Focus on the Family Broadcast

Preview:

Chad Robichaux: God has a plan and purpose for your life. You have breath in your lungs, God could use you. It’s gonna take boldness, and it’s gonna take a faith, that knowing that regardless of your situation, regardless how you feel, emotionally, right now, God will use you.

End of Preview

John Fuller: If you need encouragement to get through a difficult situation in your life, today’s Focus on the Family broadcast is for you. Stay with us. Your host is Focus president, and author, Jim Daly, and I’m John Fuller.

Jim Daly: Uh, John, today’s guest is Chad Robichaux, and he’s a former Marine with Special Forces who did eight tours in Afghanistan. Eight tours, I mean, man, that is amazing. He’s the founder of the Mighty Oaks Foundation that serves military veterans, and he recently was honored by Glenn Beck, with the Bonhoeffer Angel Award, which is given to people who speak for those without a voice, and act in the face of evil. And you’ll hear how Chad did exactly that, today.

John: It’s a great presentation from Chad Robichaux, speaking to an enthusiastic crowd of students at Liberty University, on today’s episode of Focus on the Family.

Chad: Uh, I wanna start off with a story from one of my times earlier in Afghanistan, I was a Force Recon Marine, uh, I come from a long generation of military members in my family, back 80 years, World War II, Korea. In the Marine Corps, my family has 53 years of service in the Marine Corps. Uh, my father served in Viet- Vietnam.

Audience: (clapping)

Chad: Thank you. Uh, I was a Force Recon Marine, I did eight deployments to Afghanistan, and both my sons, were- were Marines. Uh, so, for me, uh, I was, as a Force Recon Marine, I got to go- on what’s called a JSOC Task Force, a Joint Special Operations Command Task Force, and I had a very unique job. Uh, my job was the AFO, and a lot of you may not understand what AFO is, the best way I know how to describe it is kind of like, is being undercover, like a cop, but there’s no undercover in the military. But if there was, this would be- that’s what AFO is.

You get to, uh, work with local nationals, uh, for me, I got to work with the Afghans, and usually wi- with one other team member, or just with local nationals. You get to grow a big, giant beard, and, uh … live- li- live like the locals, and eat- eat like locals. I loved that job. And, uh, for- for me, like, living with the Afghan people and understanding who the Afghan people were, I became very close to the Afghans I worked with.

One Afghan in particular, his name was Aziz, and Aziz and I, uh, not only worked together as my interpreter, but he became my friend. When I was out on operations, Aziz, wa- went out with me, the two of us. We went out as- not on operations, I was at home, I sl- I lived with his family, I played soccer with his kids, I ate dinner with his family. He became very close to me. In fact, uh, he saved my life, on multiple times. We became very bonded.

This, uh, particular day I want to tell you about, myself and Aziz, and a- a friend of mine who’s a Navy SEAL, the three of us were in a vehicle called a Toyota Prada, which is like a Toyota 4Runner, and we were- we were driving in the eastern side of the capital city of Kabul, which is, uh, on a road called Jalalabad Road. And as we were on Jalalabad Road, I looked in my rear-view mirror, and I seen a- a vehicle full of guys that looked like the Taliban. It was a high lux pickup truck, and it had a bunch of guys with like, big giant beards, tribal clothing, they all had AK47 assault rifles, and even had a RPG, a rocket propelled grenade launcher. And, uh, they looked like they were up to no good. And there was a lot of ’em in this truck. We had a joke. Uh, how many Taliban can you fit in a pickup truck? So, the answer is, one more. Right?

Audience: (laughing)

Chad: They pile in the truck, they’re hanging out the sides. Usually, there’s one like, sitting on the roof. And I’m like, “Man, I hope these guys aren’t following me, because, you know, I’m …” I didn’t want any trouble. And so, I did a technique I learned in training, called deviating your route, so I’m on Jalalabad Road, and I make a right, and start to make the block, and they continue to follow us. When I got back to my original route and turned right again, uh, I realized they were, in fact, following me, and then- and what had- what had also confirmed to them was, that I knew they were following me.

