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The newest episode of “Sheepdog and Shepherd” shares the personal story of Nick Converso, a former law enforcement officer and Navy veteran. His experiences in the military and police work, along with personal struggles, eventually brought him to renewed faith and a new sense of purpose.
Converso grew up in western New York and left home at 18 to join the U.S. Navy. He spent almost ten years there as a Master-at-Arms and canine handler.
“I got to see a lot of cool places, got to travel a lot of cool places, deployed a few times to the Middle East,” he said. “The trade that I learned while I was there was being a dog handler, and that’s what kind of cultivated me in my upbringing.”
After his military service, Converso joined St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office as a law enforcement officer. He spent the next ten years on patrol. He later moved to the canine unit, where he became a trainer and supervisor. Despite his career achievements, he was struggling personally.
“I was at the high of my career,” Converso said, “but what I wasn’t realizing was I was at the lowest part of my career with my family and my marriage.”
Converso said that years of trauma and not having spiritual support started to affect him. “When you go to these horrific scenes, you go to traumatic incidents… you take something back with you, and it’s never something good,” he said. “Instead of it just being a burden on the officer, it’s a burden on their husband, their wife, their children, without them knowing.”
In August 2023, things reached a breaking point. “God finally took that shield away, and I took the full brunt force of the sin that I was living in and brought me to my knees,” Converso said. “And the only way for me was up.”
That moment forced Converso to make a hard decision. He left law enforcement, realizing that staying would mean losing his family. “I knew if I continue down that path in law enforcement, I would be divorced,” he said. “I would be ruining the family that I created.”
Without his career, Converso started to rebuild his life around faith. After going to Church of Eleven22, he noticed a big change. “I came home different. I felt different,” he said. “I knew something was reignited within me that I thought was out from my past traumas through the military and through law enforcement.”
As his faith grew, his family also began to heal, especially his relationship with his stepdaughter. Now, Converso talks openly about the spiritual challenges faced by people in the military and law enforcement.
“It’s a slow progression of little ticks, little things here and there,” he said about PTSD and anxiety. “And once you’re in the full-blown anxiety attacks, panic attacks, you don’t realize what’s happening to you.”
For Converso, faith was not a weakness but something he needed. “If you just put Christ in your life and just get into Scripture every day, it just aligns you,” he said. Looking back, Converso said, “God has to break you for you to grow.”
This episode is a strong reminder of the hidden burdens that people in service carry, and how faith can bring healing. Converso’s story shares a message many in uniform know well: true healing starts when you find your identity in God.
Like other episodes in the “Sheepdog and Shepherd” series, this one shows how faith is lived out beyond church, in everyday service, family life, and personal growth.
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Watch the full episode now at https://www.pray.com/series/sheepdog-and-shepherd-season-one.
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