The team has been to Calvary Baptist Church in Midland, MI several times over the years. Both Mark Dickerson, the assistant pastor, and Dave Warren, the high school principal, have been at other churches where the War of Special Forces was conducted. I always love working with these men. The Lord gave us a good week. We were grateful for the many young people that responded to God’s working in their hearts.

While the team was out recruiting on Monday, Josh, the Seal team captain, met a guy at a skatepark. Josh told him about the rally night, and he seemed like he might be interested in coming out. The next day, Josh ran into him again. He came out Friday night and was definitely into the competition. As the testimony service started, he heard about the lives God had changed this week! The gospel was seen through the testimonies, and this young man was under conviction. He went back and talked to Josh and was saved that night!

One young lady responded to the invitation on Thursday evening. She had grown up in church but realized she had never trusted in Christ to save her before. Rebekah, the Marine team co-captain, went through the gospel with her. She knew how serious the decision was, but was not ready to place her dependence in Christ alone. The conversation continued for close to an hour. Finally, Rebekah pleaded with her to think on it and pray about it as she went home.

At the same time in another room, her sister was struggling with knowing for sure if she was saved. The team got down on their knees and prayed for this young lady! Then Hannah, the Seal team co-captain, started talking with her. She was struggling through so much doubt and confusion. As the time went on, Rebekah joined in with Hannah as both tried to give her truth, while at the same time, wrestling in prayer for this young lady’s soul. It was almost like there was satanic power in the room that could be felt! Hannah was mid-sentence explaining some Bible verses, when all of a sudden, she started praying out loud, pouring out her heart to God. Mid-sentence, she stopped and said, “It’s gone! It’s gone! All that fear and this torment in my heart that I have felt for six years is gone!” She was so thankful and said, “I was on the brink of hell, and Jesus saved me!” The glow on her face was unmistakable! She gave a testimony on Friday night:

“…it turns out that I was…trying to understand, but was overthinking salvation. Whereas it’s so simple. There’s a lot of fear…a lot of unbelief, and they prayed for me.…about 11pm, it took like not really 2 hours, I don’t know, we were talking and they said you know what, it’s just simply resting on Jesus for Him to save you. And I’m like, ‘Okay.’…The Devil might be screaming in your face saying no, do not believe Him. But this is for your eternity. The Devil doesn’t like you. He hates you; he’s against you.  He’s the one Who’s accusing you. Trust Jesus. He saves.”

On Friday afternoon, this young lady talked with her sister (the one who had responded on Thursday evening) and explained what God had done in her heart. Because both sisters’ struggle was with doubt and letting Jesus do the saving, her testimony encouraged her sister to depend on Christ to save her. She came in to the rally night on Friday with joy evident on her face. As both sisters testified of God’s saving grace, the third sister responded in the middle of the testimony service, ready to be saved! We praise the Lord for saving these three young ladies in less than 24 hours!

One young man in the Christian school connected with Caleb, the Ranger team captain, and admitted that he was struggling with some things. He knew he needed to get clean, but he was scared to talk to his parents. He said he would talk to them eventually, but he wasn’t sure when. Caleb challenged him that he really needed to do it right away and not give himself time to get out of it. Caleb told the young man that he would call him in a week to follow up with him; however, the young man called him! He had opened up with his parents, gotten right with them, and was encouraged. This young man missed sharing his testimony on Friday evening, but drove an hour to give his testimony the following Friday at our next Special Forces rally. In his testimony, he shared:

“…last week the War team was there. And they really had an impact on me. I didn’t think they would. …But the lasting effects have been crazy. You know, guys, you’re not alone. We all go through the same things together. But you’ve got to talk to people. You have to tell people. Get held accountable. Yesterday, I gave Caleb a call ‘cuz I deal with the same things as you guys. And the only step I hadn’t taken was talking with my parents about it, and so I did. It felt great…We’ve all got battles. Some are easier to win, some are easier to lose. But they’re battles nonetheless, and each one matters, win or loss. If you got a battle going on, and God’s dealing with you…dealing with you right now and you don’t know if you want to speak about it, do it. Last week I didn’t give a testimony, and I regretted it. That is why I am so thankful right now I have this opportunity to come back and share something with you. Get out of the boat, be 100% in God, rely on Him. You cannot do anything with your own strength. Of course, He will enable you. That’s one of the key words from last week I loved. Enablement.  You can’t do anything, but God will enable you to. Just let Him.”

Below are some other testimonies that were a blessing:

“So that 0 to 100…one this morning really resonated with me. It’s been hard for me to trust God…in a lot of different things that…. He’ll do stuff in my devotions and just different stuff in life and I would ask Him for strength to trust Him, but…I never really got it. And I was confused for a long time. And I think the reason why, well I know the reason why, was because I wanted to trust, but I wasn’t willing to trust Him…I wasn’t willing to get out of the boat!”

“I was reminded that…God is really the only thing that can satisfy.…I love soccer, I love music, I love hanging out with my friends, but when you just rely on those things, you might be happy, but there’s this thing inside you that’s never really satisfied and you’re always feeling empty…just giving God the pen of your life and letting Him take control ‘cause He loves you more than you love yourself. He knows you better than you know yourself. And that’s the greatest thing you can do is just trust…trust God with your whole life.”

“For most of my life, I have been what I like to call a control freak over my own life. You know I want to call all the shots about, you know, everything that I want to do. A lot of stuff that was talked about this week really helped me realize that my life is in way better hands when God has it and when He’s calling the shots. So this week I decided to give my life to whatever God calls me to be.”

“In several years past, I’ve been struggling with this one major sin. And I’ve been deceiving myself in two different ways. I’ve been deceiving myself in thinking that I’m the only one struggling with this sin or very few struggle with this sin. I’m alone here. And the second part, I was deceiving myself into thinking that I was giving it up to God and letting Him take care of it. But yet I was struggling and trying to beat it in my own strength…[The] 0 and 100 message and specifically, the analogy of Peter in the boat. That had never occurred to me before. I’ve never heard that before. That was amazing. It was eye opening. How Peter walked on water not by his own strength though he had to move his muscles, he had to walk. But it was 100% Christ who kept him on that water. That’s the exact same thing with the Christian walk. We have to move, we have to act, but it’s 100% Christ that keeps us living for Him.”

Praise the Lord for the decisions made this week!