June 24, 2025

Dear Friends,

It shouldn’t have happened. He knew the risks of what he was doing and took necessary and appropriate precautions. The plastic tank caught fire as planned and was burning as expected on the gravel base that surrounded the granary. But what had been an unusually calm day was suddenly transformed and, without any warning, a strong gust of wind blew the fire at him. Before he knew it, he was on fire — badly on fire — with no one around to hear his cries. He did the only thing he knew to do, drop and roll and, in the mercy of God, was able to quench the fire that ate at his body. Badly burned, he lay there, conscious, and after some time, was able to call his wife in a nearby town.

When she picked up the phone, he told her he had been burned and she should come home right away. There was no great alarm in his voice and not much further information was given her. She immediately called a neighbor to go to their place and check things out. His return call chilled her. She should get home as soon as possible because it was bad.

By the time she arrived, her husband was gone, taken by ambulance on the four-and-a-half hour trip to Saskatoon. When she arrived there, the doctor informed her that her husband was to be flown to a hospital in Edmonton because he had serious burns to 60 percent of his body and they could not handle burns of that severity in Saskatoon. It was only then that she was told the gravity of his situation. He would be air evacuated, via jet, to Edmonton because if they used the STARS helicopter, he would die in transit.

In Edmonton (where they spent almost a month while he was placed in an induced coma and then received not one but two major skin grafts), my cousin’s wife called the neighbor who also worked for them as a hired hand when not farming his own land. She asked the neighbor to do whatever he could to get their crops off if at all possible (it was the beginning of harvest season) after he had harvested his own. She had done what she could about the farm. Now, the most important thing was to pray for her husband’s life and support him in whatever way he needed.

Three days later, the neighbour called, asking to speak to Brian (my cousin). His wife said that was not possible because he was in a coma. “When he wakes up,” he said, “tell him that all the crops are off and in the granaries.” All the neighbours had come together and harvested this family’s crops before their own, despite the pressure to get their own crops off the fields while the weather was good.

I heard that story from my cousin and his wife as I sat at their dining room table last week. I was profoundly impacted by their courage (after Edmonton, they spent two years at a rehab facility in Regina while he learned to walk and function again — apart from limited mobility in his right arm and hand, as well as some scars, he leads an active and full life) and by the illustration of true community.

Those neighbours put their injured neighbour’s situation before their own needs. They gave of themselves and they risked their own prosperity for someone they considered a friend, someone who would have done the same thing for them had the circumstances been reversed.

We use the word community quite glibly. Most of us want community that meets our needs. We long to be a part of a community like that farming community where my cousin lived — a place where you belong and you matter. But most of us want that community on our terms, when it’s convenient for us or when we feel motivated to give some aspect of our lives, usually out of our surplus, to others.

The key to that community’s response to my cousins’ dire situation was that no one thought of themselves first. All they thought about was how to alleviate the stress and suffering caused by the accident. Christian or not, they gave freely of themselves to do what they could in a horrible set of circumstances. They did it out of respect and love, in some cases, but mostly because they understood that this is what communities do to take care of their own.

I don’t know about you, but this story really challenges me. I’m really grateful for the kind of congregation we have but I think we can be better — not in quantity but in attitude. What would you be willing to do, without hesitation, on a moment’s notice, should a need arise that required your help?

Blessings!

Doug