In 2003, the team came to Valley Baptist Church for the first time. Actually, we were fleeing Hurricane Isabel. To make a long story short, the pastor asked us to do the War of Special Forces there. It was a great week, and we have been coming back ever since that time! Now the youth pastor is the pastor of the church and doing a great job!
We thank the Lord for His work in teens’ hearts and lives. That no doubt was the highlight of the week, but we also had something else that was memorable occur. The week was a rainy week. I think it rained every day, but on Thursday, it rained all day. When it came time for the games, there was standing water on some of the field. Fortunately, the rain diminished to a drizzle. However, as the teens played, it got muddy! We have video footage of young people falling during “America’s Roughest Race” and coming up coated with mud. They loved it!
The team captains were able to spend some time over the weekend recruiting teenagers at a local yearly festival. The results were positive as one of the team captains had his highest percentage of recruits come out to the War nights this week. Another team captain invited a boy scout who was making him a funnel cake. Three of his recruits came out and were saved!
There were also multiple key decisions made in the Christian school. One young man, who got some things right in his life this week, stated on Friday evening that he knew clearly that God was calling him to preach. One young lady had told the Lord a year previous that she would give Him everything. This week, she was convicted that she was holding one thing back, so she was able to give that up and surrender everything to the Lord.
Joshua, the Marine team captain, began praying for one of the young men in the Christian school after meeting him over the weekend. On Wednesday, this young man responded to the invitation. Joshua was able to go through several verses with him. On his own, he filled out whole sheets of verses and began to memorize them. He gave a testimony on Friday night of the work God had done in his heart:
“I was bitter towards God mainly, but also towards other people. And so I looked to other worldly things which definitely won’t please you, but I looked to it for satisfaction because my joy was gone. And it didn’t pass by me, and I always felt miserable. And so then during the…school chapels, I came and my team leader, he told me how I could get it right. And so I’ve done it. And I’ve gotten into my devotions, I’ve gotten joy back into my life and I’ve gotten it right with God, and the people who I’ve wronged.”
This young man’s obedience in getting right with his parents also encouraged his brother, who said in his own testimony on Friday night:
“God just like changed me and his life!”
Another young man who struggled with bitterness because of words intentionally spoken to hurt him, found victory this week and spoke of it in his testimony:
“…this week God showed me something. He showed me that I was fighting the wrong battle. The devil…he was pulling someone else’s chains, making them angry. And I was fighting that person when really, I should have been focusing on the devil. And…I made a decision: I’m not going to be bitter anymore, no matter how much they try to hurt me. It’s not them; it’s the devil…that I need to be fighting. So if you have similar problems, just trust God. He’ll get you out of it…God wants to do the best for you. Just trust Him.”
Another Christian school teen who found freedom from bitterness this week, shared the following testimony:
“I’ve been having a really hard time with bitterness. And I’ve been mad at my parents, mad at my friends, mad at other people. And the more I just got bitter…I started getting into wrong things: listening to the wrong music, acting wrong. And so I had to repent to God and repent to my parents because I was hiding it from my parents and that just made it more miserable. Don’t hide it from your parents if you’re doing it, it just makes it more miserable…And…I got it straight, and ever since then I don’t regret it at all… I regret what I did, but I don’t regret getting it straight!”
We are so thankful for the work God did in Edinburg, VA!
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