A few summers ago, I was speaking for the first time at Hoosier Hills Baptist Camp and met Pastor Aaron Samples of Grace Baptist Church in Urbana, OH. I immediately sensed a kindred spirit. We had wonderful fellowship, and I knew we had begun a friendship. Over a year ago, my wife and I had the privilege of coming to Grace Baptist Church for revival meetings. This year the Lord worked it out last minute for our team to come to Grace for the War of Special Forces. It was a Divine appointment. There were 40 salvation decisions as well as some decisions among the school students. The whole team loved the week!
Hunter, the Ranger team captain, was recruiting in the high school lunch room. He met a young man who came out for all three rally nights. On Wednesday night, he got saved and brought out a friend on Thursday night! This friend also trusted in Christ for salvation. This young man attended the Bible study at the high school during Friday lunch, and said that he would start coming to church!
On Tuesday, Hannah was out recruiting when she started talking to a group of guys on a sidewalk in Urbana. Two of these guys came out on Wednesday night, and one of them got saved! The other young man came out for the second night, but was high! However, he placed his dependence on Jesus to save him that night. On Friday night, one of these young men said in his testimony:
“…yesterday I came here and I got saved, so like a lot of times throughout my entire life…there were some hard feelings. There was a lot of anger and whatnot, and I came here and when I heard about all the stuff—everybody sins and everybody would go to hell—I wanted to make everything right, so I went back and got saved.”
Hunter went to a local junior high to pass out fliers during lunch. At the rally night, a young man showed up. He said that Hunter had not stopped at his particular table, but he had picked up a flier that someone else had dropped on the floor. The competitions looked cool, so he came! This young man depended on Christ for salvation this week!
Josh, the Seal team captain, met a couple teens while at McDonalds. He invited them to the rally nights, but they barely responded. One of the teen girls decided to try to come out, though, with a couple friends. She talked her grandmother into babysitting for her on Thursday night, since she knew she couldn’t come on Friday. The three girls came late and entirely missed the competition. After the preaching, the one girl who brought the two friends responded. She got assurance of her salvation, but realized she had a lot of sin in her life. Hannah was able to connect with her and encourage her on taking steps spiritually. At the same time, the other two girls were standing waiting for her. They were approached multiple times by different team members (Josh, Rebekah, and Craig) asking if the Lord had worked in their hearts. Each time they said no to going to talk to someone about eternity. Craig sensed that one of the girls was ready, however, and asked Rebekah to try talking to her again. Rebekah started sharing her testimony and some verses from the Bible. One of the girls admitted that she was going through a hard time in her life. Rebekah told her that all of God’s promises of His faithfulness and presence would be true after she accepted His gift of salvation. Both girls admitted at that point that they needed to depend on Christ to save them, but they didn’t want to go into another room to get saved. Rebekah told them they could get saved right where they were. They walked over to the chairs set up for the rally, bowed their heads, and prayed to be saved!
On Friday night after the campfire service, a young man who had gotten saved on Wednesday, came to me weeping. He was broken because his mother and sisters were going to hell and he didn’t want them to go there! It was such a blessing to see his burden. I challenged him and prayed with him about the matter. He seemed to be encouraged in the Lord.
Craig, the Marine team captain, was recruiting on the back streets of Urbana. He met a young man who didn’t have much purpose in his life. He came all three nights, and was saved on Wednesday night! He gave a testimony on Friday:
“…last week I came here…and I was…lost. And then…after that…I came here Wednesday and I got saved!”
Below are a couple other testimonies that were shared by young people:
“…so lately I’ve been struggling with bitterness and then this morning, when Dr. Van Gelderen was giving the message, and also through the week, God’s been dealing with it, and…also this morning when he said we need to be 0/100, it really helped me out this morning, and I asked God to help me with bitterness and 0/100, and now I’m asking God to help me through it.”
“…no matter how hard we try, [we] can’t live the…Christian life ourself…and it’s not hard, it’s impossible! And the Christian life needs to 0/100, not 50/50–0% us, and 100% God! And that really…and God really dealt in my heart because…I’ve always tried to live the Christian life…and work harder and pray harder and read the Bible more. But it’s not that—it’s God working in my life—God doing the work and not myself. And in my pride, I’ve always tried to do more for God but for my own glory. Now I see that that’s all wrong and I asked God to help me with my pride and give me victory over my life, instead of me trying to work harder.”