It was 1997 the very first time the War of Special Forces came to Victory Baptist Academy in Beaver, WV. That was 21 years ago! Pastor Rollan Roberts is still here. We are thankful for him and the good folks that work with him. We arrived in Beaver after the Sunday evening service. This is the first time I remember that we missed a service in our 34 years of ministry. Our trip from Wisconsin was the most eventful I can remember. Shortly into the trip, we discovered a flat tire. Later, the studs of the drum were sheared off as we lost the spare tire. Then, a lifting jack on the RV broke off while putting on another spare. On the way to get a new tire, the second spare went flat. We ended the trip with the fourth tire, a broken jack, a crunched storage box, as well as a dent in the back corner of the pickup truck. Thankfully, most of the issues are resolved at this writing, and we are trusting they all will be soon. Needless to say, we realized we are going to be in a battle this semester. We are trusting God for many victories. Some of those came this week!
Joshua, the Marine team captain, followed up after a War night invitation with a young man who was visibly nervous and scared. Joshua asked the young man if he knew where he was going to go when he died. He shook his head no and began to cry. He had already been counseled but was still confused. After Joshua asked several questions, it became apparent why the young man was scared. His family had just evacuated from Wilmington, NC to escape Hurricane Florence. The probable devastation, plus the very real possibility of losing all belongings, was overwhelming. Joshua asked him if he had been to church before, and he said that he had, but not for a long time. He knew what the Bible was, but he didn’t know who had written it. Joshua used Genesis 1:1 and began to explain who God was and is, and what God had done for him. It seemed that the young man depended on truth as soon as he heard the message, yet didn’t fully understand what he had been saved from and what he actually did. His prayer was so sweet as he thanked God for all He had done. It was clearly evident that he had trusted on God alone. It is amazing to see God use a hurricane to change someone’s eternal destiny!
There were also some key decisions in the Christian school. Three young men responded to the invitation after the gospel message on Wednesday night. They each individually recognized their need for salvation and were gloriously saved! All three gave testimony Friday evening of the work God had done in their heart. One of these young men also responded to the invitation after Friday chapel and was able to get rid of some bitterness in his life. Another of these young men immediately started sharing Christ with others as he brought his brother Thursday evening.
One of these young men shared the following in his testimony:
“…when [Dr. Jim] was preaching Wednesday night, God just spoke to me. He said, ‘Get up and go get saved.’ And I accepted Christ as my Savior. And when I went to bed that night, and all the way to now, I’ve not had one doubt in my mind that I’m goin’ to Heaven. And it is the greatest feeling in the world! And if I could recommend anything to any of you guys, get saved.”
Below are parts of other testimonies that are an encouragement:
“I’ve grown up in a Christian…family my entire life, but I have not lived to be the Christian that I should be. And I’ve been running and fighting God and telling myself that I can do it on my own merit when I cannot. He’s worked in my heart so much lately and I just realized that I just need to give it to Him. And I’ve been fighting Him on a lot of issues and things in my life personally. And I truly believe that God is calling me into His will and to follow in the ministry and just to give myself to Him completely. And I just want to say that to any of you that haven’t done that or anyone that hasn’t…given their life to God, it is the absolute best feeling in the world!”
“So a year ago…I started dealing with a lot of questions in my life. I didn’t know what the purpose of life was and why I should keep going…[or] how could God forgive me after so many mistakes that I’ve made. And I started to look to things like music and culture and things like that. And really kinda just started looking there for answers cuz I thought, ‘Oh, maybe that will help me’… And after a long time of looking…I realized that just those things, they mean nothing….So this morning we were talking about just trusting God to get out of the boat like Peter and just walk on the water and trust Him, 100% God and 0% me. And I realized that I need to be telling people about what God’s done in my life because He’s all the answers that I need. So for all of you, if you have questions in your life, don’t look to the wrong things. Look only to God because I promise you, God has all the answers.”
“I surrendered to preach in December…of this last year and I thought, ‘Well, I’m going to Bible college.’ But then in the back of my mind I was still thinking, ‘I need to have a way…I need some way else…I gotta work somehow.’ And everybody’s askin’ me, ‘What else are ya gonna do? What else are ya gonna do?’ And I was thinking, ‘Well, you know, I don’t really know.’ And…and I’m scatter-brained tryin’ to think, ‘What can I do? What can I do?’ And…Brother Jim up here, he preached a message earlier on this week and…I’ve just absolutely given everything to God and…I just let God have the steering wheel and…now whenever people ask me, ‘Whatta ya want to do?’ I just say, ‘I want to do whatever the Lord wants me to do’.”
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