Several years ago I was at a camp in Indiana and met Pastor Aaron Samples. I could immediately tell he and I had a lot of things in common. I guess you could say we had kindred spirits! As a result our team came to Grace Baptist Church in Urbana and have been coming back now for a few years. It has been encouraging to be a part of their burden to reach their community for the Lord.

On Monday, Carissa, the Marine co-captain, recruited three special needs teens with their dad. She was doubtful they would come, but on Wednesday all three showed up. They attended all three war nights. Carissa talked with the girl about the gospel on the first two nights. The girl did not make a decision, but seemed to understand. On Friday, after the preaching, she responded on her own and was clearly ready to get saved. Carissa had the privilege of leading her to Christ.  

There was a young lady in the Christian school who was unsaved. The team began praying for her. It was visible that she did not have peace. On Wednesday, after the chapel message, she responded and was broken about her home situation and her bitterness against her parents. Annaleese, the Seal co-captain, was able to talk with her and began by asking her about her salvation. With tears, a few minutes later, she was gloriously saved. Throughout the week, she continued to talk with Annaleese about her home situation. She chose to forgive her parents and trust the Lord in her situation. 

A young man on the Ranger team had made some decisions at camp that summer and was burdened to continue to have victory. He talked with Alex, the Ranger team captain, about not wanting to fall to peer pressure. This was key because the guys in this school had been locked down in making decisions. He ended up being the only guy to stand up and speak up about what God had done in his life. He gave a testimony on Friday:

“We came to this Christian school because we didn’t want to go to public school…So here I never really made any friends so I gave into peer pressure a lot…So what God’s talking to me about is to stop giving into peer pressure and just stay firm.”

During the chapel invitation on Wednesday, a young man came forward and talked with Jeremiah, the Marine team captain. He needed to get honest with his parents about some failure. Jeremiah encouraged him that God wanted to use him, but he first needed to be a clean vessel. After taking that step, he took another step of faith and invited his football team at the local public school. Many of them came to the rally nights, and several got saved including his atheist friend!

A young lady responded on Wednesday to the chapel message on bitterness. Her birth mom had been very abusive, and several foster homes had continued that abuse. Carissa, the Marine co-captain, encouraged her that God works everything together for good even when it doesn’t make sense. She decided to forgive these abusers and even wanted to call her biological mom to tell her she forgave her. She prayed, “Thank you Jesus for dying on the cross. Thank you that you know how it feels to be abused.” 

Annaleese recruited two girls in Walmart with their dad on Tuesday. They came that next night to the war and brought two friends. They enjoyed the competition and all responded to the invitation. Two were saved that night and one got her assurance settled. 

There was a young lady who attended the evening war nights that had gotten saved three years ago at the War. She was very encouraged with what God had done in her life since that point and testified on Friday at the campfire service: 

“I got saved at the War of Special Forces three years ago… I grew up in a very secular household and from when I was four to eleven some bad things were happening to me…and I just didn’t understand why God would ever put me through that…I just had so much anger in my heart…My brother…went to the War of Special Forces in 2020. He got saved there and I remember him coming home and he was like…you have to go next year…I ended up going…Thursday night Dr. Van Gelderen was preaching about God’s love and how God sometimes puts us through things we don’t understand …that was the first time I ever heard the Word of God being preached…the next night…he was preaching about hell and I just did not want to go there…so I ended up giving my life to Christ that night…and this year at the War of Special Forces, it’s just been a huge encouragement in my spiritual life and just seeing everyone get saved.”