About 5 months ago Scott McChrystal approached me about speaking to a church which would have about 300 soldiers in the congregation. How could I turn something like that down.
On thursday my wife and I were able to do one of our favorite things together which is flying. After arriving in Atlanta, Ga. we found ourselves checking into an amazing Hyatt in Buckhead. We spent our first two days sightseeing the city which included World of Coca-Cola, The Bodies Exhibit, and the National Infantry Museum in Columbus, GA.
We then found ourselves greeting 300 basic training soldiers at Evangel Temple Assemblies of God. I shared my testimony with the soldiers and about 500 other congregants and had a response of around 100 soldiers say they wanted God to help them with their walk by finding an accountability partner and another 60 make a decision to accept Jesus into their lives. PRAISE GOD!!! After the service the soldiers were served a steak meal and an amazing dessert buffet. The dessert buffet might not be a big deal to the average person but trust me to a basic training soldier who hasn't had a dessert in 9 weeks that's huge. During the dinner I had several soldiers approach me to say how much their life had been changed by the message they had heard. One soldier in particular asked me to pray for him and his family he joined the Army at the age of 39 to support his family. Please continue with me in prayer for the very soldiers that received this message, for 25% of the deaths in the current war are infantry soldiers and that is who these guys are.
I want to say a special thanks to the following people for making this trip possible: God for being so faithful in giving me the desires of my heart which is to minister to soldiers; my amazing wife for the encouragement; @thefields church, @tspencer, @philipkousma, @allisonaaronb, @mattpolites, and @evancourtney for the prayer; www.etcolumbus.org for inviting my wife and I; Scott McChrystal for being my booking agent, mentor, and amazing friend; and all my other friends and family not mentioned above.
Monday, June 29, 2009
4 comments:
Praise God! We are rejoicing with you! What an incredible opportunity and God used you in incredible ways! That is so awesome Blake! We will be praying for these 300 soldiers. We call them 300 but God calls them each by name! We pray God continues to grant you the desires of your heart for even more opportunities to minister to soldiers. Love you guys!
Ash and Jer
So proud of you and your willingness to share your story.
-Travis
Thanks for the shoutout - We're proud of you guys! Keep following your dreams.
-Matt
Blake,
My son, PFC Matt Zimmer, was one of those soldiers. I spoke with him today and it was the highlight of his week. You had a huge impression on him and speaking from a mom's heart, my words here cannot express to you how blessed my husband and I feel about what you're doing. He said that he went forward for prayer. Matt left us mid-April to fulfill a calling from God (his words) and we've supported his decision 100%.
May God bless you and your wife as you continue to support and speak to our soldiers. I'm grateful for the people who say they will pray for all 300 of those guys -- now they know at least one of those names. I'm humbled and feel truly blessed that you serve God in this way. I hope you know what this means to many parents. Matt put down his phone to go get a magazine that had your name on it, so I could google your name. That's how I found this site. Truly, you blessed his life and your testimony had a far reaching impact on many young men that day! Matt told me there were lots of tears from these brave men.
With respect and appreciation for what you do, Rhonda
p.s. Matt did also mention the delicious steak dinner! ;)
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