Church at Basic

I know this is a little late coming, since I left Basic about a month ago, but I guess that's just kind of how I roll. And I wanted to write about this before I got too distant from the experience.

One thing I kept hearing from people, both before leaving for BMT and after I got there, was to go to church, whether I was religious or not. It gets you out of the dorm and away from the TIs, and it gives you an hour or two to just relax and decompress. And while I agree with that, I would encourage everybody who has a chance to check out a BMT church service, trainees and visitors, to do so. And here's why.

In my opinion, the church at BMT is possibly the coolest church service you will ever go to. And not so much because of the chaplain giving the service, though there was one who was really good. And I also think it's pretty cool that they offer a bunch of services in all kinds of other religions, so if you want to, you can broaden your religious horizons while you're there, so to speak. However, to experience what I'm talking about, you have to go to the contemporary Christian service--which normally I wouldn't be going to; I'm more of a traditionalist, with the hymns and whatnot--but the contemporary Christian service is the one that everybody goes to.

I admit that the first time I went to church, I cried in Sunday School before I even got to the service--the first and one of the only times I cried at BMT. It wasn't even an especially powerful class, though I remember that we were talking about marriage, which made me miss my then fiancee. It was the first time I allowed myself to decompress and actually feel anything since I'd gotten there. I guess I had put up some kind of defensive shield without realizing it, and when that came down, everything just kind of came rushing in, and the tears started gushing out.

And then I went to the service, and that was simply overwhelming. I had never witnessed such an example of coming together together to support each other. The sanctuary was packed with trainees, with the new Airmen and their families in the back. As everybody was walking in, they were playing music videos up on a screen. They always played the same three songs, but I actually really liked that; with all the other stress going on, it was nice to know what to expect. Though the songs they picked never failed to start a few other people crying: "Letters from War" by Mark Schultz always made me want to cry, and "I Can Only Imagine" by Mercy Me always got a bunch of people, and they played "Letters from Home" by John Michael Montgomery, but that one was first, so I usually came in too late for that one.

But as I walked in and they were playing these songs, every single trainee, to a person,was singing along and had their arms around the waist or the shoulders of the person to their left and their right, and everybody as a giant mass was swaying back and forth. I was with a group of girls from my flight, but I was on the end, so I knew the girl on my left, and following suit, we put our arms around each other. But then another girl slid in next to me that I didn't know, and she put her arm around me too. And behind us were girls from an older flight, and during songs they would answer a few questions and tell us that Basic got better, and that it was going to be all right. And while there was a sermon and a few prayers, most of the service was just singing, a few slow songs where we all put our arms around each other again, and a lot of fast ones where we all clapped and did little dances in our pews. Those songs they changed once a month, much to our disgruntlement, though I assume that was to keep the band from going insane from playing the same songs for a year straight.

And as much as I enjoyed being part of the community, I also like watching its effect on everybody else, especially the guys (who were kept segregated from us). The girls really got into it, with little pockets of synchronized dancing breaking out. But I guess that was a little more expected from the girls. With the guys, I'm not sure what it was, because they were usually a lot more toned down than we were. Maybe there's just something more powerful, something more private being revealed, when you watch a bunch of guys with their arms around each other's shoulders, passing tissues to the guy in the middle during "I Can Only Imagine."

I have a couple of videos below. The first one, I'm really excited about. I stole it from Youtube, from ytmisschriss. They actually took a video of the beginning of church, where they're playing "Letters from War." This is exactly where I was, and this is what it looked like. The ones in blue jackets in the first visible row are graduated Airmen. Everybody else in ABUs are trainees. The second video is the one playing in the background of the first video, "Letters from War" by Michael Schultz. This is the one that always got to me, even the eighth time I heard it.