This is the second time the team has had the privilege of coming to Southview Baptist Church and Christian School. When we arrived, we could tell that spring was just arriving. Although we faced some tough weather during the first few days, the team was able to recruit a good number, but we did not have the attendance we desired. We were grateful though for the Lord’s working in many hearts. It was good to work with Pastor Duffer, and we appreciated his heart.

Aaron, the Seal team captain, met a young man in Sunday School class and invited him to come out for the rally nights. He came all three nights, and made the decision to trust in Christ for salvation! Two brothers came on the second night of the War. Both raised their hands during the invitation. When Aaron asked if they wanted to respond, only one moved. Aaron showed him from the Bible how to be saved, and he trusted Christ as his Savior. As soon as he had gotten saved, the younger brother (who did not respond) walked into the room. Aaron asked him, “Hey, do you want to get saved now?” He said, “Yes.” After Aaron reviewed the gospel with him, he got saved. Praise the Lord for leading the younger brother back into that counseling room and making both brothers sure of their eternal destiny!

A young man in the Christian school told John, the Ranger team captain, about his bitterness against his parents. This bitterness had turned into bitterness against God. Instead of running to God with his problems, he had been running away. This young man got right with God and during a prayer meeting after chapel on Friday, prayed a broken prayer. Weeping, he acknowledged that he believed God was calling him to preach!

There was one young man in the Christian school that had several classmates praying for him. When Joshua, the Marine team captain, heard about this young man, he also began praying for him. After the chapel message on Wednesday, he responded to the invitation. As he told Joshua his story, he admitted several wrong things he was using to cope with the pain in his life. He felt worthless and thought that no one loved him. On Wednesday, he realized how much Jesus loved him, and he was able to forgive those in his life that had hurt him. In his testimony on Friday, he shared:

“…I confessed to my parents this week how – what I’ve been doing and…God really helped move me – I felt free for the first time in a lot of years.…and…When we were in a team meeting yesterday, …Aaron preached a little sermon about…let go and let God…basically how to surrender your life to God…and…God really spoke to me and…that day, I surrendered my life to God. So whatever He wants me to do, I’m gonna do it.”

A young lady in the school responded during the invitation after chapel one day. She realized the key to complete freedom was getting right with not just God, but also her parents.

“…I’d confess it to God thinking that it was okay. …I just felt like there was something holding me back. I couldn’t have the power of God on my life. I felt like everything I did was just in vain. And I just felt like every testimony I gave like there was no power behind it. And I realized that there was some things that I was keeping from my parents that…I should have been telling them about. And…I told my mom about it and I just felt free. I felt like I can serve the Lord with all my heart now.”

God convicted another young man about cheating on some homework. He responded after chapel and got it right with his teacher, and later with his parents. He spoke in his testimony of how he had turned his back on God and all he had been doing to encourage his friends was not doing any good.

“But this week I’m turning my back towards the world and going back to God. So then when I’m there for my friends they can get encouragement…and it’s just not coming from me – it’s coming from God to encourage them to get closer to God.”

Below are a few other testimonies:

“…my dad left me when I was six or seven. I was depressed; I got a lot of anger. I bullied some kids – put all my anger towards them, but that wasn’t right. I always cried myself to sleep because I kept on reminding myself, “Am I worthless?” But Wednesday I forgave him and…no more anger.”

“I just wanted to say that I know how he felt a little bit. I got bullied… people would tell me that I’m worthless….Wednesday night, I got saved. And everybody else might think you’re nothing, but always know that God thinks you’re something.”