Military/First Responders

I have a heart for military veterans and first responders. Part of the ministry is giving back to both of these professions and the brave men and women who are willing to serve. Many of us sign up not knowing what lies ahead and how it will affect our lives and our families. I want to tell you a little bit about my story.

I joined the Montana Air National Guard right out of high school and ended up spending a career in the military. When I turned twenty, I got a job with the municipal police department where I served as a civilian police officer for seven years. During that time, I was involved in multiple officer involved shootings, spanning three incidents in just a few months.  During my time as police officer, I investigated some absolutely horrible and heinous crimes to include homicide, horrific assaults, sex abuse cases, and child pornography. I held many high stress positions and also served on our SWAT team. I was on a call where I lost a friend and coworker in the line of duty.  He was tragically killed by a fleeing felon, who ran him over when he went to deploy stop sticks on the vehicle. I was there when his wife and two little children found out they had lost their husband and father, and it was one of the worst experiences I have witnessed. I have been on some terrible calls where people have literally died in my arms. Specifically, a call with an eleven-year-old boy who was accidently shot in the neck by his friend has haunted me for years. I performed CPR on this little boy with a stranger in the apartment building until he faded away in our presence. These calls have stayed with me, and I suffer from PTSD because of them. 

I have been deployed and served overseas with the Air National Guard. I have had three friends commit suicide, and I myself also struggled with depression and thoughts of suicide at one point in my life. Like I mentioned, I did not come from faith and experienced quite a bit of trauma in my childhood, and as an adult. I have been to treatment for PTSD, taken numerous medications, endured hyperbaric chamber treatment, been injected with nerve blocking shots in my nervous system, and participated in years of counseling and therapy. Nothing seemed to be working. 

I have been divorced and unfortunately affected by infidelity. It was evident however, that God was chasing after me through all of it. A few of my friends from the military and the police department started really pointing me to God when I found out about an extra marital affair, and at the time was struggling with some intense depression. These friends of mine didn’t know each other, but all in the same period of time kept pointing me to the same scriptures independently. Light bulbs started going off in my brain. Things I had been struggling with and praying about my whole life started to make sense. I had always believed in God and prayed, but never really knew what it meant to follow Christ or be a Christian. 

I was having a deep discussion with a friend of mine, and I was voicing some concerns I had with “religious people” and my hold up with going to church. You see one of the things that really rattled my view of the church was an investigation I was involved in where a Catholic priest of over forty years in our community was convicted of child porn charges. While I was talking to my friend about the Bible, I remember hearing this voice say to me “Justin, before you make a judgment call on me and the Bible, don’t you think you should read it first?”. It rocked me. I began seeking answers in the Bible. All of the big questions I was asking and wrestling with were right there in Scripture. I was not alone. My life began to change drastically. Over the next few years, many of my PTSD symptoms subdued and I was baptized and gave my life to Christ. My life has forever changed for the better. The Lord has reached so many people because of our shared experiences and suffering. God took some really terrible things and turned them for His good. Fast forward several years and something I never could have imagined in my wildest dreams happened; I was called into ministry.   Here I am today finishing my Master's in Counseling Psychology at Moody Bible Institute. I have completed a Bachelors in Biblical Studies all while working in full time ministry. My story is still being written, but God is so good. I have met so many people along the way that want to help those in need. I feel like I am being called to serve once again.....I look forward to speaking with you.