One Fire and Tragedy After Another

 It's a relief that this last week, especially today, has not been so full of fires, accidents, and tragedies as last week, especially last Saturday.

Danny received calls early in the morning about fires at Sunrise Apartments, an area of Mission, SD, that is considered the "ghetto of Mission." 

One fire after another there, and Saturday was no exception. 

Meanwhile, just eight miles up our road, a young woman was hit by a semi and killed. Rumor had it that she jumped in front of the semi, but that hasn't been verified. Only a few hours later, Danny rushed off just before lunch to another accident near Mission. It took him about twenty minutes to arrive, and by then, the fire chief had managed to cut the driver out of his severely mashed car (the chief cutting himself badly enough in the process that he ended up self-transporting to the hospital in Winner for stitches). A semi truck with a very heavy load on behind had turned onto Rt. 83 from Rt. 18--right in front of the car which had the right of way. The car's driver was being laid on a stretcher and transported to an ambulance just as Danny arrived. The fire chief let Danny know some of the gory details, and Danny helped with cleanup, tossing fluid-soaked sand right into the middle of the mashed car since it was totalled anyway and there wasn't anywhere else to put it--until another call arrived about another fire. 

This time the fire was big. (Danny is, I think, the fireman on the right in the picture above.) 

He found the sun shining through the smoke to be most interesting. 

Also the rainbow created from the water spraying in the sunlight. 

By late afternoon or evening, Danny was exhausted from the hard work and having eaten next to nothing at lunchtime, besides being hot and sweaty from having to be dressed in his fire suit. Thankfully someone provided pizza for the firefighters, and Danny was sitting somewhere near the top of the hook and ladder eating three pieces at once (as pictured!)

At church Sunday we prayed for the tragic situations around us, as well as the ones in Iran and other places. We also prayed for a rancher friend who is usually at church but was missing Sunday. He had just finished haying and had 180 large bales for winter feeding when the lightning storm came the Monday before and set his hay on fire. He lost 120 of the 180 bales that he had only just baled. 

Thank God for the comfort of gathering on Sunday and bringing hard things to the Lord in prayer and then worshipping Him despite everything.