“It is possible [through prayer] for the most obscure person in a church, with a heart right toward God, to exercise as much power for the evangelization of the world, as it is for those who stand in the most prominent positions.”
… John R. Mott
Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I hope your day was blessed walking in the Spirit. I had a great day walking around talking to peeps. Joe and Dan came to Christ. Joe attends a Lutheran Church each week, in a small farm community when he goes home on the weekend, but he stays with his grandparents locally all week. He was just chilling out in the newly revamped PE center at school. They just spent $59 million on the art center (called the Mac) and the PE building. They took down my favorite sculpture too, sad story. I hope they didn’t trash it, but it was WAY too big for my house so it’s not like I could have taken it off their hands. Back to Joe though, he was wearing a Blackhawks sweater (looked like a real one) and had blonde hair and short, blonde beard. He was up for talking. He did not know when I asked him “What was the big thing God did to take away your sins?”. “I’m drawing a blank,” he said. So I continued to explain the Gospel to him and the imputation of Christ’s righteousness. He had thought he was a good guy, thinking he had always chosen the good in situations where there was an option. But I explained to him he owed God a perfect life as Jesus commands, “So you are to be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect”. He hadn’t done that, and after I explained he could be forgiven by faith if he would trust Jesus work on the cross he said, “I’ll take it.” And then he prayed to receive Christ as His Savior and Lord. He was really friendly and I invited him to Bible study. And got his email. He took a copy of Playing with Purpose, a book on testimonies of players in the NBA, and a Bible Study on the Deity of Jesus. So hopefully he will come to a bible study.
Dan is Roman Catholic and goes to church on Christmas and Easter. Brown hair, shorter, perfect skin, looked young and Italian if I had to guess. He was a good kid and once again hadn’t thought of himself as having done anything wrong. He did not know the Gospel either, but tuned in really well. He prayed to receive Jesus in the end when I offered the prayer to him. He wanted to keep the booklet, but did not want a Bible study. It is hard with some of the Roman Catholic kids I talk to. They obviously look at the Bible as authoritative, but have not been raised to believe they need to study it. Many pray, and those that do certainly seem to receive the Gospel in genuine faith. And Dan was happy to pray. I offer students the opportunity to pray but never persuade anyone to do so who is the least bit hesitant, but then just encourage them to think about it. But I often feel like I have left them with so little. Still I know the Holy Spirit has entered them if they genuinely believed, and this, with prayer, will carry them. This is why I ask for prayer for whoever has prayed to receive Christ, and pray each night for them through the end of the following school year. It is often the only way I have of watering what was planted, asking God to bring the growth through some kind of guy like Apollos watering (1Cor. 3:6 “I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth”).
I bumped into a guy who had prayed to receive Jesus a couple years back [DJ] and he was still walking with the Lord. So I gave him a Bible study. His friend, who I’ve chatted up b4 about the Gospel of God and follows Christ, Kaylee, came into the room where we were in the Mac by the pond and they told me how they see me around and how much they liked talking to me and were really encouraging. So that was a good thing today too.
So thanks for your prayers for the Ministry and for Evangelism today if you got a chance. I am truly grateful, and I know it is how God works.
Bob Bollow
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