I really felt God was blessing me and saying it’s all right and it’s time to get back on the front lines.
–Mela Carroll – Tustin Ranch

For me, personally, I was actually told to slow down, because I’m a new Christian–only 10 months–and I’m so gung-ho, I’ve got the opposite problem. I’m saying, ‘Yes, yes, yes!’ And God’s saying, ‘Wait, wait, wait.’ So, I had the total opposite to what everyone else, I’m sure, experienced. Maybe next year God will be ready for me!
–Naomi Lee – Australia

I think, mainly, in all my life to stop living such a life of timidity, and become a more bold person for Christ. And just try and break through my fears and not let my fears hold me back from anything.
–William Kumma – Pasadena
I’ve been to other conferences, in Australia, but none like this. I’m really hyped up to actually go back there and do it now.
–Adam Drury – Sydney, Australia

I was just really excited to meet and be around other Salvationists who were as eager for change as I was, and I saw the same eagerness in them. And to know that there were a lot more out there who still love the Army, and wanted to do something about changing it, and who wanted to just get to work.
–Steve Carroll – Boston, Mass.

I didn’t know what to expect. I just knew I was going to come home a different person. It reassured a lot of things in my wife’s and my life–our call for officership, and our giving up more of ourselves and letting God take control of our lives.
–Shawn Belanger – Manchester, Conn.

I had big expectations for the conference this year. I was really searching for where God wanted to take me–it’s kind of like a benchmark, now. EXtreme has become this bench mark where I can judge, year by year, where the Lord’s led me.

This year it really hit me that in order to affect the world as I want to affect it, I have to become what Phil, Russ and Campolo talked about. I have to do it totally the whole way, 100 percent. I’m determined that no one will be able to come and tell me that eXtreme was great, but what happened after it, because my life is going to be a testimony to that, I’m determined.

–Tom Freeman – Praiseworks – Tustin Ranch

I heard about eXtreme through some friends who lived down here, and they said it was absolutely going to be the life-changing experience that it was. But I expected it to be pretty Salvation-Army-conservative still.

Instead, I found all of my personal views and beliefs were really affirmed. I really felt like God was speaking to me. Definitely on a personal level, but on the larger, Salvation Army level, I felt like I was making a turnaround from rejecting the SA as an institution to really wanting to embrace it and make changes to it.
–Bethel Cope – Puyallup, Wash.