Where Were You on 9-11-2001?

I wanted to have an open thread here today so you can express your prayers and memories regarding the anniversary of 911.

And above all else, keep praying.

Comments

[Kirsten Erin]

I was in fourth grade at recess when our teacher called us in and explained it to us. She showed us the footage and we all got sent home early.

[Laura]

I was only 11 when this horrible attack happened. I was in my 6th grade English class. I didnt realize the impact that it had on our country and our neighbors until later on. All I knew was it was an awful thing. Right Now I am watching a documentary on the History and channel and it has brought me to tears.

Why would anyone want to do this to an amazing country like ours? Why did this happen? There are just so many questions left un-answered.

[Chris]

I was in the eighth grade in a middle school in the state of Florida. We heard about it first through the internet news. Most classes were suspended so they could watch the news on TV, but my Geometry teacher kept teaching the class with the TV off.

During lunch, my friend Sean (who's now in the Army) told us that America was about to open a can of whoop-ass on whoever did it, and that "they had awoken they sleeping tiger."

When I got home, I stood standing in front of the television in disbelief for ten minutes. I was mostly ambivalent. Later at dinner I said they were just buildings, and it was lucky that there weren't many people inside. My family just stared at me as if to say: "How can you be insensitive to so many Americans dying?" But I figured that much worse things happened in other parts of the world every day, so it was an unfair comparison. I wondered why we had so much compassion when our nation was attacked, and didn't care about the struggle the rest of the world faces every day.

[Ryan]

I was back in High School in homeroom when a classmate came in and said, "I just saw on the news that a plane crashed into the World Trade Center in New York!" I told him he was crazy but then he said, "No, I am serious, and while we were watching the one tower burn, another plane flew in and hit the other tower!" I could not believe it until we went to chapel. A teacher went forward and told us what he knew. I spent the rest of the day huddled up with a small radio trying to hear what was happening. Nobody felt like teaching class so we were kind've all just left to ourselves. I will never forget that day, it is firmly burned in my memory.

[amazed by his grace]

I was 2 weeks into my first job out of college (D&T) – downtown NYC – at the World Financial Center. The World Financial Center were a few buildings connected to the WTC through walkway bridges – and to get to my building I took the subway (E train) that enters/exists at the basement of the WTC (there was also a mall in the basement) and had to walk through the WTC everyday to get to my office. All I can say was that I was LATE for work. Being late saved me. When I got to work, the subway doors opened for me to get out, and as it opened all I saw where people running loose. People were running out of the mall to get out through the subway exists. I remember there weren’t many people around and it was dark in the mall - I feel a lot were evacuated out of the mall by the time I got there. After 7 years, I only now realize that I was in the basement of the WTC Tower that got bombed first.

Undercover detectives were shouting to everyone to get out of the mall and the subways – and I realized I was the last train to get into the station – with no trainings leaving with the situation at hand. I was only 21/22 and really had no idea what was going on – so I just walked calmly to the subway exit that lead outside. All I kept thinking was how I had to get to work on time – because it was my 2nd week of work with my first official client meeting to be at 9am (and I was running late). I was on a long line to get out as for some reason all other exists near us where closed – and then all of a sudden the building vibrated and there was the biggest sound I heard – to me I thought it was just an awing off a building that must of fell right outside. Due to the vibration of the building and the violent blast people fell off the stairs to the exit and were fell to the floor. At the end of the day or maybe a few days later (after the initial shock) did I realize I came out of the subway between the 1st and 2nd attacks.

When I got outside, I was standing right in front of the Towers looking up at both buildings on fire. It still didn’t hit me why or how this happened. The buildings looked like they had confetti raining down from the sky. There were hundreds of people like me just standing and watching, not sure where to go or what to do next. Police everywhere told everyone to leave and that the buildings were going to fall, but nobody initialled listed – we thought they were saying that to scare us. For some reason, my phone was the only one working, and I called my parents and they said they new what was going on as they saw it on television. I told them I would call them later and let people borrow my phone as for some reason it was working. Still to this day I don’t remember if I understood what was happening at that moment – or that the lives of thousands were flashing by my eyes. There were scraps of metal everywhere and people sitting/standing and bleeding. Finally, after some time, police kept pushing us further and further back by closing the streets. Because I had no idea how to navigate the city (I only knew how to go in and out of work through my train) I just stood there – not sure what to do. I befriended two people, who one ironically was a Muslim man, and the other was a Hindu man. Both were in the same situation as me – and we all stood in disbelief watching the buildings. What was even more surprising was that there were people running into the stores buying postcards with the Twin Towers on it and buying cameras to snap pictures. As the time went (though it only felt like a few minutes to me) I watched the towers fall in front of my eyes, I couldn’t take my eyes off it, there is no way for me to describe how it felt watching it right there in front of me. I will also never forget the sound it made when it fell – it sounded similar to coming head on to a subway train but 1000X louder. For months after I would feel fear struck every time I heard the subway trains. When the buildings fell, we were close enough that we had to run as fast as we can so that wind/tornado of white powder did not hit us. I am thankful to those 2 people God helped me encounter, because when we had to run, one held my laptop bag, and one held my hand running so I didn’t get lost in the mass. We eventually hitch hiked to queens to one of their homes and I got to my own home by evening. I will also never forget one of the many people who picked us up from the middle of the highway - she was crying and told us that her husband was in one of the Towers and that she has been trying to call him but he wouldn’t pick up. She found comfort knowing that we made it but to this day I don’t know if she was ever reunited with her husband.