So, it started a pretty aggressive pursuit, they charged- started trying to run us off the road, and, uh, and I made it to this major intersection called Massoud Circle, and when I got to Massoud Circle, all of the sudden the traffic began to congest and stop, and I didn’t really have anywhere to go. Somehow, that truck full of Taliban guys got up in front of us, about 20 yards, and blocked us in, and created a roadblock situation. I remember, a few guys jumped out of the back of the vehicle, but probably most- my most vivid memory was the passenger stepping out. You could tell he was in charge. As he stepped out of the vehicle, he turned around and shut the door behind him, he was really calm, and cool.

He turned and looked at me, he had his AK47 in one hand, and with the other hand, he gave me a signal to stop my vehicle. A really bad situation. In my training and experience, this is called being stuck on the X. Right? The X is the ambush site. It’s a kill zone. A couple of rules you learn in training about the X, is rule number one, you have to be able to recognize that you’re on the X. Right? You gotta know you’re in a bad situation. Rule number two, it’s pretty easy, you have to get off the X. You gotta move, or something bad’s gonna happen.

And, uh, I’m so thankful for military training, ’cause I actually trained for this scenario before. It’s a roadblock situation, you execute a ramming technique. I- I did it before, and tons of times in trainings, and so I hit the gas, I aim my vehicle towards theirs, and probably one of my favorite memories of Afghanistan is when I smashed into that vehicle, was little Taliban guys flying out the back of that truck.

Audience: (Laughing)

Chad: A few of ’em jumped right before I hit it. (laughs)

Audience: (clapping)

Chad: That truck spun out of the way, and- but there was one more obstacle. As that truck spun out the way, there was a- there was a pathway, kind of like this aisle right here. Like, a perfect pathway to get off the intersection.

But there was one more obstacle, there was like, this 100-year-old policeman, and he had his perfect military uniform on. If you’ve ever been to a third world country, you know, traffic cops? Like, on intersections, they like, own that intersection. That’s their whole life. And he was like, proud of this intersection, he’s blowing his whistle, he’s like, taking charge, he’s telling me to stop, and I wasn’t gonna stop, I was gonna run him over to get outta there. And when he saw I was gonna run him over, he jumped on my team. He actually blew his whistle, gave me a thumbs up, and smiled at me, and started stopping cars, and directing traffic, and got us off that intersection, and probably saved our lives that day.

So, you know, I don’t know what those bad guys wanted on Massoud Circle that day, uh, but I know this, if we would have stopped on Massoud Circle, if we would have stopped on that X, we probably would have put up a heck of a fight, but the truth is, we- we likely would have been killed or taken. I’m here this morning to tell you, you don’t have to go to Afghanistan, to be stuck on the X. There’s gonna be times in our life, in all of our life, that we’re gonna find ourselves stuck on the X. Maybe it’s a ambush in Afghanistan, or maybe it’s sin in our life, maybe it’s an addiction. Maybe it’s a passivity, or fear. Or- or just a hardship, and a- a time of depression, a time of hardship in your life.

It could be many things, the question in life isn’t if you’re gonna find yourself on the X, ’cause you will, I promise you. It’s when you do, what are you gonna do? Now, in my life and experience, and- and the work that I do now, working with thousands of military warriors, what I really discovered is, it really comes down to one thing. And that’s a choice. A choice that we make, to decide if we’re gonna stay on that X, or we’re gonna step forward into life, and promise that God has for us. And God does have a promise for us. He didn’t just create us, but he created us, each and every one of us for a purpose.

Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord. “Plans to prosper you, not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope, and to give you a future.” That promise that God has is not contingent upon the hardships of your life. Hardships will come. But what that promise means is, when those hardships come, when you find yourself on the X, if you trust and believe in God’s promise, you’re gonna have the ability to get off the X, and to move forward. If I can fast forward a few years for me, from that moment, in, uh- and, uh- in Kabul, Afghanistan, I came home from my eighth and last deployment, and I had found myself on the X, again.

