Chad Robichaux: It challenged me to get back in the fight, and I knew I couldn’t do it alone In that isolation, I knew I needed to step outta isolation, to surround myself with good quality people was gonna walk with me.
John Fuller: That’s Chad Robichaux, sharing how challenging it was to find community when he was struggling with PTSD. Chad’s our guest today on Focus on the Family with Jim Daly. And as a veteran, he’s passionate about providing hope and healing to active military members and veterans as well. Thanks for joining us. Your host is Focus president and author Jim Daly.
Jim Daly: John, we owe so much to our veterans, and I, I think we have become a little apathetic about it. My brother served in the Navy and, uh, you know, very, uh, distinguished and I so appreciate my brother. I try to call him every Memorial Day and Veterans Day to thank him. And I think that’s the spirit of this broadcast today is to remember what these men and women have done for us. You know, I’ve seen clips on YouTube and things like that where sometimes these veterans are being hassled or heckled by people, and I just go, man, you have no idea what this man or woman in their family have done for us. And so this program is to really help you think about that, number one. But secondly, we’ve got a great book, Silent Horizons. It’s a fictionalized book by our guest, and, uh, it’s a great resource to hand to a veteran, especially someone who’s dealing with some difficulties, PTSD, things like that. So think about that as we talk today and think about getting a couple of copies to have with you.
John: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Jim: So you could give them out.
John: And Chad, uh, served in the Marines. He’s an expert in veteran care and, uh, related issues, as you said, Jim, this is a little bit out of the wheelhouse. We don’t talk a lot about fiction books, but Silent Horizons is a terrific resource and, uh, we’ve got that here at the ministry, and the details are at focusonthefamily.com/broadcast.
Jim: Chad, welcome back to Focus. Always good to have you here.
Chad: Oh, it’s so great to see you guys, and, you know, just continued. I say it every time, but thank you guys for what you do.
Jim: Oh, yeah.
Chad: For, for for our nation, for the world. You know, at Focus on Family, you guys do such incredible work.
Jim: Well, it’s, you know, it’s a full effort, right. The Lord’s Kingdom coming into this world, and it takes everybody working on it, that’s for sure. But you’ve done such a wonderful job, and of course we’ve had you here. People should go get the app and, and download the app so you can hear the programs before with Chad.
John: Mm-hmm.
Jim: Because they’re amazing what you did to get, uh, people out of Afghanistan with very little help from our government at the time. And then things that you’ve done in the Ukraine, we’re gonna talk a little bit about that.
Chad: Yeah.
Jim: But you are just the man’s man. When I grow up, I wanna be like you. (laughs)
Chad: I’m trying to hang on. And, uh, I, I’m, I’ve always been, you know, very blessed to be surrounded by amazing people. Uh, you know, in the professions that I’ve done, and especially in the ministry we do, and, uh, you know, Mighty Oaks Foundation to serve our veterans, we have such an incredible… And this year, you know, I stepped down from the role of being a CEO at Mighty Oaks, and, uh, stepped out of the organizational structure to do more things like books and podcasts and my own podcast, The Resilience Show, some TV shows and things like that. Just about to… Because I feel like they get things that in the place that God has me in this season is to both to cast the net bigger-
Jim: Mm-hmm.
Chad: To reach more people. And, uh, because of the people I’m partnered with and, uh, and our team at Mighty Oaks and, and partners like you guys, I’m able to go out and reach more people and then bring ’em into those, those, uh, funnels.
Jim: It’s so cool. We’ll talk a bit about what Mighty Oaks does as we go through the program, but let, let’s start with, uh, your designation. I love this force recon marine veteran, and a lot of people won’t know what that means. What is force recon marine?
