Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Happy Valentine’s Day! I hope ya had a good day.  I had several conversations that planted good seeds and Demond prayed with me to receive Christ.

Demond had a ball cap on and was wearing a horizontal stitched, down-type jacket, kind of a blue grey color. He was African American with his afro packed in under his hat. He was waiting for his ride that was very late, as it was supposed to have picked him up at 1 PM. (Obviously providential and I told him God had made a bad thing into good. He said he believed that “because his mom said that.”) I started talking to him at about 2 PM and we talked for 45 minutes.  He was hesitant to talk with me at first, saying he’d talked to someone else. So I asked him if he’d answer the big question, asking him if he died and God asked him why he should let him into Heaven what would he say.  He said he’d tell God to, “Look at his heart.” He was a simple-hearted guy without any guile in him.  He kept saying, “My mom says,” followed by things that were close to true about the Christian life or the supernatural world and here and there correct. I asked him if he would mind if I told him what the Bible said about how he got to Heaven, or if he would be up for reading on his own and he said, “You can tell me. I get tired of reading things.” So I said, “I’ll explain it all to you. You won’t have to read anything.” He listened to the Gospel and I encouraged him that he could trust in what Jesus had done for him and be forgiven.  He could be sure he was going to Heaven, trusting in the work of Christ and His righteousness.  Demond wanted to be forgiven, so I walked him through the prayer and he silently prayed to receive Jesus. He began to ask me questions as I explained more of the Christian life. He was a really sweet guy.  It turned out he was fearful, asking me if I feared death. I told him I did not and that Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you I will come again to receive you unto myself, that where I am there you will be also.”  I told him that when I died, the first person I would see is Jesus. “He’s like Uber. When you die, He picks you up.” We talked about a lot of things. He took 20 Things God Can’t Do (I wrote the date he’d trusted Christ and our names in it and “By the Spirit”.) The chapters are just one page and then quotes, so he thought he’d read something that short.  He said he felt like he “needed courage” and I encouraged him to ask for strength and then showed him some verses on Courage in a Bible Promises for You book. I offered it to him, but he felt bad taking more than one book. So I told him about people who gave me money for books and what great deals I had gotten on the books he was holding. “They want me to give books to students, so I use their money to buy them and they’d be happy for you to have them,” I explained. He took them then and also a Bible Study. He thanked me several times saying, “I feel better after talking to you about this stuff.” I got up to leave and he shook my hand, for the second time thanking me again and I gave him my card to call me with any questions. So I’ll be looking for him a bit earlier in the day on Thursday.  I walked back then and gave him the Rose Publications hand out “Who I am in Christ”. I said, “It is Red and White. You can give this to your mom for Valentine’s Day.”  I think that was of the Spirit too, as I later thought with all the things he kept telling me his mom said, if she’d read it she’d disciple him right up with the contents.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and evangelism today if you had time. I got through the Gospel and got some good clarity into some peeps who claimed Christ and a couple who were searching as well. It was a good day.

In Him,

Bob