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LANETT — The Lanett Nazarene Church hosted a First Responders Appreciation Day this past Sunday. Local law enforcement officers, firefighters and paramedics were invited to be there and were treated to lunch afterward in the church activity center.

The special service was part of the church’s continuing outreach into the community. Members of Lanett Nazarene have regular visits to nearby Diversicare of Lanett and are planning a mission trip to western North Carolina, which was hard hit by the torrential rainfall caused by Hurricane Helene.

The church pastor, Rev. Harold Henson, encourages more people to visit nursing homes and assisted living facilities. “You will find people there no one comes to visit on a regular basis,” he said. “It means so much to them to receive visits and to get a card from someone on their birthday. We make it a point to visit 18 people at Diversicare.”

Rev. Henson said that our first responders serve the community well. “Serving the community is serving God, and we need to do both,” he said.

Lanett’s first responders have a special place in the hearts of a family at the church who has a five-year-old child who is having seizures. “I thank them for what they do,” a member of the family said. “They are a blessing to our community. That little boy has gone though so much, but he will really touch your heart once you get to know him.”

Some videos were shown during the Sunday morning service showing the many ways first responders provide vital help to people in dire circumstances.

“The Lord called me here to transform this church and to help turn the community around,” Rev. Henson said.

One way he’s doing this is to be a volunteer with the Lanett Restoration Committee, which embraces the theme “Love Our Lanett” and has frequent litter pick up details. “I’ve been doing it for two years now, and I think it’s making a difference.” he said. “I saw some litter near the street late in the day not long ago and I said to myself that I was going to go out there and pick it up the next morning. You know what? When I went there the next day it was gone. Somebody else had picked it up. That made me feel good. You can make a difference when you do these things.”

Rev. Henson introduced the speaker of the day, Jeff Nelson, who is in his first term of serving the people of Chambers County as its sheriff. He gave a very good talk about what it’s like to be a first responder. It’s not just a law enforcement guy; it’s also a firefighter and a paramedic. They all work together in emergencies and they usually see bad stuff every day.

Nelson opened with a lighthearted comment. “I’ve got news for y’all,” he said with a broad smile. “I’m not a preacher, I’m a law enforcement officer.”

That brought some laughter from the congregation.

He then talked about what he’s done in the way of serving the community for the past three decades.

“I started out as a volunteer firefighter in the Rock Stand community north of Roanoke,” he said. “I later got into law enforcement by being a dispatcher for the Roanoke Police Department. Most everyone in town knew me because my family owned the local Piggly Wiggly. They always saw me there bagging groceries. I played football in high school and was accustomed to serving the public in some way every day. It’s natural for someone with that experience to get into being some kind of first responder.”

Sheriff Nelson said that things are different now from the way they were 30 years ago. It’s a much tougher world out there right now than it once was.

Two major events have helped shape this, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and the 2020 Covid pandemic.

Nelson said he’d never forget September 11th. “I was on my way to a law enforcement class in Alexander City when I heard that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City,” he said. “I thought it was probably a small plane and not that big of a deal. but when I got to where I was going and saw on TV that a second plane had flown into the second tower I knew our country was under attack. My pager started going off. I started getting messages to return to Montgomery immediately. The state legislature was in session at the time, and I was being called back to make sure they were safe.”

It seems there were messages out there that all federal and state officials had been threatened with widespread attacks.

“In Montgomery, we set up security procedures,” Nelson said. “No one was allowed to get into or out of the building without going through the front door.”

Fortunately, none of those threats panned out.

There were some good things that came out of that terrible period in U.S. history. “People prayed more,” Nelson said, “and we were inspired by the heroism we had seen from first responders. Many gave their lives that day trying to help others.”

There was also something ominous. “It had everyone in law enforcement and fire and EMS service looking at what might happen next,” Nelson said. “We are people, too. None of us is Superman. Each one of us puts on our pants one leg at a time, and most of us have families.”

Nelson said that every day when he gets in his car to go to work he says a prayer, asking God to help his wife and kids if anything ever happens to him in the line of duty.

