For several years now, the team has had the privilege of coming every two years to Calvary Baptist Church and Christian School in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. The pastor is Pastor Mark Stevens. Years ago, I met him when he was pastoring in Keystone Heights, Florida. We had many exciting meetings down there conducting The War.  Now for several years he has been at Calvary Baptist Church. We have had some thrilling meetings there, and this year was no exception!

Josh, the Seal team captain, was recruiting a young man at the local high school. The young man was on the phone with a friend, but put his friend on speaker while Josh told them both about the event. Both young men were there on the final night. One young man got assurance of his salvation, and the other young man placed his dependence on Jesus alone to save Him!

One young man in the church who had been part of Special Forces in the past really got involved with the week’s activities. He invited multiple of his co-workers, and also helped our team out with recruiting. Several of his co-workers came, and at least one was saved this week!

On Wednesday, the team prayed for at least ten people to be saved during the evening rally. Many raised their hands that night. Hannah was able to talk with two girls that Hunter, the Ranger team captain, had recruited. Neither of them had really heard about salvation. They came to tears as they talked to Hannah about the ultimate sacrifice that Jesus had made for them on the cross. Both girls prayed to receive Jesus as their Savior. The next night, one of the girls brought her brother and sister. Three newly saved from this group led four other friends to the Lord that night! It was exciting to see these young people get saved and have a burden right away for their friends!

While Hannah was recruiting near one of the local high schools, she started talking to two teen girls. They really enjoyed the part in the spiel about spoke tackle, and one of them said she really wanted to come! She showed up a little late the first rally night. At the invitation, she moved without hesitation to be saved. Later, her face was glowing with the reality of her new-found faith.

After listening to the gospel message on Wednesday night, a young man who was a student in the Christian school realized his need to be saved. He was saved that night, and brought a friend the next night who also got saved. Another young man in the community had participated in Special Forces two years and four years ago when our team was here at Calvary. This time around, he came to know Christ as his personal Savior. Praise the Lord for these salvations!

One young lady in the Christian school responded to the invitation on Wednesday. She had dealt with bitterness previously when our team was at Calvary, but the Lord was revealing more angles she needed to deal with. Rebekah encouraged her from the Bible, and this young lady had such a heart to let the Lord work in her own heart so that she could be a blessing to others.

One young man in the Christian school responded to the invitation on Wednesday during chapel. Josh, the Seal team captain was able to counsel him on bitterness. He continued to make decisions during the week, and gave a testimony on Friday night:

“I’ve done some things I’m not really proud of, and I’ve just been keeping them from my parents…when War of Special Forces came here and started preaching all these messages about how we should be open, we should confess, it really tugged on me. I hated it. One of the nights, I just went and talked to my parents and got everything right.”

Below are some other testimonies from the week:

“Yesterday during the service…he said [that] if your heart is feeling…clinched…that’s God telling you—’Get up; you need to go.’.…I got up and I went…and he told me how I could be assured that I was saved….That’s the day that I found out that I was actually really saved.”

“This week I made a choice to forgive someone who had wronged me…a while back. And, you know, it’s not easy to forgive…even now sometimes it’s not, because you really can’t do it on your own, but…humanly we can’t forgive. You know, we always say like whenever someone wrongs us, ‘That’s not fair. Why did that have to happen to me?’ But, like we don’t even realize what we’ve done to like…all the stuff we’ve done, that’s what Jesus died for. And even after all that, we still point at the other person, and we just don’t take the blame on our own selves.”

“So…three weeks ago, I was struggling with doubts. And in the chapel on Monday, the preacher talked about hitting the mark. And I got saved three weeks ago, and God has really just gave me a zeal. And Satan didn’t like that; he really didn’t like that. And he’s been attacking me, and he’s been trying to make me feel like I’m useless, like I don’t…have [any] purpose…This week, I just listened to the sermons, and I talked to someone….They really showed me from the Bible like how I could…get my wounds filled from Satan’s attacks. Satan is out to get you, but through the power of prayer and the power of your Christian friends, you can get through that.”