Esther, the Seal co-captain, was out recruiting in a neighborhood on Tuesday afternoon when she found a bunch of teens at a house. The entire family was very welcoming to her invitation. Four young people from that house came to the War night on Wednesday, and it was exciting to see them get plugged in throughout the night. During the invitation, they all responded to the Gospel message, but the mom was not happy that things were taking so long. She pulled them all from the counseling room before they could make a decision. Although it looked very unlikely for them to come back, they came again on Friday and even brought a friend with them. Thomas, the Seal team captain, was able to lead one of them to the Lord, along with the friend they brought.
Thomas was walking to meet with teens at dismissal Tuesday afternoon when a young man approached him about the testimony he had given and the chapel message. With tears in his eyes, the young man opened up about his own struggles. That evening, the young man spoke with his parents, and together they began taking steps forward to forsake the sin and live in the light. Later, the teen received further counseling from the team and publicly testified before the other students of the deliverance Christ had wrought in his heart. Here is his testimony:
“I just wanted to share that…today it really helped me…because I haven’t trusted God fully, and that’s what I want to do with my life. I want to trust God, I want to put Him first, I want to live for Him, I want to give Him everything. I don’t want anything to be in between me and the Lord, and so this morning…it was pounding in my heart that I needed to stand, that I needed to go out, I needed to give my life to the Lord…I needed to get things right with Him.”
There were several young men on the Marine team that Titus, the Marine team captain, had been burdened for. A couple of them opened up about viewing issues, and they took the step of obedience to tell their parents about their sin. Although he seemed checked out at the beginning of the week, one senior guy on Titus’s team had a really good connection with Titus. God worked in his heart, and he got open and honest about some of his struggles. Titus was able to counsel him further, and since our team has left, has stayed connected to him. A couple weeks later, on an off-week, our team was able to go back and visit the young people at Vandalia Christian School. Titus was able to encourage the senior guy on his team.
God used team meetings on Thursday to work in many hearts. There was not a big response, but our team was convinced that God was working. One girl from the Seal team responded and was completely broken. Esther counseled her for a long time, gave her truth, and walked her through steps she needed to take. This girl was ready to be done with her sin. She went home and told her parents. She gave this powerful testimony on Friday night:
“Some of you are probably shocked that I’m up here because I’m really shy, most of the time, but…God has taught me some things this week…one of the things I learned was that people’s opinions do not matter! At all!…the only thing that matters is what God thinks about you. So that is something that I am really taking personally, because I have cared so long about what other people think of me…This week has also changed me because I don’t have the best past, I’ve made some bad decisions, and I came clean about it to my parents Thursday…I told them about it and everything that had happened…Another thing is what they talked about today and that is self-dependence instead of God-dependence…I am done relying on myself to do stuff and I’m starting to rely on Him to help me get through stuff and I’m trusting Him. The last thing I’m going to say is that I hid for a really long time all the stuff that I did…whenever I told my parents the stuff that I’d done, I felt so free. It’s like a big burden had been lifted off of me and it was amazing…and I’ll never forget that…”
Here are some other testimonies from the week:
“I hate talking in front of people so, I’ll make it quick. On Wednesday night I made a decision, and, a decision that will change me…forever…I got saved on Wednesday, I don’t regret it at all…I mean, it hasn’t even been a week yet and I already know things have been lifted off of my shoulders. I don’t have a lot of stress any more…it’s a life that you want and it’s not something you’re ever gonna regret.”
“This week has really changed my life…I used to fight every day with my brother…he would just not do something his mother told him to do and I would just scream at him. God really put this on my heart…so Wednesday I went home and I apologized to him, and today’s message this morning helped a lot. The Lord put stuff on my heart that I never felt before.”
“I’m up here to talk about anger…I spent so much of my life being angry at everybody. You know, you don’t even do nothing to me, and I’m angry just cuz I feel like it. I’m tired of being that way…I’m so tired of being angry…It’s about dependence on God, it’s not about dependence on yourself…If I have been angry at you or said something mean just because I was angry, you know you didn’t do anything, I do apologize sincerely because God has worked in me this week.”
“Recently I’ve really been struggling with an eating disorder and…they said in chapel yesterday, that my body is God’s temple and not mine. So, everything that I do to my body to just like fit in and feel accepted like isn’t worth it and it doesn’t matter because it doesn’t matter what I look like to everyone else, it matters what I look like to God, and not thinking that I’m good enough and people not thinking that I’m good enough doesn’t matter, only what God thinks matters.”
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