c. 1999 Religion News Service

FORT PIERCE, Fla. _ Tommy Neiman was ready to head home after a 24-hour shift as a firefighter-paramedic for St. Lucie County Fire-Rescue when he got a call from a supervisor, asking him to take an extra overtime shift.

Neiman was reluctant, but agreed to take a half-day duty at a station on South Hutchinson Island, a posh community on Florida’s east coast.

Not long after he got there, the station received a call for assistance at an island condo for a fall. When Neiman’s crew arrived, they found a man lying in the condo parking lot, his legs a bloodied and mangled mess after he had jumped off the condo roof.

Neiman saw not only a life worth saving, but a soul that needed immediate attention.

On the way to the hospital, Neiman shared his Christian faith with”Allen,”a lapsed Jew from Miami who had tried unsuccessfully to kill himself earlier that day with a gun. After a long recovery, Allen became a Christian and one of Neiman’s closest friends. He even asked Neiman to be his best man.

For Neiman, that overtime shift was divine intervention, and a changed life was evidence he was called to share his Christian faith with those in life-threatening trauma.”I knew Allen needed hope,”Neiman wrote in a new book,”Sirens for the Cross”(Embrace Communications), a compilation of 14 years of seeing God at work while the paramedic was saving lives for St. Lucie County Fire-Rescue.”I knew he needed peace and meaning in life. I knew he needed a vision for the future, and I knew I needed God’s guidance if I was to be used by him.” Writing a book is just the newest career for Neiman, 36, who also is the pastor of Okeechobee Road Baptist Chapel, a full-time firefighter, regional director for the Fellowship of Christian Firefighters International and a father of three.

Released in February, the book is a Rescue 911 account of saving lives, battling fires and seeing God at work. Neiman also peppers the book with anecdotes from the rescue calls that were more funny than life-threatening.

A lifelong Florida resident, Neiman said he wants the book to show the fans of real-life drama TV shows that the power of God is stronger than the fires, accidents and violent crime he’s witnessed.”There are spiritual things happening as well as physical things,”Neiman said.

What’s more, Neiman said he wants to encourage emergency crews that it is important to rely on a higher power, especially when danger is imminent.”Christians in the fire-emergency service need to be encouraged to know they can count on the Lord to be with them in the hopeless situations we face in our jobs,”he said.

In fact, Neiman said it would be virtually impossible to approach his job without a spiritual background to rely on. The day-in, day-out trauma can be overwhelming, he said, but seeing lives changed is what keeps him going.

The blood-and-guts trauma so routine in Neiman’s job makes its way into the book, but Neiman said he took special precaution to not offend his readers.”I didn’t try to be gross in my book, but I wanted to be accurate in detail,”he said.”Sirens for the Cross”contains a number of stories, ranging from life-threatening to downright scary. There are church fires, serious car accidents and emergencies, like the drunken partygoer who fell through a glass door, landed on a cactus and almost died from the blood loss.

Perhaps the most memorable story is of a young woman who was stabbed multiple times in a bad neighborhood. When rescuers arrived on the scene, the woman was being restrained by a mentally unstable man who would not let Neiman attend to her wounds. He said the incident had strong spiritual overtones when the man said only,”Let the blood flow.””It was the most reminding example of how God let the blood flow from his son at Calvary,”he said.

Pastoring a church full-time has been a special challenge for Neiman. If his schedule works out right, he only has be on duty as a firefighter once every three weeks. When he is on duty, he finds someone to cover for him for an hour and a half so he can preach on Sunday mornings.

His small congregation is equally understanding, he said.”They know they have a firefighter for their pastor,”he said.

Balancing a life of faith with the macho life of firefighting can be a challenge, said Gaius Reynolds, director of the 2,000-member Fellowship of Christian Firefighters International. Neiman makes the grade with ease, Reynolds said.”Fire service as a rule is a real macho industry,”Reynolds said.”We’re trained to be in charge once we get on scene and we can take whatever we get. Tommy has an empathy for firefighters as well as the victims that few firefighters have.” Added his wife, Sue, who co-wrote the book with Neiman:”I’ve worked with a lot of people, and Christians too, and Tommy’s one who walks the walk and talks the talk and lives the life,”she said.

DEA END ECKSTROM