Joe had spent the day fishing with four of the boys and teaching them about God, while Haley and the rest of the kids went to a ranger station to learn about the dangers of forest fires. Now while the kids were having a snack, Haley told Joe all about their trip to the ranger station.
When they got to the ranger station, they were surprised to see a tall tower. It looked like a little house on top of tall metal legs with a long metal stairway going up to the house. The ranger told the kids that it was a fire lookout tower and that they were going to climb all the stairs up to the little house! Haley led the way, which was not a good idea! On the 10th step she stubbed her toe and fell backwards! All the kids screamed because they thought that she was going to knock them all down the stairs, but fortunately the ranger was right behind Haley, and he caught her before she knocked down the rest of the kids! The ranger noticed that Haley was kind of clumsy, so he had all the rest of the kids go in front of her. Haley stumbled five more times, but the ranger caught her every time!
The whole group was finally in the little building at the top of the tower. This small building had windows on every side, a lot of maps, and a two-way radio. The ranger explained that he climbed the tower every day and checked all around for smoke. If he saw smoke, he would look at the maps and estimate where the smoke was coming from, and then use the radio to contact the fire departments in that area so that they could check out the source of the smoke. The ranger explained that even a small campfire could easily get out of control and start the grass around it on fire, then the grass would set bushes and trees on fire, the whole area would be in danger!
The ranger had all the kids look out the windows facing west, and they could not believe what they saw! They were looking down into a valley that was completely burnt up! The ground was black and there was no green grass or bushes. There were only a few trees still standing, but they were dead and burnt. The ranger explained to the kids that a wildfire had gone through that valley a few weeks ago. It was started by a careless camper who let his campfire get out of control on a windy day!
He was interrupted by a scream from Haley! She was looking out one of the windows on the north side of the tower and pointing to some smoke a long way away! Haley yelled, “There’s a fire! It’s going to burn up the whole forest! We need to use the radio to call the firefighters!” Haley rushed to the radio, but the ranger got there first and told Haley to calm down. The ranger told the group that they had forgotten one important step. They had not looked at a map to see where the smoke was coming from. The ranger got out the map and showed the kids that the smoke was coming from a power generating station. Their process of generating electricity made a lot of steam and that is what we were seeing. That steam is there every day, it is not a fire. The ranger told the kids that it is very important not to panic whenever smoke is seen, always check the maps. There could be many sources of smoke that are not wildfires.
The ranger said that it was time to continue their education down on the ground. The kids started carefully down the steps and made sure that they were not close to Haley! The ranger was also concerned about Haley’s safety, so he put a rope through the belt loops of her jeans and held onto the rope so that she would not fall!
On the ground the ranger showed the kids how to build a safe campfire. He cleared all plants and grass out of the area where they would have the fire, he got big stones and put them in a circle around the area where the fire would be, and he filled buckets with water in case the fire got out of control. The ranger told the kids that fire needs three things: oxygen, fuel, and heat. The air around us contains oxygen, the forest is full of fuel, such as dry grasses, dry leaves, and dry wood. The heat that starts wildfires usually comes from lightning or from careless humans.
The ranger built the campfire, and they cooked lunch on the fire. After they finished eating, the ranger told the kids that the most important part of having a campfire is to make sure that it is completely out before leaving it. The ranger told the kids that they should always use enough water to put the fire out, and then use a lot more water. The ranger had filled 24 buckets with water (which was way too much water), and he told the kids that they were going to use all of it to put out the campfire. There were 25 in the group, but only 24 buckets, so someone would not have a bucket. Since Haley was the oldest one, she did not get one of the buckets of water. The kids were getting ready to throw all their water on the fire when it happened! A piece of wood in the fire popped and a spark flew out of the fire and landed on Haley’s shirt! Haley screamed, “I’m on fire!” Immediately the other 24 kids sprang into action and threw all their water onto Haley! She was drenched! The ranger could not believe his eyes! He tried not to laugh, but he could not hold it in! The rest of the kids joined him in laughter, and even Haley realized how ridiculous she looked, and she started laughing too!
When they were all done laughing, the ranger had them all sit down on the picnic tables, and he said that his good friend Joe had asked him to teach the kids a lesson about nature and about God. So, he said that he was going use the lessons that they had learned about fire to learn more about God.
The ranger got out his Bible and opened to the book of James and read James 3:3-8
We can make a large horse go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth. And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot chooses to go, even though the winds are strong. In the same way, the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches. But a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire. And among all the parts of the body, the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself. People can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, but no one can tame the tongue. It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison.
The ranger told the kids that just like a spark can start a fire that could burn down a whole forest and kill animals, and people, an unkind or thoughtless word can hurt people badly and destroy friendships! It is easy to start a fire, but it takes a long time for a forest to grow again, and in the same way it is easy to say something hurtful, but it takes a long time to restore a friendship, and sometimes the friendship is never the same again!
The kids started to feel bad because they had said some mean things to the four boys that had stayed at the farm with Joe. Haley said that she was going to apologize to them as soon as they got back to the farm. All the kids said that they were going to be more careful about what they say in the future. They did not want to hurt people and destroy friendships like a fire could destroy a forest.
The ranger told the kids that all people need to ask God to help them control their tongue, everyone has a struggle to control their words!