My wife and I recently had the privilege of going on our first church mission trip together. Our week-long mission took us to Grange, Jamaica, to assist the local church and its residents. As part of our mission we did some construction, held medical clinics, visited local schools, and a held a vacation bible school for the local children. This mission was everything we were told it would be. Not only was it life-transforming for me as a firefighter, it was life reaffirming.
As you can imagine when we arrived at our destination we looked nothing like the local populace; not in our dress, our appearance, our speech, or even our obvious outward health. When you look so alien to those around you it is difficult to break down communication barriers and develop the type of rapport needed to build trust. Trust is needed to make a difference. With our team having only a week with “boots on the ground,” time was not on our side to develop these types of relationships.
One day while standing outside watching our youth work with the Jamaican children, they began to introduce the adults. When they introduced me, in addition to my name, they offhandedly mentioned “he is a firefighter.” The eyes of our hosts got large and smiles crossed from ear to ear. “You are a firefighter?” I was instantaneously made a celebrity, and as I walked among the crowds of young adults that assembled each day on the church grounds I continued to hear the whispers “he’s a firefighter.”
What made this even more remarkable was that in Jamaica there are only a small handful of fire stations run by the government. In this particular area the nearest fire station was miles away in another community, meaning regular contact with firefighters was not something that occurs. When we visited the local schools I saw no posters of fire trucks or firefighters on the walls, and no left over plastic fire hats on the shelves from previous school visits. Yet to these citizens my being a firefighter was something that mystified them and I was instantaneously able to gain their attention and trust. When working in the clinics I made sure I wore a shirt identifying my profession and identified myself and career. Not only did our hosts become trusting enough to ask me detailed questions about their personal health, but they also freely discussed their families and intimate lives. I truly hope I was able to make a difference even for just one person (hopefully for the woman whose BGL was over 800 and stated she would just double her medication on her own!).
This experience once again reaffirmed for me our profession and the importance that we have in our society and community. Being a firefighter and wearing our badge instantaneously garners the attention, admiration, respect, and trust of others. Even those in far away countries who have little or no contact with firefighters, and only hear the stories or see the news, a firefighter is someone with unquestionable purpose and motives. This is an amazing power and responsibility! So my question to you, the reader, is “what are you doing with it?” Certainly sitting in the station or at home waiting for the tones to drop and rushing to help others are solid answers, but there are 365 days a year and are so many more problems within our community. We joined this profession to make a difference, and while rushing to emergencies and rendering aid certainly makes a difference, the opportunity to do so much more is available to all of us wearing the badge. We can’t waste this time or opportunity!
Making a difference in the life of another doesn’t need to be a dramatic life or death rescue. As firefighters having such a community trust we are in position to do so much more to improve lives of others or even to downright change them! Making a difference for another can be as simple as having a conversation and offering guidance, or being able to coordinate assistance like a book drive for a local elementary school in a budget crisis, or coordinating a food or coat drive for the local indigent, or having lunch at the local residential home for the often forgotten elderly. Doing those simple things while wearing our badge is powerful! I can now say with absolute authority that providing a pair of shoes, a bottle of aspirin or vitamins, or a pair of reading glasses to someone in need, makes a world of difference to them in both the physical and the visual sense of the word.
If anyone is in the position to make a difference it is the firefighter. Not only are we interwoven into our community through our daily duties which often puts us in direct contact with those most in need, but we also have such a level of heart and compassion for our fellow man that we are willing to go to great lengths and take great risks to end suffering. When you combine this with the firefighter’s uncanny talent for thinking outside the box and finding simple and efficient solutions to complex problems, a firefighter can be a significant force for change. Now multiply all of that by a fire company, or even a fire department, and mountains can be moved
I challenge each of you to look outside your bay doors and take a strong look - not just at your community but into your community. What problems do you see? Reflect upon your last year and the experiences you have had both on and off the job. Think about what it is that stirs your soul or intrudes your mind at quiet moments. There is a reason those visions and thoughts remain in your mind – because you care about them. Allow those visions and thoughts in, and then run them through your mental firefighter solution application bank and see what you come up with. Don’t just view the problem in its entirety. As the saying goes “eat that elephant one bite at a time.” Maybe you can’t solve community hunger, but you can feed someone and make a difference for that person. Isn’t that why we chose this life?
Our badge and profession allows us great power and influence within our community, and our time on this earth is short, and our time wearing this badge even shorter. Make the most of that time! If people in a foreign country instantaneously came to trust me because I was a firefighter, even though I looked and spoke nothing like them, but simply did so because of my badge and who it signified I was, then imagine what you can do outside your own door here at home.
My last night in Jamaica as I was walking across the church yard towards our lodging I heard an accented voice say “You’re Dan.” I turned to see a young teenage Jamaican boy who had been hanging out all week but I had yet to meet or talk to. He then added with an excited smile “the firefighter!” It was then that I saw our world within the context of our profession and my belief in the opportunity we have to make it a little bit better.
Most of all I just couldn’t wait to get back to work.
