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The author is an ACCTS's staff member who participated in Rocky Mountain High, a course for cadets and junior officers on how to plan, start, lead, and grow a Military Christian Fellowship. The program combines physical activities with formal instruction, and informal interaction with Military Christian Leaders to help these future military Christian leaders develop a Christian vision for their careers, and their nations.
Choe and I sat talking in a small office on the lower floor of the Spring Canyon Resort in Colorado, the western Conference Center of Officer's Christian Fellowship (OCF). He was a cadet at the Korean Air Force Academy, currently an exchange student at the Japanese Defense Force Academy. Choe shared about his student life in Korea, and the cadet Bible study at Japanese Academy attended by both Japanese and Korean cadets. He would spend another year in Japan before returning to the Korean Air Force Academy for his senior year, commissioning as an officer, and pilot training.
 Choe had come to Spring Canyon for Rocky Mountain High, the military Christian leadership program conducted by the Association for Christian Conferences, Teaching and Service (ACCTS) in cooperation with OCF. For the past 10 years ACCTS has invited cadets and young officers from around the world to this workshop on Military Christian Fellowships (MCFs). Participants learn how to integrate their faith with their military careers, understand how MCFs can affect entire nations, and enhance their military leadership and ministry skills through prayer, Bible Study, classroom instruction, and group activities such as mountain climbing, rappelling, and white water rafting.
This particular year, Choe had been the "sole survivor" of the international application process, as the others had encountered one insurmountable obstacle after another. This allowed me to give him more personal attention as we learned about military Christian leadership from gifted and experienced leaders, fellowshipped with senior Chinese leaders there for another event, and shared our faith journeys around the dinner table. I was able to spend extra time with Choe hiking the property, and driving him to Buena Vista for shopping and ice cream at K's, a favorite of Spring Canyon campers and staff. Because of our additional time together I learned much, and built a lasting relationship with him.
As we talked during throughout the 10-day program, the magnitude of possibilities for Choe's future flooded my mind. What blessings God had already given him! In two years this young Korean cadet would enter active service as a military officer, and as a follower of Jesus Christ, he was already encouraging Japanese cadets to be bold about sharing their faith! We shared about how openly following Christ in the military provides a powerful witness for both believers and non-believers. God had clearly given me an extraordinary opportunity to mentor this young cadet, who might some day become Chief of Staff of the Korean Armed Forces . . ..
Check the ACCTS' website at www.acccts,org for more information about Rocky Mountain High 2013, scheduled for 24 July - 8 August.
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