In July of 2021, Chazak’s first team started training. Hear the story of how Chazak came about, directly from the perspective of one of our founders, Shawn:
“I was introduced to missions when I was about 18 years old, when I got an opportunity to go to Southeast Asia on a ministry trip. And I loved what I was doing. And in that time is when I saw a lot of other opportunities in China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, India, etc. I saw a lot of opportunities that a lot of ministries weren’t addressing because of the danger aspect of it; some of the bigger ministry organizations were just a little more hesitant to send people into those things. Meanwhile, there were disasters that kept happening during my time there.
“In all of that, I heard of another organization that was doing work in Iraq, and this was right across the time when Isis was at their full power there in the Middle East, and so I had the opportunity to go to Iraq. So, I showed up in Iraq, and just didn’t really know anything about what was going on there. But I had the opportunity to be involved in that ministry, right on the front line.
“We came down over this road on the mountain coming down on the town of Sinjar, in northern Iraq in the Kurdistan region. My translator was asking me all these questions, like, “Are you scared?” and this kind of thing. And I was like, “No! Let’s go.” He said, “Do you see that line out there in the dirt? We live in the town right here at the bottom. That is all Isis territory.” We went right down where we were within reach of mortars coming in.
“On my first morning there, I sat there having breakfast with the team, still getting to know people. I had my back to the wall of the house. There was a window right above my head, and suddenly there was this boom. I rocked forward, the windows popped open, and I sat there looking at them with wide eyes. I asked them what just happened, and they said, “A mortar just landed; blew a house up, probably.”
“After breakfast we went out. On the street behind us, there was a big concrete house, completely dropped. And that was my introduction to life in Iraq. That was how it was going to be.
“I ended up going to Bangladesh, and there I worked with the Rohingya refugee situation and helped drill wells, and just tried to give them a better life in the situation they were under. In that timeframe, another buddy of mine came over, and we spent our time working in the refugee camp. At nights we came back and started brainstorming with some of these crazy ideas that were building up in my head at this point. We started writing on the tile wall in the kitchen. We drew out these ideas, such as a scuba diving team, bomb squad, white water rescue team, etc., all on the kitchen wall. So that’s where the dream of Chazak started; just a bunch of guys brainstorming.
“I eventually brought it back and talked to Dan Lapp about it. “Hey, I was told I should meet you and show you this”, I said. I showed him what we had, and he looked at the paper and said “ok…” and kind of walked away.
“I remember thinking “I blew it. This guy thinks I’m crazy, it’s never going to happen.” A couple of days later, he came back to me, handed me the paper, and said, “I don’t think you understand what you got here. I’ve been working most of my life for this kind of thing. And I want to help you get this going.”
“It snowballed. We kept pulling more and more people in, and now it’s just incredible to be a part of a team in which there are so many talents. And the cool thing about it is so many of them have come in and said “We’ve been dreaming about this all our life! This is what we’ve been looking for.” And they want to join, and go. That is so incredible.
“Our mission is to be an international search and rescue organization. I really think that the natural disasters and the wars that you keep hearing about are just going to keep happening. I don’t see an end to it. So I really hope that Chazak is known for showing up at the worst places, and just pouring ourselves into people, no matter what the danger level is.”
In 3 years of operation, there have been a total of 18 deployments. Out of these, 7 have been fully operational, and the other 11 being for training purposes. The time spent on deployment exceeds 135 days. Chazak Academy has had the opportunity to provide specialized training for a total of 33 individuals.
This is what one of the Cadets had to say about their training so far,
“Chazak Academy has provided a level of training that has superseded my expectations in many ways since I joined two years ago. It has proven to be more intense than I anticipated as well as much more in depth in relation to operating in high risks areas, offering a very wide range of skills needed to be proficient and successful.
Specialization training is the final part of Chazak Academy and consists of additional training and an internship in the specialty field we have each chosen. Quite early in the first year during an introduction of the basics of the Incident Command and Communications, I knew I wanted to do this track. The key components of this specialty are maintaining span of control over an incident and providing essential communication to all the involved parties. Throughout the training cycle I have discovered how these skills are not only essential in a tactical sense, but also very useful skills to have in much of everyday life. I am grateful to have this opportunity to go through Chazak Academy and find a mission that celebrates who God has created me to be.”
-Kris, Class 2 Cadet
You can watch the video of Shawn telling his story along with more footage by clicking the following video.
Chazak has come a long way since those first days, brainstorming on a kitchen wall in Bangladesh. Thank you for your continued interest and support for what is happening through Chazak. We’re excited to see what the future holds.