Firsthand accounts of the World Trade Center tragedy
Baptist U.N. rep leads ministry actions
Amy Davis, a semester intern at the United Nations, had just left an international prayer breakfast the morning of Sept. 11.
Davis, a student at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo., and co-worker Laura Gilbert of Richmond, Va., donned badges which read “May We Pray for You” and went into the rush of people fleeing the site of the disaster. Hundreds of people responded to that simple offer.
Under the leadership of North American Mission Board (NAMB) Christian ministries director Ken Welborn, Davis and others set up tables and began to hand out water and Christian tracts to people who came by. Welborn, who is a NAMB missionary to the United Nations community, said the immensity and depth of the attack had not hit the city yet. He said his primary focus has been on the ambassadors, diplomats and their staffs, as well as the permanent employees of the U.N. Secretariat. “We co-sponsored a prayer service for the diplomatic community Sept. 14,” Welborn told The Alabama Baptist. A group of 40 ambassadors and diplomats came together for the service. The leaders of four evangelical Christian organizations spoke.
Welborn said he believes the World Trade Center was symbolic of a false sense of security that many have placed in our nation’s economic system. “It was a symbol of our economic strength, and in one day it has crumbled,” Welborn said. “My hope is that this will lead people to seek real security in Jesus Christ.” (BP)
David Dean sets ministry efforts in motion
Like the rest of those working in Manhattan Sept. 11, the staff of the New York Baptist Association watched the unfolding horror at the World Trade Center both on television and outside their windows.
“It’s a war zone,” said director of missions David Dean, who with most of his staff stayed at their Manhattan offices throughout the first night and following day.
Dean was among several Southern Baptist leaders who described the scene in the city as well as ministry efforts set in motion the day of the attack.
Attempts to contact all of the association’s churches had met with limited success, but Dean knew of at least two congregations with a total of five members still missing a day after the attack. Association staff members and all North American Mission Board missionaries in the city were safe.
Coordinated ministry efforts within the association were impossible in the immediate aftermath, as churches simply waited and did what they could where they were.
“There’s a mass depression that has swept through the city. It’s palpable,” Dean said. The association initially opened up its chapel to offer comfort to the traumatized but eventually moved their ministry to the streets — offering cold water, Bibles and other refreshments to those passing by.
Dean said he also spent much of the day talking with police officers, firefighters, even people from other offices, listening and helping console the grief that swept the city.
Lisa Chilton, volunteer coordinator for Metropolitan New York Baptist Association, said she watched events unfold on television at the association’s offices in midtown Manhattan. She said the association staff has been praying for revival in the city among both Christians and unbelievers.
“We are praying that God will use this opportunity to draw people back to Him in a very intimate way.” (ABP, BP)
D’Amicos help ‘walking wounded’ in New York
David and Ana D’Amico, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship missionaries to New York’s diplomatic community, live eight blocks from the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan. They made their way to New York University Hospital where they helped medical personnel by washing soot and ashes from the “walking wounded,” as well as distributed clean clothes for victims to change into after treatment.
Ana said her experience as a hospital administrator helped as did the fact they both speak more than one language.
The D’Amicos translated for many people, helping them reunite with families. They met one young man who asked, “Where is God at a time like this?”
They also ministered to several members of an atheist group who had just returned from a meeting in California.
One asked, “You are religious people, aren’t you?”
Ana replied, “We believe in God and believe He is here right now.”
“Then please pray for us,” the man said.
David Waugh, pastor of Metro Baptist Church in midtown Manhattan, said he believes all church members are safe. He said the church is open for prayer, food and shelter. At least 26 people who couldn’t get home slept on the church floor, he added. (ABP)
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