Chad: Well, you know, all the different branches of the military have different special operations. Uh, they don’t all do the same thing. They, and, uh, you know, force recon, uh, the Marine Corps has the reconnaissance community and recon is the, uh, the entry point to that. And, uh, and about 25% of the recon community would be force recon, which has a little bit, uh, more focused missions, people with a little bit more experience. My job specifically was called the AFO, Advanced Force Operator. And you, you, you work in a singleton capacity by yourself with local nationals. And really you just embed and live in, in those in environments where are non-permissive to U.S. military, you know, all the worst bad guys are gonna be in places that the U.S. military can’t or won’t go. Like in Afghanistan, for example, would be in the federal minister tribal areas or across the border in near Pakistan. And so these tier one special operations units, when they go to capture or kill those guys, someone has to go there first to build all the clandestine infrastructure in order to build a successfully have an operation there. And those are the AFOs. And, uh-
Jim: Is it really a place in the world that we can’t go militarily? I mean, with Special Forces guys, it seems to me like we can go just about anywhere we want to.
Chad: There’s not, and, uh, you know, for the adversaries out there, there’s nowhere you could hide, uh, America’s military, uh, if you’re an enemy of, of the people of America, we, we will come and, and find you. And, uh, and we have proven time and time again that we have the ability to do that. So be on your best behavior.
Jim: Well, we’ll talk more about that wielding force for righteousness versus for evil. And there is a big distinction, a big difference.
Chad: Huge, yeah.
Jim: And you know, I’m sure nations don’t always get that, right. They’re not operating from strictly a biblical mandate. And we’ll get into some of that. But boy, those virtues that are high democracy and voice, and lifting up women and children, those are all good things that I feel like the U.S. has always stood for and tried to do admirably.
Chad: It’s an important part about being a, a Christian nation and being a nation of a morality and, and, and being a just nation, because we are the world superpower. We are the most powerful nation in the world. And, and with being that and not being a, a nation of morality, that would be a dangerous combination.
Jim: Yeah.
Chad: And so, you know, that’s one of many reasons that America should stay true to who we are a as a nation and in our, our founding principles.
Jim: So true.
Chad: Mm-hmm.
Jim: Now, in your book, Silent Horizons, uh, your character, which is fictional, uh, Foster.
Chad: Mm-hmm.
Jim: Uh, struggles with feelings of isolation and eventually, you know, PTSD issues. I’m sure this is an amalgamation of you and your, uh, buddies that suffered different things, you kind of put it into this fictionalized version, but like all good fiction, it’s usually rooted in reality. Is that fair?
Chad: It is, yeah. The book, book one, it’s a three book series, so this is book one. So ti- Tyndale is a, if you guys don’t know, Tyndale is a publishers of ministry.
Jim: Yeah.
Chad: I mean, they’re not a… They’re a 51C3 nonprofit, and they’re their mission in, in the… They, what they wanna do in the military thriller genre is to about, to minister to those communities. And so just like, uh, adventures and Odyssey using, you know, cartoons and, and to about to minister children, that’s the same with this. And so Foster is very much a, uh, a lot of things from me, from my life-
Jim: Sure.
Chad: And that in Book one. A lot of the things that Foster experienced were things that I experienced in Book one. And, and so we fictionalized it made him tall and handsome. Uh, we, uh, we, uh, changed the locations and operations and things like that and embellished a lot to make it, you know, fun for the reader. But there’s a lot of things that at, at the fundamental level about his life and his struggles and hardships in battles that, that are not just my story, but a story of so many of our warriors. Right. And there is a path forward, there is hope, there is healing, and we get about to, the reader is going about to walk through that with Foster in a very pragmatic way that I don’t think a lot of, uh, uh, of the American culture get to see, and so it really take him through that journey of the hardships and why he has those hardships.
Uh, one of the cool things about this book is that Jack Stewart, who’s my, the guy who wrote it with me, uh, he’s a Navy Top Gun pilot, and AF SERE instructor. He spent his ground time in at tier one special operations units. Uh, you know, he’s a phenomenal writer, brilliant guy. And, uh, but we made a point to really honor so many people in that book. Uh, Foster Quinn is the character. Foster Harrington was one of my best friends for 10 years and died in Al Ambar province 2004. Robert Cottle was another one of my friends, uh, who died in Iraq. Uh, and, and so Foster’s pseudo name is Foster Cottle. And so a lot of the names you’ll see Seth and different names you’ll see in the operators are all, uh, those who are being honored, uh, as they were killed in action and and duty to our, our nation and defense freedom.