This time, however, I didn’t follow those two simple rules. I didn’t recognize that I was on the X. I probably didn’t want to, ’cause of my pride, or shame. And because of that, I couldn’t make that second decision to get off the X. And I chose, uh, emphasize, I chose to stay there for a period of almost three years, and it almost cost me everything in my life. It began for me, with anger and frustration from my time in Afghanistan, from burying 15 friends, and, uh, and seeing the atrocities that the Taliban inflicted on the- on the Afghan people. The oppression of the people, the stuff that would happen, the sexual assault to little boys and little girls. I just really began to have a lot of hate in me, and that frustration came home with me.

I became a- a really, a tyrant to my family. Really a- uh, verbally abusive to my family, yelling at my wife, and children. Slamming doors, breaking things, just- being just a- not a very good person. Eventually, that anger and frustration manifested, for me, in physiological symptoms, where my arms would go numb, my face would go numb. I’d feel like my throat was swelling shut, and I- I couldn’t breathe. Uh, this is- these are signs of panic attacks.

I didn’t want to get help, or reach out to anyone, because I figured the- the Special Operations guys on my team would think I was weak. Like, I … the only way I really know how to explain the level of panic attacks I was having, is if you were in a swimming pool, chained to the bottom, and you were drowning to death. Imagine the level of panic you would have, seeing the surface of the water, and you just want one breath of air. But it never comes, but you also never die. You’re in that state of panic, 24/7. That’s the level of panic I was in. And the medicine they gave me made me feel worse. I thought it was gonna kill me, and it- some medicine made me feel like a zombie. I didn’t want the medicine.

I was also, felt ashamed, because for me, I had worked my whole life to get where I was. It was like if I played football, and worked my whole life, from Little League all the way up to the NFL, and made it to the Super Bowl, which would never happen, ’cause I’m five foot three, but you get the point, right? (laughs) I- I worked my whole life to get there, and when it came to the game-winning play, I had failed. I was ashamed, I was embarrassed, and I felt like I could not be used, moving forward.

And my wife and my counselor tried to find something that would snap me out of this situation, so they talked me into getting one of those res- those mats, and doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. And when I got on those mats for the first time, I felt like I found a cure, because you can’t think about, um, Afghanistan, and train, or your buddy’s gonna beat you up. Right? You have to be focused. But you can take something that’s good for you, and you could abuse it. Like a medicine for being sick, and you could abuse it, and that’s what I did with Jiu Jitsu.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love Jiu Jitsu. Uh, I- I’d used it like climbing in a bottle of pills, or alcohol. That’s what I did with Jiu Jitsu. I never got better. And, uh, and I went in this three year downward spiral, which ended in me, uh, continuing to deal with depression, anxiety, panic attacks, anger towards my family, taken out on people I love most, ultimately ended in a- in a affair, on my family. And, uh, and me and my wife and kids sitting down and deciding we would divorce, and, uh, sell our home. We filed for divorce, we moved in two separate apartments for, uh, with 12-month leases, we were pretty committed to that. My wife had a very different reaction than me, she went into a church, and she began to pray for me.

You know, “God, let me see Chad the way you see Chad. Let me love Chad the way you love Chad. Let me forgive Chad the way you forgave Chad.” That’s how my wife would pray for me, when I was betraying my family. Meanwhile, I went to this apartment, I fought this big fight on- on, uh, Strikeforce on Showtime, about three months I was separated from my family, and when that fight was over, and I won this big fight, and showed- on Showtime, I found myself co- home in my apartment, by myself, and this thought came over me, of how- how much pain I brought my family through. And I- and I had this thought, that maybe my family would be sad without me, but they would be better off. Right? Maybe my family would be sad, but they’d be better off.

