In the late 1990s, our team conducted the War of Special Forces at a Christian school in Cramerton, NC. In that school was a young man who is now the principal at Lewisburg Baptist Academy. He was spiritually impacted by that week back in the 90s. He invited the team to his school where he now is principal. We were touched with all the Lord did in hearts. Also, we found when we arrived, that one of our team members had an aunt and uncle with whom we worked all week long! That was a blessing as well.

Esther, the Seal co-captain, drove a distance to visit some teens in a nearby town who had had previous contact with the church and to see if anyone would be at the park in that town. When she got to the park, there were only two teens there. She recruited them, and they seemed very excited about the War. These two young men came to the War on Wednesday night. During the invitation, one of the visitors responded, sincerely realizing his need for salvation. Caleb, the Seal team captain, led the young man to the Lord that night. 

On Tuesday afternoon, Abi, the Marine co-captain, recruited a young man in a coffee shop. The young man came and brought a friend to the War night on Thursday. When everyone came inside, our team realized this young man and his friend were not inside. Because Abi had his number from when she recruited him, she texted him and asked if he could come back for the most important part-the Gospel message. Amazingly, the young man came back just in time for the preaching. He listened intently to the message, but did not respond in the invitation. Abi talked to him afterward, and it was clear he was not saved. God worked in a mighty way that night as the young man’s eyes were opened to his need for Jesus, and by the end of the night he got saved! The youth pastor connected with the young man, and there was an open door for further connection. It was exciting to see this young man get saved the one night he was able to come. 

Our team was very burdened for the school, as not many students had responded to any of the invitations. On Friday, our team prayed for many of the students by name, asking God to break them and that they would respond to the invitation that day. God answered our prayers as many of them responded to the invitation on Friday, and got a hold of the 0/100 truth! Many were completely broken over their need to trust God. 

One of the girls, a main leader in the school, broke on Friday and stood up to give this testimony on Friday night: 

“This morning… the message was about giving yourself to God and I…have been struggling with my devotions daily, and a couple weeks ago we had a Fall revival and I was like, ‘This is it, I’m going to do it. I’m going to stay on task, I’m going to do it every morning and this is going to be great.’ I maybe did it for a week, and then I started struggling. I missed one day, then I missed another day…And I just kept getting defeated over and over and over again. I could not get the victory to save my life. And this morning it just really spoke to me because God is not disappointed in me because I got defeated, He is disappointed in me because I gave up, and I just need to realize that through Him I can do my devotions daily and I can get through it. And then also bitterness…with Esther’s testimony…I have had past experiences that have led me to become very bitter and by God’s grace I have been able to forgive some of those people, but some of those people I have not yet been able to forgive and I am still working on that, but with God I can let go of my bitterness.”

A girl on the Marine team talked to Abi, her co-captain, on Friday after the invitation. She went into great detail of all the pain she has experienced – there was so much pain there in her life. Abi walked through some counseling materials. First, it was clear she was not saved. The girl settled the matter of her salvation before moving onto forgiving those who had wronged her. Secondly, the girl realized that if she could trust God for her salvation, she could trust God to take all the bad things that have happened in her life and work them for good. She gave this testimony on Friday: 

“The main message that spoke to me was actually preached on Sunday about mother and father wounds…I’ve actually had a lot of abuse in my life, and I do not have a mother. My mother walked out on me about two years ago. I do not live with my father either; I live with my grandmother. I have had a lot of hard times, but this week has really spoken to me about how God can use a lot of the bad things that have happened in your past for good in your life…And I’ve always never been sure about salvation – I’ve always been a little uneasy…and today I got saved.”

Over the course of the week, we saw several young people trust Christ for salvation or get the matter of assurance settled. Here are some of their testimonies: 

“So at the beginning of the week I wasn’t sure where I was going; I thought I knew Jesus but at the same time I was like, I want to be sure and I don’t know where I am going…so…I got saved this week and now I know where I am going.”

“This week I decided to ask Jesus into my heart and I am very thankful.”

“When he talked about hell, I was terrified. I’ve been scared for my salvation for like three years, so I went back and I talked with Abi and she explained everything with me about how your salvation cannot be taken away…[that] just helped me be assured of my salvation.”

A couple of the young men in the school, God also broke of their pride and need to trust God. They responded to the invitation on Friday and were counseled. Here are some of their testimonies:

“The message this morning…it really spoke to my heart about how you can’t do everything by yourself and just expect to be like, ‘Ok, I can do this…’ Ya, know you can’t and so I just realized that God was pointing out some sins in my life that I just need to get to Him and just realize that only He can fix it and I just need to 100% trust in Him and put my faith in God…And one thing that has really encouraged me is just seeing everybody make decisions and getting saved this week, most importantly.”

“First of all, this was a great week. It was pretty fun…Definitely this morning when he said that your relationship with God was 0% you and 100% God…that definitely helped me because some of y’all are stubborn like me and you like to take things into your own hands and try to fix things yourself, but that ain’t gonna work, I tried it, it don’t [work].”

“The message that spoke to me was last night, he was talking about the judgment and Hell and Heaven. And what really spoke to me was he talked about us fearing God on the throne and whether we fear God now or not. And what really spoke to me was while I am living life here, you know most of the time we keep our eyes on the physical things and not spiritual things, and I lose sight that I should have a healthy fear of God…So when I sin I shouldn’t be…I shouldn’t just cast it aside like it’s a little one or big or whatever, I should fear God in a healthy way and do things for Him…it makes me think what would God think about this…”

One of the girls in the church, who did not go to the school, connected really well with the girls on our team. She came to almost every chapel, afternoon activity, and recruiting time. God worked in her heart during the message on hidden sin. She took a bold step of faith and responded to the invitation, got counsel, and made the decision to tell her parents of the things that she had been hiding. She gave this testimony on Friday night: 

“For about a year I have been struggling with some sin in my life that had been really ripping me apart and ruining my relationship with my family and, most importantly, God. And even when I had gotten it out of my life and confessed it to God, I kept it hidden from my family and from everyone. And the chapel message yesterday really spoke to me…so I got it right with my parents.”