Jim: Oh that’s amazing. Well, like Foster, you talked about in the book the sense that he had, obviously you had and others of isolation. I, paint that picture for us. ‘Cause those, I, I’m not sure I can feel what that would feel like. Help me to better feel that.
Chad: Well, he, he goes through the isolation of physical isolation of operating alone, which I, you know, I spent many times alone operating, you know, in, in the mountains of Afghanistan or across the border in Pakistan. When I worked in Singleton and Pakistan. I was the only one from my unit in, in that country. And so-
Jim: So is it that feeling of, of just being out there by yourself and I mean, there’s no protection?
Chad: Well, you realize that if something does happen, no one’s coming to get you. There’s no time for anyone to come to get you. Most of the time there’s no way to communicate that you need help. And, uh, so you’re relying on a local national that you, you know, build a relationship with and become close to. Sometimes they’re witting, meaning they know some of the things. Sometimes they’re partially the witting, sometimes they’re not witting at all. Uh, you know, I’ve talked in the show before about Aziz. And Aziz was my most trusted confidant and my friend. And he was fully witting of the things. But there was oftentimes I was not in those environments and spending, you know, days, weeks, months by myself. And, and so that’s the isolation of that and feeling alone, and, and there’s nothing I know of that, uh, that will eat you alive more than being alone and feeling isolated ’cause I don’t, I don’t think humans are created to be alone.
Jim: Yeah.
Chad: You’re created to be in community.
Jim: That makes sense.
Chad: And so when you’re alone and you’re not having to belt to tell truth to anyone around you, you’re living in this lie, uh, of this covert capacity, it just, it, it, it takes a toll on you. It doesn’t matter how good you are, how smart you are, how trained you are, how tough you are. Eventually it’s going to change you and, and, and it’s going to affect you. Then there’s the isolation of, of taking that struggle, those struggles, whatever the struggles may come from. And that could translate outside the veteran community to anyone. And when you’re struggling, you feel like no one feels the way I feel. No one’s hurting the way I am. No one feels the hopelessness I feel. No one’s marriage is bad as am I. No one’s, you name it. No one, no one would understand. No one feels this way. That in itself becomes, you could be in a crowd of people. You’ve been familiar a thousand people, but you feel isolated because you feel like no one could connect to the way you feel and you feel alone. And that’s, you know, the work of the enemy. The sp-, in the, you know, spiritual warfare will tell you that you’re alone.
Jim: Mm-hmm.
Chad: And there’s no hope. And, uh, and, and I think that that lingering thought leads to the, the suicide epidemic that, that we don’t only have in the veteran community, it’s the highest in the veteran community, but we have throughout our nation, and no one really talks about this, that we’re at a time right now in our country that we are at a, a historical suicide high in America and globally. And no one really wants to talk about that statistic. And it is-
Jim: What’s hard to figure out how to, how to be effective in bringing that number down, but getting certainly veterans to talk about their experiences and where they’re at. I do want to ask you about PTSD, I mean that that term is bantered about quite a bit. If you’ve not been in the military, again, you may not really catch what that is. I mean, you’re thinking of being gripped by perhaps fear or sounds that, uh, spark your memories of battle.
Chad: Yeah.
Jim: You know, allowed something, and then you go into kind of a odd place emotionally. Yeah. Describe for us what PTSD is like.
Chad: Well, PTSD is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. And, uh, I believe there’s a, a conflict in a name disorder because I don’t believe that it’s actually a disorder. The, the diagnostic DSM, the diagnostics and statistic manuals identifies it as that. But the most common definition is the body’s normal response to abnormal situation.
Jim: Huh.
Chad: So, my body’s normally responding the way it was created to respond to abnormal situation, situation we never created to see or do.
Jim: And describe that abnormal situation. High stress, your life’s on the line-
Chad: Hyper vigilance.
Jim: Yep.
Chad: High stress, anxiety disorder, panic disorder, you getting panic attacks. Uh, so your sensories, which we have, you know, our, our five sensories, I think we have more, but-
Jim: Yeah.
