I will be going in for another operation tomorrow, hopefully this one takes and I can get on with the next procedure to make me more productive around here.  Art :-)

He headed straight out, off the pavement through the air, landing several yards downhill. The car rolled at least three times.

Second chase, continued:

The highway was slick from frost forming and from the sand.  We all managed to get to the side of the road safely.  The first deputy radioed, “Art, you better get down there, you are the EMT.”  We all figured we had a serious injury or two or three, if not a fatality.  As I headed down I kept thinking that I wish I had the book with me.  While I had been taking EMT training, we were still IN training and I had not as of yet encountered anything like this accident would be. 

I gotta admit I was a bit nervous about what I would find.  Fortunately, I knew Maupin had a good crew of volunteers, and we had a call out to them.  I was taking EMT classes with many of them, but, they had a lot more experience and were very dedicated.  I said for years after I took the class with them, full-time firemen from The Dalles Fire Dept. as well as several other volunteers from local communities – that if I was ever injured, person for person I would rather have it happen in Maupin.  EVERY ONE of those volunteers was serious about the job.  As opposed to just some from the other units.

   

I was the first to the car.  There was NO ONE in the car.  All three occupants were gone.  We started looking, figuring they had been thrown out, but, couldn’t find anyone.  We were still a couple of miles from Maupin and there were no lights.  We had been on the road for 23 minutes…..you do the math, it is 45 miles.  The only thing the suspects could look forward to was the rocks, sagebrush and sand of the desert.  And they didn’t know where they were – however, there were plenty of hiding places.  From experience we knew that most suspects run a short distance and then go to ground.  We did not know if anyone was injured, and if they were how badly they might be hurt.  I didn’t see any blood in the car. 

We looked for quite a while.  He had a deputy go to the east end of the ravine these guys had wrecked into, had the local volunteer ambulance standing by and we broadcast over the PA system that they should come up and get assistance.  After about an hour I decided to head back to The Dalles.  Dennis asked if he could stay.  I got permission from the Assistant Chief.  They had a parameter set up between the three law enforcement officers, where any movement, once it got light, could be detected.

Dennis said his car wasn’t running very well; as a matter of fact he couldn’t keep it running unless he kept it at a high RPM.  When the suspect hit the sand, it blew it back onto the car.  There was no paint left on the front of the car – it had to be repainted.  The window was pitted and had to be replaced.  The overhead light bar was also pitted.  We decided I would take it back and leave him with the unmarked unit.

   

As I started to get into the car, I noticed an apple across the highway on the shoulder of the road.  I walked over and picked it up.  It had frost on top of it and dry ground under it.  I was sick.  I called over to Dennis and told him we had been looking in the wrong direction.  Somehow they got around us and ran back across the road. 

Dennis got a sheepish look on his face.  He said, “That’s my apple.” 

It was such a dead night he figured we would probably get together in the office for a while.  So, he stopped off at his house and got four apples for all of us.  He said he had placed them on the front seat and had to fight them the entire way as they bounced around under his feet.  When he got out of the car he must have kicked it and it went across the road.

   

I left the deputies, Dennis and the ambulance and headed north.  Dennis was right, RPM’s had to be up or the car wouldn’t run.  I couldn’t keep it running below 15 mph.  When I got into The Dalles I just coasted it to a parking space in front of the Police Building.  Turned out we had an air filter full of sand; fortunately we didn’t do any damage to the car.

   

It started getting light about 0600 - 0630.  Dennis was sitting in the car with the engine running when he saw three young men coming up out of the ravine, up from the wreck.  The young men headed towards his car....they didn’t realize it was a police car; they saw it and were going to try and get a ride.  Dennis called to the deputies on the radio and then drew down on the suspects.  They got their ride, back to The Dalles to the Wasco County Juvenile Facility.

The EMT’s were still on the scene and checked them out.  There were no serious injuries.  All three were very cold, stiff and banged up.  When they were fleeing they hadn’t been wearing seat belts, but, were pretty well locked in, shoulder to shoulder, when they went over – we figured being packed in like that probably helped keep them “safe.” 

After the car settled, they had climbed out and ran down the hill a piece and hid behind some rocks.   They had escaped from a boys’ home up near Seattle, WA Sunday night, stolen a car and headed to Vancouver.  The stolen car was low on gas, so they went into a neighborhood, one of them was familiar with, and stole the Chevy.