That same hopeless thought finds a home in the hearts of over 20 veterans every single day, and so many more outside the veteran community. In the last two years, if you don’t know, the National Suicide Hotline has been up 1000%. So if you’re feeling depressed, if you’re feeling hopeless, uh, you’re not alone. The world is in a very difficult place, right now. And you can’t do it alone. I tried to do it alone, and that thought came over me, and- and maybe that thought’s hit some of you. “Maybe my family would be sad without me, maybe my loved ones would be sad without me, but the world would be better off, if I just end it.” And I made a decision to take my life.

John: Wow. Chad Robichaux on today’s episode of Focus on the Family, and you can see how he became a force for good, when you read his book, Saving Aziz. Uh, we can send that book to you, when you make a donation of any amount to the ministry of Focus on the Family. We’ll include a free audio download of this entire presentation, when you request that book from us. So, donate and get those items, at focusonthefamily.com/broadcast, or call for details. 800, the letter A, and the word FAMILY. 800-232-6459. Let’s return now, to more from Chad Robichaux.

Chad: And when I put that gun to my head, I would see it play out, like, who was gonna find me? And the only person that had a key to my apartment at that time was my oldest son, Hunter, he was 13 years old at the time. And the thought of him coming to find me, was enough to pump the brakes. But I was in such a dark place, that the next day I was back at it, trying to build up the courage to do it again. And there was one morning, I was- I was in that closet, with a pistol in my hand, and I heard a knock on my door, and I wasn’t gonna answer it, but then when I heard my wife, Kathy’s voice, I panicked.

I went to the door, and I started a argument with her. I was so mad, this may sound weird, but I was so angry, that she was there, interrupting me, killing myself. And I began to yell at her, and berate her, and she’s not a very calm person, by the way, but in this moment, she was totally calm. And she- she asked me a question that radically changed my life. She asked me how I could do everything I did in the Marine Corps. She- we were married since- we met when we were 17 and 18. So she saw me become a Recon Marine, and go through that process.

If you don’t know, it’s 80% attrition rate, to make it in any Special Operations, that- she saw me do that. She’s like, “How could you do all of that, and when it comes to your family, you’ll quit?” And, uh, I don’t know about you guys, especially young men, but there’s no more soul cutting word to me, than to be called a quitter. And she was absolutely right. I’d been successful at professional things in my life, but when it came to the most important things, being a husband, being a father, being a young, 17-year-old kid that went through the Marine Corps bootcamp, and raised his hand, and said, “I want to do something important with my life.” I quit on all those things, including my own will to live. And I made a radical decision in that moment, to get back in the fight.

I didn’t know how to do it, but I knew I couldn’t do it alone, and I knew I couldn’t do it with the people I was surrounded by, and so I asked my wife “… if there’s someone at this church that you’re going to, that could help hold me accountable,” and I met a man named Steve Toth, who happened to be on call at the church. He wasn’t in the military, he wasn’t the MMA fighter, but as I met with him, he had all the perfect words to help me.

I had actually written a plan of how I was gonna fix my life, ’cause I was- wanted to … him to show it to my wife, to win her back, and it was- I was pretty impressed by it, and I was pretty- probably pretty bold, like, uh, like, confidently slid it over to him, like, “Hey, check this out, it’s really good. Show it to my wife.” And he put his hand on that plan, and he slid it back to me, and told me I was gonna fail. I remember being pretty offended, because I was like “… this is a pretty good plan. And you didn’t even look at it, and you’re telling me I’m gonna fail? What a jerk.” Right?

But, uh, he- he tapped on this paper, and, uh, he said something I will never forget. He said, “If this plan doesn’t have anything to do with your relationship with God, I’m not gonna waste your time, and I’m not gonna let you waste mine.” And so, I trusted Steve, and I surrendered my life to Christ,” and beyond that decision, Steve mentored me for an entire year, in biblical living. And what that really meant for me, uh, was really the things that I was dealing with, the anxiety, the panic, the anger. Those things didn’t just go away, but the way I responded to them was different, because now I had biblical principles, in order to make better decisions with.