Chad: But we have five sensors that we talk about. Your sensories, particularly the sense of smell, sound, you might smell something that’ll bring you back to that moment. So your limbic system recognizes, maybe smells gunpowder. Now your limbic system says, I remember this event last time. There’s a time that we smelled this and you were about to die. And so it… The limbic system is very reptilian. Part of your brain is primal. And so the way God designed us was that fires off and you go, you, your body has a normal response the way it was created, designed, and designed to do. And all these physiological effects happen for one thing and one thing only to protect you.
Jim: Survival.
Chad: And, and survival, right. And so now your, your heart rate goes up, your, uh, your breathing changes.
Jim: Mm-hmm.
Chad: Your, you have like, uh, auditory exclusion in your ears. You could see things differently. And if, if that happens in a normal environment, not in a combat environment, your body’s doing exactly what it’s to do to perform, to survive. If you’re sitting at dinner with your wife and kids that you’re not supposed to be at that state of physiologically in that moment. So you feel really something’s off it, it’ll create a panic and a real discomfort. And oftentimes people will do only one thing, and that’s medicate those symptoms to numb them, but they’re not actually healing.
And so I’m not against medication, you know, this Jim, from, from us talking before. Uh, but I believe medication is a part of the process, but it’s the only part of your process. It’s a bad process, right. You should, uh, seek to find, you know, to be able to understand what’s happened to you, why it’s happened to you, seek God’s Word, and how to live through this and bring in community around you. And then, uh, do you know what I call clinical world calls prolonged exposure. Expose yourself to environments to realize, “Hey, I’m not dying right now. I’m at dinner having a, a meal, and the kitchen caught fire and I smelled something that triggered me and, uh, and I didn’t die.”
Jim: Yeah.
Chad: So like, the more you expose yourself to that and realize that I’m not in danger, the more you can re-, human body’s amazing, you can re-acclimate yourself to a norm.
Jim: Yeah. Isn’t that something? I mean, God has created an amazing machine, our bodies.
Chad: It is, yes.
Jim: Let me, let me ask you though, specifically about your journey of healing. Because you did have PTSD. Who stepped in? What was effective for you? Why did it work?
Chad: Well, you know, all the, the advice I give, I didn’t follow, uh, at that time because I didn’t know it.
Jim: It’s probably typical of most veterans, right?
Chad: Right. Yeah. That’s why I’m on such a mission to educate and inform and reach people through every, every avenue I can, because I wish I would’ve knew that I wish someone would’ve reached to me. And I, because I didn’t know, I tried to deal with it in isolation on my own, without the tools and principles, without turning the Creator to, to recalibrate my life, to the life I was created to live. And so that led me in a downward spiral, that led to me coming to the, the hopeless thought that maybe my family would be sad without me, but they would be better off. And I made a decision to take my life. And again, that same hopeless thought finds a home in the hearts of over 20 veterans every day. I think more like probably 50 if we’re accurate on statistics. But it doesn’t matter, the number one is too many. Maybe my family would be sad without me, but they’d be better off. And it was… I made a decision to take my life. And my wife Kathy, intervened in the, in a suicide attempt and really challenged me and asked me, you know, how could you do all the things she seen me doing, special operations as an athlete, all these things I did. But when it came to my family that I quit on them. And that challenge, you know, of, of me being poked and being called a quitter ’cause nothing, no more soul cutting word to me than being called a quitter, really challenged me to get back in the fight. And I knew I couldn’t do it alone in that isolation. I knew I needed to step outta isolation to surround myself with good quality people was gonna walk with me. And I, and I chose to, uh, reach out by asking Kathy, is there someone at this church that she was going to, not me, was going to, to help hold me accountable with that? And a man named Steve Toad stepped in my life and not only, uh, led me to Jesus, but discipled me. I don’t wanna say mentored me ’cause there’s a difference.
Jim: Yeah.
Chad: He discipled me for a period of a year and, and, uh, and radically changed my life, my perspective and, and my future. And, uh, and at the end of that journey was a lot of revelation and, and a deep burden on my heart to, to share those revelations with others.
Jim: Yeah.
Chad: And that’s why I’m, what I do today.
Jim: Yeah.
Chad: And my life’s committed to that.
