I remember exactly where I was when word came that JFK had been shot in 1963 (I was in Mrs. Ferguson’s 2nd grade at Field Elementary School in Neosho, MO) . . . and I’ll never forget the morning of 9/11/01.
I was driving to the church building that Tuesday morning when I heard a news flash on NPR that a plane had hit the north tower of the World Trade Center. Was it a pilot error? Was it a mechanical malfunction? Or — God forbid — was it an attack? No one yet knew.
When I arrived at the office, we all gathered around the tiny black and white television whose rabbit ears picked up the Today Show. Like everyone else, we watched the tragedy unfold.
About an hour later, someone came from our Ladies’ Bible Class, asking if I’d come say a few words and pray. Several who were old enough to remember Pearl Harbor were in such deep sorrow for the world.
Now, five years later, we’re still in awe that young men could be convinced that God would be glorified by such destruction — that they would honor him by killing themselves as they murdered so many people.
Hatred is toxic. Hatred fueled by religious conviction is murderous.
Today we can again pray for Shalom — for the kingdom of God to continue breaking into this world of confusion and anger. And we commit ourselves to being people who follow the way of the kingdom.
What do you remember about that day?
I was on the treadmill and on the treadmill next to me was my buddy Larry who was alos a Navy Seal. I can’t repeat what Larry was saying but I remember the hurt and then hate that came up in my heart.
I too, am praying for peace today!
I walked into my allergist’s office and the TV was on in the waiting room, and that was very unusual. I couldn’t figure out what they were watching, it was just pictures of smoke. When I asked they told me about the first plane. It was while I was at the office that the second plane hit, and the confusion about what was going on began to clear up.
My husband was in Paris and ended up stuck for several days. Thankfully he was able to go to Germany and stay with his sister until he could get a flight home.
I’ll join my prayer for peace with yours (and others) today as well.
I remember getting up, inexplicably, and watching the news instead of sleeping in after working until well after midnight the night before.
I remember posting updates to the developing story on the Abilene Reporter-News Web site as I could hear and see things happening on the television.
I remember being too busy and weary to be in shock until much later in the day.
I remember longing for my wife and kids to be home from school with me in our own house, even if it didn’t feel as safe anymore.
I remember going to a prayer service at church that evening, attended by hundreds and begging God for His mercy in all that had happened and all that might be yet to come.
And most of the rest, I try to forget.
I remember……
I don’t try to forget.
The reason I don’t try to forget is that God is the author of remembering painful events. The Lord’s Supper is an example of that. He knew we have frail, limited minds and we tend to try to forget painful experiences.
God be with us all. Peace be with us all.
I praise you God that you alone are sovereign.
It was a morning I could sleep in just a little longer. My son in Tallahassee woke me with a phone call, asking if I had the TV on. When I went into the den, my husband was watching the events unfold (both towers and the pentagon had been hit); I called my son back, and we talked a minute. Then, I called my son in Nashville who had just learned of the attack. My strongest feeling at that time was wanting to gather my sons back in my nest…wanting our family to all be together…and it was not possible because of the distance…so we prayed…and prayed…and prayed…that the attacks would not continue…that our family would stay safe wherever they were…that God would give us peace within.
It was my mom’s birthday.
I remember I woke up not having known what was going on and calling to tell her to have a wonderful birthday and she was crying and told me what was going on about the Towers and the Pentagon. I thought about all those thousands of people, families, children. I cried. We didn’t have television because we couldn’t afford cable so we went went to Wal-Mart and watched it on the TV’s in the electronics department. I stood there with about a hundred differnet American’s watching it. I didn’t see Shalom that day? I didn’t pray for Shalom that day? Over time and now that prayer of Shalom goes out to all mankind. I remember for a few days there wasn’t Republican or Democrat we were all American’s. I remember all poloticians singing and standing on the Captial hand in hand. Sounds nice. American’s. Just American’s.
I know I will never forget.
Today let us all pray Shalom.
I had a 3 month old baby and a 2 year old son & we were packing to move into our first house later that month. My husband called me down from the bedroom of our condo to watch it unfold on the Today show. I just felt so much uncertainty for the future - but especially I thought about what kind of world it was going to turn out to be for my kids. Thank God that Jesus is the same yesterday, today & tomorrow!!!
The first words I heard were a fellow business owner walk by my office door and say “Did you hear? A plane hit the WTC”. My first thought was - not again, can’t they keep that place out of harm’s way? Just a little while later, we too were huddled around a tiny tv just not believing what we were seeing. I was praying that morning that the original estimate I heard of the tens of thousands working in both towers who were feared dead would be wrong somehow.
My family and I were some of the many stranded air travelers that morning. We had left Dayton, OH, on an early morning flight to Orlando so that we could celebrate my youngest’s first birthday (Sep 15) at Disney World. We were to switch planes at Newark. Our flight landed at Newark shortly before 8am. Shortly after arriving at our departure gate, we noticed a crowd gathering at the windows overlooking the NYC skyline (until this moment, I had no idea we were actually that close to NYC). The first tower had been hit, and we could see the buildings from our end of the terminal. I remember hearing the announcement that all flights were “delayed,” then canceled. At this point, we didn’t know the cause. I remember my selfish reaction about our vacation being ruined. It shames me to recall it, but if I am to be honest, I have to remember it. We were watching as the second tower was struck, and as the first one fell. Then the announcement came over the loudspeaker that we had to leave the airport. We still don’t know much about what is happening. We began the mass exodus outside the airport, where we sat for at least an hour before another announcement said we had to evacuate the airport grounds. Here we were, in a strange city, with 4 kids ages 9 and under… thanks to a retired NYPD officer running a limo service, we were able to find a rental van that we could afford in order to drive back to Dayton. We listened to the radio for most of the drive, still not sure of what was going on. I don’t think it really hit us until we stopped in PA for the night and were able to see the news coverage on TV.
