Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed in the Lord.  I had a good day out sharing the Gospel. Karrina and Gabriela each prayed with me to receive Christ.  I had a couple other good conversations too. Perla grilled me with questions for an hour and was really grateful for the answers. She wasn’t ready to take the step of trusting in Christ, though she was a catholic that believed He was God and had died for her sins. So I hope my prayers for her this year will bring her in.

Karrina was sitting on the floor in the hall of the science building on the 1st floor waiting for class.  She had long, pretty dark-brown hair and eyebrows, a couple of well placed freckles and was wearing a retainer over her newly straightened teeth. She had some bling on her sandals and wearing jeans and a t-shirt.  She said she had been in the Free Church but now attended the Bible Church in town.  When I asked her what she would say to God if asked why He should let her into Heaven she said, “That I spread the word of God.”  It turned out she just meant being loving, because she did not have any ideas about how God took away her sin. When I asked she guessed “Holy water?” So she either got that from a movie, or had been to a roman catholic church.  She was reasonably sure she’d go to Heaven, guessing she had a 90% chance.  So I went through the Gospel with her and could tell she’d not heard it before.  She was really nice and attentive and said some things along the lines of “Oh I see how that works.”  When I had finished going through what she needed to know to be saved, and she’d said she wanted to be forgiven, I said, “It seems like you didn’t have the story down before?” She nodded in response and I said she could pray and accept God’s forgiveness, telling Him she had faith in Him.  She paused for a moment, praying in front of me, but decided to do it silently and did, and was happy after.  I told her she could keep the little booklet and I explained the Holy Spirit’s power in living the Christian life.  She was really grateful and gave me her email address to send her some stuff. I hope God might lead her to Bible study.  I gave her a copy of the book 20 Things God Can’t Do and a Bible study showing her how to read through it.  I got up to go and said “Nice to meet ya!” She said, “Thank you!  You too.”  I think sometimes some people need to hear things explained by an evangelist ,supported by prayers from God’s people, to come to understand.

Gabriela was sitting on a bench in the next building to the East, across the science building from where I had been talking to Karrina.  I’d bumped into a student I knew who I pray for (John) and gave him a book and chatted him up encouraging his faith.  I walked past Gabriela, who was sitting alone, and thought I should double back and ask her. So I sat down with a post about 15 feet between us and took a moment to eat a couple bites of a soft chew energy bar and pray a moment. Then I walked up and asked her if she’d like to do a student survey for our Bible Study group.  She was willing. I found out she had seen a bit of Europe, spoke German along with English and Spanish, and was from Venezuela.  I mentioned she was probably glad not to be there presently and she said “Yeah it’s bad there.”  She had just a slight accent and was quite pretty, with light-brown hair and wore a print sleeveless blouse and jeans with white and blue fabric slip-on shoes.  It seemed she had gone to church when she was younger. When I asked her what she would say to God to be let into Heaven, she said, “Because I lived my life to the fullest.”  It is not uncommon for a student to say something like this. Seems kind of like the beer commercial response. But I think for most it is more the idea that life is a gift from God and He expects you to do something with it, not just sit around. It does not occur to most people that what they have done with their lives they largely did simply to please themselves and enjoy some pleasure. They hadn’t served anyone.  She seemed to really enjoy the Gospel, and when I was done I asked her if she wanted to be forgiven and she said she did.  I asked if she believed that Jesus was God, that He had died for her sins.  She thought for a moment and decided she did. So I asked her if she would like to put her trust in that and be forgiven, and she said, without hesitation in a mater-of-fact way, “Yeah.”  I walked her through the prayer and said she could pray it “like I was not there” and she did.  I explained more of the Christian life to her and the Trinity, and encouraged her to read the Bible.  I gave her one, as she only had access to a family Bible. She wanted to read the student edition of The Case for Christ which I gave her and she took a Bible study from me, also giving me her email.  She thought she might be able to come to Bible study next week, so I hope she will.

Thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance. God truly blessed. We also had a new comer to Bible Study tonight.

In Him,

Bob