How God Used a Military Operative to Save Thousands Out of Persecution
By Movieguide® Contributor
Military operative Chad Robichaux recalls the way that God has used him to save tens of thousands of lives.
During his eight tours with the Marines, one of Robichaux’s main duties was as an Advanced Force Operator, which meant that he was living in enemy-controlled territory to receive enemy intel. While in this role, he worked with an Afghanistan native, Aziz, who guided him and kept him out of enemy hands.
“[Aziz] saved my life every single day,” Robichaux told I Am Second. “[He would say,] ‘Don’t walk there. Don’t eat that. Don’t talk to that person. Don’t talk right now because someone’s going to hear you and kill us…’”
“I was there when his first son was born and I played soccer with his nephews and, like, we did life together. Aziz was very special to me,” Robichaux continued.
When the U.S. military pulled out of Afghanistan in 2021, Robichaux couldn’t stand the thought of leaving Aziz and his family behind. The Taliban knew that he had been assisting the U.S. and they told Aziz they were going to kill him and his family.
Robichaux devised a plan to save the man who had saved his life so many times.
“I started calling some friends that I knew everyone could really trust,” Robichaux explained. “I ended up with twelve people from the Special Operations community on my team.
The team decided they would turn the operation into an opportunity to save as many people from the clutches of the Taliban as they could. They wanted to help the interpreters who had helped the U.S. military and the Christians who would face persecution if they stayed in the country.
“I can’t explain it in any other way than I’ve seen a miraculous work of God in such a Divine way that orchestrated things that are not humanly possible.”
In order to save these people, Robichaux would need a country to open up its borders and allow these refugees to come into their country and give them visas so they could stay; something that would normally take months or years to set up for that many people.
God, however, blessed this mission.
“We called the United Arab Emirates, briefed them on what we were doing, and they were in right away,” he said.
Not only were they in on the mission, but they also provided Robichaux and his team with aircraft so they could move a large number of people out of the country.
As the team was finishing up the logistics, the Taliban started to move into the county where Robichaux was going to work in, so the team had to get going immediately.
After ten days of operation, Robichaux was able to move 17,000 people out of Afghanistan who would have been stuck otherwise, including Aziz and his family.
Robichaux and his team, however, did not stop there. Over the next couple of months, as the Taliban continued to take over the country they managed to move another 5,000 people out of the country, granting them their freedom.
“When God calls you to do something and you know its God tugging your heart… I have to be obedient and step out in that obedience and faith to know that I can’t do those things, but if God called me to do them, He will,” Robichaux said. “He will see through and He will make sure there is provision.”
“It may not look like the way I want it to look. I might not happen the way I expected it to happen. But God will do exactly what He intended when He burned your heart to do that thing,” he concluded.