Dear Friends,
Once again God has proven faithful to me. By His strength I passed Mountain Phase of Ranger School, and now I am on my 18 days of holiday leave before moving on to Swamp Phase. This phase was even more physically challenging than the first. I was never injured, but the level of fatigue and sleep deprivation I reached was unbelievable. As one example, during the final 5-day field training exercise I got a grand total of 2.5 hours of sleep (with 72 straight hours of no sleep in the middle of it). I just got to a point where I would look up at the Mountains around me and say to myself, "The God who created these mountains will give me the strength to continue climbing them." I can't tell you how many times I thought that I would not be able to go on. The emotional, mental, and physical fatigue were beyond description. I owe my success so far to no one except Jesus. If I make it straight through Swamp Phase in Florida too, then I will say the same thing.
In summary, I can describe Ranger School so far in two ways:
(1) It has been the most horrible experience of my life. I still don't have feeling in my toes, I can barely do 25 push-ups, and I feel sad seeing over half of my friends not move on to the next phase because they are being recycled or dropped from the course.
(2) However, this course has also proven to be the greatest blessing of my life so far. God has taught me faith of a new level, thankfulness for all the blessings of normal life, and reliance on Him.
I feel as though this holiday break will be the best of my life so far because I have such an appreciation of all that I have. It is no longer just about getting the Ranger Tab. Of course I want it badly, but it represents so much more to me now. I'll be in Chicago from Dec 19 to Jan 1. Please call me over this Christmas Break. It may be the last extended period of time that I'll be in Chi-town for quite awhile. Bye!
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