   

They came off the freeway into The Dalles needing gas.  Not knowing the area they didn’t find the service stations that were open yet, but, were still looking for gas or possibly another car to steal, when Dennis pulled them over.

   

We turned in our reports.  I wrote mine after getting back to The Dalles and Dennis wrote part of his while waiting at the top of the curves.  He finished it the next shift.

   

It was an exciting night after all.  We got the bad guys.  None of us got hurt.  However, while we did not know it then, this was just the second of three chases we were to have in that one week.  The next one was very different.....sort of....there were some similarities.

Mark 12:29-31 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:

³⁰ And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

³¹ And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

It sounds so simple, just love everyone.  Songs have been written about it, John Lennon (I think) wrote “All We Need Is Love” and it became a hit song for the Beetles.

In the 1960’s young people were proclaiming that same theme and included physical contact as part of it.  They did impact the world, the segregation in our south was being broken, they strived to help others and we did see some changes.

However, the love they were declaring was of man, not as the commandments of God.  Man is fallible and because of that they fell short of their goals.

They formed communes, but forgot about the greed and jealousies of man which interfered with their goals of Utopia.

Our love of people must be grounded in our love of God.  Jesus made it clear that it was The  first of all the commandments we cannot separate God from the works on this earth and expect to have a positive influence or the lasting of those works for eternity.

We must first seek God before we can truly love others.  While we may try, and feel we are being successful, we are not, we will harbor things in our heart against others – and satan will make sure that harboring will eventually tear down anything we create.

To truly be able to love others, we must totally commit ourselves to God, to understand and accept that He IS God and thus has complete authority over our lives.  To accept that He loves us in a manner that goes beyond our earthly ability to understand – but if we love Him with everything within us, we will be able to come close to that understanding and be able to share that love with others.

It sounds easy, all we have to do is love God above anything and everything else in this world, including our parents, siblings, spouses and self. 

The work has begun within us when we accepted Christ as our Savior.  He changed our heart from a sinful condition to a purity of the soul – from focusing on sin, to focusing on God.

We have a freedom, because of Christ, that is not burdened with the carnage sin creates in man.

So why is it so hard for us?  Why do we continually falter and fail in our endeavors?  How do we obey these two commandments that are the very basis of God’s commands?  We read the Old Testament and we see how His people failed Him only days after they professed their dedication to Him – why are we not learning from those examples?

Ezekiel 26:26-28 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

²⁷ And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

²⁸ And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.

Since Adam’s time God has told His people that He wants their total obedience; He will create a new heart, free from the burden of sin, to allow them to walk uprightly before Him.

But, before He can do that, we must have total dedication to Him and His commandments.

Acts 20:24 But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.

When we accepted Christ into our hearts He purified it.  We are free from sin – however, we all too frequently do not let go of the things he has freed us from. 

Knowing our weaknesses satan exploits them and strives to not only tempt us, but destroy our witness to others.  In doing this it also undermines our confidence in our relationship with God through Christ.

It is important that we start each day fresh in the knowledge that our heart has been given over to God.  We must renew our commitment to love Him with all of our heart and ask His Holy Spirit to guide us, to help us love others.

We cannot love others as we should until we fully accept who we are in Christ.  To love others as ourselves – we must first learn to love ourselves.  That, of course, is not a puffed up narcistic love, but a love of self that wants to have the best spiritual experience in Christ – a total dedication and knowledge of freedom in Him and thus the ability to love others in that same way; desiring to share the love of God with them.

It all sounds so easy, but our lives get in the way.  Our weaknesses, targeted by satan, get in the way. 

We want to strive for the total cleansing of our heart that we had when we first accepted Christ – where NOTHING else matter except Him.  When we accepted Christ it was like nothing else existed, people seemed to fade off, nothing except that time spend with Christ and accepting His love and sacrifice mattered. 

We were truly one with Him.  We need to have that same experience every day.

We need to allow Him to continue to work within us with open hearts striving to keep His two most important commandments – which will allow us to serve Him completely; without reservations.

Philippians 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

Later, Art :-)

From the ColumbiaRiverGorgeous
May Our Good Lord Bless and Keep YOU....’til we meet again