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me up on the inside. It was just me backsliding, and that’s what caused me to drift.” Wolford recalled how the Lord was with him during his dangerous assignments in places like Bosnia and Kosovo, where his life was always in danger. “And now that I look back, I think it was God’s grace, every bit of the way, that kept me safe, kept me through it all, and brought me back to the right place,” he said. And Wolford has stayed in the right place ever since, fin - ishing his 20 years of service while taking 31classes to complete his MDiv in three and a half years. He retired from the Army one month after he graduated from Liberty University. “I was looking to be a pastor,” he said. “I couldn’t find anything.” Again, an unexpected encounter with SCBO Revitalization Consultant, Mark Jones, pointed him in the right direction. “I ran into Mark Jones,” Wolford said. “He said the Special Forces way in the church is to be a church planter. And I thought, ‘I want to be special forces too in the church.’ So I hooked up with him, and I planted the church, and I started it from scratch in 2012.” Looking back, Wilford continues to see God’s hand in the story of his life, recognizing how his Special Forces train- ing and experience prepared him for his role as a pastor. “That time in Special Forces, you see really crazy scenar-
ios, and we run into that in ministry. I am comfortable in those crazy areas. I don’t panic. I don’t get upset, and I’m able to stay calm,” he said. “I think sometimes people in those scenarios need some- body to be calm, to be guiding, to be comforting, to be listening, to understand them, to pray for them, and to have the base always in Jesus Christ and the gospel. It’s a beautiful place. You’re able to share the truth with them and help them move forward, get out of the troubles, and see that there’s real hope in life. That’s something so spe- cial.”
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