September 11

 

After a whirlwind day in the elementary Learning Center, I am finally able to calm my brain down enough and focus on what today stands for. I signed numerous check-ups today for the students, and every time I wrote 9/11 next to my initials I was reminded…for a short second before my mind was quickly engaged elsewhere…of the significance of this day. At the end of July, a bunch of single girls went to NYC for the day, and we had the opportunity to have a Ground Zero tour. It was a rather long tour, but it opened my eyes and reminded me once again of what happened 7 years ago on this day. A real sobering moment for me was going through this World Trade Center gallery and seeing this wall…

 

 

This long wall was literally covered from top to bottom with pictures of people who died on that tragic day. It is one thing to see a list of names…which we did….but pictures make it seem all the more real. These were REAL people with REAL families. Close to the end of the tour, we actually got to hear one woman’s account of that day. She had actually been inside the North Tower when the plan hit. She was only a few stories under where the plane hit the building. She went out into the hallway, not knowing what had happened, and the hallway was just covered in black smoke. She then told us an interesting story. Apparently, back in August, she had had a life threatening experience in the Trade Center. She had gone in the elevator…I believe she worked on the 82nd floor…and suddenly the elevator just started falling. She thought she was certainly going to die. Somehow a guy was able to push a button to stop the elevator, or she would have certainly died. When she told her family, who lived in Poland, about this experience, they decided that they were going to organize a "thank mass" at their church in Poland thanking God for sparing her life. Well, anyway, on this day, September 11, as this lady was trying to decide what to do and was extremely afraid thinking she would surely die, she remembered an email that her sister had sent her the day before. Apparently, her family had been having trouble setting up a "thank mass", but had finally been able to schedule it….on September 11. She said that the fact that she knew her family was in Poland thanking God for sparing her life, gave her enough peace and courage to be able to run out in the hallway. She then took the stairs and went down 82 flights of steps. She said that it took her about 1 hour to get down. When she finally made it out of the building, she had no idea what was going on. She ran over to a group of people who were standing near the towers taking pictures. When she saw that they were taking pictures, she thought for sure everything was under control. However, she then told us that something inside her told her to leave, to get out of the area. She said that she began running toward Brooklyn Bridge. Not 5 minutes after she started running, she looked back to see the tower collapsing to the ground. If she had stayed where she had been, she would not have survived. I just sat there spellbound listening to this story. I had never heard a first-hand account like this about September 11 from someone who actually EXPERIENCED it. It was definitely an eye opener for me. God definitely spared her life on that day! I heard other stories during the tour about lives who were saved on that day. People who should have been working in those towers but for some reason or another were late or in another area. I don’t know why that day had to happen, but I know that God was definitely in control even though the world seemed to be in total chaos! However, although the day, September 11, tends to have a negative sound to it, and we remember tragedy, I also remember rejoicing. In 2000, a year before the World Trade Center tragedy, on September 11, I was saved! God spared my life on that day! I had been struggling for a long time, knowing that I needed to be saved, but not quite sure I was ready to trust the Lord alone for my salvation- What if He doesn’t save me? What if I am the only person He doesn’t want to save? However, my eyes were opened that day, when Pastor Hammett preached a chapel message on knowing God’s will for your life. When he made the statement "It’s not God’s will that you remain lost another day!" something clicked inside of me. After the message was over, I talked with Kristin Hammett, and she showed me the verse, "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." I knew then that there was nothing holding me back now. God wanted to save me! He wanted to forgive me of my sins! I wasn’t the "only exception" to this wonderful free gift of salvation! Later that day, in math class, I was so excited – can you imagine how hard it was to concentrate on math concepts!!!??  – I remember Mr. Anger looking at his watch to see the date and saying something to the effect of, "Well, I guess September 11 will always be remembered by you!" Of course, I readily agreed, but little did I know how that a year later, that date would not just be remembered by me, but by the entire world. Yes, September 11 can be viewed as a day of tragedy, but I would like to think of it as a day where God saved and spared many lives! This is a special wall outside the World Trade Center Gallery in NYC dedicated especially to the firemen who were killed trying to save all those people that day, but it is a great reminder to me, and to everyone….

 

 

May we never forget!

May we never forget the many people who sacrificed their lives on that day, but also, may we never forget the price God paid when He sent His only Son to die for our sins – MY sins!