I was working as a guidance counselor at a private school. One of our students had a parent traveling that morning from New York. I remember so well the look of horror in her eyes during the hours that she had no information from her father. I remember the reaction of the students. I remember thinking that the world would never be the same. I can’t remember where I put my keys. I forget where I put a book, but I will clearly remember forever so much about that day. The sad reality is that the terriorist have not gone away and I believe they will strike again. I pray they won’t, but I believe they will. Preacherman, you are so right. On that day there were no Democrats or Republicans, just Americans. That was a refreshing sight.
I was a senior at ACU and my alarm was set for the radio. I heard something about hijacked plan but i didn’t think about it because i had to get to class. I walked through the campus center and was wondering why everybody was gathering around the tv and I found a plane had hit the WTC but i had to get to class so I didn’t stay. Then once there we found out both of the towers and collapsed. Thankfully I was in my reflections of ministry class with Jeanene, Robert and Sonny. All we did was pray that day and I’m thankful for that. It wasn’t until after class when I went I watched the reply on tv that I understood the real magnitude of the situation. The strongest emotion i felt that day was deep sadness and helplessness but also hope. Hope becuase I knew God was there and that God would work through this and I believe that God did and still does.
Our posts are eerily similar today, Mike.
I remember running the NYC marathon 14 months later and seeing the great love for that city poured out in all five burroughs we ran through.
Of course I remember the pain, the fear, the anger… but one of the things that I found most striking about that day then and now was how beautiful the weather was. I was a student in OKC and it was cloudless, sunny, and beautiful. And it looked the same in NYC. That black smoke against the clear blue sky… what juxtaposition.
I made a similar comparison in one of my tribute blog entries today to the remembrance of the moment that word was received about JFK and the moment the word came through about the attacks. It’s bone chilling to recall such moments in our life…
For me, I had just left my 8 o’clock class with Dr. Richard Beck at ACU and was given the news by the front desk worker at Sikes dorm. I stood in the lobby and watched the news reports unravel for a few minutes before I headed to my hall to bring my just-awakening friends up to speed.
My roommate and I had two televisions in our room, so we had each channel on a different news cast in order to get as much updated information as quickly as we could. We just sat in disbelief and watched for hours…
One tower fall… Two tower fall… When would it end??
September 11, 2001 — a day of mourning…
September 11, 2006 — a day of remembering…
Today, you can visit tribute blog pages to each of the individuals lost that tragic day. I took part in this project and have a memorial page on my blog today for Charles M. Mills. Other tribute pages can be found here: http://www.dcroe.com/2996/?page_id=2
I was hurrying to get ready for the Ladies class at the church building and my daughter called me and told me to turn on the TV.
I worked for Northwest Airlines. I thought of the passengers and the crew. I had friends that were married and a pilot and a flight attendant. I thought about them, in a funny way being happy they worked for Delta. I didn’t think the towers would fall. I thought of the people running to get out of there. I thought my daughter had been on the top of that building and had her picture taken a few months ago. I thought were there people sightseeing and were up there when it hit. And then I saw it fall, I was numb. I heard there was a plane that had changed it’s course and was over PA, and then I heard it had crashed. My cousin and her husband work at the Pentagon. Still numb I saw it on fire and tried to reach my cousin. I couldn’t, but I emailed her sister and found out she was okay, but we didn’t know about John. Later I was to learn he had been at a meeting, six were sitting around a table, John and two others made it, three did not.
I was a junior in high school. I remember sitting in the band hall waiting to begin rehearsal when the percussion director came bursting in the door to announce that a plane had hit the WTC. I remember spending an hour and a half with my history classmates watching the drama unfold on television. I watched those towers fall and was overwhelmed by the magnitude of loss that must have taken place. I remember wishing my dad could be home with us and not in Wisconsin where he was working at the time. I remember being afraid that he wouldn’t be able to fly home that weekend. I remember that evening going with my mom to visit one of my retired teachers whose daughter worked in the WTC. (Praise the Lord she made it out alive and well!) I remember my sixteen-year-old mind unable to wrap itself around the kind of hatred that would have prompted such an act of destruction. But I also remember being in awe as I saw God bring beauty from the ashes, drawing people closer to himself and closer to others. This morning when I woke up, my first thought was for the grieving families. I prayed peace and comfort over them, and now I will join Mike and many others in praying for the Shalom of Christ to enter this world. Thanks, Mike, for giving us all a place to process our thoughts for the day, to grieve and rejoice as the community of Christ!
104th District Court was getting ready for a day of courtroom business, and I was hurrying to get our office open before jurors arrived. The bailiff next door came to tell us the WTC had been hit by an airplane. How did that happen? We all gathered around his tiny TV and when we saw a second collision we knew it was no accident. I remember thinking that our country will never be the same and how spoiled we have been with our assumption of indestructability on American soil as opposed to Europe, Asia, Africa and South America.
I join the many prayers today for Shalom, and for comfort to those who lost loved ones five years ago. Like many others, I wanted to be with our children that day, to comfort and be comforted.
Thank you, Lord, that you are close to the broken hearted and save those who are crushed in spirit. May our country and all nations turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. Psa. 34: 14, 18
I was in the same class as Amanda. I had not turned on the TV before going to the Reese/Oglesby/Guild class and so I had no idea what was going on. I will always remember Sonny Guild standing outside of the class as I was about to go in. His face was white and blank. He looked like something terrible had happened. I asked him what was wrong and he told me. I remember hurrying to the Campus Center and the mass of people gathered around the TV. I remember praying through our class and then walking home alone to my Sherrod Apartment. There was such an empty feeling.
The other thing about that day I will always remember is going to bed that night. I have never been so unsettled going to bed as I was that night. I will never forget that feeling.
I remember feeling like I was walking around with a “NO WAY” look on my face all that day and for several days. I was in shock. Who would have the audacity to attack us on our own soil? I also remember very clearly the prayer service we had the next night in the Benson where about 5,000 people from ALL FAITHS came to lift up our country and our enemies in prayer. A very conservative elder from our fellowship said “Isn’t it sad it took something like this to get us all together”. It would be interesting to see if he still feels that way 5 years removed.
DU
I was awoken by a phone call from one of our members. I remember sitting up in bed and watching the television praying that I was dreaming.