Jim: Chad, let me ask you this. Uh, the wiring for men. We as men, as you were saying there a minute ago, the isolation that you feel as a man, they’ll be better off without me. It’s heightened I think, going through a military experience, all those things are juiced, if I could say it that way. Yet all men seem to struggle with many of these things. The business guy that’s out of kilter, that overworks doesn’t see his family as something he can rest in and be a part of. So he avoids it, avoids his marriage. Speaking in that kinda general way. What do we as men need to think about when Kathy says to you, come on man, you could do better than this.
Chad: Well, Stu Weber, uh, wrote a book called Tender Warrior, and in the book, I’ll, I’ll, I’m gonna misquote it, but he said, the things that you struggle with are in the heart of every man that you know. And, uh, and that’s absolutely true. We often as man think no one’s, you know, no one’s dealing with what I’m dealing with. The truth is in a different context, different job, occupation, different con people. Every man is struggling with the same things. There’s nothing you face that hasn’t, you know, been under the sun before by someone else. And, uh, and so what I’d say to men that are struggling is one, make this decision to step out of that isolation into community of like-minded believers into a core group of men that’ll call us out and challenge us.
Jim: Yeah.
Chad: And I think that, I mean, look, there’s no, no second step to living the life you created to live outside of having a relationship with the Creator, that’s one. But I think the next step beyond that is community, especially men. We have to… We’re our worst enemies. If we’re outside of accountability, like, I don’t trust myself. Like I know what, how-
Jim: If we know ourselves well.
Chad: Degenerate, I could be, uh, and, and what I’m capable of, of destroying, I’m my own worst enemy is I have to have community.
Jim: Mm-hmm.
Chad: And, and every, and that’s, I’m saying that honestly about myself, but I’ll say that to every man that’s listening on the other side of this broadcast, they have to have accountability.
Jim: Yeah.
John: Well, we’re hearing some great stuff from Chad Robichaux today on Focus on the Family with Jim Daly. And, uh, our ministry is here for you. If we’re touching something that you’re thinking, I need to talk to somebody, I need to find out more about this Jesus that Chad is talking about, about the life God created for me. Or if you’re struggling with PTSD, or loneliness, give us a call. We have caring Christian counselors who will be glad to have an over-the-phone free consultation with you. And then they can direct you to somebody in your community where you can really find some healing. Uh, our number is 800, the letter A and the word FAMILY, or stop by focusonthefamily.com/broadcast.
Jim: Chad, you, you’re touching on this, but I want to pull this out even further. Your wife, Kathy, a brother of someone who served in the military, if they’re observing their family member or their good friend who kind of is expressing denial, I’m good.
Chad: Mm-hmm.
Jim: But you kind of can see where it’s not healthy.
Chad: Mm-hmm.
Jim: You know, whatever that might be related to PTSD, isolation, loneliness, whatever it might be. What do you say to those people? Um, to be able to nudge…
Chad: Yeah.
Jim: To encourage. Because oftentimes guys, we’re also quite prideful.
Chad: Mm-hmm.
Jim: You know, we’re not gonna respond well. I’m fine.
Chad: Yeah.
Jim: Don’t talk to me about it. I can manage it.
Chad: The best advice I could give for speaking to someone who’s struggling and doesn’t want help, they’re pridefulness don’t wanna help, is first of all, you know, you should probably sit down and say, “Hey, come have a cup of coffee with me.” Get ’em an isolated environment where it’s just the two of you and you show you’re gonna be willing to give your time to them. You, you care enough about ’em, give the time. But when you approach them, it’s not, “Hey, what’s going on with you? How can I help you? How can I be your savior?” Uh, that’s the wrong approach, and causes people to clam up. Instead, how about you tell ’em about a time that you struggle.
Jim: Mm-hmm.
Chad: Uh, tell ’em by the time that you fell in your face and failed and got up again, uh, and, and, and people came around you and, and God restored something in your life demonstrating that creates opportunity for them to, to rep, reciprocate. And that, that starts the, the, the dialogue and the relationship that allows for healing.
Jim: Yeah. What you have experienced, I mean, you’re going into bases, you’re allowed by the Pentagon to speak. People made in God’s image need godly advice.
Chad: That’s right.
