We Will Never Forget

"We Will Never Forget" was a motto that was seen continually after the horrific 9/11/01 attack on the Twin Towers in NYC and the downing of flight 93. I saw the pictures of the first plane flying into the North Tower on television as I was getting ready to go to work less than a half a mile away.  I remember thinking at the time that it was not an accident, but tried to put those words out of my mind. That thought was too frightening.

We finished getting dressed for work, Chuck and I worked at the same ministry then, and headed up the hill. We said our usual good-by on a day that would turn out to be a day as Franklin Roosevelt called "a day in infamy". 

As I settled in at work the news came of the second plane hitting the South Tower. It is hard to discribe the feeling that came with that announcement, but everyone knew the world in America that we had known had now changed. That feeling She had carried of being the strongest Nation in the World and untouchable went down with those towers. Everyone felt the protecting hand of God move away from her.

Chuck and I were to leave that week to be on the conference travel team for the first time.  However, that trip to Detroit was cancelled.  There were too many safety issues that were still uncertian.  We would however make the next scheduled trip which was, I believe, Chicago and then on to New York City a couple of weeks later.

A New York Policewoman struck up a friendship with a couple on the team and she offered to get us down to ground zero after the conference was over.  A group of us got on the subway and headed to downtown New York.  She and her police buddy picked us up and escorted us into the area.  I was not prepared for what I saw.

Water was continually flowing onto the smoking remains of the tower. Debris and mud were everywhere and the smell of death was in the air. Basically where the two tall towers had stood now looked like a huge smoldering hole in the ground filled with steel. There were memorial tents set up along the walkway as we walked to the area from where we had to park and we stopped to read the notes and look at the pictures of those now gone. The weight of the grief was unbelievably heavy.

Probably the most engraved in my memory from that night was the eyes of the firemen on duty. We walked to an open tent where they would sit and rest and get refreshments while on their shift.  We tried to talk but their eyes spoke more than their mouths.  These men's eyes looked like soldiers who had been in a horrific battle and had seen all their minds could handle. That look in their eyes is a vivid memory that I think will be forever in my mind.

For a season Americans were searching their souls and returning to God and church. That season did not last long. The wake up call that came on 9/11/01 that brought us to our knees is no longer heard by many. America has now found herself weak on many fronts, full of corruption and deceit, and no longer the strongest nation in the world. Who would have ever thought we would have a president who would proclaim to the world that we were not a Christian nation. On 9/11/10 I proclaim once again WAKE UP AMERICA!!

Psalm 33:12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people he chose for his inheritance.