We were living in Gainesville Georgia at the time. It was, and still is, a highly hispanic area. I remember driving to church that week and every day it seemed that there were more and more American flags flying from the porches of the men and women who had come to this country to make a better life for themselves. I was comforted by the thought that not everyone thought that we were evil americans.
I was in Junior year of High School trying to pass a quiz in my Geometry class that Tuesday morning. With about 15 mins left to go in class our principal made an annoucement throughout the school telling the Teachers that something was occurring in New York and that they needed to be aware of security procedures that were beginning to take place even at our school in suburban Atlanta. My teacher turned on the TV just in time for our class to see the second plane hit. To a bunch of 16 and 17 year olds who had never known tradgedy of that magnitude there was no precedent on how to react. We were stunned and greatly confused. 10 mins later the bell rang and hundreds of high school students filled the hall… in silence. No one spoke, lockers opened and closed, but unusally quietly. It was the first time I had known what it was to truly mourn. We prayed and prayed that day and the next and the next. We should have just kept praying like that. We beg for peace today, Lord. Our world needs the kind of radical peace that only you can provide. We seek it with all our hearts today, Father.
I remember sitting down on my bed where my 3 week old baby boy was asleep. What sort of world had I brought him into? What will the future be?
That night our tiny town met for prayer. First in the Methodist church building, then in the Baptist and then in the Church of Christ’s. Like mentioned earlier, that day, we were just Americans. And that day, we were just Christians.
As a rule, I never had the TV on in the mornings except for PBS, and I never played the radio in the car while I was taking Julia (age 2) to preschool. So it wasn’t until I dropped her off and got back in the car and turned the radio on that I knew what was going on. This was about 9:30. We were supposed to have two elders and their wives over that night, and we had only been in our house a few months and didn’t have curtains in the bathroom yet. I hated to think of the elders or the wives using the bathroom within full view of our neighbors, so I had planned to go to the store to buy curtains. Rattled and trying to take in the news, I still went to K-mart and got the curtains. The lady at the checkout seemed pretty cheerful. “Does she know?” I wondered. “Should I tell her we’re under attack?” I said nothing and left. Those curtains hung in that bathroom for five years until we moved out a month ago. It’s funny what makes you remember, but I always remembered when I looked at those curtains. My mom called later that day pleading with me to get Julia from school and come to her house. She was concerned because our neighborhood was situated between Exxon’s largest North American refinery and the Houston Ship Channel. But getting to my parents’ house would mean driving through Houston. “I’m not driving through any major cities right now,” I told her.
The mother of a woman Chad taught with at Baytown Christian Academy was on the plane that hit the first tower. (I interviewed Chad’s co-worker for a one-year-anniversary newspaper feature.) Another Baytown resident was touring NYC and was supposed to have been in the WTC that morning, but she overslept in her hotel. The crash of the first plane woke her up.
For the one-year anniv., I also interviewed leaders at the Baytown mosque. It was five Muslim men and me around a table. I was terrified at first. But it soon became clear that they were hurting, too. After that, it grieved me to hear people — especially at my own church — bad-mouthing our local Muslims. The attacks hurt all of us, plus the Muslims had to live under suspicion and with hate-filled glares.
Julia was just two at the time of the attacks, and we always guarded her from anything Sept. 11-related — probably too much. The first time I really talked to her about it was this morning, because I knew she’d probably be hearing about it at school. She argued with me at first. She said the Titanic was the worst thing that had ever happened to our country. “But that was an accident,” I told her. “The terrorist attacks were on purpose.” The hurt returned again as I saw the understanding fill her sweet face. She just said, in her quiet, little voice, “Oh.”
I was at work when the news first came about a plane hitting one of the towers. Slowly more details started coming and the mood in our office started to be real weird. In part since the office is on the 33rd floor of a building across from the city hall in Philadelphia. Then the city ordered all the buildings to close so I went and caught the first train I could to head home. The most lasting image of that day in my mind was on this very crowded train was this older woman sitting near me just quietly sobbing. Which was so powerful given how unnaturally silent the rest of the train was.
I was getting ready to go to the airport when one our other ministers wives called and told me to turn on the TV. She was crying and abruptly said Good Bye. Our pulpit minister was going to Argentina that day and I was supposed to take him to the airport. That trip was interrupted. Later that morning we assembled as a staff and prayed, prayed like we had never had prayed before. At noon we put out signs in front of the building and invited the neighborhood in to pray with us as we started a prayer vigil the rest of the day, with a prayer service at 7:00 pm. We opened our building up for the next month at noon each for a time of prayer. I had Jack Reeses’s worship class a year earlier and we had talked about appropraite ways to communicate to God. On the 18th we invited the community in for a memorial service the victims and families we did not know. The buiding was packed with many from the neighborhood. Many who had never been in the building before. . . God is awesome to let us gather as one and seek Him.
My brother had joined the Air Force a few months earlier and he arrived at his base for orders on Sept. 1st. We were so new to military things, and didn’t understand that 10 days later, my brothers job would completely change. I was a sophomore at ACU, and was at work at Big Brothers Big Sisters when it all happened. It was also Community Service Day at ACU and nonprofits from all over Abilene had booths in the Campus Center to get students to volunteer. After about 10:00- we all just moved the tables out of the way so more students could crowd in front of the TVs to watch the news reports. Chapel was an extremely somber affair too. I was panicked all morning long because I couldn’t get ahold of my brother. My Mom and Dad were also panicking, and I was in the hallway of my dorm when my cell phone rang. It was my brother, and he was yelling and I could hear plane engines in the background. He told me that they were putting everything up in the air, and some of the planes were going somewhere. He told me that he loved me and that everything was going to be fine- but he had to go. He hung up then, and a military censor started talking to me about not sharing military movements over an insecure phone line. That whole day was so surreal, and even now, it feels like it was a horrible, horrible dream. But it was real- and I don’t know if I’ve ever prayed as hard in my life as I did that day.
Thank you, Mike, for opening this dialogue here.
May we never forget those whose lives were senselessly taken from them.
May we also remember those who selflessly sacrificed their lives so that many would-be victims were spared.
