Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope ya had a good day walkin’ with the Lord.  I had a great day on campus talkin’ with the peeps and 3 girls prayed with me to receive Christ: Taranice, Mirna and Berenice.  So 8 have prayed with me this week, pretty great.  Thanks for praying.

Taranice was sitting in a lounge in the BIC building with another black girl who did not want to talk.  But Taranice said she’d do a survey with me.  She was a pretty girl with long eyelashes and long straightened hair.  She wore a gray one-piece outfit, kind of a loose-fitting jumpsuit and had a very thin ring in one nostril.  When I asked her what she might say to God if asked why He should let her into Heaven she said, “I stayed true to myself while I was on earth and tried to help people rather than just help myself.” She was sure she would go to Heaven.  It turned out she did not go to church and hadn’t before much, if at all. But as I went through the Gospel she assented to each point agreeing with it in some verbal way or with a nod. In the end she wanted to be forgiven but thought she trusted Christ. I was certain she never had and asked her if she had known the story before I explained it to her. She said she hadn’t.  “Well you can’t trust in something you don’t know, right?” It dawned on her that was true and she agreed she needed to ask God for forgiveness and tell Him she trusted in Him.  She prayed and was happy about it. It was kinda impressive. She’d been so convinced of what I had told her she’d in a moment thought she’d began the conversation in the same way it had ended.  We talked more about the Spirit in us and she then asked, “How do you know (God is leading you)?  I explained the Law was God’s loving guidance for us so that we would not do destructive things to ourselves. I gave her examples of robbing a bank or sleeping with someone she wasn’t married to, which she then admitted she’d done, but “not a lot.”  “Some thoughts are not from God, and when you have a thought you don’t think is from Him you should just pray for God to take the thoughts of Satan out of your heart.  I do that all the time.”  That seemed to clear up what she’d wondered about.  She had to run to class but I gave her the book 20 Things God Can’t Do, showing her some verses in it and a Bible study.  She was working on getting a car and hoped to come to the Bible study at school.  She showed me a prayer directed to St. Joseph (Jesus’ adopted father) with a drawing of him holding the Christ Child on one side.   Her Grandma had given it to her on a laminated card.  I said that was fine, but she should pray the prayer to Jesus instead.  “Yeah I was wondering why I’d pray to Joseph,” she said.  I didn’t have time to explain, as she was nearly late for class so I said, “Yeah, just pray it to Jesus.”  “Thanks for walking up!” she said enthusiastically gathering her things and I said she was welcome.

Mirna was from Guatemala and was sitting in the circle of sofas outside the cafeteria.  She has been in the US for three years.  She’d lived in Guatemala with her grandma and had come up to the states to live with her dad. He didn’t go to church as her grandma and uncles, who were singers in church, had. Mirna had a bit of an accent, Her words were clear but her sentences sometimes came in the syntax of her native speech. She was cute and had long dark braids on her head and a black and white print blouse on with ties in front.  She wore the larger-framed circular glasses that are popular now.  She felt bad about not going to church it seemed, but she tried to go there and talked to God when she felt bad about things. “Sometimes I feel like I need it.” she said.  When I asked her what she might say to God to get into Heaven she first said, thinking out loud, “I’ve done good things and bad things, so I don’t know…” Then she said, answering, “Because I help people a lot. I’ve done nice things.”  She thought she’d have a 70% chance of going to Heaven.  She took in the Gospel and the verses with interest. When I offered her the idea that there are two kind of people, describing the lost and forgiven people, I repeated them again to say “Would you like to be forgiven or do you think something else” and she immediately said “no” to the second option as I said it.  I suggested she had not really understood what I had explained to her before, as I could tell as I taught her the Gospel it was novel to her and she agreed.  “Well if you’d like to be forgiven, you can just ask God for it. There’s a prayer you can pray.” I walked her thorough it, telling her she could pray it right now, not so I heard her, but that God could hear her thoughts.  She took the booklet and prayed to receive Christ.  I offered her some books and she wanted both 20 Things God Can’t Do (I think for the list of 100 bible verses you should know in back) and the student edition of The Case for Christ.  I gave them to her and a Bible study. She gave me her email to send her some more stuff and was grateful.

Berenice was sitting on a bench as you go out the northeast door of the BIC building.  A Latina girl with a cute round face and a bit wider nose wearing glasses. She had very curly ringlets of brown hair that went to her shoulders.  She wore a sleeveless Bears t-shirt and jeans.  Really Cheerful. She went to a Roman Catholic Church and was sure she’d go to Heaven when she died.  It is interesting to me how many Roman Catholic kids are pretty sure they will go to Heaven when they die, since they were never taught that in church.  Roman Catholic doctrine is that most people (except the saints) go to purgatory, which is burning. It’s described like hell in their writings, but I don’t think I have ever had a student directly tell me, “Well I’ll go to purgatory first.”  But in a few cases, in talking through things, a couple thought they might be in purgatory.  Berenice didn’t. She was 100% sure she’d go to Heaven until I explained the Gospel to her and that to be in Heaven she’d have to be perfect.  She said she’d go there “Because, I feel that I helped people in life and I never did anything too bad.” As I went through the Gospel though it did not seem she knew any of it.  She had kind of a pretty musical voice and gave little exclamations as I talked that came out like notes, taking it very seriously.  She wanted to be forgiven for her sins and was glad to pray for forgiveness when I offered a prayer to her to ask for it.  She took the Book Bible Promises for You. I also gave her a Bible Study and got her email.  As I got up to go I said, “Oh and this, ” pointing to the questions asking the % likelihood you’d go to Heaven, “is 100%. Because if you are trusting in His righteousness. How righteous is Jesus?”  “100%” she said smiling.  “Right,” I said, “100%”.

I gave an agnostic, Chris, the student, edition of The Case for Faith. He was willing to read it after saying he believed nothing happened when you die, but admitted he’d never really thought about it or read anything.  I gave a Christian Nursing student The Case for a Creator today also.  He was a big Filipino dude named Sean.

So thanks for your prayers for the Ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance. God truly blessed.

In Him,

Bob