Newport Beach, California is a beautiful place. This is the first time the team has had the privilege of conducting War of Special Forces here. We appreciated the faith and vision of Pastor Thompson in regard to the week. God worked all week long, and we grew to love the students there.

One young lady responded to the invitation on Wednesday night. She had heard the gospel many times but realized that she did not know for sure if she was saved. She was gloriously saved that day. She later went on to make other decisions that week to trust the Lord. 

Another young lady responded to the invitation on Wednesday after the rally night. She had heard the gospel before, but had never really understood that it was just Jesus. She got saved, was very excited and brought her neighbor on Thursday night. This girl had never been in church and had never heard the gospel before, but she raised her hand during the invitation. Both girls went back and the young lady (who had been saved on Wednesday) helped Janna, the Seal team co-captain, lead her friend to the Lord.

One young man was clearly struggling almost the entire week. Mateo, the Ranger team captain, finally pulled him over, asked him where he was at, and said he would pray for him. The young man was struggling with bitterness, and finally decided to let go of it because he didn’t like the person he was becoming and he wanted to help others. He shared in a testimony on Friday night: 

“Something I realized this week…the person that I’ve become without God in my life…just the person who you are without God is just not good, and you won’t live a good life. And so this week I’ve been trying to get back to where I was with God being heavily…the center of my life because life is just better then.” 

Below are some other testimonies: 

“I realized how much of a face I try to put on, how strong I try to act, how tough I try to act, and when it comes down to it—it just spoke to me, and I realized how little I can actually do. It’s hard to understand the Bible when God’s not in it; it’s hard to pray to God when I’m trying to do it by myself….And so this morning’s message really spoke to me that I have to rely on God….I can’t keep trying to be my own man; I have to be God’s man. I have to be who He wants me to be.” 

“This week I just made a decision to give Christ my all, and not to think that I can do it on my own and I need to depend on His strength.” 

“Sometimes I struggle with pride and think that I can do it on my own, but I realized last night that I need to let that go and start trusting God and being more dependent on Him.” 

“I honestly wasn’t really open to learning anything honestly…and the messages yesterday and…testimony really helped me with bitterness and dealing with it.”

“Yesterday I got saved. And the message that God has spoken to me was about bitterness. Just forgive them.” 

“Honestly I’ve been a little mad at God because there’s been a lot of things that have hurt me. And…not necessarily people, but just different things throughout my life. It was just so cool to see God working through each and every one of you guys this week to see that He’s still good and He is always good, no matter what happens. And all those things that may have happened, I know that someday He is going to use for good in other people’s lives.” 

The team flew home to Wisconsin after the week with full hearts of what the Lord had done in many of the students’ hearts. On the last night one of the students, who seemed very uninterested at the beginning of the week, thanked me with tears for the ministry of the week. God had done a work in his heart! That was a picture of what God had done in many hearts.