Strength of body, Strength of character

A group of professional athletes called the Strength Team visited St. Regis this week to talk with local church-goers and show off some amazing feats of strength.

“We might act like the circus but we are not the circus. This is our ministry,” Strength Team Founder Mike Hagen told the crowd Sunday night.

Three members of the 21-athlete team put on shows in the St. Regis School Gym Sunday through Wednesday evening. They broke cement blocks, bent iron with their bare hands and made other displays of strength.

Each night they put on a different show, using feats of strength to preach about Christianity and against drug use.

According to the Strength Team Web site, Hagen has bench pressed over 500 pounds and was timed in the 40-yard dash at 4.5 seconds. Hagen has also played football with the University of Montana Grizzlies, NFL Seattle Seahawks, USFL Michigan Panthers and San Antonio Gunslingers.

Hagen is a Montana native and the Strength Team itself is based out of Missoula.

“This is a little like coming home for me,” Hagen said.

Also performing at the event was John Steele, a former Marine who can bench press twice his body weight of 240 pounds. He and his wife Angela are the founders of Mercy Seat Ministries in Northwest Washington.

Kevin Suiter, the third member of the Strength Team, said that he joined the team after Hagen brought the Strength Team to his home church in Reno, Nev. He said that he helped the team set up their program at his church and afterwards Hagen asked him if he would like to try out to join them.

Suiter said that he has really been impressed with St. Regis and the people he has met there.

“I can’t believe it. It’s a very, small town but the turnout’s unbelievable and the people are unbelievable,” Suiter said.

Sunday evening started off with Suiter breaking through nine blocks of cement with his elbow, Hagen demolishing a stack of cement blocks under each forearm and Steele crushing a stack of cement blocks with his head.

“He’s the only one dumb, I mean tough, enough to do that with his head,” Hagen joked about Steele.

They continued to do stunts like ripping phone books and license plates in half, inflating a hot water bottle by mouth until it burst and popping soda cans with bare hands.

Suiter performed the final feat of the evening by bending a horseshoe into the shape of a heart.

“I don’t really love doing this because it hurts your hands and gives you bruises on your palms,” Suiter said.

Earlier in the evening, Steele laid down between two beds of nails while Suiter lay on top of him and bench pressed a heavy bar bell.

Steele also shared with the crowd a story about his younger years and his abuse of drugs and alcohol. He said that he had once dreamed of becoming a police officer, but because of a drug he used as a teenager that never leaves the body, he lost his opportunity to pursue that dream. Steele also recounted his year and a half ordeal with crystal meth and encouraged the crowd to stay away from drugs and alcohol.

“Before I knew it, it had me and I was addicted,” Steele said.

Steele also attempted to break three wooden baseball bats, one under his knee, one over his thigh and one behind his back. While he snapped each of the bats over his thigh and behind his back, neither Steele nor Suiter could break the bat behind their knee.

“We might fail sometimes, but that’s the way it is in life,” Hagen said as he encouraged Suiter to snap the bat over his thigh instead.

The program, which was free, came to St. Regis through a grant from Century 21. Mike Raether, the pastor at West Valley Chapel in Haugan, said that the grant was given to the St. Regis School with the stipulation that they partnered with a local faith-based organization to spend the money.

He said that while they were applying for the grant he was contacted by the Strength Team about coming to St. Regis. Raether decided that he should get other churches involved in the event and included other churches in the area for planning and setup.

“We really wanted to share an opportunity like this and make it an all-church thing,” Raether said.

Raether said that local church members housed, fed and spent time with the Strength Team members while they were in St. Regis.

The team presented a different message each night and Hagen said that each performance was bigger than the last.

Raether said that he was very pleased with the group’s performances.

“It’s an awesome thing and if people get the opportunity to go see the strength team they really should,” Raether said.