Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Hope you are enjoying the nice fall weather wherever you are Midwest or desert.  If you live in California I guess you get this all the time, but Chicago is beautiful right now.  I had a great day on campus and two African-American students, Walter and Chani (pronounced chain~E like the former vice president), each prayed to receive Christ.

Walter was sitting in the Cafeteria at the counter against the windows eating spaghetti out of a Tupperware.  He had a thin beard, cut like a chin strap, and a thin mustache, trimmed pencil-width in a line under his lip.  Good-looking guy, short afro, white collared print dress shirt and shorts.  When I asked him what he would say to God if asked why He should let him into Heaven he said, “Because my good outweighs the bad I’ve done in my life.”  But he only thought he had a 5% chance to get to Heaven, saying it is easier to do wrong than right, “Wide is the road that leads to destruction,” he quoted.  He tracked right along with the Gospel, though he really did not seem to know it at all, suggesting Christ had taken away our sins back in the day with his baptism.  It turned out he attended the Chicago Church of Christ which is really a “works cult.”  Though they teach Christ died for you, they also teach you must be baptized to be saved and your good works also contribute to being justified.  It seems practically that they rarely teach the Cross.  More often than not the students in it that I talk to aren’t focused on Christ’s atonement or are unaware of it.  Walter wasn’t aware of the truth, but he was really encouraged to find out how he was saved in Christ and sealed by the Holy Spirit and decided to pray to receive Jesus.  After he had prayed to receive Christ and I had explained the work of the Holy Spirit in giving us power to live the Christian life, I gave him a Bible Study on the Deity of Christ.  As we got up to go our separate ways he said, “Keep reaching out and encouraging people. I love your evangelism.”  I got his email to send him some stuff so I hope the Gospel will take root and grow in him.  I also gave him a card for a local church where he can hear the truth.

Chani was sitting in a lounge in the east wing of the science building, the windows of which face south half way down the hall.  I rarely get a conversation going in that lounge because it seems as the peeps are always studying.  It’s Friday so the school is pretty empty.  I looked down that hall and saw no one and turned to go down some side stairs, but I felt a prompting to check that lounge.  Not wanting to resist what might be the Spirit I thought, “Fine, I’ll go down there and when it is empty I will just turn around and go down these stairs.”  There were two girls in there, one very actively studying (and I knew there was a test in a half hour from talking to a girl earlier.)  I asked the other girl who was intermittently on her phone and lap top, and she actually seemed interested in being distracted.  Her name was Chani.  Chani had a bright, full face and smiled a lot, gaps between her really white teeth, long wavy hair with skinny jeans on and black shoes, a V-neck shirt, cute.  When I asked her why she thought she would go to Heaven she said, “I try my best to be simple, just kinda keep my head down, don’t really get in a lot of trouble.”  She said she always went to church when she was with her grandma but hadn’t seen her in a little bit.  She listened to the Gospel and said, “Yeah” several times and when, in the end, I asked her if she wanted to pray to be forgiven and have Christ live inside her she said positively, “Yeah I think I do.”  And she prayed to receive Christ.  She took the Student Edition of The Case for Faith and I walked her through a Bible study to read and explained the work of the Holy Spirit in living the Christian life as I always try to do, getting her e-mail to send her more stuff.  So that was great, she was really cheerful and happy and thanked me.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism Friday if you had a chance.  God has truly blessed this year with 27 students praying with me to receive Christ and a half dozen or more others who committed to Him for salvation.

In Him,

Bob

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