• Originally published July 11, 2008 at 8:03 p.m., updated July 11, 2008 at 8:03 p.m.

The Bible said it happened a long time ago that a Babylonian king named Nebuchadnezzar had his craftsmen build a giant, golden image of his false god, and commanded all within his realm to worship it, or suffer a horrible death in a fiery furnace.

But three men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, refused his order, instead telling the king that they would not worship his golden image, and that their God would deliver them out of the fire.

And so the king had them thrown in the furnace. But even though the flames consumed the soldiers sent to throw them in, it didn’t singe a hair on the heads of the three men who remained faithful to God.

In a modern-day version of delivering people from the fiery furnace, First English Lutheran Church of Victoria has just completed distributing 3,467 smoke detectors to homes in the area as part of its “Shadrach Meshach, Abednego – Saved from the Fire” project.

The smoke detectors went to homes south of U.S. Highway 59 and east of the Mayfair subdivision, south to the river and including old Victoria East off U.S. Highway 77.

Church member Jennifer Hartman told Advocate reporter Bj Lewis, “Initially we thought we would do 2,000-2,500 but as we looked at maps and neighborhoods, it was hard to say we’re going to do this and not do that one, so we kept growing it.”

The project was started because of a tragedy in 2006 when four children died in a house fire.

“Two of them were grandchildren of a family in our church,” Hartman told the Advocate reporter. “Because of that we realized in that area of town those homes didn’t have alarms.”

Good corporate citizens Lentz Hardware and Zarsky Lumber Co. partnered with the church, supplying the smoke detectors at cost. And Interstate Battery provided replacement battery coupons with each detector.

The church raised money from the project by holding its annual Heritage Day Celebration, which supports outreach ministries of the church.

Money raised as Heritage Day, which includes a barbecue and auction, among other events, are divided into the community ministry to fund projects like the smoke alarm distribution.

“It was really a community exercise,” said Pastor Bill Hassel. “Many people from many areas and walk of life helped. The whole goal is if we make a difference saving one life it’s worth all the effort.”

By the way, that Biblical story in the book of Daniel said that when the king and his men looked into the fiery furnace, they saw a fourth man walking through the flames and accompanying Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. The obvious implication was that it was God, and he was protecting them.

The good folks at First English Lutheran Church have given good witness to the old adage that God can fashion his good works in many ways.

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