We have been coming to Westwood Christian School now for over 20 years. What a joy to once again work with the staff down in Miami. Many of them have been there for years and it is a delight to see them and conduct the War of Special Forces together. This time they introduced me to Cuban coffee and a guava pastry. I thought I had died and gone to heaven! Put it on your bucket list.

There were many great salvation decisions this week! One young man was a contact from Westwood’s summer youth camp. He came on Thursday evening. During the competition, he did not get involved, and when everyone moved inside for trivia and cheering, he didn’t even want to sit with his team and participate. However, after the preaching, he did respond during the invitation. When asked what Jesus had done for him, he said “He clearly saved me because I trusted and believed on Him!” He was so excited to share with others about his salvation decision.

One young lady found Jessica, the Marine team co-captain, after chapel and asked if they could talk. She admitted that she had not wanted to respond during the invitation because she felt a lot of pressure. She felt like the message had been preached right to her, directly mentioning the needs of her heart. She started praying that if she should respond that the preacher would look directly at her. Well, that happened, and this young lady knew that she was supposed to respond! She told Jessica many different hurts that she was holding on to from when she was young, and admitted her struggle with trusting people. God did a work in her heart, and she gave a testimony on Friday of what God did in her heart.

One young man who was a student at Westwood came from a Catholic background. He responded during the day on Wednesday, admitting that he had been fighting God and was on his way to hell. He made a decision that day to trust in Christ alone, and said that a great burden was lifted!

Below are a few testimonies from the week that were a blessing:

“God convicted me this week that I was being bitter, and that’s something that hurts me more than it hurts the person that I was bitter towards. And I was having a hard time forgiving, and I was angry towards this one person…but God convicted me that I should let go of…Ephesians 4:31 says to let go of all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking… and that’s not something that should be in a Christian’s life.”

This week I was convicted of sin in my life….I went to the back and I got things right. And he told me that I needed to tell my parents, and I was scared. And I knew that they wouldn’t be happy…but…I went up to my parents, and I told them. It wasn’t easy, but then as soon as I told them about the sin, it was like a burden was gone. It was really freeing.

“You do not need to put your dependence in something else. Because as soon as that’s gone, you’re going to be put at the bottom, and you’re going to realize, ‘I put that as my god.’ And…just make sure that your dependence is not in yourself, it’s not on others, it’s not on a thing, it’s not on anything other than God—because people fail, things will fail, sin happens, people aren’t perfect. And you need to make sure that the one thing in your life that is constant is just God. And you need to have dependence on Him. Another thing that….I’ve been burdened about is claiming to be a Christian, but then choosing the rules that you follow….I need to be like ‘yes, I’m a Christian, and I follow every verse that’s in that Bible.’ And it’s hard, but you need to follow everything that’s in it. You can’t just claim God, and then decide ‘I think differently on this’ or ‘that’s not my personal conviction’. His Word is Truth…And it will lead you in the right direction.”