In just a few hours, we can reach hundreds of students through open-air preaching, handing out gospel tracts, and one-on-one discussions. I find that very exciting!!!
This is the time of year when we spend time evangelizing at colleges and universities. Twice this week we were drenched with torrential rain!!! Maybe I should build an ark??? 😉
Universities are a wonderful mission field because there are sooo many people from all over the world, and they’re at a point in their lives where they are asking a lot of questions.
Also, we run into a lot of kids who grew up in Christian homes and are being bombarded with temptations to abandon the faith they grew up with (like Phoebe, who I write about below.)
Some people God sent our way that I’d like prayer for are:
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Trevor: I met Trevor at Boston University. We chatted after an open-air message. We talked for over an hour! He had a lot of intellectual objections, but not more than I had before God saved me. And I think I gave him a lot to think about too. Please pray for Trevor’s salvation!
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Zack: I approached Zack at the University of New Hampshire and we had a good discussion. Zack claimed to be an Atheist, but he agreed that he was guilty of sin. He also nodded when I told him that God has given him plenty of evidence for His existence through Creation and through his own conscience. Zack listened to the gospel message and promised to consider it.
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Phoebe: Phoebe was walking with Zack (above) and appeared to be dating him. She claimed to have “received Jesus as her Savior a number of years ago.” But she said there were things about Christianity she didn’t like. She told me which church she attended back at home, and I was familiar with it, and have heard that it is not a healthy church. Phoebe was quick to point out that lots of people there didn’t live what they taught. I pointed out to her that that’s called “hypocrisy” and hypocrisy sadly appears everywhere, including at universities, and all places. I encouraged Phoebe to focus on the person of Jesus, His Word, making sure she was truly saved, and getting involved with a healthy church.
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Jake: I chatted with Jake and he told me, “Oh, I’m Jewish, but I’m not too religious.” He quickly pointed out, “I did have a Bar Mitzvah when I was 13 though!” I thought that was funny because, well, I’m Jewish too, and I happened to have a stack of my testimony gospel tracts that have a photo of me at my Bar Mitzvah! Jake asked me if someone other than Jesus could be the Messiah, and that opened the door for me to show him from the Scriptures some of the very specific prophecies in the Hebrew Bible about Messiah, and that it can only be Jesus. Please pray for Jake. He took a copy of my testimony tract! (If you’d like to see this testimony tract, called A Jew and His God, please click here. And let me know if you want a copy!)
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Andrew: Andrew is an unsaved student at UNH who listened to my whole message under the awning. Eric and I chatted with him for a while and he was VERY open to the gospel. He even wanted to know where he could go to church or attend a Christian group on campus! We gave him that info. He gave me his email address and I’ll follow up. (There’s a photo of Andrew below.)
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Olivia: Olivia approached me with a HUGE SMILE on her face and said, “I remember you from last year. You’re the Christian-painter-guy!” Olivia is a Christian young lady on fire for Christ and zealous to reach her fellow students!!! She hung out with our team the whole time and was a big help when it rained and we had to move our stuff under shelter quickly! Olivia is a member of Cru, one of the Christian student groups on campus, and God encouraged my team through her, and used my team to encourage her! Please pray that she will be an effective witness for Christ on campus, and God will raise up many more like her!
Here are some photos…
https://picasaweb.google.com/102024819319825275847/201309UniversitiesRAIN
Also, please check out this video. It’s 2 minutes. This is from UNH when it began to rain HARD and a number of people huddled under an awning. I preached there and the crowd was very attentive. The last few minutes of the open-air message was recorded.
I hope it will encourage you that God used even the rain to help reach people who need to hear and receive the gospel. 🙂
all for Jesus,
Mark
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