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CBN.com – This isn’t just Army training… This is ranger training.
“The worst things you could think of in the world, the worst conditions…”
“They’d keep you up for days on end…”
“Only thing you do get constantly is water...”
“I ate some crickets a couple of times…”
Welcome to ranger school, where only the toughest men make it through. This is no place to let down your guard!
Sgt. Michael Belew serves as a chaplain’s assistant at the Fourth Ranger Training Brigade at Fort Benning, Georgia. He’s the only ranger-qualified chaplain’s assistant in the Army, and here’s why that’s important…
“I’ve went through the horrible conditions that they went through,” Mike says. “So when I go walking around, people see that.”
And because Michael can relate so well to the soldiers, they feel comfortable opening up to him.
Michael grew up in a Christian home and even answered the call of God to preach at the age of 14. However, after he entered the Army, he began to give in to the temptations that came along with being young, single, and overseas.
“I got signed to Baumgartner, Germany, and I walked away from God. I started chasing women and drinking… How battery acid eats through something, it really ate through me -- the sin in my life.”
But when Michael was sent to ranger school, he endured the most grueling physical conditions he’d ever had to face. The lack of food and sleep wasn’t the worst of it.
“There’s a water confidence course that we do. It’s a log walk, and it’s probably 25, 30 feet off the water. You have to walk across this telephone pole.”
It turns out that Mike had a fear of heights! He was challenged to call upon the God he had tried to ignore…
“When you get in those kind of situations, [you] become one of those guys who has extreme faith all of a sudden. Like they say, there are no atheists in foxholes. Whenever your life becomes in danger, whether there’s a God, whether you believe it or not, you still say a prayer.”
But he did more than just say a few words; he realized his deep need for a savior and recommitted his life to Jesus Christ.
“It was the first time I realized I really need God in this. From then on I just continued growing. It was there in ranger school that God really started working in my life again… No matter how many steps you take away from God, it only takes one to turn back to Him.”
A caring friend will be there to pray with you in your time of need.