“No one is promised tomorrow,” he said. “You never know what can happen on any given day. A first responder can die any given day doing their job. You can die in a traffic accident, get killed in a shootout or die of a heart attack or a stroke because of all the stress you have to deal with.”

There are rewarding times, too.

Nelson recalled an incident when he responded to a family who couldn’t locate their little girl. She had been playing hide and seek with them and had disappeared. They were frantic when they called. When law enforcement and paramedics arrived at the house, they found the little girl in her dad’s arms. He was in tears, relieved they had found her safe.

“He asked us what we were going to do to him,” Nelson said. “I told him to relax, that all danger was past.”

The sheriff recognized long-time Lanett firefighter Jacob “Tiny” Lovelace in the congregation and thanked him and other firefighters for the work they do. “I have known him for years,” he said. “From my own experience as a volunteer firefighter I truly admire what they do. I will never forget an experience I had as a firefighter. We had the task of going into a burning house to rescue a man who was still in it. We couldn’t get him out in time. It has always bothered me that he died.”

Though fully outfitted in proper firefighter gear and carefully following his training, Nelson remained in the burning house until being ordered out.

He didn’t realize it until he was cooling down on the outside that he had received some burns in the ordeal.

“It was like being inside an oven,” he said. “It was not good. When they were taking off my firefighter gear I was asked if I was okay. I told him I was but never wanted to be in a situation like that again.”

Nelson said there’s one big difference between a law enforcement officer and a firefighter or EMT. “As a law enforcement officer,” he said. “You can see the demons who are trying to kill you. You don’t see them as a firefighter a paramedic.”

He said there have been times when he has had to question someone at a crime scene. When they readily admit they killed someone, Nelson said it’s like looking into the eyes of pure evil.

Dealing with incidents like this can drive any normal person to questioning God. “Why to these things happen?” he would ask. “Why would God allow someone’s little girl to be killed in a traffic accident? Bad things like it had been happening since the beginning of the world.

“I questioned the Lord frequently until a preacher friend of mine told me he needed to talk to me,” Nelson said. “He convinced me that everything happens for a reason. You may not understand it at the time, but it happened for a reason. God does everything for a reason.”

“I married a young lady from Valley (Kristin), and we attended Fairfax Methodist Church,” he said. “Rev. Mike Densmore helped me get through a lot of things when he was there. I really needed it at that time. I was in homicide, and you have to deal with some of the worst people in the world. There are times you have to sit across from people who have pure evil in their eyes. They rationalize everything they did, that the person they killed deserved to die. I had to have people to talk to, people I trusted, or I was going to go crazy doing that. You can’t keep it bottled up inside. There has to be people you can talk to. You have to have them to keep doing your job.”

Nelson admits to having gotten some butterflies when he was asked to speak at a church. He thought about it and agreed to, seeing it as an opportunity to speak on behalf of all first responders. “It doesn’t happen a lot when people thank you for being in law enforcement,” he said.

Nelson pulled something from his pocket and showed it to the congregation. It was an Armor of God coin. He said he’d been carrying it every day for the past 20 years.

An Armor of God coin is a personal reminder that you are identified with Christ and that he is the one who pledge your love, devotion and commitment to.

Another precious item for him is the King James Bible his mother-in-law gave him shortly after being elected sheriff. “It means more to me than anything else I have,” he said.”It’s where I go anytime I need help.”

It’s always handy when he swears in a new deputy.

Nelson said the Bible is a very good book to read for any first responder.

“I ask God every day to look out for my family if anything ever happens to me,” he said. “I want my wife to be prepared if that patrol car ever drives up to our house and someone has to give her bad news. I have always been proud of being able to protect and serve.  I have done it for the governor of Alabama. I encourage each person to live their life in a godly manner, to love God and to respect Him.”

Nelson received a loud round of applause when he finished.

Rev. Henson told him and other first responders present that that the good people of Lanett and the surrounding area pray for them every day. He said there’s a familiar quote in the Book of John that applies to them: there’s no greater love than to lay down your life for your friends.