Bonita Springs is between Fort Myers and Naples. Gospel Baptist Church is a lighthouse in this community. In fact, their name describes them. They are all about the Gospel! Pastor Lytell loves the Lord and the Gospel, and leads the church to have a Gospel burden for their community. It is always a joy to join them for the week!
We did have several young people from the community come to Christ for salvation. Joseph, the Army Ranger captain, saw a young man come the first night and was burdened for him. He raised his hand during the invitation, but he was sitting between two larger people making it hard to get out. Joseph saw him look both ways, but then he didn’t respond. He was in the middle of the whole group. Joseph prayed for him during the prayer time with the team and knew God would bring him out again, but he didn’t come Thursday night. He did come Friday night, which was an answer to prayer. Joseph remembered his name, which helped him connect with him that night. Once again, he raised his hand during invitation and responded to the Gospel invitation. Joseph got paired up with him as a counselor, and Joseph thought he was going to get saved easily. But Joseph got to the end of briefly explaining the Gospel again, and this young man was set on having to work for salvation. Joseph kept taking him from scripture to scripture, and he didn’t even seem confused but was still so set that he had to continue giving his life to God the rest of his life to be or stay saved. Joseph cried out to God to give him something for this young man. At this time, it was just the two left in the counseling room with one other person watching them from the corner of the room. It was John 3:18 that finally turned the light on for this young man as Joseph once again explained that it’s a one-time decision to accept Christ, otherwise he’s rejecting him. At that moment it clicked; Joseph could tell by the look on his face, as if a light came on. He got saved and was clear when he was asked about his decision. Joseph even asked him if he needed to keep making this decision, and he kind of laughed and said something like, “Nope, just once!”
Paul, the Navy Seals captain, was talking to a young man after the evening rally about his salvation and another guy came up. Paul turned and asked him if he knew where he would go if he died. He immediately started crying. He said that he had a heart problem, and he was supposed to die at the age of four. He was a teenager, and he knew the possibility of dying at any time. Paul was able to lead him to the Lord
One young lady from the Christian school finally responded during the invitation on Friday. Some on the team had been praying for her. She confessed that she had been putting off making a decision and saying “no” to God all week. On Friday night, her team captain was very burdened that she give a testimony. When she was asked if she wanted to give a testimony, she said, “No”. A few minutes later, however, she came back with a friend, talked with her co-captain, and went up and gave a testimony of what God had done in her heart. Giving the testimony may have been a huge fear, but she took a faith step and gave one anyway!
One young lady from the Christian school responded throughout the week. After receiving counsel and taking steps spiritually, she finally got free, but was very burdened that she be allowed to come on Friday evening. She found out after school on Friday, and came back with tears in her eyes to tell the co-captains that the Lord had answered prayer. She was able to give a testimony on Friday evening about the work that God had done in her heart. Here is part of that testimony: “The Lord talked to me this whole entire week of all the things that I’ve been doing wrong. I’ve been doing a lot of things behind my parents’ back that I shouldn’t have been doing, like listening to the wrong kind of music. I’ve been watching movies that I shouldn’t have been doing, and…all that stuff had a really bad effect on me. I have been rebellious to my mom and dad. I got to the point where I’d make my mom cry, and…then I would cry because I thought that…that no one understood me. But then Dr. Van Gelderen was talking about how that God loves you, and Miss Rebekah helped me realize that God loves you, and He is always with you… And I confessed a lot of things to them that I didn’t want to, things that happened years ago that I never told them. And I thought that I’d be punished for like forever, until I told them, and my mom gave me so much grace. I was just shocked because I thought I was going to get in so much trouble. And what really helped me was…God’s grace and I really, really, really love my mom and my dad. So…they’re a really huge encouragement to me, and I love you both. Thank you.”
Below are parts of a few other testimonies of many that were an encouragement:
“I confessed to my parents about things I’ve been doing the past year. And honestly, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be. It was very easy. My parents understood that it could be hard, but they understood in their hearts. And…the devil was telling me that it was going to be hard; my parents were going to hate me. But they did not; they ended up actually, actually really happy that I could actually come up to them…and tell them that…all the things I’ve been doing behind their backs was wrong, and they were so happy.”
“God has placed a trial in my life…this past few months, and I’ve not really had a lot of peace about it and I really needed the Lord to give me a peace that passes all understanding. And I was asking Him for that. I was going through my phone the other day, and I have the Bible app. So it pops up little things all the time, and I was going through there like ‘Lord, please give me some peace about this’. And it popped up Exodus 14:14, and it says, ‘The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall have your peace’. And that really strengthened me yesterday, and I’ve just been crying and I’m like, ‘Thank you, Lord, for giving me this peace that You are holding me through this whole trial, Lord, and…thank you for the War for encouraging me.’”
“This…is kind of…something that has happened after the War came last year. And I made a decision to get really serious about my salvation. And whenever I first got saved (I got saved at a really young age) and I never really understood what it meant to like walk the Christian life. But last year, it really helped me to realize like I have to be actively seeking to do God’s will, and…I make that a point to do that every day, and since then, I have had a most amazing year, and I’ve had a relationship with God that I never thought I could have.”
“I got saved on Wednesday, and God did something in my heart that taught me to say something tonight.”
We are grateful for all the Lord did in our last War of Special Forces in 2017!
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