Firsts can be exciting! So it was for our first War of Special Forces for a home school group at a local church. Our team had a late cancellation, and Patuxent Baptist Church was very gracious to offer us the opportunity to come there and conduct the War of Special Forces for their home school group. We had a good number of home schoolers each day. On Monday and Tuesday, we did our “chapel” in the evening, so we had some from the public school as well. The rally nights were well attended with both young people from the community and church. There were several saved over the three nights. We all enjoyed working with the youth pastor, Tim Tullos and Pastor Rick Conner. God is working at PBC!
Titus, the Marine team captain, was out recruiting on Monday when he talked to a baseball player and his dad in the park. Come to find out, his dad was the baseball coach! The coach invited Titus to come back on Tuesday to talk to the entire team, which was no doubt a divine appointment. On Wednesday night, the coach’s son and his friend came out and got really involved throughout the night. God moved in both their hearts during the message, and they both responded during the invitation. It was so exciting to see them both trust Christ as their Savior that night!
Esther, the Seal co-captain, was out recruiting on Monday with a group of teens from the youth group. They were walking through the library, trying to find a teen who had walked in there. They could not find him, but they found another teen. This guy used to attend the church, but hadn’t been there in a few years. He was actually the son of one of the faithful church members at Patuxent Baptist. Although he did not show much enthusiasm, he came to all three War nights. By Thursday night, he got very involved in the competition and even started opening up to spiritual things. Several church people were encouraged to see this young man come and get reconnected with the church.
On Tuesday evening, the team was pretty low on number of recruits, so some of them went out to get more recruits. Because of the short amount of time, Esther only got to talk to one family. She got the mom’s number, but she said they’d only be able to come one night. The mom brought her three teen children the first night, and they really enjoyed the evening. They actually ended up coming out to the other War nights, and two of them got saved that week.
There was a group of girls on the Marine team who were very zealous about the youth outreach. They went out extra times on their own to recruit teens in their bus areas. They found a group of guys on Wednesday, who didn’t seem very interested, but their mom brought them each of the nights. Several of these guys responded during the invitation and got saved on Wednesday. When the mom came to pick them up, she came inside to find her boys. Abigail gave her the Gospel as the boys were getting counseled. She too got saved.
One young man came on Wednesday night who was invited by some of our team’s recruits. God was clearly working in his heart, but he did not respond during the invitation. Titus talked to him after the service and saw that God was working. He brought him into the counseling room and led him to the Lord.
On Thursday night, Isaac led a young man to the Lord. He was so excited about being saved that when he walked out of the church, he had a big smile on his face. One of the men in the church asked him, “Why are you smiling so big?” With a big smile on his face, the young man answered, “I’m going to Heaven now!” It was so thrilling to see the joy of that young man’s salvation.
Two girls from the church’s Spanish ministry came for the first time on Friday night. After the invitation was given, the youth pastor gave some final words. He asked everyone who knew they were going to heaven to raise their hand. These two girls did not raise their hand, but it was clear that God was convicting them. As everyone was leaving, I asked them a few questions. A church lady and another teen girl from the Spanish ministry took the two visitors into a side room where they went through the Gospel with them. That night, both of those girls got saved and were so excited about it.
We praise the Lord for the souls saved this week!
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