Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
How was your day walking with Christ? I had a good day talking to the peeps and had some great conversations and Duke, an African American guy, and Brygette, a pretty Latina girl who prayed to receive Christ. Unfortunately as I ended the day and was about to go through the Gospel with my last peep a guy threatened to call the cops on me. I have no idea who he was, but he was carrying his laptop in a plastic grocery bag so I am pretty sure he was not a student. He did not even know my name. I’ll have to look for the girl later as he interrupted me, claimed I was inviting people to Church, and we, according to him, had spoken before and I had invited him to church (I’ve never invited peeps at COD to church). He claimed that was soliciting. I explained to him I was a student and was not soliciting anything, just inviting students to a Bible study. He claimed that was just like a church and the police had told him to inform them if he saw me. He went on to explain he was stopped from soliciting people about Chick-Fil-A over something he disapproved of that they were doing. But since he was threatening to call the police, and felt himself to be their duly appointed deputy of all things anti-1st amendment rights on campus, I moved on since I was on my way out when I spoke to the girl. I left, as a conversation with policemen never goes my way. I was at my locker and on the road faster than they could get to the spot I was at on the other side of campus and I lived to evangelize another day. I have a little paint job tomorrow so that will help them be sick of scouting for me if they choose to tomorrow.
Duke was sitting in the PE building on the stairs as I went out. I’d just helped a Roman Catholic girl (Sam) understand that faith alone saved her, and she in the end saw purgatory was unnecessary as well, so that was great. Duke said he would talk. He had long hair that broke into dreadlocks, the tips of which were died brown at his shoulders and a little Goatee. He was wearing blue track sweats. He had gone to church off and on. He said, “I been loyal with my life even though I don’t attend church that much. I still believe in God. He still blesses me. I ask for forgiveness for my sin each day.” He seemed to me like a great guy but he did not know the Gospel at all or how God took away his sin with the work of Jesus. I made sure I was really clear explaining everything to him point by point, asking him if he understood because it was all obviously new to him. He’d thought he had a 50/50 shot at Heaven and he wanted to be forgiven in the end. He was really attentive, but to make sure I said, “Do you believe that Jesus was God and died for you and rose from the dead and trust this will take away your sins?” He said, “Yes sir.” (He was saying yes sir after any point when I asked him if he understood, but hey I am getting kind of old looking.) I showed him the prayer asking, after I explained it, if this was what he wanted and he said it was. So I offered for him to pray it and he did. He did not have a Bible and said he’d like one so I gave him the New American Standard Bible I had and a copy of Playing with Purpose. I explained the Bible study on Jesus’ claims to be God I gave him and the Holy Spirit’s work. He gave me his e-mail so I can send him some stuff. It was a great conversation. He was a genuine good guy. I told him I would pray for him and he thanked me and I left.
I went over to the MAC arts building and found Brygette. She had curly hair, pretty, dressed nice. She had gone to the Bible Church’s Spanish-speaking service where her mom still attended, having gone back since she got cancer. But she thought her good outweighed her bad. I told her a fictional story about a guy who had been horrible to her. He was stealing her stuff, selling it for drugs and sleeping with another woman while they were dating. When she spotted the tattoo of the other woman’s name she broke up with him when he confessed he’d been drunk, slept with her, and gotten the ink done. A week later he comes back and says to her, “Brygette I know I have been horrible to you and I feel bad about it so I want you to know I am gonna be nice to my next 3 girlfriends” I told her she’d tell him, “That doesn’t help me at all!” “See” I said, “you can’t do good stuff over there to fix your bad stuff here. Your bad stuff is still out there messing with people.” She took my point, though I could tell she wanted to hang on to hers. But after I had gone through the Gospel she was moved to faith and said she wanted to be forgiven and claim the righteousness of Christ as His gift to her. She was really nice and prayed to receive Christ in a half whisper as I held the words out to her I had explained. I gave her the Student edition of The Case for Christ to read and a Bible study. I told her about a story I could send her, so she gave me her e-mail and we talked about disappointment at church and stuff. So after we’d talked a bit more and she’d given me her e-mail, I promised to pray for her and got up to go and she said “Don’t forget to send me that story” and I promised I would.
I had other good conversations too so thanks so much for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance, God really blessed.
In Him,
Bob Bollow
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