After 20 years, i still vividly remember September 11, 2001. i was vision pastor at Harrisonburg First Church of the Nazarene in Virginian’s Shenandoah Valley.
On that terrible Tuesday morning, i had a golf tee time with three other staff members and four of our senior citizen guys from the local church. On about the ninth hole, my executive assistant, Angela Sipe, called my cell phone. "Have you heard about what’s happening at the Twin Towers yet?" i had not. After a brief understanding about the morning confusion, i lost all interest in golfing. We quickly rode the golf carts back to the clubhouse and made our way back to the church.
i remember thinking, "Is this World War III?" Once back at the building, our whole staff gathered in the teen room and watched the rest of the morning happen live on tv. The pain was indescribable. Immediately i called for a sacred assembly, yes an evening prayer vigil. The church was packed with members and neighbors. What a solemn gathering.
i heard about a chapel service that day at our Nazarene Global Minsitey Center near Kansas City, where one of our General Superintendents, Dr. Jerry Porter, was asked to speak. He came to the mic and said only two words and then sat down: "JESUS WEPT!"
In the wake of this horrific day, these words recorded in 2 Corinthians, chapter 4, were my confidence and still are:
"We’ve been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we’re not demoralized; we’re not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we’ve been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn’t left our side; we’ve been thrown down, but we haven’t broken." -- From 2 Corinthians 4, The Message Paraphrase
i love You. i need You. i want You, Jesus! Still on September 11, 2021.
Pastor Kerry Willis
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