May those whose hearts are bent on vilolent destruction of others experience a change of heart and direct these energies to helping others.
— — —
A Prayer for Humanity
May God lead us from death to life,
from falsehood to truth.
May God lead us from despair to hope,
from fear to trust.
May God lead us from hate to love,
from war to peace.
May God fill our hearts, our world,
and our universe with peace.
- bill Williams
My grandmother had passed away the day before, and my wife and I had gone about a few errands that had to be done that day before we could drive to Van Buren for the funeral. Both of us heard something about the events of that morning while we were out and about, but eventually we came back together and headed out. We continued to hear about it on the radio, but it didn’t really sink in until we stopped to eat on the way, and saw the images on television. That week was already difficult with my Grandmother’s funeral and everything, but the 9/11 events made it surreal.
i remember sitting in my office at our church’s building flipping thur our directory calling everyone who worked either in the pentagon or in dc to make sure they were ok. all of our members made it out of the district and the pentagon alive!
i was not scared but bewildered.
josh byrd
youth minister
church of Christ in falls church, va.
I clearly remember, after all the shock and disbelief and horror, and after seeing Americans come together, Reps and Dems, libs and conservs, black and white, rich and poor, I sadly thought, “This won’t last long”. And it didn’t.
I was in San Diego, three hour time difference with NYC. My usual morning routine is open eyes, turn on radio, but rarely ever the TV. I caught just a couple of words “World Trade Center - fire - plane crash - burning ” and quickly turned on the TV. Life changed dramatically in those few moments.
I ran a mental check of all my family and loved ones - no one was traveling, no one was in Boston, New York nor New Jersey - no one in Washington DC. Military family members were all far away from these locations and none were traveling, to my knowledge. My kids and grandkids were safe in San Diego County but we had no idea how long that would be true, since SD harbors the largest Navy installation in the country and one of the largest Marine presences as well.
After running down the list of family members, I called my dear friend up on the second floor, attempting simultaneously to say turn on the TV and WTC burning. She wanted to know what channel and I actually shouted at her “it makes NO difference, just turn on the stinkin’ TV” and hung up on her, but not before I heard her cry “Oh, God! No! Oh, God!”
Strangely, flashback images intruded on my mind of September 19, 1985 devastation in Mexico City following killer quakes, where I lived in 1985. The flashbacks vied for primacy in my emotions. I couldn’t fully absorb either image, the 6 year-old memories nor the immediate horror unfolding before our eyes.
My church family began to call, we arranged to meet at the building for prayers. The building was left open 24 hours a day for several days so anyone wishing to do so, could meet with a minister, Elder, staff member to pray.
A piece I wrote back in July of the impending arrival of this anniversary date closed with this prayer.
I was teaching my first day of kindergarten at a private boys’ school on the Upper East Side of NYC. We got a call from our director asking if any of our students’ parents worked at the WTC. We didn’t get any real information other than something happened there. I called my mom when I got a break to make sure my dad and uncle weren’t travelling into the city that day, as they sometimes did for random business meetings. My dad usually came in through the WTC. She was the one who told me over the phone what was happening. To hear the fear in her voice and not be able to access a TV was horrible. I quickly asked about my uncle who was a high ranking fireman in the city - I still don’t know his story as he won’t really talk about it; he was supposed to be off that day, but that’s all I know. There were so many unknowns. I was on the phone with my mom when the first tower fell - I can’t even explain how her voice cut into me. We hung up soon after that and I called my husband who was working in NJ. I was so frustrated when the receptionist told me he had gone out to give blood with a bunch of other people in the office. I didn’t even make the connection that people were rushing to give blood because they assumed there would be a need due to injuries. I just wanted to get a hold of him and didn’t realize how everyone already knew so much more than I did at that point. We basically ended up letting the students play all morning - thankfully dismissal was at noon - while we all tried to get hold of people who had information and check on loved ones. My primary concerns were getting to talk to my husband, figuring out a way to get home to NJ from the city as they had closed all bridges and tunnels, and my biggest fear was that I would have to tell one of my students that their parent couldn’t come pick them up because they were in the WTC…that turns out to have been an irrational fear; of course I would never have been the one to share that information with one of the students - thankfully, no school parents were lost that day. My husband reached me by calling the school and we talked briefly about options of where I was going to go after school - and I remember us saying that we loved each other. Dismissal was a bit chaotic as the school was trying to hold the parents until we had a letter giving phone chain instructions. I remember talking to the parents outside in the hallway and the other teacher being much more calming and level-headed than I thought I was being. I was SO emotional. We had not said anything to the students and none of them seemed to notice anything, except for one boy I could tell noticed that I was upset about something. My best friend came by to tell me that she had to go downtown and check in since she was a Red Cross responder - I really didn’t want her to go. She filled me in that her brother-in-law, my friend, who worked at the stock exchange, may have been shuttled to NJ. I told her that I’d get my husband working on finding him if he did end up in NJ. After school some teachers and I went to try to give blood, but the lines were several blocks long. I just remember walking and walking - and seeing people walking north with zombie looks on their faces. There were no cars - people were actually walking in the middle of NYC streets. Federal aircraft kept flying low overhead - and at one point when we looked up to see a stealth aircraft I remarked how I felt like I was in a WWII movie. The first time I got to a tv was while walking through the city and catching 5 seconds of pictures from a bar tv. Then I walked to our church building and watched some news on our minister’s tv until I could get a train out of the city. My husband met me at a friends house in Westchester, NY where we all ate together and prayed. The next day I didn’t get off the couch I was so exhausted. For two years I had lived just a few blocks from the WTC, so I felt like this was all happening in my neighborhood. Within the week following my two most distinct memories are: the day we got back to school one little boy who clearly already has engineering abilities, said in the most heart wrenching way that HE was going to rebuild the WTC when he was older; and walking to another school building with my student’s and seeing an caravan of soldiers and a tank on Lexington Ave. The soldiers waved and the boys cheered. It was surreal.
Well! Here’s the ending of the above post. Wha’ happened? I have no idea, but here it is.
