No, I’m not in the picture, but my son did get to meet the Fire Chief of the city. My son was wearing his full fireman outfit including boots. Why on earth didn’t I have a camera to take pictures?!

Service Project for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

I’m sure I know what some of you may say. Have I sold-out (in all meanings of the word)?

Maybe I have. I’d like to provide a thoughtful response to that question, but I know what it sounds like. It always sounds like the answer is yes.

Next time, I’ll be more involved to help out the logistics. We had some minor issues that complicated certain aspects. Why will I help? Because the Fire Department wanted to do this project before he knew the church I attend wanted to do anything. Point is, someone was going to do this project and for the sake of my children, I’m glad it was us. My family does a lot of deaf and hard of hearing awareness projects and those are wonderful. However, I really want my son to be a part of something where he is a participant, not a beneficiary. When he met the Fire Chief and climbed on a real firetruck, it was a beautiful moment indeed.

Next time the free smoke alarm project will be bigger and we will be coordinating with other churches in the city. I look forward to that. Again, there are enough things we as a family do with the larger fellowship of believers that I want the children to see that we do the same thing at our church, too. They both love church very much and I really want them to see that, when we choose to serve, no one fights for ownership. Instead people come together for the common good of others.

More important than my personal ramblings, people were helped. It’s dry this winter and there are lots of fires just in January alone. The dusting of snow today doesn’t help very much, but the hope that loss of life is minimized does help. Until another four months pass, that’s all the news that’s fit to type.