About 15 years ago, the War of Special Forces team came to Juniata Baptist Church and Christian School. I remember the prayer meeting where the Lord did meet with the team as we prayed. On Friday night after the testimony service, a senior young man called for a spontaneous prayer meeting around the campfire. That prayer meeting went for about an hour as young people prayed almost uninterrupted. I remember a young man named Del standing at the campfire with tears streaming down his face looking heavenward talking to God with his eyes open! I knew he was meeting with God.
A few months ago, I met that young man, Del, again at the Michigan Revival Conference. I found out that he was a teacher at that school. To make a long story shorter, that contact ended up in the War of Special Forces being scheduled for Juniata Christian School. The week was outstanding! The amazing thing was that Del was not able to be there at all because of his father’s illness and homegoing. However, on Friday night Del texted me a testimony he wanted me to read. This is what he texted me:
“I remember the fall of 2004 (my senior year) when the War of Special Forces was at JCS. I remember that Friday night . . . I remember exactly where I was standing . . . I remember looking up to the star-filled sky and calling out to God to use me however He wanted. I remember the feeling of pure happiness in being right with God mixed with sorrow over the time I had lost not living for Him. I pray that tonight the Lord will break through the lives of every teen there. I pray that some young man or lady will have the same experience I had 15 years ago. To be in God’s will is the greatest decision I ever made and I pray that the teens tonight will not let the World distract them and simply surrender to His leading. I pray the course of many lives will be changed to follow Christ tonight! Don’t wait for your friends to make the decision . . . be the one everyone follows. Through surrender you will lead!”
Here is another amazing thing! Del is now the pastor there at Juniata Baptist Church!
One young man was invited to the rally nights by a student in the Christian school. Craig, the Marine team captain, talked to him on Wednesday after the gospel message, but the young man was not ready to be saved even though he knew he was not saved. The same thing happened on Thursday night as well. Our whole team started praying for this young man, and he returned on Friday night. As the whole school went forward to pray around the campfire after the testimony service, he looked back and signaled to Craig that he needed to talk. God was clearly at work in his life. He had seen someone close to him recently turn his back on God, and this young man didn’t want to follow in those footsteps, but he was struggling to know what was real. Craig went through the gospel with him, and this young man called out to Jesus to save him! He knew that he was saved and said that his sense of loneliness and fear of the unknown was gone!
One young lady in the Christian school was fighting the Lord’s working in her heart all week. On Friday after the testimony service, she was done fighting. She had been fighting God’s calling for years, and had allowed some things into her life that she knew were wrong. She knew she was holding on to bitterness, but she allowed God to work. Hannah, the Seal team co-captain, talked with her, and she let go of her bitterness.
One young man in the Christian school was struggling with several things. Josh, the Seal team captain, tried to talk with him. On Thursday after team meeting, this young man responded to the invitation. He opened up about his bitterness. He got right with God that day, and later his mom told the team that she could see a change in his life.
One young lady responded to the invitation after chapel on Friday. She was also struggling with bitterness. Rebekah, the Marine team co-captain, walked her through how to allow God to take away bitterness. She and her friend were both honest about their struggles, and God definitely was present in that counseling time! One of these young ladies shared in a testimony on Friday night:
“But…I realized during this week thinking about when I got saved and…I realized that that happiness had started to fade. That I didn’t have that same yearning to spread God’s word and do all the things that you’re supposed to as a Christian like devotions and prayer. I…I really just felt like I didn’t need to do it. I didn’t really want to do it. It was way too much for me to do. So I…didn’t do it…but this week Pastor Van Gelderen preached a sermon that I have heard before from him. And…I knew God was telling me something because I knew I needed to get some things…figured out…I wasn’t happy…I was trying to do everything but it wasn’t working. …And so I realized that what had been missing was God, which is crazy, because in the Christian life, you believe in God….But I was trusting myself to walk the Christian life. And that’s not really what it’s about. It’s about trusting God to help you live the life He has planned for you. And so this week I have decided to trust God with everything.”
One young man in the Christian school had not responded to any invitations. He responded to the invitation on Friday and admitted that there was hidden sin in his life that he needed to let go of. He gave a testimony on Friday evening:
“…I thought everything was going to be for everyone else and not for me, but…everything that [Caleb] said was like looking in a mirror. I’ve been listening to music and behind my parents’ back. And it was the cool thing to do because everyone on the job site listens to it…listening to worldly music doesn’t have any value; it just tears you down away from Jesus. And that music—it’s only a sin for a season. It’s just happiness for that moment.”
Below are other testimonies from the week:
“…My life has been such a mess up, and I didn’t know how to fix anything. There’s so…so much hurt from the past that I didn’t know how to fix, and I wasn’t turning to God for it….And I want to thank everyone here for bearing with me and helping me with everything.”
“I’ve been really struggling with my bitterness towards one of my parents because they’ve had unrealistically high expectations…. And he preached this week about letting…letting go of the bitterness and just being able to forgive them even though they’ve hurt you. And I’ve…I was one of those people who went to the church, and I sobbed, and I was just praying to God. ‘God, take this. I can’t let go of this bitterness. I can’t do it without You. Just take it, Lord.’ And He did, and I just immediately just forgave that parent. I felt such relief.”
“… the only way our school is going to grow closer to God is if us older kids reach out to the younger kids and tell them it’s okay to talk about God. It’s okay to say what’s on your mind. It’s okay to talk about devotions with people. We should have groups where we all talk about devotions. We should do that weekly. That’s a Christian school thing. We don’t do that. We are so far from God and that is…that is in a sense our leadership problems from the last few years because like they said the other night at the soccer game. The coach doesn’t lead the team, it’s the players. So for high school, it’s not all the teachers, it’s not the pastor, it’s not the guy who gets up and talks to all of us, it’s the leadership in the school. It’s the juniors, it’s the seniors. It’s the kids that the younger kids look up to. The kids that…little kids look up and say I want to be him someday. I want to play sports like him. What they should be saying is ‘I want to preach like him. I want to read my Bible like him. I want to be able to talk to people about God like that kid can.’ It shouldn’t be about anything about me. It should be about God. They should look at us and say, ‘I want to live for God like that kid can.’ And we just have to turn around our thinking as a school…”
God continued the work there at Juniata even after our team left. A group from the school was miraculously able to attend part of the Thee Generation Youth Summit. They started prayer groups two days a week, and also started working on devotional books for an after-school Bible study. One of the young men who took leadership in the student body said in an update:
“Since the War of Special Forces came, there has been a genuine desire for God and the want to follow God’s will. Throughout each day, you can feel the presence of God in the halls, the classrooms, and in the hearts of each of the students…The Lord has been very good to this school!”
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