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“So the dark, ominous shadow draws closer, gripping our hearts in remembered tragic horror and pain, bringing us to cry out to our LORD in the manner of King David:
Save us O LORD, from our enemies. Save us from those who would slay us. Give us life, O God, that we might continue to glorify Your name to all those that would destroy us. Bring confusion among their ranks, destroy those that would kill the innocent.
Give us boldness to declare You to all peoples. May Your great love, grace and mercy be declared to the nations. Give us strength to forgive our enemies. And may all be to Your glory, our God and our Salvation. Amen!
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May God’s love, grace and mercy reign over all the earth!
I was a sophomore in college, about to go take a math test, when someone came into my fraternity house with the news of JFK’s assassination. Although that was a national tragedy, to me it completely pales in comparison with the abject horror of September 11. I had just walked into the office when I heard about the first plane hitting, and naturally assumed an accident. Our training TV has no antenna or cable connection, so the picture was fuzzy. I just turned around and went back home. I got our TV on just in time to see the towers start to fall.
The overwhelming feeling I had all day was a powerful longing to wrap my arms around my wife and kids. Both kids and their families lived far away, so I went around in a daze of discomfort all day.
Six months before we were in California my wife was offered a job as a stock broker and would be doing training in New York at the world trade center. I was offered a youth ministry position in Texas around the same time. We felt God was calling us to take the youth ministry position so we moved back to Texas. On september 11,2001 my wife and I cried and cried for all those people and we said a selfish prayer of thanksgiving to God for moving us to Texas. Thinking about where my wife could have been that day still send chills up my back.
I hope that we will all remember that when we go through crisis and pain in life that God isn’t distant but joins us on the ash heap.
Mike thank you so much for this post.
May we never forget.
May we find strength in God as this nation moves forward and finds healing.
I remember coming out of a meeting just before 9:00 and being told of the attacks on our country. I was so fearful for our country and thought of all the children whose parents would not come home again. My son had just begun his freshman year at ACU. I instantly thought of Viet Nam days and the draft. When I thought of his heart being so full of peace and love for others, I wept. I knew he could never survive in a war. I am so thankful he has not been required to serve in the military. At the same time, I am so thankful and prayerful for all those young men and women who have chosen to put their lives in harms way for the sake of freedom. Dear Father, grant us peace and bring our troops home soon.
I had been in a training meeting where we had suspended most of the day’s work, though striving for something akin to any kind of normalcy we continued to try to work and watch simultaneously. Then a call came in from our office just moments after the second tower fell. I was needed at my daughter’s high school. She had broken her ankle in gym class.
We spent the next three hours in an emergency room with an MD, a radiologist, an RN, and an LPN, while all of us cried about the hundreds of people who needed care so much more desperately and care was unavailable. My daughter and I must have said “thank you” one hundred times, but each time it was heartfelt and overwhelming. The compassion from the ER staff was palpable, not only in the way they treated my daughter, but the way they physically touched us both.
Our family had checked into an ocean-front room the night before in Ocean City, Maryland, for a few days at the beach with our two girls, aged one and three. Before we went to breakfast, we saw the first tower on fire, and then we watched the seond tower get hit.
The week after Labor Day at the beach is “wheelchair and stroller” week because most kids have gone back to school, so it seems there are more older or very young kids. The little kids were happy and enjoying the beach and boardwalk, but all of the adults were blank-faced. We felt like we couldn’t have a good time, but we wanted our kids to, just so it would prove that the terrorists hadn’t won. We ended up leaving the beach and going back home after two nights.
I used to live in NYC and was a member of the health club on the top floor of the Vista hotel (later renamed Marriott) which was destroyed that day. Now I live in Maryland, and my job occasionally takes me to meet clients in the Pentagon, so I was familiar with both locations that were hit, and I was very shaken.
I pray that now we can respond as followers of Jesus and bring peace to the world.
On the evening of the September 10, I flew from Houston to Omaha to go back to work, away from home. September 11 was surreal. The Strategic Air Command Planes were flying around Omaha. I remeber watching Air Force One fly overhead, landing at Offut Air Force base. Two of the guys I worked with had received their MBA from Arizona State a few years earlier. Some of the friends that they had gone to graduate school with worked in and around the World Trade Center.
I remember when President Kennedy was assinated, I was also in 2nd grade. Teachers were crying as they came back from a meeting. The principal announced the news.
To me it seemed like there was more shock as a nation during Sept 11, which turned into sorrow, then resolve. When President Kennedy was killed, there was a deep sadness, with very little resolve.
I was on the phone with a customer in Missouri, who owns one of the largest gun and hunting shops in the Kansas City area. He was telling me about what he was seeing on TV and gave me a live narration as he witnessed the second plane hit the WTC. After our conversation ended I remember how quite the phone became. Our sales lines did not ring for hours, and this was definitely not the normal. We all sat quietly listening to the events unfold on our radios in our offices, behind the locked and secure doors of the building. After that, we were not allowed to exit or enter the building alone for security purposes.
I am a “no media in the morning” girl, so I had no clue. Toting my 5 year old and 2 1/2 year old to the gym to workout, I walked into the gym to see everyone crowded around TVs not working out. As the scene unfolded, I became concerned about my brother and sister-in-law that lived in DC. My brother worked frighteningly close to the Pentagon. After taking the kids home, I sat transfixed on the TV. I was pregnant at the time and had haunting feelings about not wanting to bring another child into a world that was like this. I have refrained from turning on the TV at all today.
I was in the bathroom getting ready for Women’s Bible Study, when I noticed that the 8 am segment of the Today Show didn’t play their usual lead-in music(I’m addicted to the show, so notice those things). I walked into the bedroom, & Matt, Katie & Al were all talking about the “small plane that had hit one of the towers. THEN, the second plane came around & struck while I was watching the TV, & I dropped the hairbrush in my hand. It was so very surreal. I could not take my eyes off the TV for days after that.
I was a junior at ACU and living with the 3 other guys at a house on EN 10th St. I didnt have a class until 9:30 and was (as usual) running late for that. I am normally a radio and TV on in the morning person, but I dont recall turning it on that morning. As I was finishing my shower a roommate banged on the door to the bathroom and said “get out here and look at the TV.” I didnt have a clue what to think, I probably thought I was walking into the middle of a college prank…but I got out of the shower, towled up and walked into the living room…I didnt realize it then, but those few moments while walking to the living room, were the last in what I thought was a peaceful world.
