March 2020
Dear Alumni:
As you can imagine things have been a bit on the “intense” side here as we evaluate training and continue to seek God’s direction for our future. Allow me to bring you all up to speed.
We elected to cancel Unit 63 Basic after considerable discussion and weighing all the factors. The primary issue of concern was our students would have been coming from so many regions of the country. Testing is not available unless you are exhibiting symptoms, and people who carry the virus do not always show symptoms. The likelihood of unknowingly introducing COVID-19 to all of our students was just too high. It was a tough call and certainly a disappointment for many. Rather than put a two-week hold on training and reevaluate as some schools are doing, we’ve chosen to cancel until the fall of this year to run our next regularly scheduled Basic. We pray that the crisis will have subsided by then.
We have elected to continue on with Advanced Training for the immediate future since most of the men enrolled were already on campus but as we all know things change daily and we will have to be flexible. We have implemented a number of protocols and are limiting social contact with other staff. Any group activities including meals, worship etc. is now “battalion only” and held in open, controlled environments.
It goes without saying that we covet your prayers. This is new ground for all of us as a staff and the endless meetings, discussions, and detours along the way are taxing on us physically and emotionally. We do hope that most of the men who planned to attend Unit 63 Basic will transfer their enrollment to the fall. If we are indeed able to run some sort of summer ERT it would only include a relatively small number of men who completed a past basic and are now ready to come to the 2nd Phase. The ability to run even a small ERT will depend on numbers as well as the level of the crisis at that point.
I think the most urgent prayer request, however, is not for us but for the many families that are being severely impacted by the crisis. So many of our friends operate small family businesses that will be hit hard by what has happened. I can only imagine some of the uncertainty and anxiety they are facing. If you happen to be one of them let us know so we can add you to our prayer list. The reality is that almost all of us will face challenging times in the weeks and months ahead.
May our trust be in Him more than ever and may God direct all of us to a path of peace in these coming days.
Blessings,
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