Special Forces Week #10 Bonita Springs, FL

Jim Van GelderenSpecial Forces Updates

In April of 1989, a large youth event was cancelled in South Carolina where I was scheduled to preach. That night I was asked to preach at an evangelistic youth event at a local church.  During the invitation a young man named, Marty responded to the Gospel and was saved.  That Marty is the assistant pastor now at Gospel Baptist in Bonita Springs.  It is always a blessing to see Marty serving the Lord.


On the first rally night, a young man who had been saved encouraged another young man, who he did not know to come to the counseling room. This young man was gloriously saved!  When his mother came into the room to get him, I asked him to tell his mother was happened.  With his face beaming, he said, “Jesus washed all my sins away!”  Tragically, the mother did not seem happy.  The next night, we found out from another student at that school that the mom wasn’t happy about his getting saved.  Although he did not come back, he knows Jesus washed his sins away!


On the second day of recruiting, the Recon captain recruited a young man after school walking home. He came on Wednesday night and as he walked out of the room to get saved, his mom said, “Let’s go.”  The young man replied something that let his mom know that there was something he still needed to do.  The mother came up to the Navy Seals team captain and asked him, “What is going on in there?”  The Navy captain explained everything, but she seemed in a hurry and needed to leave.  The Navy captain came into the counseling and explained the situation.  I had the Recon captain deal with him quickly.  He explained John 3:16 and the young man said, “Yes I wanna get saved.”  He not only got saved, but he came all three nights!


One of our young ladies on our team went to the recreational center to recruit. They were told they could not recruit inside the center.  Outside there was a young man who had already been invited and was excited about coming.  He said that his friend inside the fence needed to be invited.  He called his friend over to the fence of the skating park and he was invited through the fence.  He got saved the first night and came all three nights!


After the service on Thursday night, one of the teens in the young group came up and asked the Navy Seals team captain to talk to their neighbor.  They were pretty sure he was not saved.  The team captain began to talk with him and asked him, “Do you want to know how to be saved?”  After a clear “yes”, the captain gave him the Gospel and he got saved.  It is neat to see the young people in the youth group get a burden for the lost!


On Friday evening during the testimony time, a young man was sitting there when his younger brother ran up and tapped him on shoulder and said, “We got to go! Dad wants us to go.” One of our team members told the dad what was going on and his dad let him stay.  As he was walking away, the Navy Seals’ captain asked him, “Did you enjoy the night?” He responded, “Yea it was fun.” The team captain kept going with another question, “If you were to die right now, where would you go?” The young man did not hesitate to say, “Hell.”  The team captain was able to lead him to the Lord.  The captain was especially encouraged since he had been texting him about coming.  He had not only texted him on Wednesday, but also on Friday.  It was thrill to see him come and get saved.


On Friday, almost the entire student body responded to the invitation. We had a prayer meeting with them and there were some tears and heart felt prayers that were uttered.  That night several of the students gave testimonies of what the Lord was doing in their hearts.  It was a great way to finish the 2015 ministry year.  We are looking forward to 2016!

About the Author

Jim Van Gelderen

Dr. Jim Van Gelderen is president of Minutemen Ministries, vice-president of Baptist College of Ministry, and evangelist out of Falls Baptist Church. He and his wife, Rhonda, travel the country in evangelism. They have three daughters.