Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope you walked in the Spirit feeling His presence today.  It is still really cold here but I had a good day sharing the faith and talking to students.  Marita prayed to receive Christ today.  She is Roman Catholic, pretty brown hair and eyes and has an Asian last name and looks a little bit Latino too.  She was sitting in the Science building and just hanging out.  At first she wasn’t sure she wanted to talk to me, thinking I was part of the Mother goddess cult.  She had rebuffed them earlier in the week.  I explained some reasons they were wrong from the Scripture and that I had questions about the real God and the Bible and was a Christian.  She said she was Catholic and I said she would probably agree with what I asked her, so she said ok.  She thought of herself as very committed to her “Religion” and was 100% sure she was going to Heaven, I think just because she went to church regularly and believed in God.  But as I went through the Gospel with her (she was really interested as the Bible verses spoke to her) it seemed she did not know how God took away her sins.  “What is the big thing God does with Jesus to take away your sin?” I asked her.   She didn’t seem to register with that, so I asked her if she understood what reconciliation was and how God did that, hoping something from her catholic background would click.  But still she had nothing, so I simply explained the Gospel to her from there and how the righteousness of Jesus was to her credit.  She chose the circle to be forgiven and have God live inside her, and I asked her if she had ever, “asked God to forgive her based on what Jesus had done.”  She didn’t seem to understand the question so I asked, “When you ask God to forgive you, have you been thinking in your heart that you were pretty good and God was a good God and you go to church and stuff so He would probably forgive you, or are you thinking God will forgive you based on what Jesus had done?”  “I believe in Jesus,” she replied.  I was sure at this point that that was true, but also that it had become true while we were talking so I said, “Do you believe Jesus was God and that He has died for you and rose from the dead so your sins can be forgiven?”  She said, “Yes.”  So I said, “But you didn’t really know that before I explained it to you right?”  She said, “Right.”  So I said “You know how, when you are a kid, you just go to Church and stuff with your parents and you don’t really pay attention.  But now you are in college and you have to decide to follow God making up your own mind?”  She agreed.  So I turned the page and said “Well if you would like to be forgiven, trusting in what Jesus has done for you on the Cross, there is a prayer you can pray to accept His forgiveness and receive Him.”  I walked her through the prayer, explaining all of it and asked her if she would like to pray and she nodded and said, “Out loud?”  I said, “No just in your mind, God can read your thoughts, just between you and Him.”  And she prayed to receive Christ.  So that was great.  I don’t know how come it was so hard for me to simply offer her an opportunity to pray, but it worked out fine . I gave her a Bible to read and a Bible Study on the power of scripture and the fruit of the Holy Spirit, explaining a bit of that to her.  I also gave her More Than a Carpenter to read.  She was happy and as I got up to leave and said I would see her in Heaven, she warmly said, “Thanks for stopping.”  And I smiled and said, “You’re welcome.”

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry on campus and for evangelism today if you got a moment.  God blessed my day and please pray that Marita would grow in her new faith.

In Him,

Bob Bollow

To donate to college ministry:
http://www.razoo.com/story/Third-Watch-Ministries-Nfp