The rest of the day was a blurr of; phone calls, tears, cancelled classes, runs on gas at the Shell on the corner of 10th and Judge Ely, emotional chapel, comforting friends and just watching TV.
After (what seemed like) an eternity of watching TV one of my roomates said, we have to get out of here or turn this off for a little while, so we did both. We got in the car and went driving, not sure to where. But then it came to us, lets have a party! Wow, thats odd on a national day of tragedy! But people need a reason to be together, even if all we do is watch the news together. So we started planning for the “Proud to be an American Party!” We found a flag store in Abilene and bought as many small USA flags on a stick as we could afford and then drove around putting them in friends yards and telling them about the ensuing party.
After that we bought stuff to grill hamburgers and had a big cookout. We watched TV, talked, prayed and just were…together! It was ironic and yet seredipitous that what terrorisits had hoped would seperate, had actually brought us all together!
I find it incredible how many different reactions/feelings/thoughts/emotions this one day/event has brought up among a group of people. What a testimony to the deep and profound differences in the body of Christ. What a reminder of the need for community in times like these.
And yet, Chris - there is a profound unity in this community. We all have different memories, different reactions, different insights, but there is a unity based on our love for God, and our reliance on Him in such a difficult situation. That to me is the greatest and most incredible statement of faith that can be seen in all these different posts. PTL!
As I pulled into work, the first story of something hitting the World Trade Center was being broadcast over the radio. As I said my morning hello’s to those as I entered into my office, I noticed a group gathered around a television. Within two minutes, the second plane slammed into the second tower. Not long after, the plane hitting the Pentagon was being reported by the networks. I was shocked.
That evening we gathered for prayer as did millions across the country and around the world. With my good church of Christ upbringing, as I walked into the church building, I asked our preacher if I needed to do anything such as lead a prayer or read a scripture. I then received the most difficlt assignment of my life. I was asked to pray for our enemies. I have no idea what I prayed but it was a challenge for me and definitely sent me beyond my comfort zone.
That evening, after all in my house went to bed, I cried. I knew I would never see such destruction again. I knew that thousand had died. I knew that life would not be the same.
I was standing in a room of third graders teaching when the Principal came by to ask me to step outside for a moment. She told me about the WTC and asked me to keep the day as normal as possible for the children in my class and let their parents address it at home with them. After a moment of shock and tears I returned to class with my sweet students to carry on as usual, what is “usual” now I kept thinking. I was standing in a room of innocent faces who had no idea. The next thing running through my mind was “I am 7 1/2 months pregnant, what am I bringing my innocent baby into”. I was rocked to the core of my being and my heart was broken for all the losses to precious families. Many words of prayer were prayed from my lips that day and have continued over the years.
As my oldest daughter was born and continues to grow I cannot help but think of all the WTC children that are her age growing up without their fathers…my heart breaks again. Prayers continue and hopefully better knowledge of tragedy. Thanks for helping this morning Mike when you spoke to our MOPS group. As always my heart and soul left fuller than when the day began.
Definitely, Kathy! I didn’t mean to sound like there was no community and we needed it but instead to point out that we have found community in a place like this is something that was so badly needed. Sorry if that was confusing.
I was a Junior in High School in my 1st period speech class when the annoucement came over the intercom that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. And the first thought that came to mind was what kind of an idiot could fly a plane into a side of a building especially the World Trade Center , I mean how could you miss it ? I was thinking it was a small sesna type aircraft. Then In my next class it was a computer class and we started reading all the news websites and that it was a 747 and I was in shock then it made a sudden change saying a second plane had hit the other tower right before my next class.I ran to my next class and when I got there everyone was watching it on TV glued to the screen . Then in shock and dismay the towers collasped. Then hearing the pentagon and how another plane was it still missing.
Oh, Chris! Guess I’m not communicating too well today. I was agreeing that we do have community - that the sense of community exists and with unity, as diverse as the group might be. Sorry for my own confusion! It still may not be as clear as I’d hope.
I love New York City. I had friends that could have been there, family that could have been there and I worked to try to find out if they were or not.
My first child was due in 8 weeks. I sat at my desk and cried and rubbed my belly. Over and over I sang the words to This is My Father’s Word. “Help me ne’er forget. that though the wrong seems oft so strong, GOD IS THE RULER YET!” I don’t know if I was singing to tell her, or to calm my own spirit.
My 23-year-old brother had just been inducted into the Navy, the night before on September 10. To have him enter the military and then wake up to the horrid events of the next morning, and know that we would most likely be headed for war…terrifying.
Nowadays, I sometimes find myself thinking maybe I dreamed all that…maybe it was all just an intense nightmare. If only.
I’ve always been able to relate to Alan Jackson’s song about 911. The line where it says: “Were you in a class teaching innocent children” because that’s exactly where I was– teaching my PPCD (Preschool Program for Children with Disabilities) class in Bowie, TX when my Teacher’s Aide had gone out of the room to run an errand and came back and told me about the plane flying into the World Trade Center. When we had a break later that morning we all cried together as we watched it on our school TV after the second plane had flown into the other tower and we were so scared about the state of our country! I will never forget it as long as I live!!
I remember leaving my office at 9:30 AM and 8 minutes later 42 of my friends and co-workers were dead, among the 184 who died in that minute in the Pentagon and on the plane. It is still hard to care that there were actually five others who died there that day, since those 5 were the perpetrators - misguided but…
The next few months were full of funerals and I am now much more familiar with Arlington National Cemetery than I ever cared to be.
The Pentagon was a much smaller tragedy in numbers than the WTC, but the Pentagon is oh so much more personal for me.
Life goes on, God heals and family and church support help greatly.
I was 22 years old and working for Johnson Controls in a split ford/toyota manufacturing plant in Canada. I remember it was a beautiful morning, I drove my 30 minutes to work on the backroads just enjoying fall and how clear and gorgeous everything was. I remember those pre 9-11 moments as being incredibly peaceful.
