Every year at the beginning of the year, Colonel Boulden picks a word or phrase for the staff to focus on throughout the year. This year he picked the word peace. At the time, we teased him about picking a different word to focus on, since obviously if he picked peace as his word that meant we’d need a lot of it in 2024. Setting aside whatever superstitious mayhem his word choice may have caused, we have needed a lot of peace as we’ve moved through the year, and continue to need peace. This is for two main reasons:

One, there has been a lot of transition and change at ALERT. We’ve had Lt. Nafziger finish up his time as the Missions instructor, and next Friday Capt. Vanderford will close out his 15 year tenure at ALERT and move on to greener pastures (which, to be fair, isn't hard to do in late August in TX when everything turns brown). Both of those men are leaving holes in the staff that need to be filled, to say nothing of our loss of their years of knowledge and experience. In addition, for 10 months of the year we have students here, and each one brings struggles and challenges from his life outside ALERT. We are working with young leaders who are leading young men, and that combination can cause conflict and problems. And finally, none of us is omnipotent, so we can never make a fully informed call on discipline, promotions, counseling conversations, and other interactions. All of those things generate an overwhelming need for peace.

But the bigger reason that we need peace is that Jesus Himself is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 6:9), and we need more of Him. It is only through Him that we can have peace with God (Romans 5:1). And one of the fruits of the Spirit, the outworking of the character of God in our lives, is peace. So when we say we need peace, we really need Christ. We desperately need more of Christ and His peace in every area of our lives.

As we look at the remaining four months of 2024, and all the challenges and struggles and complexities that they are sure to bring, please join us in praying for peace. Peace for ourselves, and peace for each of the guys in training.