THINGS LEARNED IN FIRE SCHOOL

I would rather speak five words with my mind, in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue (I Corinthians 14:19b).

The Steele family has a contract with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to maintain the tract of prairie on our farm for ten years.  The IDNR shared in the cost of removing cedar trees and burning the prairie for the first three years, but the Steele family bears the total cost for the next seven.  Our desire, of course, is to preserve the native prairie as long as the grass grows and the rivers flow--a little white man to native American treaty speak.  We will keep our word, however.  To minimize the cost of doing burns, my brother-in-law and I attended a fire school to learn how to do this.  It is a commonsense education, but a couple of lessons have been impressed on me: one is the absolute necessity of good communication and the second is to never be cavalier with fire.

The first unit of our fire school course work was fire-fighting terminology.  How can the fire crew have good communication if they are not using and understanding the same terminology, for example, what is the difference between a contained fire and a controlled fire?  Understanding the difference can be critical!

I happen to think that there is a parallel here with how we communicate the gospel.  One of the great blessings of the reformation was that the Bible was translated into the language of the people so that it could be understood.  One of the questions Christians must answer is; Are we coming into understanding distance of the unchurched?  Are we communicating the language of the gospel in a language that can be understood?

Firefighters have an acronym; LCES is for Lookouts, Communication, Escape routes and Safety zones.  The fire lookouts have to accurately communicate what is happening with the fire so that the firefighters can safely and accurately do their job, making sure that everyone comes safely home.  As Christians, that's our job too.

Grace&Peace;
Tom