Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed today as you walked with Christ by His Spirit.  I had a great day of sharing the Gospel and Pat and Gil prayed to receive Christ.  Pat was sitting in the PE building and said he had nothing to do, so I asked him some questions and went through the Gospel with him.  He’s got brown hair, clean shaven, 19 year old normal looking guy.  His plan is to go into Special Ed at Illinois State next semester and eventually become a dean of students.  He was an all around nice guy.  He attended a catholic church and figured he would go to Heaven because he was basically good.  He had never trusted in Christ as his Savior and said he’d gone to church because that was what his family had done.  After I went through the Gospel with him, I asked him if he had ever asked God to forgive him based on what Jesus had done.  He said he had been more the person with God on the outside of his life.  He said he hadn’t asked to be forgiven based on the work of Christ and believed God had been involved in the world.  I said, “When you hear the story of Jesus being God and dying for your sins to make you right with God, do you believe it, does it strike you as true?”  He thought for a moment and then said, “Yes, I believe.”  I offered him the chance to ask for God’s forgiveness and have the Spirit inside him.  I said, “When we are kids, a lot of time we just go along with whatever our family is doing.  But when you become a man you have to decide for yourself.”  He agreed and prayed to receive Christ.  He was thoughtful about it and took a Bible Study from me and a copy of More Than A Carpenter.  We talked for a while about his plans and marriage and life and he thanked me shook my hand and headed to class.

Gil was an interesting, smart, articulated guy.  He was sitting by the doors at the Northeast corner of the BIC building.  He is a big African American dude, already had a 5 o’clock shadow of a heavy beard, looked about 30.  He had been a great athlete and figured he’d play pro sports.  He had had the misfortune to be struck in the back by a forklift at a job before he got to College, and was told he would never play sports and might not walk again.  But he blew it off and completely recovered.  Realizing he would never play pro sports, he tried and succeeded at a number of other things, but was back at school realizing there was only so far he could get without a degree.  He wanted to be pre-law and go to Northwestern.  I explained the Gospel to him as he could not tell me how God took away his sins, though he’d said he “put Him [God] first.  I tried to live what I thought was a good life.”  He had never asked for forgiveness based on what Jesus had done, not knowing it.  I explained how God wanted to live inside Him and asked if he wanted to be forgiven for his sins.  He said he did, so I took out the booklet and showed him a prayer he might pray to be forgiven and he did so.  We talked more about the law and he felt he was naturally gifted in thinking in terms of it.  So I gave him The Case for Faith explaining the author [Lee Strobel] was a lawyer and had graduated from Yale and had been an atheist.  The book is set up like a Lawyer would examine the facts about Christianity.  He was really grateful and thought God had sent me to him.  I agreed it was not a coincidence, but then I don’t really believe in coincidence.  I also gave him a Bible study to read and suggested he contact me by e-mail if he wanted more things to read.  I encouraged him to seek the aid of the Holy Spirit to guide him and direct him in life and he grasped that and thought he would.

I had a great conversation for about 45 minutes that was really providential with Kailoni to end the day.  African American, she was a beautiful girl, lovely eyes but it had cost her a lot.  She was sitting in the cafeteria at the counter looking out.  She was a Christian but had done a lot of things wrong.  I encouraged her in God’s forgiveness and asking for His strength through His Holy Spirit to live the Christian life.  We talked about her father leaving her and the cost of it.  Though he was now back in her life somewhat, he wasn’t a Christian and I helped her recognize what had led to some of her mistakes.  I gave her a shoulder hug and she grabbed my shoulder in return and she felt God had led me to her and was really encouraged. So that was great.

Thanks for your prayers for the ministry and evangelism today if you had a chance.  It was a blessed day walking by the Spirit and I felt greatly used by the Lord.

In Him,

Bob Bollow

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