In 1996 the War of Special Forces was conducted for the first time for an entire tour. The team’s second week was in Sumter, SC. The Lord did a lot things in hearts during that week. A few years ago I met a former student who was serving the Lord who testified of God’s working in his heart during that week! We have been here several times since that time. It was good to be back with Pastor Davis and the faculty there.
Earlier in the year a young lady had written some mean notes to a classmate. During the week she wrote a letter saying she was sorry and now that she was saved, she wanted to make things right. Another young man responded to several invitations. On Thursday he got right with his dad and on Friday gave a testimony. One young man responded to the invitation after the three team captains preached a tag team message. He had been hiding a bunch of things from his parents. He was going to go home and talk to his parents about what he had been hiding. Several young people dealt with bitterness. Below are a few testimonies of some of those teens who did deal with bitterness.
“God has been really working on me today on forgiving people who have sinned against me.”
“I let go of all the bitterness, forgave the person…just let it all go. I just encourage you all to let go of any bitterness you have toward your family, someone who did you wrong because it will destroys your life mentally and physically.”
On Wednesday evening an outgoing young lady in the student body got saved. Several times during the rest of the week, I talked to her about her salvation. She would always would light up. She kept making decisions and later in the week dealt with bitterness toward a former student. This was her testimony. “I recently got saved this week. I got reborn. And God really opened my eyes to something….I had a picture in my head of where I was going. And it really scared me. And…I got saved and He gave me the strength to forgive others that had really wronged me.”
One of the students in the school invited a friend to come on Thursday evening. He came Thursday and was pretty sure he couldn’t come Friday night. His team captain texted him and wanted him to come. He was excited, but his mom said, “No!” An hour later he texted, “Good news, she changed her mind.” He came that night and his team captain dealt with him after the meeting. He was in tears as he trusted the Lord. When I talked to him, he was excited he had been able to come and get saved.
One student got saved on Wednesday evening at the evening rally. On Thursday as the invitation was concluding, I noticed he was kneeling praying by the bleachers where teens were seated. On Friday he felt God had called him to preach. He said to his team captain, “Don’t be surprised if I preach. It is burning inside of me.”
During one of the invitation one young man’s girlfriend said to him, “Let’s just leave.” Evidently he was under conviction because when his team captain walked up to him he said, “I do need to get saved.”
We were able to see quite a few teens saved this week. I think about 40 salvation decisions were made. Below are a few testimonies on Friday night.
I just want to thank God for forgiving me of all my sin.
I just want to talk about…until this week I’ve never really accepted Christ…. He just came into my life and washed away my sins. I’m glad I got saved.
I just want to tell you this week I got saved!
This week I got saved. I thought I was saved, but I actually wasn’t.
We thank the Lord for all He did in hearts! It was a blessed week.
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