And what I discovered through that process, which may seem pretty simple, but to me was pretty profound, was that all these bad things that happened to me, in Afghanistan, in my childhood, I shared some of them with you. All these things, as bad as they were, those things didn’t lead me to be in that closet with a pistol in my hand, at rock bottom. What led me there were the choices that I made in response to those things, and now I could intentionally choose differently, because of the truth of God’s word. And as I began to intentionally apply that in my life, I realized this cliché phrase, uh, but it’s so powerful. I didn’t have to let my past define my future. I could choose a different future, moving forward.

I didn’t have to remain in that brokenness. I could still do great things in this world, and now, for the kingdom of God. And, uh, and I made a re- a pretty profound decision to be intentional about that, and, uh, I started calibrating my life to that, and through that I found restoration in my brokenness, in my marriage, I’ve been married 26 years now. Amazing relationships with my three children. Thank you. I found hope again, and ultimately, I found what, I think all of us seek in life, and that’s purpose. We have to have purpose in life.

Regardless of what we’ve been through, regardless of not just what was done to us, but regardless of our failures in our life, ’cause we’re all gonna fall on our face and fail. It’s just part of life. But we get back up, and we get off the X, and we move forward, because God has a plan, a promise, for you. If you still have breath in your lungs, God still has something for you to do. And in realizing that, uh, I have found that purpose again.

Mark Twain says one of my favorite quotes about purpose, “The two most important days in a person’s life, are the day that they’re born, and the day that they find out why.” When I realized that God still had a plan for my life, I found out the why, and it was sharing what I discovered with others. To be here and share that story with you. To realize that we don’t have to remain in our brokenness, we don’t have to stay on the X. We can trust God’s promise, and we can move forward and do amazing things for the kingdom. And, uh, and I felt a deep burn on my heart, at that time, to, uh, share that story with other veterans.

It was like if I was dying of cancer, and Steve Toth gave me the cure, through God’s word. I didn’t want to keep that to myself, I felt, uh, obligated to share with, uh, others, and so, that manifested in the founding of the Mighty Oaks Foundation. And over the last 11 years, uh, the most amazing people have come around me. God just orchestrated this most amazing foundation. I’ve been able to speak to 250,000 active-duty troops, on bases around the world. I go to Marine Corps bootcamp every quarter.

Audience: (clapping)

Chad: Thank you, guys. And so, as I’m doing all that, I thought, “Man, you know, God’s really giving me a second chance, here, simply because I’m pursuing his word, pursuing what he has for me,” and I thought that would be the end of it. But, uh, God brought another opportunity in my life, when, uh, I realized that President- that- that the President of the United States, President Biden was gonna withdraw our troops from Afghanistan. Um, I could really get into details of that, but I won’t get into details of what mistakes were made, but I will say this. Aziz, my friend that I told you about when we began here, was still there. His wife and six kids were still there. He’s my friend. He saved my life. Uh, I could not leave my friend there.

I- I went through a series of planning, of how I was gonna get him out. I put together several team members, a doz- 12 of us, all from the Special Operations community, and we made a plan to go get Aziz, his wife and six kids. And, uh, and we had a bar- a lot of experience in our team. Um, and as we started planning, one of my teammates said, “Hey, that’s 3500 orphans in this orphanage. If we can’t get just Aziz or his family, we- we have to get them, too.” And we kind of paused for a moment and said, “There’s a lot more people than Aziz there, that needs help. And we have the ability to do this, we have the passion to do it, let’s get as many people as we can.”

And so, we went to the UAE government, and the UAE government gave us two, uh, C-17 planes, uh, which is the big military planes. They gave us a place to set up our operations center, they gave us a humanitarian center, to house people that we would evacuate, and we went into Abu Dhabi to set that up. We put a team on the ground at HKI Airport, which is Hamid Karzai International Airport, in Kabul, where the military was. We worked with the military to be there. And we started sending three-man s- ground teams out of the wire, out into Afghanistan, ’cause our military was not allowed to do that. And to go rescue people.

