March 10, 2003
Hemphill pastor aids NASA crews
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communications
___HEMPHILL--Baptist preachers don't perform last rites for the dying or offer prayers for the dead. But Pastor Fred Raney spent nearly two weeks walking the woodlands of East Texas, reading Scripture and praying over the recovered remains of each of the seven Columbia Space Shuttle astronauts.
___The goal was to treat the deceased with dignity and provide comfort for family and colleagues left behind, said Raney, pastor of First Baptist Church in Hemphill.
___"My main purpose in going was to be able to let the families know we were there for the people they loved--that we remembered them and honored them," he said.
FRED RANEY
___Raney served as a chaplain for wokers who recovered the remains of the seven-member Columbia crew. The recovery teams, ranging in size from five to 15 members, always included members of the FBI evidence recovery team, local law enforcement, astronauts from NASA and Raney.
___Those 12 days leading on-the-spot memorial services in the pastures and woods of Sabine County changed his life, said the member of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board.
___Raney was summoned to each recovery site, where he read verses from both the Old and New Testaments and said a prayer before the remains were moved.
___"It was encouraging to see the dignity and respect at the scene. The FBI and everyone involved handled things in a very respectful, dignified way," Raney said, remembering the hushed tones and professionalism of the federal agents.
___"Of course, they recognized the astronauts were there to remember a colleague. For them, it was the death of a friend--even more than a friend."
___Raney was at home Feb. 1 when a sustained, resounding roar shattered the tranquility of a sleepy East Texas Saturday morning.
___"My first thought was that a gas line had exploded," he said. Somehow, that didn't seem right, and he wondered for a moment if terrorists had attacked faraway Dallas or Houston.
___Raney, who serves as a certified emergency medical technician with the Hemphill Volunteer Fire Department and as chaplain for the Sabine County Firefighters Association, listened to his radio as a dispatcher relayed reports from around the county.
___"Things were falling from the sky," he said.
___Soon he learned from television news reports that the space shuttle had exploded and debris was falling from Dallas to the Louisiana border. "We were really at Ground Zero," Raney said.
___He joined other volunteer firefighters and local law enforcement in searching the pastures and woodlands of Sabine County to collect debris.
___"I carried a little yellow Civil Defense radioactivity detector," he said, recalling his own anxiety when he first heard the machine go "click, click, click."
___A short time later, the searchers heard an unsettling report. "They said our detectors wouldn't detect what needed to be detected. I wanted to know what it was that made mine go off," Raney said.
___But those concerns soon seemed minor as searchers discovered that more than shards of metal and pieces of foam fell to earth.
___"At that point, my responsibilities shifted," Raney said. Officials asked that a chaplain be assigned to the team recovering the remains of the Columbia crew.
___"From that point forward, we prayed that all seven members of the crew would be found--that they would be accounted for," Raney said.
___"God worked a miracle. First, it was a miracle that no one on the ground was injured when the debris fell. Then it was a miracle that we were able to recover all the astronauts."
___The experience profoundly changed all those involved in the search, he said. He recalled early in the recovery process, when an FBI agent asked him to read his favorite Scripture, Romans chapter 8, verse 28.
___That day he read, "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose."
___He read the same verse when searchers recovered the final remains 12 days later.
___"God used this event to touch lives," Raney said. "Even though I already knew it, it brought home to me that life is like a vapor--literally. It caused people to search their hearts and examine their faith, to think about life and about eternal life."
___BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade commended Raney for being the presence of Christ, allowing God to transform a scene of suffering into holy ground.
___"He was there for Jesus," Wade said. "The Holy Spirit met them there and created a chapel of grace everywhere they prayed."
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