Everybody Needs a Hero…

I had a very interesting experience a couple weeks ago that I have to share with you.  I hesitated to share earlier because it sounds like I’m tooting my own horn; but the lesson I learned from it is very valuable, so I’m going to share a short version of the story with you.  Here goes…

I’ve been volunteering with the Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue team for about three years now.  During that time I’ve only found two missing persons.  For our county and our team, that’s about normal.  The two missing persons really only count for one find because they were lost together and were found together.  Our team gets called out about 10-12 times a year and there are about 35 people on the roster.  Many people who are reported missing find their own way out, or are found by law enforcement or park rangers.  So, here’s my story.  The other night I was working on my house late.  I was replacing a door and ran into a whole string of snags.  At around 9:30pm the new door was still not in, and there was a gaping hole in my house (about the size of a new door) and my pager goes off for a “call out”.  My immediate reaction was, “You’re kidding right??”.  Unfortunately, no joke.  We had two missing persons at the same time in two different parks.  It was about 50° and dropping.  I called in and told them I had to at least set the door in place before I could respond, then I headed out for about a 40 minute drive to the search location.  By the time I got there, there were already two teams out, and some of the search coordinators were already being moved over to the second search.  My partner and I received almost no briefing and we headed out.  About 30 minutes into our search, we called out into the blackness and heard a response; barely audible.  We called again and estimated a direction and distance of where we thought the voice came from.  For the next two and half hours my partner Morris and I traversed a very steep hillside in complete blackness searching for this person.  Her voice was bouncing off the hillsides and making it difficult to locate her position.  When we finally stomped through the brush down to a clearing where she had been stuck in the dark and cold for several hours, she was so relieved she almost collapsed to a seated position.  I sat down next to her, gave her my jacket and gloves while Morris radioed in our coordinates.  It was a great moment for her and for me.  For the next 10 minutes we gave her food and drink as she showered us with thanks.  She was mildly hypothermic, so we helped her up and assisted her up the hillside to the service vehicles waiting above.  Once we got back, we immediately packed up and headed over to the next search, about another 40 minutes away.  It was now about 2am when I arrived at the park headquarters for the next search.  We received a briefing and an assignment and headed out again.  I prayed that God would help me find this man, so I could use the story as a testimony.  Finding two people in one night would be unheard of on our team.  My partner and I had been hiking for about an hour and a half, when we spotted a very odd looking reflector “shining” back at us.  When “the reflector” didn’t answer back, we rushed over towards the object to see if it was our missing party.  I got my light right down in his face and recognized another very grateful expression of relief from a very tired hiker.  He was okay, he just didn’t have a flashlight to continue his walk back to his car.  We loaned him one of ours and walked him back to the park headquarters.  When we arrived back, the team was all smiles.  We had had a great night with happy endings both times.

                

As I relished the moment of being someone’s “hero” on the drive back home (it was now about 3:30am) I realized how rare it is for most of us to experience something thrilling like this.  Only people like firemen and policemen get to do this kind of stuff, not to many of us normal folk get the opportunity.  As I processed that, I realized, that as Christian Mom’s and Dad’s, God does give us opportunities to be heroes.  As a dad myself I have a pretty good understanding of this high calling.  We are called to stand against “the tide” so to speak, and help our children find their way through these dark forests of compromised morality and ethics.  Frankly, as a conservative Christian, I feel that I am at war with influences and trends that are pulling my family in the opposite direction.  I believe we have a spiritual enemy who does everything in his power to tear us apart deceiving us with lies or lulling us into a state of complacency.  It is time for us to stand up, lead our families through these dark times and rescue those who are lost in a labyrinth of relative morality.  God has called us all to be heroes and does give us the opportunity.  

Thanks for listening.  Consider this your “call out”.  It may be late and you may be tired, but please respond.

Maybe you already have a hero story to share with us; please share it!

Blessings,

The Hanson’s

PS-  If you are one of our financial supporters and are interested in an automatic withdrawal option from your checking account or credit card (think frequent flyer miles), I found the link to the paperwork you’ll need to fill out on the agency’s website (http://yugo.org/files/Credit_Card_EFT_Set_Up.pdf).  You’ll have to send it back via snail mail.  The address you’ll need to send the form back to is:

Yugo Ministries

PO Box 58

National City, CA 91951-0058