would mean she’d talk a lot and I would listen. I had given her one and said she could email me if she wanted to set something up but then she said she was really busy. She had to go to class. I didn’t remember talking to her before but I prayed over her and encouraged her to read the Bible. She said she had a devotional Bible her uncle had gotten for her. She just seemed kind of needy but claimed she had prayed to receive Jesus. So in some ways I’m not sure what her arrival was all about except that some of what I was led to teach them, to just fill the time, were things they needed to hear.

JT was sitting in a lounge on what is the south side of the first floor of the BIC. It has some vending machines. He was alone in the lounge at a table. He seemed shorter though he never stood up. He had rosy cheeks and a bushy jawline beard a mustache that broke into a gap in the middle and did not touch his beard. His hair was the same light brown and was a mop of curls. He wore a patterned blue-grey camo T-shirt and Jeans. He said he wanted to start a business but seemed to already have one, which was junk removal and house restoration. He gave me his card that listed him as the owner and operator. But he looked no more than 19. 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?” That gave him pause “I’m…,” he began, thinking, then said, “I care for people without worrying about other people seeing it.” I asked the likelihood he would go to Heaven and he just said, “Pretty high.” He didn’t to go to Church any longer saying he didn’t have time but had when he was younger and had gone to Catholic School. I began to go through the Gospel with him and he really tuned in as I explained God wanted to live inside him but had to cleanse him. I asked what Jesus had done to take away the sins of the world back in History, “He carried His cross, crucified,” he replied. I explained he needed to be perfect to get into Heaven. I continued to go through all I usually say about the blood and righteousness of Jesus as a payment to God and to our credit. I said he needed to receive Jesus. To believe Jesus was God had died for his sins and rose from the dead, not that he just knew the story but that that’s what he placed his trust in so that if someone were to ask why God should let him into Heaven he’d say, “Because Jesus died for me.” I asked if he would want to be forgiven or thought something else giving him a couple options. “Forgiven,” he replied. So I said if he wanted to be forgiven there was a prayer he could pray. I went through it and asked if it expressed the desire of his heart. “Yeah,” he said. I said he could pray it silently. ‘Wanna do that?” “Yeah,” he said again and prayed to receive Jesus. I explained the Christian life by the Spirit’s power living “Inside Out”. I gave him Bible Promises for You and wrote his name and the date and forgiven in the front. He said he read the Bible before bed each night with his girlfriend. I said he could read some of the Bible verses in it. I also said that about the Bible study I gave him. I gave him The Case for Christ Answer Booklet and told him he could check out Strobel’s stuff. I told him I’d pray for him each day. “Thank you for talking.” “Yeah your welcome,” I replied. “Have a great rest of your day,” he said as I got up to go. “You too,” I said and headed off.

Nick was a big black dude sitting I the PE building lounge at the table at the base of the stairs. He had a big warm smile. He described himself as “Strong, athletic and tall,” which I could have decided without his having said. He wanted to be able to bench 405 soon. I think he had about 30 pound to go. He was a track athlete, shot put. He had dreads that were as thick as a finger at least 6 inches long. His beard was bushy and thicker down from his chin by inches had a mustache as well. He was dressed in black shorts and a T-shirt. He said he was 6’1”. 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?” “That’s a good one,” he replied then he landed on, “You don’t have to but You can look at my past see what your judgment says.” He thought he had a 50/50 shot at getting into Heaven and then said he wasn’t really sure. I began to go through the Gospel with him first asking if he went to church. He hadn’t for a while. He did know Jesus had died for the sins of the world. He took it all in, “knowing Christ“ was Christ living inside him, His blood cleansing him as a payment to God and His righteousness to his credit. I asked if he would want to be forgiven trusting in what Jesus had done. He seemed to be interested. “Yeah,” he replied. I said if he wanted to be forgiven there was a prayer he could pray and I read through it in an explanatory way and asked if it expressed the desire of his heart. “Yeah,” he said again. I said he could pray it silently and know he was forgiven, “Wanna do it?” He paused and looked me hard in the eye for a second and then said, “Yeah,” and he took the booklet and prayed to receive Jesus. I told him the likelihood he would now go to Heaven was 100% trusting in the blood and righteousness of Jesus. I told him I had sinned way more than him because I was old and you sin every year and though God forgives it there’s a pile there of what you’ve done. He was young so he’d have a much smaller pile. So if we both died today and God looked at our piles he’d have a better shot at getting in, “But God’s not going to look at our piles as He’ll say he turned them into good and forgave them. So it’s kind of like cheating but if we both died today I’d get in too.” I explained the Christian life by the Spirit’s power living “Inside out” and said the Spirit could help him master technique and give him the discipline to get stronger. He had a Bible and was willing to take a copy of Bible Promises for You and I wrote his name and the date and “forgiven!” in the front, saying he could remember. He said he didn’t like to read so I didn’t give him Strobel’s book. I gave him a Bible study and told him I would pray for him about the shot put and his goal to bench 405. I stood up to go and shook his hand and said, “Nice to meet you man.” “Nice to meet you too,” he replied. “I’ll see you in Heaven, he grinned at that 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