And, uh, we started rescuing Americans, uh, interpreters and their families, women that would be vulnerable, children that would be, um … that would be, God knows what to. I- the- hi- horrible things that the Taliban would do to these children, and, uh, Christians that would be persecuted. That was who we targeted, to get. The first day, we got Aziz, his- his wife and six kids, we got his family out, and we got about 180 people out. We were like, “Wow, we can’t believe we did that.”

Audience: (clapping)

Chad: Uh, the next day … thank you. The next day, we got 800 people out, and then after that, everything became a blur. Uh, our team did not sleep, literally 24/7, because every minute we would stop to rest, we knew somebody’s life was gonna be in danger, or- or killed. Uh, liter- literally, uh, the- every minute counted.

And at the end of the week, at the end of 10 days, when the- when the military was leaving Kabul Airport, uh, we finally- the dust finally settled, we realized we had rescued 12,000 people, and, uh-

Audience: (clapping)

Chad: Thank you. But- as- as the military left, we had knew too much. We knew that despite what the news was saying, and the stuff you were seeing on the news, uh, there was not 100 Americans left there. There were thousands, still. And- and I could not leave there, knowing what I knew, and knowing Americans were still there. The United States does not leave Americans behind, anywhere in the world. Uh-

Audience: (clapping)

Chad: This is- this is not a- this is not a- this is not a political position, either side. The- America does not do that. I spent my life in Special Operations, and if one American is behind, even if they were a total bonehead and put themself in that bad situation, we go get them. We will scorched earth around them, with every bit of military force, to get that person, and get them out, even if we could lose people. We don’t leave Americans behind, and I was not gonna leave Americans behind. None of our teammates were, either. So we decided to stay, to get those Americans, and get our allies that fought by side us, for the last 20 years, that had saved my life, and saved my American lives. We were gonna go get them.

And we stayed, and we got- we started flying people out of remote airports, and we got another 5000 people out, 7 tha- 17,000 total, uh, to date. We’re actually moving 200 out, right now. Uh- the- uh, of women, that are on Taliban list, journalists, doctors, uh, teachers, and vulnerable teenage girls, that the Taliban are targeting, because of their family members, or because they’re Christians. We’re- we’re actually moving them, as- as we speak, right now. I have two team members there, uh-

Audience: (clapping)

Chad: A lot of Afghans- a lot of Afghans that were persecuted moved to a place called the Panjshir Valley, uh, in- and as they moved there, they didn’t know how to cross the border to get out, because the mountain, it’s not like our borders, the mountains are so intense there, 25,000 foot peaks, you could spend a week getting through a valley, and then you get to the end, and you’re gonna run into a river, or- or a Chinese checkpoint, or a Taliban checkpoint, so they needed eyes on the other side.

So myself and a- and a- and a Marine, a active-duty Marine, friend of mine, uh … he’s a … his name is Dennis, he’s a Force Recon Marine, the Marine Corps actually let him come with me, and the two of us went into this neighboring country, I won’t say where, and we went under the border, and in 10 days, we did 90 miles of border reconnaissance, 170 kilometers of border reconnaissance. We, uh, and we built routes, uh, through providing information of how to cross the border and get out.

And, uh, and I could tell you one time specifically, we knew this would be a great route out. There was a Chinese BMP, which is a mechanized vehicle, with a PKM machine gun on top, which is large caliber machine gun, uh, and then, uh- and then about 100 meters away was a Taliban checkpoint, and we swam across that river, to build those routes out. And I remember thinking, “God, what are you doing, I’m 46 years old … (laughs) why the heck am I out here, doing this?” And, uh, and I had re- recalled a- a conversation my wife and I had, as she dropped me off at the airport. You know, “Why would- why would you go back and do this?”

