The Torres family's prayers were answered
when Elmer's dad became a Christian.
Houston to Waxahachie, Elmer
stared out the minivan window
and thought to himself, Why
am I here? Why am I going to
this camp? This is not me!
Imagine Elmer's surprise
when, at the first meeting
that night and at subsequent
meetings throughout the
week, the question posed re-
peatedly was: "What are you
doing here?" Through this
theme the Holy Spirit was at
work on Elmer all week.
"By the end of the week, my mind
was so cleared and my burdens
seemed to be gone," Elmer says.
"It was the happiest week of my life."
Then came Sunday. Elmer listened
while the morning speaker, Major
Ann Penhale, spoke right to the
young man's heart.
"When she gave the invitation,
I knew I should go up and give my
life to Jesus, but -- there again -- I
started making excuses," he says.
In fact, Elmer made a deal with himself.
If she offers three chances to come forward,
I'll go,
he bargained.
"Major Ann said, `You need to come to the altar
and meet the Lord here.' Chance number one,"
Elmer explains. Then she gave a second call moments
later. Two down, one to go, he thought. To Elmer's
great relief, Major Ann began to close the meeting.
Maybe I'm in the clear. Maybe I'm right after all
and this Christian stuff is just not for me!
Then she
said, "But I still feel there is one more who needs to
come forward!"
That was all Elmer needed to hear. The next thing
he knew, he was at the altar, weeping and asking Christ
into his life. Elmer
surrendered his will
to the Lord then and
there.
When Elmer re-
turned home to the
same hostile environ-
ment, he began think-
ing of himself as a
"light" the Lord could
use to win his father
to Christ.
"I kept asking my
comrades at the corps to keep
praying for my family -- especially
for my dad's salvation," he says.
After two years of prayer and
witnessing to his father, to every-
one's shock, Elmer's father an-
nounced that he was going to the
corps one Sunday morning "to check
out this Salvation Army and the
captains" he had heard so much
about. He kept coming, too. When Di-
visional Men's Camp rolled around,
father and son attended. Elmer's fa-
ther went to the altar that Sunday
and was won into the Kingdom!
"The Lord has given me an opportunity to do what I
love to do -- talking to people and sharing the love of
Christ," Elmer says, beaming.
The 21-year-old is now the SAMS (Salvation Army
Mission Specialist) for his corps, and is waiting for
God's further direction. He helps with corps transpor-
tation, teaches a Sunday School class, participates in
prayer meetings and is a member of an Evangelism
Team that ventures into the neighborhood every Sat-
urday afternoon.
It was all thanks to an Angel Tree sponsorship for
his family, and doughnuts!
How I Met
the Army
............
mer
dow
y
to
nt
-
u
at
i
s
t
t
t
s
m
in
"li
us
to
d
t
41
The War Cry | DECEMBER 2014
nd
fe."
d
r
y
I
th himself.
f
d
c
p
fo
w
on
no
cor
out
cap
abo
visio
fath
ther
d
i t th
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