It’s been 7 years and I never told my story outloud – at least not like this. I always made it feel like it was “no big deal” that I got through that all. But the more I think about it this year – the more I realize how amazing our God is. And that though Satan will make every miracle look like “no big deal” it was just a “coincidence” – remember that the real world is that of a spiritual nature – where I know legions of angels were protecting me.

By His grace alone…

[Led by grace]

I was 2 weeks into my first job out of college (D&T) – downtown NYC – at the World Financial Center. The World Financial Center were a few buildings connected to the WTC through walkway bridges – and to get to my building I took the subway (E train) that enters/exists at the basement of the WTC (there was also a mall in the basement) and had to walk through the WTC everyday to get to my office. All I can say was that I was LATE for work. Being late saved me. When I got to work, the subway doors opened for me to get out, and as it opened all I saw where people running loose. People were running out of the mall to get out through the subway exists. I remember there weren’t many people around and it was dark in the mall - I feel a lot were evacuated out of the mall by the time I got there. After 7 years, I only now realize that I was in the basement of the WTC Tower that got bombed first.

Undercover detectives were shouting to everyone to get out of the mall and the subways – and I realized I was the last train to get into the station – with no trainings leaving with the situation at hand. I was only 21/22 and really had no idea what was going on – so I just walked calmly to the subway exit that lead outside. All I kept thinking was how I had to get to work on time – because it was my 2nd week of work with my first official client meeting to be at 9am (and I was running late). I was on a long line to get out as for some reason all other exists near us where closed – and then all of a sudden the building vibrated and there was the biggest sound I heard – to me I thought it was just an awing off a building that must of fell right outside. Due to the vibration of the building and the violent blast people fell off the stairs to the exit and were fell to the floor. At the end of the day or maybe a few days later (after the initial shock) did I realize I came out of the subway between the 1st and 2nd attacks.

When I got outside, I was standing right in front of the Towers looking up at both buildings on fire. It still didn’t hit me why or how this happened. The buildings looked like they had confetti raining down from the sky. There were hundreds of people like me just standing and watching, not sure where to go or what to do next. Police everywhere told everyone to leave and that the buildings were going to fall, but nobody initialled listed – we thought they were saying that to scare us. For some reason, my phone was the only one working, and I called my parents and they said they new what was going on as they saw it on television. I told them I would call them later and let people borrow my phone as for some reason it was working. Still to this day I don’t remember if I understood what was happening at that moment – or that the lives of thousands were flashing by my eyes. There were scraps of metal everywhere and people sitting/standing and bleeding. Finally, after some time, police kept pushing us further and further back by closing the streets. Because I had no idea how to navigate the city (I only knew how to go in and out of work through my train) I just stood there – not sure what to do. I befriended two people, who one ironically was a Muslim man, and the other was a Hindu man. Both were in the same situation as me – and we all stood in disbelief watching the buildings. What was even more surprising was that there were people running into the stores buying postcards with the Twin Towers on it and buying cameras to snap pictures. As the time went (though it only felt like a few minutes to me) I watched the towers fall in front of my eyes, I couldn’t take my eyes off it, there is no way for me to describe how it felt watching it right there in front of me. I will also never forget the sound it made when it fell – it sounded similar to coming head on to a subway train but 1000X louder. For months after I would feel fear struck every time I heard the subway trains. When the buildings fell, we were close enough that we had to run as fast as we can so that wind/tornado of white powder did not hit us. I am thankful to those 2 people God helped me encounter, because when we had to run, one held my laptop bag, and one held my hand running so I didn’t get lost in the mass. We eventually hitch hiked to queens to one of their homes and I got to my own home by evening. I will also never forget one of the many people who picked us up from the middle of the highway - she was crying and told us that her husband was in one of the Towers and that she has been trying to call him but he wouldn’t pick up. She found comfort knowing that we made it but to this day I don’t know if she was ever reunited with her husband.

It’s been 7 years and I never told my story outloud – at least not like this. I always made it feel like it was “no big deal” that I got through that all. But the more I think about it this year – the more I realize how amazing our God is. And that though Satan will make every miracle look like “no big deal” it was just a “coincidence” – remember that the real world is that of a spiritual nature – where I know legions of angels were protecting me.

By His grace alone…

[Glenn]

I was in northern England, having flown there from Canada the day before, getting ready for a speaking tour in England and Northern Ireland. Tough to be away from home at the time.

[Beth]

I was living 12 time zones away from the United States. There was not another American that I knew of within 1000 kilometers. A local acquaintance called and told me to turn on the television, as America was being attacked. I numbly watched the same footage shown over and over on all the stations, feeling very disoriented, and not able to help thinking that the news footage was really just a clip from the latest Tom Clancy movie.

The locals (nominal Christian society), once they determined that I had no close relatives living in New York, had nothing more to say to me, and gave me to understand that this was something America had long deserved. During that tense time, only two people showed any real sympathy or interest. Both of them were women from Islamic nations. One of them, who was living as a refugee after fleeing war in her homeland with her four children, hugged me and cried with me, assuring me that she was praying for my country, for Allah to heal and bless it. Having lived under the shadow of terrorism for most of her adult life, she knew the horror, she said, and therefore could sympathize.

[ruth]

i was in Puerto Rico in my home with my sister and we were completely unaware of anything until a friend called us. We were sad because of such tragedy and did not belive what was happening.

[Hannah]

I was very pregnant, due in a couple of weeks, with my first child. As I turned on the television, I watched in horror as the second tower came down. I knew that God was in control of the situation, and yet I wondered what kind of place I was bringing my new son in to. If felt like a sort of apocalypse.