Pastor Stephen Ashmore has been the pastor at Victory Baptist Church now for a couple of years. I had worked with Brother Ashmore years ago when he was a youth pastor in Georgia. It was great to work with him again and see what God is doing there. The staff had a heart for the students in the school, and God worked in many of their lives. Also, the surrounding area is a mission field, and we were thrilled to see many saved.

On Sunday afternoon, the team was out eating lunch at a local restaurant. Joshua, the Marine team captain, asked the waitress if her two teen sons could come out to the War nights. She was very interested, but explained that transportation was an issue. On Tuesday night, the team happened to be out, and Joshua ran into a young man and started to recruit him. The young man told Joshua that his mom (who turned out to be the waitress from Sunday!) had already told him about the event. Both young men came out on Wednesday. On Thursday night, the young man that Joshua had spoken with on Tuesday night responded to the invitation. He knew that he was a sinner and on his way to hell. He wasn’t ready to make the decision until Joshua reminded him of how short life is. He then prayed, admitting that he was a sinner, and told God that he was trusting Him and believing Him for salvation.

Hunter, the Seal team captain, was out recruiting when he met a girl and her grandmother. The grandmother said that she had nine grandchildren and that she would bring them all. Only three of the grandchildren were old enough to participate in the competitions, but the grandmother and the other six younger grandchildren sat behind the Seal team and cheered for their team every night. Rebekah was able to go through the gospel on Thursday night with the grandmother and the younger grandchildren. The grandmother seemed to already understand salvation, and a couple of the younger ones did seem to understand and accept Christ as their Savior. Two of the older grandchildren, who were involved in the competitions, responded to the invitation and were saved this week as well! 

One young man from the Christian school had a smile on his face, but a lot of hurt underneath. On Wednesday, God broke his heart over his bitterness and anger toward someone who had wronged him. Through the conviction of the Holy Spirit, this young man saw his anger as sin and was broken about the angry person he, in turn, was becoming. God brought peace into his heart, and by Friday, he was trusting God to heal the broken relationship.

Another young man in the Christian school told the youth pastor’s wife that he wanted to get saved. She told Matthew, the Ranger team captain, who in turn sought him out at lunch time. The young man was clearly ready to get saved. Matthew led him through the gospel, and he prayed a salvation prayer. Then Matthew started challenging him with the importance of telling other people his testimony. Later that day, Matthew heard that this young man had stood up in class and gladly testified of his salvation. Praise the Lord for his salvation and his boldness!

One young man came out to the rally night on Wednesday. He prayed to be saved that first night! He then brought out two friends, who were both brothers. On Friday night, one of those brothers came back and also got saved. Hunter, the Seal team captain talked to all of these guys on Friday night. Knowing that one of them wasn’t saved, he asked each one, “Are you saved?” All of them said yes, until Hunter asked the last one. When he said, “no”, Hunter asked if he wanted to get saved. He said “yes,” and was gloriously saved!

One young lady in the Christian school was unsaved, and there were other students in the school praying for her. After team meeting on Thursday, she responded to the invitation. Jessica was able to go through the gospel with her, and she was saved! One of her friends in the school gave this testimony on Friday about what an answer to prayer her salvation was:

“God does answer prayers, even if it like seems hopeless…sometimes you’re just really praying, you’re brokenhearted over something and you just keep praying really hard. But I just want to encourage you to keep praying because God is doing work that you don’t even know about in other people’s lives and just all through that. Just keep praying.”

Another young man realized that God is a Father to the fatherless. He made the decision this week to trust God to work all things together for good. He gave a testimony on Friday evening:

“This week I got saved and…since I was a young child, I believed in myself for doing whatever I wanted to do. And this week I just started…thinking, ‘I can’t do anything; I need God in my life.’ And so…I’m trusting God to help me with whatever I need.”