Upstate New York was beautiful this time of year. The leaves were changing and the temperatures were beginning to dip. The Lord gave us some real victories at West Seneca Christian School. Pastor Dana Cline and I were classmates at college, and it was great to labor with him and his staff during the War of Special Forces ministry.  

It was encouraging to have a few teenagers from the Christian school go out recruiting with us on both Monday and Tuesday afternoons. One of these teens connected very well with his Ranger team captain, Will. Although the young man never responded to any of the invitations, God was working in his heart. At lunch on Friday, Will asked the young man what God was doing in his heart. In front of all his peers, the young man shared a powerful testimony. Later, Will was able to counsel and challenge the young man to have a deeper walk with God. This young man was stirred to follow Jesus and gave this testimony on Friday night: 

“On Tuesday of this week, [I told God], ‘God, I don’t want to have my life to be on myself, I am going to turn it over to you.’”

Two weeks before our team arrived in West Seneca, there was a young man in the school who prayed specifically that God would send someone to help him with his sin. On Tuesday, after the message preached on hidden sin, he stayed back to talk to Jonathan, the Marine team captain, and the youth pastor. The young man was clearly broken over his sin. That night he went home and talked to his parents about the sin he was hiding. When Jonathan challenged him to spend twenty minutes with God, this young man couldn’t get enough time and spent over sixty minutes with God. He gave a bold testimony on Friday: 

“[when my parents picked me up from school…] I started crying. And I told them ever since fifth grade I was watching filth…on the internet. And all of [a] sudden, the burden was off and instant, instant joy…everything was just gone. All those thoughts that you get in your head, were just gone…if I don’t spend time with God every morning for twenty, thirty, or an hour or even think about things in the Word throughout the day, I can very easily get sidetracked.”

On Wednesday, Esther, the Seal co-captain, counseled one of the girls on her team on bitterness. The girl immediately chose to forgive those who had hurt her. On Thursday night, she brought a friend to the War night. The two girls came back in the invitation, and the visitor was gloriously saved. The Christian school girl was so excited to see God use her; she later, joyfully exclaimed, “my mouth hurts from smiling.” On Friday, both girls got up and gave testimonies:

“I got really convicted on Wednesday when he was talking about bitterness and anger. I have been really angry at both my birth parents, and my adoptive parents…I am adopted…And I was just really bitter about why did my birth parents [leave] me just a few days after I was born…they didn’t give me a chance, and I always thought that one day my adoptive parents would decide to send me back to foster care or wherever…I really hadn’t felt loved by my parents, by God…And I just gotta say guys, I was really convicted this week and I forgave my parents and they forgave me. I…was like, ‘Guys I haven’t been nice to you and I just really need to ask for your forgiveness.’ And that was just really amazing.”

“Until I was eight, I was in a really bad home, and I never really felt like God was there for me. I didn’t know God; and then when I was eight I moved into a really great Christian home but I never felt the love of God, like I never felt like He was there for me. And then last night’s message really touched me…like God really does love me, He really does accept me. So I made the decision to come to Christ and get saved.” 

There was one young man in the Christian school who was all-in to the competitions. He responded Thursday night to the gospel invitation. As Will went through the gospel, the young man was so excited, Will thought he wasn’t convicted of sin. But as soon as the young man started to pray he burst into tears; it was clear God was convicting him. Here is the testimony he gave:

“I grew up going to church…I really never got saved there…until this week it never really hit me that I need to do this. Coming into this week it was all about the games and the teams and everything, but yesterday evening I gave in during the message and yesterday I got saved.”

Here is an encouraging testimony about one young man who was called to full-time ministry:

“I have been burdened just because I have always depended on myself rather than God and I have slacked on spending time with God. I have spent time doing worldly things, spending time with worldly people, and that’s just messed me up and I’ve been burdened all this week, and so finally today, I just broke down. [I] went into the auditorium, talked to Jonathan about it. But I just couldn’t stand putting all the pressure on me and not depending on God at all, and that’s a really big step because I want to go into the ministry and if I go into the ministry, then I can’t do anything on my own.”