Mental Preparedness on this week’s IFC Warrior Wednesday. IFC visits with Lance Shay about a recent reminder on being prepared to offer first aid, recall, and administer the basics, and beyond in Episode 80.
IFC Training for First Responders Part One was recorded at the Cornerstone Bible Fellowship Church in Newton Iowa on April 22nd, 2023. This free training was offered to 174 students and will help save lives. Please watch, comment, and share this with others. MORE TO FOLLOW!
This training is aimed at people in church, school, or individuals hoping to elevate their skill level – young, aged, teachers, students, women, men, etc. If you’re a teacher and would like some real-life considerations for rendering aid when needed and would like to have the mental wherewithal to avoid being a victim, this training is for you. Churches out there considering a security and first aid program, this training should offer the basis for a well-prepared body. This is a beginner’s level course, so don’t feel pressure to fall into a certain “box” in order to fully absorb and enjoy the day. This is vital and practical training.
WHERE: Cornerstone Bible Fellowship
WHEN: Saturday, April 22, 2023
BREAKDOWN:
-Morning Session 10am to Noon (First Responder, Basic Medical Attention, etc.)
-Noon to 1pm – break for lunch
-Afternoon Session 1pm to 3pm (Self Defense Strategy and Tactics including *Pepper Spray)
Extra Considerations: The cost of the basic training is FREE. There is a *Pepper Spray component that people can either watch or physically participate in for a $20 cost (see below for the Pepper Spray explanation). IFC has absorbed the cost of the training and Cornerstone Bible Fellowship is offering the use of its church and facilities. IFC will have a donation jar present for folks who wish to contribute – all proceeds will be given to Cornerstone Bible Fellowship.
*Pepper Spray Training: The pepper spray portion of the self-defense training can be viewed as a demonstration. However, if you’d like to participate, we encourage it. For $20, you’ll receive an inert canister to use during the training or use where you practice. Additionally, the $20 purchase includes a full-strength canister of pepper spray for self-defense use. You’ll get the feel for how these work with an inert canister, and also take home the “real deal” for your defense. This $20 pack will be available for purchase that day. There is no way to run through cards or verify checks during the training, so cash is the accepted method of payment.
WHAT: First Responder & Self Defense Training will be offered at no cost in a joint effort between the Iowa Firearms Coalition and Cornerstone Bible Fellowship in Newton Iowa. The training is aimed at people in church, school, or individuals hoping to elevate their skill level – young, aged, teachers, students, women, men, etc. If you’re a teacher and would like some real-life considerations for rendering aid when needed and would like to have the mental wherewithal to avoid being a victim, this training is for you. Churches out there considering a security and first aid program, this training should offer the basis for a well-prepared body. This is a beginner’s level course, so don’t feel pressure to fall into a certain “box” in order to fully absorb and enjoy the day. This is vital and practical training. Age-appropriate children are welcome!
WHERE: Cornerstone Bible Fellowship
WHEN: Saturday, April 22, 2023
BREAKDOWN:
-Morning Session 10am to Noon (First Responder, Basic Medical Attention, etc.)
-Noon to 1pm – break for lunch
-Afternoon Session 1pm to 3pm (Self Defense Strategy and Tactics including *Pepper Spray)
Extra Considerations: The cost of the basic training is FREE. There is a *Pepper Spray component that people can either watch or physically participate in for a $20 cost (see below for the Pepper Spray explanation). IFC has absorbed the cost of the training and Cornerstone Bible Fellowship is offering the use of its church and facilities. IFC will have a donation jar present for folks who wish to contribute – all proceeds will be given to Cornerstone Bible Fellowship.
*Pepper Spray Training: The pepper spray portion of the self-defense training can be viewed as a demonstration. However, if you’d like to participate, we encourage it. For $20, you’ll receive an inert canister to use during the training or use where you practice. Additionally, the $20 purchase includes a full-strength canister of pepper spray for self-defense use. You’ll get the feel for how these work with an inert canister, and also take home the “real deal” for your defense. This $20 pack will be available for purchase that day. There is no way to run through cards or verify checks during the training, so cash is the accepted method of payment.
