The War was at Greenwood Village Baptist Church a year ago for the first time. Their youth pastor, Will Cover, was excited about having us back and seeing the Lord do a lasting work in hearts.
Our week began with somewhat of an unusual spiritual heaviness and lethargy. After a day or two of confusion and dryness, our team recognized the hiss of the serpent and asked God for specific deliverance from his devices. An obvious lift occurred in our spirits. Following this breakthrough, God began to do a real work, as you shall see by the following accounts.
On the first night, God moved in the preaching and a number of young people came back in the invitation. One young lady spoke through tears as she told me what God had done for her moments before. In an unexpected turn of events later that night, her mom went into the hospital with chest pains and vomiting. She was kept in the hospital throughout the next day, but insisted that she and her brother go to The War, even though she was still being hospitalized. That next night, her brother got up at the very end before the invitation and tried to walk out. My wife stopped him and encouraged him to stay as the service was almost over. He stayed and ended up responding in the invitation. He was under conviction and I believe that is why he tried to walk away. Monday night, this same young man brought a friend and encouraged him to respond to the invitation, he even walked him back to the counseling room! His friend was saved as well that night.
The final night, two young men walked in after the competitions were over. They got some food and stayed for the inside competition. Humanly, when the young people have not been involved in the competitions, it is hard for them to be as “plugged in” to the inside events. Even so, one of them responded in the invitation and the other one responded to one of our team member’s one-on-one confrontation afterward. Both of them were saved! Before they left, one of them said to their team captain, “You know, I know this sounds bad, but we really only came for the food, but am I sure glad we came now!”
Pastor Cover has his hands full in following up with the 24 young people that trusted Christ this past week, but he is bound and determined to do everything he can to reach out to these young people and their families. To God’s glory, even already, many of those who were saved expressed interest in discipleship and in attending church. Praise the Lord!
Also, the competitions were close all week long! Navy won the first night by just a couple thousand points. The second night, Army barely won the night, surpassing Navy by 800 points. However, on the final night right before the final score was posted, the score was a dead tie. There was only two more opportunities to be awarded points for the entire week. Each team had two opportunities to guess a digit that was going to be in their final score. A correct guess would get them 500 points added to their score. Navy got both of their guesses correct, but Army only got one out of the two right, which secured a Navy victory at 49,300 to 48,800. Unbelievable!!
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