Minutemen Ministries loves Pastor Mark Stevens and Calvary Baptist Church in Fort Walton Beach. The team was with Pastor Stevens years ago in Keystone Heights, FL. There are many memories of great things the Lord did there in Keystone Heights! Several times we have been at Calvary Baptist in Fort Walton Beach since Pastor Stevens has come. This is the church where he was saved years ago.
During the days the team recruits, two of the team captains wanted to recruit a few more people. They found an older teenager in Taco Bell who was very antagonistic. Although they invited him, they didn’t think he would come. He did come every night. ON the first night, his team captain stopped him after the service and started talking to him. “What did you think about message?” he asked. “I’m pagan and I believe in magic,” the older teen responded. The team captain then asked, “Do you want to find out how to have eternal life?” The captain later recounted that they were in the counselling room for about 30 minutes. He said that it took 10 minutes for the older teen to realize he was a sinner. Every sentence had a cuss word. The team captain asked, “Have you ever done anything you regretted?” “No,” he answered, “Not unless stealing someone’s moped counts.” Finally, the team captain said, “I don’t want to hear any more of that foolishness anymore. Satan has blinded your eyes.” The young man began to weep and said, “You mean to tell me Satan wants to drag me to hell?” The team captain responded, “I only have one more question for you, What will you do with Jesus?” After that the young man was gloriously saved!
After one of the invitations, the Army Ranger captain said to one of his recruits, “Come with me.” He asked him, “Have you ever been saved?” The teen answered, “My grandma died a few years ago and I asked God to get me through it.” “Ok, have you ever been saved?” the team captain asked again. “My friend’s dog died in my arms and I asked God for help,” he responded. “Ok, have you ever been saved?” the captain continued. “I’m not sure what you are talking about?” the young man admitted. The team captain gave him the Gospel and he got saved!
One older teen came one night who attended the RU program at Calvary Baptist. He was in trouble with the law and had numerous sin issues in his life. He was known around the area for being a law breaker. When the team captain pressed him about salvation, he said thought he was going to heaven because he is changing his ways. The team captain challenged him from the Bible and he realized he needed Jesus to save him from sin and hell. Afterwards, he walked up to the man in charge of RU and said, “If I died two hours ago, I would have gone to hell. Now I am going to heaven!”
One of our team members recruited three brothers at Walmart. They all came and got saved! When they were coming out of the building, their mother was there and one of the folks in the church recognized her as someone who had gotten saved door to door a couple of weeks before. Needless to say, there were some folks pretty excited about the Lord working in that home.
At the testimony service, we had several testimonies of teens who had gotten saved during the week. Here are some of them.
“I just wanted to let you all know that God saved me.”
“I was saved this week by Jesus and God.”
“I thought I was saved at a young age, but it was just a show. I put on a show. And I’ve been just going through the motions all these years. And so this week, Dr Jim just preached last night about Hell and stuff and it touched my life. I was, like, scared, literally scared that . . . I’m gonna burn for the second death and it just tore me up. . . so I got saved this morning.”
Several teens were struggling with bitterness. Below are a few testimonies of many that were given about this issue.
I was bitter at some people and I knew that I had to get it right because it was not right to keep bitterness in your heart for so long.
Just about every single time we had a message, I felt that God was burdening me and convicting me about my own sin in my life. And the most prominent one was bitterness. I’ve been bitter for far too long and it is not something that anyone should ever hold on to. It’s not your friend. It does not make you who you are. You just need to grab that bitterness and let it go with Jesus help.
I had bitterness in my life that destroyed me. I was thinking of things that I didn’t want to do, but I was thinking them. I was losing friends because of my profanity to one another. Well right now, this is all going to end. This is all going to end with my profanity and my bitterness cuz God can clear that all up for me.
There were about 25 teenagers that responded to the Gospel as well as Christian young people who responded to God’s Word. We thank the Lord for all He did in hearts.
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