TRAINING NOTATION – This training is designed and offered in the spirit of preparedness basics. Terrible things can and do happen in this world. Mental preparation combined with training and practice offers you much better odds to avoid becoming a victim and to be able to come to the aid of others. This training is foundational to grasping very tough concepts. We naturally resist thinking outside our comfort zones. But… If we’re going to contradict evil and save lives, we do have to face the unpleasant nature of violence itself, and that begins with understanding it. When you’re truly ready for a perspective that offers a concrete reflection of violence and what is required to counter it, watch the IFC Warrior Wednesday Episode 29 with Ed Monk below:
September 11th, 2001, wasn’t that long ago. …And what remains? I can remember where I was when I learned of the attack. I can recall how I felt. I recall some of the conversations I had with strangers, for I was traveling that week just over two decades ago. I won’t forget the surge of patriotism and unity we experienced as a nation, as we were clad with the cloak of what appeared to be righteousness, if even for a short time.
We banded together against an enemy that sought to take from us our dignity, sovereignty, and our sense of safety. These were not things they wanted for themselves, but rather, things they simply didn’t want us to have, hold valuable, or revere.
And today? Some might say they see an enemy in every direction, some of them fellow Americans. Brother and sisters, I love are among them. Can anyone chart for me the moment, or even the path, that led to our place now? I often wonder when we’ll stop trying to perfect the imperfectible. Man is flawed. Man makes laws, rules, and regulations. Thus, man’s laws, rules, and regulations are flawed. Some terribly, some only minutely, but flawed nonetheless. Or, in many cases, the interpretation and practice of man’s law deny the context and original intent of the lawmakers that erected such a thing. That trends to the heart of the matter for me. As it should for you.
I see the nations we endeavored to free and the stranglehold of tyrants abroad now punishing women for wishing to finish school, anyone not of a singular religion cast out as lepers or worse, and door-to-door confiscation of firearms to remove the ability to resist authoritative rule. And if anyone has already forgotten the human beings so yearning to escape such living hell, that they’d grasp ahold of a moving aircraft on the chance they could cling to life only to plummet to their deaths as their literal grip to life slipped, shame on you. Does the image of men and women plunging to their end from the twin towers come to mind? Quite a parallel.
And what have we learned? Did we learn to turn the other cheek when we were wronged? Did we help first and accept help from others? Have we elevated the needs of others over those of ourselves? Maybe, for a time. But I strain to see it these days.
If the gratuitous killing of thousands in a grotesque act can unite a country, cannot love and care? Even those with stark differences can love one another. Or have we abandoned such practices? Mind you, practices stem from thought. Thus, we’ve made up our minds to no longer love one another, if I’m to glean the mean, median, and mode of our culture properly.
But can we not correct our trajectory?
9/11 is one of the most horrific tragedies to befall this nation in my time. But, rather than solely dwelling on the loss, tragedy, and fallout, I seek to consider it also as a cautionary tale. Whenever a body, whether individually, as a group, organization, or even a country, embraces the wholesale removal of liberty in an effort to deprive others of autonomy, it must be met with stern conviction and stamina by those who would salvage freedom.
And in our case, we must both seek to be the light of the world and the salt of the Earth, for our autonomy touches others, theirs also ours. If we do this well, we can avoid a future 9/11. And we’ll elevate our culture along the way. But we must think first, act second, and risk the uneasy platform that is freedom. TRUE FREEDOM is not freedom FROM responsibility, but rather, freedom OF responsibility. Decipher carefully what responsibilities you’re willing to accept and carefully court them. We’re bound to the consequences of the choices we’ve made. Choose wisely.
In Libertatem,
Michael Ware
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