International Firefighter Appreciation Day

We would like to take this moment to show our support for our local firefighters and all that they do to sacrifice their time and effort and money to protect the people.

As the day rolls on, we will be adding local department postings below, so check back!

From Scotts Bluff County CERT

Scotts Bluff County CERT/SAR Team wants to say Thank you to all the paid and volunteer fire departments, and what you do!!

From Kimball Police Department

Every year on May 4th, International Firefighter’s Day is observed to pay tribute to the heroic men and women who put their lives on the line to ensure the safety of their communities from fires and other emergencies. This day holds great importance as it recognizes the devotion and sacrifice of firefighters across the globe.

A special thank you to our local firefighters for everything they do and the time they volunteer away from their families to protect ours.

-KPD

From Torrington Fire

(TORRINGTON, Wyo.) — We wanted to take a moment to recognize some very important heroes in our community on International Firefighter Appreciation Day.

While we are grateful and appreciative for all of our brothers and sisters in red, we are especially grateful for the folks at the Torrington Volunteer Fire Department . This amazing team of men and women serves our community with selfless commitment and professionalism. They freely give of themselves to keep all of us safe, and they do it with a smile and no expectation of recognition.

If you happen to bump into Chief Correa or his team today, please give them a big THANK YOU for their service to our community!

From LaGrange Fire Department

We would like to take a moment and thank all of our volunteers at LGFD who take the time to serve our community when the pagers go off. Thank you for the sacrifices that you all make.

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Friday April 24 2026 - Scanner News - Panhandle Scanner News

Tornado totals are in so far, only one tornado warning in Nebraska thus far in the season. And we are last on the list. Thankfully, with Illinois leading the way at 131 warnings issued so far this season. Wisconsin, surprisingly, and Missouri round out the top three. Our special tornado tracking reports make sure you follow Panhandle Scanner on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter and frequently visit our news page at PanhandleScanner.com. We have a new service! We are now periodically producing full overnight traffic in a time lapse format. That means you can listen to the entire night of scanner traffic in a matter of 30 minutes or less. We've stripped out all the personal details as far as medical information goes but you will hear details on some of the police calls. The new podcast is called Scanner Traffic and it's available on all podcast networks including Spotify, Apple, iTunes, iHeart and more. Scanner traffic by Hail Multimedia and Panhandle Scanner. Find it on our homepage at PanhandleScanner.com. And don't forget about one of our most popular services across the state of Nebraska and that's the only published Nebraska public record. Available on PanhandleScanner.com.

Discipleship - The Disciple-Making Stage (Cultural Christian) - Elevate Your Day with Andi and Brian Hale

Here are the Four Stages of Discipleship we have covered this week. The Infant Stage The Maturing Stage The Others Stage The Disciple-Making Stage Matthew 28:19 tells us to go and make disciples of all nations. Mature Christ followers have a deep conviction that they’re called to make disciples. If you don’t graduate to the disciple-making stage, you’re really not a mature disciple. Disciples don’t just go to church; they make disciples. They don’t just study the Bible; they make disciples. This isn’t just for pastors, church leaders, or people with a theology degree. Jesus said one of the hallmark qualities of a disciple is they go and make disciples. Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, – Hebrews 6:1 Cultural Christianity says it’s just about me and Jesus: Bless me. Take care of me. Make me happy. Meet all my needs. If you don’t, I’m shopping for another church that will meet my needs. If you make me mad or do something I don’t like, I’m leaving the church. Because this is all about me! For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. – Hebrews 5:12 Disciples understand it’s not just about me, it’s also about others. That’s what Jesus did. He took twelve men and said, follow me. Do life with me. Have friendship with me. I’m going to equip you to be disciples. I’m going to teach you, correct you, encourage you and train you. You may have been a Christian for years. You ought to be making disciples by now but you’re stuck. You still think Christianity and church is all about you. It’s time to start making disciples! Matthew 28:19–20 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (NIV) Acts 6:7 And the Word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. (ESV) This is what it looks like when Christians get unstuck from cultural Christianity. The number of disciples multiplies because disciples make disciples. Not just converts, but disciples. Disciples build relationships with other Christians. They teach others to obey the Word of God. Don’t get stuck in the infant stage of Christianity. It’s time to stop being a cultural Christian, taking first grade Christianity over and over, and move to being a true disciple of Jesus! God has more for your life and your walk with Him!

Self Help to God's Help (Free Me From Me) - Elevate Your Day with Andi and Brian Hale

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. – Ephesians 4:17-32 ESV We’ve looked at performance and comparison. Avoiding is another way to keep self at the center. It tends to happen in one of two ways. First, on those rare occasions when we actually feel like we’re doing and saying all the right things, we avoid our inner brokenness by thinking too highly of ourselves. The second (and more common for me) way we avoid is through the deflated self. The moment we fixate on just how imperfect we are instead of participating in life, we get down on ourselves and look for ways to avoid it altogether. Whether you’re puffed up or deflated, you’re making the same mistake. You’re placing yourself at the center of this story, thus inheriting the unrelenting pressure that comes with it. The apostle Paul said, “You have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator” (Colossians 3:9-10 NIV). Self-reliance, or what Paul elsewhere called living according to “the flesh,” puts an enormous weight on your shoulders. Because the problem with being the one in charge is you are the one in charge. Do you know what’s a lot better than self-help? God’s help. And that takes us to one of the wildest things Jesus said. On the night he was betrayed, he told his disciples, “It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you” (John 16:7 ESV). Jesus called the Holy Spirit the Helper. And he basically told the disciples, “As great as it’s been to have me here in person these last few years, the Helper is the better option now.” We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. – Romans 6:9-14 ESV The same is true for us today. We’ve got a much better option than self-help; we’ve got God’s help. It’s time to let the Helper do what the Helper does best. Today’s Truth Statement: I am created in the image of a self-surrendering God.

Self Care to Soul Care (Free Me From Me) - Elevate Your Day with Andi and Brian Hale

If Jesus’s invitation “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28 NIV) sounds like an empty promise to you, there’s a good chance one last obstacle to your freedom is standing in the way—control. Maybe you (like me) tend to turn God into a vending machine. Where you decide you’ll put in a certain number of songs worshipping or hours praying and, in return, God will move in the exact way you want him to. Maybe you figured at this point you wouldn’t have any questions left about faith or struggle with any doubts, but you still do. So you try to control those thoughts by pushing them into a back room in your soul and locking the door. Maybe you’ve become impatient with the long work of God and have started scouring the internet for those quick-fix solutions. You still show up to church and read your Bible and all that, but if you’re honest, you’re way more interested in practices where you can be at the center. The challenge of control has existed ever since Adam and Eve ran, hid, blamed, and sewed together fig leaves in the garden. If that reminds you of you, try a new perspective. Imagine yourself standing with King David and staring up at a starry night sky, contemplating the God who created the whole universe. David prays, When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? (Psalm 8:3-4 NIV) The One who hangs constellations in the night sky is mindful of you. He cares for you. Not some future version of you who better reflects his image—the you right here and now. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. – Proverbs 3:5-6 ESV You don’t have to get stuck in your insecurities. You don’t have to perform. You don’t have to get caught in the comparison trap. You don’t have to run away from the present moment. You don’t have to try to control any of it. You can be free from you, enjoying the scandalous freedom of trusting God. And it finally will feel like rest for your weary soul. Today’s Truth Statement: I am created in the image of a self-giving God. We hope you are encouraged by this reading plan. To learn more about FREE ME FROM ME by Ryan Wekenman, click here.