The rest of the day as a blur of activity. As the receptionist for a 400+ plant I was one of the few people who had a radio at my desk, certainly one of the only ones who was able to listen to it during the day. As the day went on, and incident after incident piled on top of each other, I remember fielding call after call from our team leaders in the plant whose teams wanted to know what was going on. There was no processing of any information for me - just listening and repeating it over and over to whomever called and needed to know. It was horrible to have to say it over and over like that.
I remember I couldn’t get a hold of my boyfriend across the border in MI so I called my best friend from highschool at York University in toronto and woke him up to tell him the news. He didn’t believe me. He jumped on his computer and said “All this news on the same page as “can you pick stocks as good as Elton John?” - makes this a little surreal.”
I remember the look of horror in our IT manager’s face, whose sister worked in the towers. He spent all morning on his cell phone, and left around one that day. And I remember trying to work, trying to find out if we could get our trucks over the border, waiting to see if the plant would close….trying to have a normal day when everything that was completely abnormal. I remember that the person who meant the most to me during those 8+ hours at work that day was my immediate supervisor Soraya Khaleeli, a wonderful lady (also a muslim) who held on to me as we both cried and prayed during our break.
All that said, it didn’t really sink in until I was driving home that night - and realized there were no planes in the sky outside the Toronto National Airport. I’d never seen that before.
I was teaching in an adult education classroom. A student who was late came in saying something about an explosion. He was a prankster, so we ignored it. A more serious student came in after him and said someone had blown up some government building or something. I checked with other teachers in my program. Their TVs were on. I came back in my room and said, “Guys, something’s up; we’d better get the TV on.”
We turned on the TV just as the plane hit the second tower. We thought it was a replay of what had already happened. Not until later did we piece together that we turned on the TV at the actual moment the 2nd tower was hit.
We all sat there with our mouths open. A few students made some inappropriate comments (as some students are prone to do.) Class was dismissed and we just kept watching as first one and then the next tower fell. I just couldn’t wait to call home to talk to my husband. I just couldn’t believe those towers were actually gone. Dan Rather kept saying up to 20,000 people could be at work that day.
The thing I remember most about that day is wanting to be home with my family and being too stunned to even pray.
We didn’t hold classes for almost a month after that. Every day I watched the news reports of the growing number of photos taped up along the street in New York as the folks who missed tried to find the missing. In all of it, I think those are the images I will most remember, those hundreds and hundreds of posters of smiling faces, tuxedos and wedding gowns, Tower 1, worked for ________ company, please call me at telephone number ___________….any news…any sign…please…
People all lined up to give blood; stood for hours…a massive outpouring of help wishing for someone alive to help….and there was no one, nothing, just smoke and ashes and exhausted broken firefighters and a few last phone messages…
A week later, I lost a pet I’d had for 18 years…I walked around crying for two days and no one even thought it strange…because everyone else was crying, too.
I called my mother, who summed it up: “This is the worst thing I’ve seen since Pearl Harbor.”
Check out this piece that one of my elders, Joey Cope (no relation), wrote. He’s such a great writer.
Then, there is this excellent FAX OF LIFE from my buddy Rubel.
My dad had just come to Ohio to visit us from Tennessee the night before. We were sitting around drinking coffee when my husband ran in and told us to turn on the TV. My dad is from a rural town with hardly any media reception. We have it all, satelite, internet, etc. I remember that we were glued to the TV, and my dad who doesn’t even like TV just kept switching channels to every news channel there was. He just couldn’t believe it. None of us could.
Where our house is located we are about 35 miles from an airport and in the flight path for in-coming planes. I love being out in the yard and hearing the planes fly over in their approach wondering where the plane has come from. That first week after 9/11 there were no planes, and it felt so weird to not hear that familiar sound in the air.
I was sitting in 5:00 rush hour traffic with Mark Moore and Casey Smith in Kampala, Uganda. We were on our way home to Jinja when we got the call.
I remember feeling very connected with other Americans living in Uganda. I remember watching CNN with crowds of people at the local hotels. I especially remember how the Ugandans reacted though. They truly mourned with us as everywhere I went they just said, “Sorry, sorry” for several days to follow.
I was teaching a tenth grade class in Huntsville, Alabama. Some of my students’ parents were at the Pentagon , but they remained stoically quiet. One fellow teacher’s son was in the air flying at the time, and she was frantic not knowing if he were on a hijacked plane or not. Because we are the Space City, many of us were worried that we might be targeted for something too.
Later, one of my Russian students asked me why we carried on so much about the event because, he said, “These things happen all the time where I come from.” That’s sad that one can become almost complacent about such tragedies!
I had just dropped my 4 year old off at preschool. This was just after the first plane hit the WTC, but drop off went as usual. The teachers must have been getting ready for the day with no tv’s on. I had not heard yet either. My 5 year old was with me since she was in afternoon kindergarten.
We left the preschool and went to Wal Mart. As we walked in, the greeter asked me if I had heard what was going on. I had not heard so she was trying to explain it to me. It was just so surreal. So I stood there in the entry of Wal Mart watching this little tv hanging from the ceiling with some other people. Then Rachel and I just turned around and left. I called John and another friend on my way home trying to make sense of it. The rest of the day I was glued to the tv and we just skipped kindergarten.
So I guess my story for my grandkids will be that I heard about 9/11 from the Wal Mart greeter. As unfortunate as that is because I really do not like to shop at that store! Why couldn’t it have been Target?
I’ve had such a long day that after I posted the above comment I remembered that my oldest daughter must have just turned six and my 3 month old baby must have also been with me. How could I leave out such an important detail?
I remember anger and hatred not fueled by religous conviction. I remember crying.
Weeks later I remember Alan Jackson’s song “Remember When” capturing every emotion I felt that day.
5 years later I am astonished how much we have forgotten about who destroyed the WTC.
While its quite important that we remember and grieve on this day, we should remember that we aren’t the only nation that God loves… he loves his children that are murdered in sudan, those in iraq, lebanon, palestine and israel, children who are starving in africa and those still affected by the tsunami.
