Student Testimonies
Stephan Rivero
So let me tell you about my year in the war college. In the beginning, I knew that it was going to be a tough year living away from my friends and my family. I just went because I knew that God wanted me to come but I didn’t know why. I really struggle with homework because I can be really lazy and I can tell that my teachers were pretty upset when I didn’t give it to them on time. But through this year I learned responsibilities and giving my all to Christ, including giving him my mind by studying and establishing my faith. Beforem I didn’t like to read, but now I read books without someone telling me to. I have learned so many things that can help me in the world and in my spiritual life. Some of the things that I learned to practice and to live by are based on love. Loving God which results in loving and serving others. Also through this year God has taught me to be obedient and to trust in and to know that He is a sovereign God that loves us and knows what He’s doing. As a result of this year, I learned how to know God’s will and to do walk in it. Hopefully soon I will be leaving to go to Venezuela to work with The Salvation Army and I know that this is what God wants me to do and I’m so sure about it because I feel so much peace in it. I am so excited to go and teach others what I have learned this year by my words and my action. I thank God so much for the heart of the leaders that made The War College Chicago happen and I know that God will bless them in full.
Amber Ulery
My year at the War College was a time of intense learning. It’s life changing and I’ve never thought that I could grow so much. It’s hard to explain really. God is so great and beyond our understanding. He has given me so much passion and I feel like everything in me is different. Through the year I have learned to put my focus on God and keep it there. I have become disciplined in my walk with the Lord. When we walk consistently with God we don’t trip up as much and we learn to love the things that He loves. Our lives are meant to be lived for the glory of God! Let us walk with God! In his exact footsteps! It’s a tough year but completely worth it. I would suggest it to anyone. Ephesians 4:17 – 5:21
Neisy Castillo
In the year I have spend at The War College I learn to love God. For most of my life I’ve pushed God away, he always wanted to be part of my life and instead I always put a boyfriend in God’s place. When I came to The War College I just wanted a change. My life had gone from bad to worse and I just wanted to run. I always thought God didn’t care about me and that’s why my life, as I saw it, was so difficult. But here, I found out that this was all a lie, and that God really has so many plans for me and my future. One of the first words I received from God during term one was that I would become a “mother to the motherless.” And I believe God is going to use me to reach children that have never been loved. This year as we spoke over each other’s lives, I received a vision of me dressed in a raggedy dress, all torn up and dirty, and Jesus came and put new clothes on me. He dressed me as a bride and showed me how He really sees me.” Meghan L said to me, “God wants you to grow in intimacy with Him. He calls you to rise up and step out of the sin and death that has consumed you.” And that is exactly what He did for me this year; He made me a Holy vessel for his work. I believe that if you want to grow in Christ and love God and others, the War College experience can provide you with the space to do that.
Abby “Stabby” Hartman
When God told me He wanted me at The War College, He said two things: I’m going to make you fearless! and You are My Faithful One! I was so excited about being made fearless because I’ve struggled with fear for most of my life and I hate it. I hate being afraid! But I almost flat out refused to accept God calling me His “Faithful One.” I wanted to be faithful, but I didn’t see myself that way. All I could see was my faults. For that matter, I wanted to be a leader, but I never really thought I was one. I wanted to have peace and joy instead of anxiety and fear and (more recently) depression, but I couldn’t ever seem to figure out how to get them…and I tried so hard. God so gently insisted that day, though, that I am His Faithful One.
I am… God has used The War College this past year to show me that I am a leader, I do (finally!) have peace and joy that cannot be compromised by anything and I am God’s Faithful One. The victories I‘ve gained during this time are not easy to explain. They’ve come through trials. It’s funny…I knew and I dove into the fact coming in that, in order to grow, my time here would be difficult and painful…I had no idea. But I thank God and rejoice that it happened the way it did. James 1:2-4 says it perfectly: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
One thing that I was severely lacking when I started my year at The War College was a really good understanding of just how important community is. But now it’s deeply ingrained in me that community is essential to a life in Christ. I don’t know what condition I would be in right now if I hadn’t been here, surrounded by these people, while my world was being turned upside down this year. One of the best gifts God has given us is other people and I, for one, don’t want to miss out on any of that gift!
As for me: I will rejoice in my weaknesses for God’s grace is sufficient for me because His strength is made perfect in my weakness! (2Cor 12)
Ian Smith
My year in the War College was the most intense and beautiful year of my life. It started because of a dream, a dream I still have about having a life that is dedicated to love. I think that as you venture through the War College the one thing that you will truly find is that it allows you so much time to simply have your eyes on the beauty of the kingdom of God. Jesus in his preaching encounters these people who say things like “let me bury my father first”, and replies that no person who puts their hand to the plow and turns away is worthy of the kingdom.
I am increasingly convinced that this is because until you saturate your life in that life that Jesus calls us too we can’t see the beauty of it. In my time in the War College what I found is that Kingdom of God advancing everywhere, and we in great joy get to see it grow. You see it in things like people who literally have nothing sharing with you, growing things together and eating together. It’s because the kingdom comes in the shameful places, the places you would never see it. Like the parable says, we in great joy then love to and desire so much to sell all we have to see this, to possess it. In the end if this is what you desire to see, to fall in love with, listen to the call of Christ. The same Christ who has no place to rest his head, whom we are called to follow.
I think that my most memorable experience from the war college happened on the street one day. I saw a man who looked pretty high on heroin; I stopped to see if I needed to call an ambulance. Instead of screaming at me, he turned and prayed for me for an hour straight. Another time a man wanted to show how much he cared about my room-mate and I and he came and dropped one of his most prized possessions with us. Where you seek out God, who in Matthew 25 says in the face of the poor, he seeks us back just because of how much he loves us. How many times have you said to yourself that you wished you could share some of the burdens of those who are so hurt by this world, by the suffering and poor? I know I wished that so often. But living in the same place as your neighbors, you share food, you share life, and it’s real refreshing. It’s real beautiful as well to live a simple life, to not worry about possessions and be contented.
It was a hard year as well, full of hardships that happened personally and spiritually. It caused me to not to look to my own interests, but to that of my brothers and sisters. Living in such close proximity to one another, it is hard, but you fall in love with them and community. They truly become family, brothers and sisters. That caused me to learn to take the plank out of my own eye first. It also caused me to learn disciplined. That if we follow the path of those who paved the road before us, people like the early Salvationists, or the early Christian desert fathers, they disciplined themselves so as to taste the sweetness and the peace that comes as a result. In the war college, discipline is taught to you, but the sweetness comes with it.
The reason that I was motivated to go to the War College at all was the community around me, people who discipled me like Josh Polanco. He taught me and encouraged me and was even there from the very minute I got saved. From then on I was at Blue Island, I loved the community, and I love the neighborhood. These are people who honestly cared for me and cultivated my love for Christ and for others. That is what is going to happen when living with them.
In the end be prepared; be prepared to fall in love. To fall in love with the kingdom of God, with your neighbors, with the life of simplicity, and with God himself.
Meghan Labracque
When I went to the War College I thought I knew exactly what I was getting myself into, sure enough I soon realized that I had no idea. Throughout the year I was challenged more than I could have ever anticipated. A year ago I would have never imagined being able to do the things I had while at the War College. Before the War College I struggled with depression and anxiety and through stepping out of my comfort zone and throwing away the boundaries I had put on myself I was healed! The War College was a tough year and I was stretched beyond what I could have ever expected, but I would never trade this experience for anything else. God used this year to heal me and to show me what it means to live for Him and not myself.
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