That morning of September 11, as I sat down in my cube on the 81st floor, I felt a sense of emptiness... in my life that I had never felt before. I sat down and wrote an email to a friend of mine who goes to my home church in New Jersey saying "Tom, something is happening to me this morning. I know I have a call of God upon my life but I don't find any opportunity for ministry." I sent that email at 8:05 on September 11 from my office. I had no idea that in the next 40 minutes, this great tragedy would happen and God would spare our lives.
We hear this incredible explosion, and someone in our floor actually saw the plane come in. We thought it was a small plane. The building shook violently. We had no idea it was a terrorist attack. We thought it was a small plane, and that the pilot had cardiac arrest or something and it crashed in our building. As jet fuel poured in to our floor, and as walls were caving down, and as we saw a huge crater right above us, and we could actually see ten to fifteen floors right above us, a picture of just twisted steel and cable.
We fought our way though the fire... we looked for the stairwell, and the stairwell was kind of crowded with thousands of people running down the stairwell. One thing in common was the fear of death written on every face. We start running down the stairwell, and it took me more than an hour to go down 81 floors.
I came down 81 floors, and went to look for my wife, because my pregnant wife works on the 71st floor of the south tower. I'm fifteen or twenty feet away from the building, and I hear an incredible explosion. I thought it was a bomb, but it is not a bomb. The building I just approached, the south tower, was finally imploding and going down.
There were fifteen or twenty people with me as the south tower was collapsing, and I called upon those people to call upon the name of the Lord. Not one person argued with me, or called upon another religion or faith, because the name of Jesus is so powerful.
Later that day, after I was pulled out and I spent many hours thinking she was dead, my cell phone rings and when I picked up that call, it was my wife on the other side. She was late to work and when she got in the building, by then the north tower is hit so she's pushed out the building, and she spent all these hours thinking I was dead, and I spent all those hours thinking she was dead.
Watching people die changed my life forever... What hit me hard was a verse in the bible, "a thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy." I said God, if the terrorists were willing to die for a cause they believed in, how guilty am I of not living for the greatest cause on earth, the cause of Jesus Christ.
Mr. John went on to found Sujo John Ministries, and has used his story as a way to bring the gospel to those outside the church. The interview his words were excerpted from may be found on YouTube.
The verse mentioned by Mr. John in the last paragraph is John 10:10.
Prayer: God, even when others seek to kill and destroy us, your spirit is with us. We thank you for your divine protection and ask your spirit to lead us onward. Amen.
Prayer Concern: survivors of war and all other violence.
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