Dear Friends,
Our BFL Challenge Treks are designed specifically for our injured members to personally experience that there is no such thing as a “disability.” Injuries and traumas can be life-changing, and they can make activities our soldiers used to do with ease seem impossible, but we don’t use the label “impossible” either. It’s a false label to us.
One of our most meaningful treks is our yearly climb of the legendary Mt. Kilimanjaro. A week ago over a dozen of our achim set out on the week-long journey to ascend this mountain and show themselves and all our soldiers in Israel that anything is possible.
While the Kilimanjaro climb and all of our BFL Challenge Treks look like an extreme sports event with the goal of reaching the summit, the real goal is to heal mind, body, and spirit.
One of the brothers, Ofer Chai-Meir, had been wounded in Lebanon fifteen years ago. Having been caught in an explosion, and with a severely injured eye, Ofer had pulled soldier after soldier out of a burning building. Ofer is now a leader in BFL as our PSTD Clinical Lead.
He described what the Challenge Trek meant to him:
“The trip to Kilimanjaro was life-changing, and a huge leap in my recovery. After my injury, my self-confidence got trampled down. I avoided physical challenges because they stirred up memories of what I felt while trying to save the soldiers in my battalion.
I was determined to do this trek to see if I could move forward and to prove to myself that I am not weak. I trained very hard. On the trek, I carried a heavy pack and pushed myself forward step by step without help. Soon I began to support the other brothers around me and realized how much real strength I had. I never once experienced a breaking point and found courage in myself that I didn’t know existed. Now I’m certain that there is no challenge that I cannot meet.”
Congratulations to Ofer and all of the brothers on the trek. You have shown us all that anything is possible!
Shabbat Shalom from Israel,
Yaniv
PS: Last week as we finished our first Johannesburg delegation in 3 years, and another delegation traveled to the other end of the world to Seattle, Washington, for our first delegation since COVID as well. It was an incredible week and great healing took place in such a short amount of time. We had our own mini-challenge on the delegation, indoor skydiving. Below is a photo of one of our injured brothers taking flight.