And, uh, and, you know, I had really, uh, had- had a lot of time to think about, with God, and I thought, what if it was- what if it was us? What if it was my wife and kids, that were in that situation? What if it was one of you, and your family? Would you not hope that someone was coming, to get you? I- I sure would. And, uh, and- and you know, that’s what really had motivated our team to do that, that I would be praying, if we were in that situation, that God would send someone, to help us. And, uh, regardless of what politics are involved, or what the governments of the world have chose to do, humans have to do the right thing, for other humans.

I want to go back to that message, of getting off the X. When we find ourselves in that position, stuck on the Xs in our life, the enemy wants us to feel broken, and useless. And when I say the enemy, the spiritual enemy. Satan, he wants us to feel broken and useless. Like God has no- no purpose for us, anymore. Whatever you’ve faced makes you unqualified. I’ve felt that way before, when I was sitting in the closet, with a pistol in my hand. “There is no more purpose for me, there’s no more reason for him to be here. So much to the point that I don’t want to live anymore. My life is over, I have no more purpose.” That’s what the enemy wants you to believe, despite what you ever been through. Despite your own brokenness, despite what you- what you feel, maybe even right now, today, God has a plan and purpose for your life. If you have breath in your lungs, God could use you.

But to stand up and get off that X is gonna take courage, it’s gonna take boldness, and it’s gonna take a faith that knowing, that regardless of your situation, regardless how you feel, emotionally, right now, God will use you. But you have to reject passivity, which has been contagious in culture right now, to be weak and stand down, and be quiet, and not speak up for the hard things, because you’re worried about what other people are gonna say, and as Christians, as people of God, you have to be the voice of truth, and you have to be bold and courageous to do it.

Our generation, when I say our generation, mine, needs your generation to speak up and be bold and courageous for the kingdom of God. Can you do that? Yeah. Then do that. I challenge you to. God bless you all, thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Audience: (clapping)

John: What an inspirational message from Chad Robichaux, on today’s edition of Focus on the Family.

Jim: Uh, you know John, I had a thought as I was listening to Chad’s message, and I believe it was from the Lord. If Chad had given in to his suicidal thoughts all those years ago, would anyone else have been able to spearhead the rescue of innocent lives that were targeted by the Taliban? Think of that. And, as Chad mentioned, over 17,000 people have been rescued from Afghanistan by a group Chad co-founded, called Save Our Allies. What an amazing outcome. Um, so as Chad said, don’t just sit on the X, don’t stay in the danger zone. If you’re at a critical juncture in your life, and you’re not sure what to do, get help. Please reach out to us. Our staff would be honored to listen to your story, and pray with you, and they can request a callback from one of our caring Christian counselors, uh, if your situation warrants it. Please, let us provide this free help to you, and your family. And if you’re in a good place, right now, and- but you want to help others through Focus, let me encourage you to do ministry by giving to Focus on the Family. Your donation will help us help others, and when you make a donation of any amount, we’ll send you a copy of Chad’s latest book, called Saving Aziz: How the Mission to Help One Became a Calling to Rescue Thousands From the Taliban. And when you get the book from us, we’ll include a free audio download of this entire presentation. So, join us, as we help families to thrive in Christ.

John: You can reach us by calling 800-A-FAMILY, 800, the letter A, and the word FAMILY. Or donate online, and request that book, Saving Aziz, uh, plus, your free audio download, at focusonthefamily.com/broadcast. And when you’re online with us, look for an interview we had with Chad and his wife, Kathy, which I think will help you, uh, when you hear her perspective on the impact that Chad’s military service had on their marriage, better understand some of those dynamics for military marriages, and you’ll hear what changed, after Chad became a believer in Christ. On behalf of Jim Daly, and the entire team, thanks for joining us today for Focus on the Family. I’m John Fuller, inviting you back, as we once again help you and your family thrive in Christ.