We had a great time with the firemen “Bomberos” in San Lucas Toliman during our April trip. This is a new fire department getting started from the efforts of one gentleman who has been diligently working to see this accomplished for ten years. We were able to spend two evenings with this group of 11. On Tuesday evening Bob Willingham a retired fireman from Irving, Texas who presently lives in Corsicanna, Texas did a training on how to “READ SMOKE”. The Bomberos were locked in and inquisitive. Following the “READ SMOKE” Training there was a lengthy question and answer time. Through the questions we are better prepared for what to share in future trips to help these dedicated individuals. On Thursday evening we spent several hours leading the Bomberos through team building activities and working through rescue scenarios. The evening started very lite hearted, but soon became very serious as they grasped the opportunity to look at every task as a true fire fighting scenario. The final activity of the evening was a race between four members of the U.S. Team and four of the Bomberos. The race was to see who could complete the task of all four team members putting on and taking off a set of Bunker Gear. This was a challenging feat especially for the U.S. Team. The U.S. Team thought they had won once the last member was suited up. The final Bomberos completed suiting up and saw the U.S. Team celebrating, but began taking off the gear. Once the Bomberos was out of the gear, I pronounced them the winners since they had completed the instructions of all four members needing to put on AND take off the Bunker Gear. Laughter was had by all and the U.S. Team was a little more humble. Once the laughter had subsided we presented the Bomberos with ten sets of Bunker Gear for their department. They were extremely excited since they had no gear. The final part of the evening was to present the Bomberos with a new Bible. Each Bomberos received a Bible and immediately opened to look. Three of them placed their faces between the pages and took a deep breathe. It was an amazing sight to see them receive with such humility and gratitude! I asked them if they would willingly leave a piece of the Bunker Gear behind if they were responding to a fire. They quickly acknowledge they would not willingly leave a piece of gear. I shared with them the Bible is the most important piece of equipment they could have in life, for through the words in the Bible they could come to know Jesus personally. The gentleman who has been faithfully working to develop this fire department asked if he could speak. He has been elected Fire Chief. He opened the Bible and read a passage over the Bomberos. In that moment, I knew God had raised up the right man to lead this group of Bomberos.