Jim: And it, you know, we, we need to get to the point where we’re just sick and tired of people trying to water it down to the point it does no good.
Chad: Mm-hmm.
Jim: And I’m so proud of you for going in and saying, “Hey, this is my experience. I was lost. And then I was found.”
Chad: Yeah.
Jim: And you boldly point to your relationship with Christ is what saved you physically, emotionally, spiritually. But hit that again ’cause I know you touched on it, but just the criticality though, the warrior mentality that I’m not gonna take somebody’s imagination. This is what works. This is what’s true. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.
Chad: Yeah. How, how would I ever stand before God and, and say you would, I had the opportunity to stand in front of 600,000 active duty troops and, and sell my bill of goods without telling ’em the truth that in order to be the warriors that they desire to be, and they were created to be, they have to have a relationship with Jesus. Like, I have no option other than tell them truth. Uh, and, and I have done that for, and God has really allowed me the opportunity to do that in a place that I was told the door would be shut to. But you touched on something that’s important to note before I say in this. We are allowed to have Bibles in our prisons, but not in our schools. And why not catch it on the front end? Resiliency is on the front end and an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. You could be on the front end and providing this why we, why are we just using it to restore, we could use it to build resiliency. And uh, and that’s where I, I took that idea and pushed it to be to the Pentagon and to the White House and to Congress and Senate to be able to be at those bases and speak to those troops and speak to them on truth. Because they had taken it away in, in 2000. I know, you know, we probably don’t wanna get too political down the, but in 2009, president Obama removed Bibles from the military. And that’s a fact. That’s not a political statement. That’s a fact. He, he chose to do that. And that’s a fact of a state. Since 1775 every U.S. service member has had a Bible until 2009. And then we see this radical increase in suicide from 13 a day, 14 a day, 16 a day after he, uh, at the time that President Obama signed the executive order removed faith in the community, uh, programs from the, uh, VA to 22 a day, right. Uh, this wrap, in two years. Wrap 16 to 22 doesn’t sound like a lot, a day.
Jim: A day. Yeah that’s a big difference.
Chad: So yeah. Six more in a day is a lot. And, and that’s, and that was directly as a result to me because of the legislation in our government that we, the people allowed elected politicians to do without, without speaking up. And so I made my way to D.C and stood against this and asked candidate Trump in 2016, if you become, ’cause I was allowed to ask him a question at a town hall, if you become president of the United States, “Will you by executive order, turn this around?” He said, “Yes.” And then I held him to it. And in 2018 he did. And I, since then, I’ve testified before Congress and Senate to fight, to get faith-based programs back in, in the VA. And then at the D.O.D level, at the bases, our chaplains are able, were able to talk about spirituality in a universal sense. But me having a testimony, I was able to go there and speak from it from my personal testimony. And the military talks about resiliency and four pillars, mind, body, spirit and social. They do a great job of mentally training the guys, physically training them socially, putting in the right teams, but the spiritual piece, they’re too scared to touch. And so we’ve been allowed to, uh, me, myself, at Mighty Elks go, and I’ve spoken to almost 600,000 troops now and seek, speak to them about the spiritual resiliency that comes from our relationship with Jesus and how it’s not weak and sissy. How there’s not nothing more masculine than a man could have on the battlefield of combat or life than being a man of God.
Jim: Mm-hmm.
Chad: And, uh, and I’ve seen it firsthand, and I mean, people, men of God that’ll stand up and fight for, you know, what they believe at the core. Uh, at their foundation-
Jim: I mean, think of that, it’s just, to me it’s profound ’cause there’s so much more to us, as you said, the spiritual dimension. And it’s like modernity, we’ve just kinda look the other way. We don’t, we don’t want to touch it. Everybody has their own opinion and the whole thing. Let me ask you-
Chad: I think, I think one more thing I wanna say about that is, I think as a, as listeners are here, the one thing we all could do, right? We, not everybody’s gonna get a platform to go stand in front of a couple of thousand troops at on Camp Hill Line, but the one thing we all could do is continue vote our biblical beliefs and, and, and elect our leaders. Who are people gonna make decisions that are gonna do the right thing for our, for our country and our community and our troops.