We should use this day to pray that the kingdom come… not that america power is re asserted. Patriotism has become idolotry for so many in christendom… let us pray that once again the earth will be what God wants it to be…
I fully agree Justin. The wolf should never be allowed to devour the sheep. No one ever said the the wolf only came to America.
The wolf is running loose in Iraq, suicide bombers.
The wolf is loose in Palestine, suicide bombers.
The wolf is loose in Sudan…..
The wolf is loose…..
People were praying then and people are praying now. Apparently either God or the wolf is not listening. Take your pick, but be able to defend to a critical audience.
I was sitting in Dr. Denny Petrillo’s class at Bear Valley (Denver) in the graduate program there. John Alan Turner was sitting beside me. Someone stuck their head in the door and said, ‘a plane just hit one of the WTC towers.’ Like everyone, we assumed a small plane had gotten off course. Not long after, he came back and told us of another plane. The nearest television was in the dorm house, so we all went there and stood around in shock. There were some veterans in that group and they were especially touched by this. We joined hands and stood in a circle praying for our country and all of the families that were affected.
I wondered how I would fly home in a few days. And I wished that I was at home during such a scary time.
One of the students said that if my flight was cancelled, he would drive me home. I thought he had a wonderful heart to offer such. It’s a long drive from Denver to Mississippi Coast.
One more thing… although you cannot compare the two disasters … having survived the aftermath of Katrina … I am more thankful for those who ran TO help than I used to be.
I remeber I had gone to a pryer group that morning. Those prayes served to sustain me that day as the tragedy unfolded.
Yes, we were indeed the “UNITED” States . . . what has happened? The current administration has brought division to this country like never before. And all the countries of the world that were “united” with us . . . also managed to alienate them. Very sad indeed.
If you really believe that you must of missed something along the line. Everyone wants to come here, but their governments have not stood with us for over 15 to 25 years. It has nothing to do with the current administration. My goodness the Arabs hold the crusades against us because we love Christ.
I was a Senior at Lubbock Christian University, and I remember by alarm clock going off at about 9:00 am, and since it is tuned to the radio on Air1-I remember the DJ saying something about praying for all of the people in New York and Washington DC…I was not sure what he was talking about and then I turned on the TV-and just sat their shocked as I watched everything unfold, including watching the towers collapse on live TV.
It was just so surreal-then I realized that my mom had not called and I knew she would have if she knew what was going on, so I called her and told her to turn on the TV-she had been in the WTC just a few years before since she worked at Dean Witter and commented on how she knew so many people in there and just could not believe what was happening. Luckily, because of a brave man named Rick Rescorla who helped his colleagues escapr (he did die in the attacks) only 6 of the around 3500 people that worked at Morgan Stanley/Dean Witter got out on that day
I remember that I skipped chapel that day and just continued to sit there in shock watching what was going on-they were showing the news feed in chapel anyway and were praying for everyone involved. I remember that we never knew where President Bush was, we worried about the oil refineries that were nearby in West Texas, and everyone was just a little more fearful…and knew we were at war. I remember that everyone seemed to have this stunned look on their face all day and the days that followed-then I remember us having blood drives, food/water bottle drives, and anything else we could do to help in the days that followed…
I remember being glued to the TV the following days and everytime I would watch the events of that day-it just felt like a really really bad dream, and maybe we would wake up from it soon-but we did not…
Then I remember going to NY 2 years later and just seeing this massive pit where the towers once stood, and seeing the cross that was left from the rubble, and all of the many signs and messages that were all over the place-it is hard to describe…
I was a senior in high school, four days away from turning 18. I hadn’t had the radio on that morning as I drove to school, and because I was in a private lesson I missed the announcement in first-period band. On my way to second period, I ran into my friend Chance, who blurted out the news. I just stared at him in shock. When I made it upstairs to my Spanish class, my teacher had the TV on, and we watched in disbelief…and kept watching for days. My eyeballs felt like they’d been stretched from opening wide enough to take it all in.
In November 2001, I flew to D.C. with a student diplomacy group for a national conference. We visited the monuments, the Republican National Committee headquarters, the State Department, and were given a private tour of the Pentagon by an Air Force brigadier general. At the end of the tour, we walked outside to view the spot where the plane had hit. They’d cleaned it up by then, but there was still a massive chunk of building gone. I stood under a dark sky sprinkled with stars (the few you could see, past the glow of city lights) and huddled close to my friends not for warmth, but for support. There was a lit Christmas tree on the roof right next to the spot that was hit. General Stein talked to us about freedom, family, and living and enjoying life. I don’t remember his exact words, but I will never forget standing there. Made me even more determined to LIVE - that is the only way the terrorists won’t win.
I remember being in 8th grade, in gym class, and our gym teacher just came out to the field, his face completely white, telling us planes had hit the WTC, had hit the Pentagon. Being kids, we laughed-we thought it was a joke, planes just hitting the towers, yeah right…there was a kid in our class whose father worked at the Pentagon, and I remember the coach asking him if he wanted to call his father…
It wasn’t until after lunch that any of us knew. We weren’t “supposed” to be told…but then we all got to our next class, and they handed us, of all things, a letter, explaining what had happened. I remember that one boy just turning completely white, the look of absolute horror in his, in all of our eyes, as we realized this had actually happened. I remember watching that boy run from the classroom, and no one stopped him-no one told him to sit down or to behave…and none of us moved. It was a half-day, and I was supposed to go out to lunch with my dad. Instead, we just sat in front of the television, staring at the screen. Finally my father turned it off, and I just remember sobbing, only 14 years old, asking my father how this could have happened-how anyone could be so heartless, how God could let so many people-so many children-die.
Now as a college student, I look back on that day, and I realize that it will be in history books-that my children will one day realize that I was one of millions to witness this tragedy, and one day they will ask me the same questions I asked my father…and see the same pictures, the same videos, watch people jumping from the towers, and in their eyes, some of the same horror I saw that day, 5 years ago, will be reflected there…
Thank God there is salvation, that there is hope, and that there is Heaven…