A Veteran’s Total Transformation: From Hurting to Healing

This guest post was submitted by Mitch Roberts, a volunteer with Warriors Set Free via Set Free Ministries, a Christ-centered ministry that has been helping people find freedom and healing for nearly 30 years. They offer free services on their website. You can also listen to their Rules and Tools Podcast on your favorite podcast platform.

Mitch Roberts with his dog in 2017. COURTESY: Mitch Roberts

My name is Mitch Roberts and this is my story of going from fallen and bound up in chains.. to freedom and fighting for others.  I grew up in a good Christian home that went to church every Sunday and so I heard of Jesus… but I only had the knowledge of the stories of the Bible like Noah’s ark and Jonah and the whale… basically the Sunday school teachings.  As I grew older in the church and became a teen and young man, I was mainly in church to appease my parents and to see the girls in church (to be honest).  That was my Christian life — if you can really call that one.  I had no relationship with the Father nor was I really looking for one.  That was how my journey started. I knew of Jesus, but I didn’t know Jesus. I’m thankful I at least knew of Him… because it’s what saved me.

I joined the Marines when I was 23 and became an 0331 infantry machine gunner with 3rd battalion 5th Marines. My first deployment was to Fallujah Iraq in 2007 – 2008, and that was where I started to experience deep pain in many different ways.  I immediately had my best friend attempt suicide in the first few days I was in country, and he later finished the job before we returned.  I also experienced seeing the deaths of Iraqis and some of the other horrors you face over there.  My next deployment we went on a MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit) where we traveled to other countries training with militaries and I witnessed modern day Sodom and Gomorrah in Thailand and Philippines where there was trafficking of young girls is everywhere. It bothered me, but when you are in and surrounded by your buddies, you don’t realize how it’s affecting you because military life is intense and you’re always moving and training so you just compartmentalize it in your head and keep going. After those two deployments, I decided not to re-enlist because our unit was supposed to go on another MEU.  However after making my decision and starting my process of getting out, the orders changed and the unit deployed to Sangin, Afghanistan. (Editor’s note: Sangin is considered to be the bloodiest battleground of the war in Afghanistan).

Mitch Roberts in his Marines uniform. COURTESY: Mitch Roberts

When I got out and moved back home, they deployed and immediately my phone started ringing with calls or texts about guys who were killed or wounded in action.  In total, 25 were killed and 200 wounded, leaving 34 men as amputees.  The guilt of not being there with them was overwhelming, and every time my phone rang or beeped, I would have a panic attack. That went on from October of 2010 to April 2011.  The guilt and pain led me to abusing alcohol and drugs — both street drugs and prescription drugs. I attempted suicide four times — mainly through overdose, but also suicide by cops in a standoff.  I got four DUIs and lived in a mental health hospital for a year where they even did electroconvulsive therapy.  I lost everything: my wife, my job, my house, my purpose, my mind, my desire to live… and I was about $100,000 in debt from all the criminal fees and credit card debt. That all changed one day when — even though I forgot about Jesus — he did not forget about me.

Mitch Roberts in his “office” as a machine gunner. COURTESY: Mitch Roberts

A girl I knew from high school lived near the VA mental health hospital where I was living in 2015, and she asked if I would read a book if she brought it because it helped her in a rough time.  I figured I had nothing to lose. I had tried every pill, drug, and therapy style out there including an electric shock procedure that damaged my brain… and nothing worked.  The book was ‘Battlefield of the Mind’ by Joyce Meyer.  I was about 2/3rds of the way through the book, and I knew the Lord was speaking to me. I had a choice I needed to make and that choice was: repent and surrender to Him -or- keep running away and try to fix everything myself the way I had been. I got on my knees in my room in that mental health hospital and said ‘Lord, I surrender if you can deliver me from this place, I will serve you all the days of my life.’ In 48 hours, he started to restore me first by taking care of that big financial debt followed by amazing things that happened with my criminal charges.  He not only made a way for me, but restored me back to better than I was before I lost everything. He delivered me from the pit and guided me on a new path. That path led me to Warriors Set Free where I was seeking to understand more about the Lord… and not just the Sunday school stories that I knew.

Steve Prince from Warriors Set Free took me in as a brother guided me, taught me, and never judged me.  He equipped me for battle so that I could defeat the things that were previously taking my life and emerge victorious.  Set Free Ministries helped me find a relationship with Jesus, and because of it I am now FREE and helping other men to heal from wounds and equip them to fight as well.  I still stumble now and then in this battle, but I don’t stay down because I have my squad of warriors back. However, this time it’s better than a squad of Marines… it’s a squad of Christ’s warriors that I have received through Warriors Set Free!