Jim: The right thing to do.
Chad: Yeah.
Jim: For sure. Let me right at the end here, let me just bring it all the way back around to Mighty Oaks, because in your effort with Mighty Oaks, you are helping veterans to find purpose and identity in scripture. We’ve touched on that. Yeah. But let’s just hit it again.
Chad: Yeah.
Jim: Right at the end. The mission of Mighty Oaks.
Chad: Well, the mission of Mighty Oaks is to save lives, uh, restore families and change legacies for eternity. Uh, and, and those aren’t just, you know, bullet points for me to repeat when a, for an elevator speech-
Jim: We like those though.
Chad: Literally what we do. We literally save people’s lives that are in a moment of hopelessness that they’re gonna take their lives. We restore families that are broken and, and, and partnering with Focus on the Family. I mean, you guys have been a partner in, in the, in the ma- marriage piece of it. And then, um, and then we, most important thing is we change legacies for eternity through-
Jim: Yeah.
Chad: Leading people to return relationship with, with Jesus. And, and then the re-, the reciprocal effect it has on them, the world around them. So many people have come outta Mighty Oaks and not just been talked off the edge of suicide, but become community leaders and ministry leaders and reach thousands of people themselves. Uh, you know, I think of a guy named Reed Hasty who couldn’t even get on an airplane ’cause his PTSD was so bad to come to Mighty Oaks program. Uh, eight years later I was on a, on an airplane flying across to Ukraine to make it all the way across to Kharkiv where I was in Kharkiv to minister to people there. Like they didn’t just get well, they got in a position to be a world changer and kingdom builder for others.
Jim: Wow.
Chad: And that’s what we do at Mighty Oaks. And, and, and any veteran first responder, spouse listening, act to do service member, if you are facing any kind of hardship in your life or there’s zero criteria besides you say, raise your hand. Bad conduct, discharge, we don’t care, whatever your hardship is, wherever you are, if you’re complete catastrophe or just trying to get in the right direction, get in the website, apply to Mighty Oaks, everything’s paid for, we even pay for travel. Uh, and, that that’s because of a grateful nation of Americans that love our warriors and take care of them. And, and so anybody does want support, they can also go to Mighty Oaks.
Jim: That’s fantastic. And what a great spot to end at. Chad, thank you again.
Chad: Absolutely.
Jim: For all you’ve done and all you continue to do in our country for veterans. It’s awesome.
Chad: Thank you.
Jim: It’s inspiring.
John: Mm-hmm.
Jim: And, uh, I love this book. Silent Horizons, uh, a great fictionalized version of what really happens.
Chad: Thanks for letting me do it. I know you guys don’t do a lot of fiction, but it is a ministry tool between Tyndale and our ministry to reach a broader audience of people. And in my show, The Resilient Show, uh, podcast, and this is all efforts where you we’re just doing a cast out as, as foreign wide as we can to reach people.
Jim: Yeah.
Chad: Just like you did.
Jim: And it’s so good. And we’ll, uh, link over to Mighty Oaks-
Chad: Absolutely.
Jim: So people can get there from our website, check it out. And if you can make a gift of any amount, we’ll send you a copy of Silent Horizons as our way of saying thank you for being part of the ministry, both for Mighty Oaks and for Focus on the Family. And what a great testimony like Reid’s who, uh, came from that dark place of PTSD and then overcame it through Mighty Oaks and is now ministering to people and changing the world. That’s what you’re talking about.
Chad: Yeah. Yeah.
John: Yeah, reach out today and donate as you can get a copy of this terrific book and support us as we, uh, reach around the world to support families and to work with, uh, great ministries like Mighty Oaks Foundation. All the details are on our website that’s focusonthefamily.com/broadcast. Or give us a call 800, the letter A, and the word FAMILY. 800-232-6459. And plan to be with us next time is Dr. John Townsend helps us understand how we can give and receive people fuel.
Dr. John Townsend: Proverbs 4:23, “Guard your heart for from it flow the wellsprings of life.” If I don’t take care of my heart, which is my emotions and my values and my schedule and all that, then I’m not gonna be able to give it to anybody else.
