courage – SemperVerus

Life Lessons to Learn From a Space Capsule Failure

Law Enforcement Officer Badge How do you handle unexpected and prolonged difficulties in your life? With frustration? Anger? Despair? Doubting God’s oversight and sovereignty in your situation?

[ Read SemperVerus articles on the topic of SPIRITUAL FITNESS ]

Instead, take the SemperVerus way: Stay True to what is right and Stay True to your aim, trusting God with all your heart.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Spiritual Fitness: Top 12 Acts for a Christian ]

What was scheduled to be an 8-day test flight of the Boeing Starliner capsule for US astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunni Williams turned into a 286-day test of endurance and conviction during an unexpected life-limiting stay in space aboard the International Space Station due to the capsule’s technical problems including helium leaks in its propulsion system and the failure of several reaction control system thrusters.

Wilmore, a devout Christian, leaned on his faith throughout the extended mission. He described his spiritual connection as “vital to existence,” emphasizing that knowing God was in control sustained him during the 9-month ordeal.

Tactical Training for Individuals and Church Security Teams to Thwart Active Violence Incidents (Part 2)

This is the follow-up post to the first article about how Blue Arrow Consultants trains church security teams in handling Active Violence Incidents (AVI) in their houses of worship.

SemperVerus attended the two-day, more-than-six-hour training session at a Michigan church building with that church’s security team. It consisted of two hours of classroom teaching and four hours of live-action AVI scenario training with inert Glock blue guns and Glock 19X Gen5 Airsoft pistols and protective clothing.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Tactical Training for Individuals and Church Security Teams to Thwart Active Violence Incidents (Part 1) ]

The course instructor was Del Kostanko, police trainer and founder of Blue Arrow Consultants, LLC, who teaches that knowing how to assess and respond to threats can lessen the need for force, reduce the chance of physical harm, and minimize liability.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, A Prayer for Church Security Team Members ]

Disruptions during church services and events are generally benign, without violence, and can be solved using de-escalation techniques and skills.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Gentle Response De-Escalation Training for Church Security Teams ]

But, in the rare case of an AVI, church security teams must know how best to work cohesively to appropriately and courageously stop the deadly threat. SemperVerus highly recommends Blue
Arrow Consultants to expertly train your church safety team in the best practices of SWAT methods to properly prepare for when very bad times happen.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Chart: The Spectrum of Potential Threat Personas in Self-Defense and Church Security ]

The following is merely a small sampling of the excellent lessons Del taught, along with photos of some of the physical execution of those lessons in staged scenarios:

Medals of Honor and Valor

When you live the SemperVerus life, you decide to Stay True to what is right and Stay True to your aim in every decision you make.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Every Small Decision Leads to Winning or Losing in Spiritual Warfare ]

When you wear our SemperVerus Brotherhood/Sisterhood wristband, it’s a helpful constant reminder that you pledge to stay true to what is right (1 Tim. 4:16) by daily choosing to live led by (Rom. 8:14), filled with (Eph. 5:18), walking by (Gal. 5:16), and in step with (Gal. 5:25) the Holy Spirit, exhibiting 13 virtues in your behavior; one of which is acting valorously (with courage).

[ Read the SemperVerus article, The Door of Leadership Swings on the Hinge of Character ]

Conducting yourself with bravery is an element of strong character, and it’s part of the third element of the five SemperVerus components—BE—which emphasizes the importance of prioritizing integrity, honesty, and general uprightness in your life. It reads:

III. Be: developing rich personal leadership character of exemplary moral and ethical quality.

Two shining examples of what it means to act with courage are the US military’s Medal of Honor and the US Department of Justice’s Medal of Valor.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Be Like Ernest Shackleton ]

SemperVerus Named In Top 40 of Feedspot’s List of Tactical Blogs

Using search and social metrics on Google and media platforms, Feedspot has declared SemperVerus number 37 among the top 60 Tactical Blogs on the internet.

According to Feedspot, the judging criteria include a blog’s

Relevancy
Freshness (frequency of posting)
Domain authority
Google reputation and Google search ranking
Influence and popularity on social media sites
Quality and consistency of posts and
The assessment of Feedspot’s editorial team and expert review.

Feedspot’s review of SemperVerus is: “An impressive blog with high quality and useful content.”

SemperVerus (meaning Stay True) is your catalyst to inform, inspire, persuade, impel, and invigorate; sparking you to positive action through 5 main strategic principles—prepare, aware, be, know, do—and 1 tactical element (self-defense). Bookmark this SemperVerus blog homepage and return often to read the latest helpful articles. And enter your email address into the box on this page to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

By semperverus
Posted on 02/23/202303/14/2025