Editor's note: This article is reprinted from LA Story, October 2001:
Marcia and I were in Manhattan the day the world changed -- September 11, 2001. In a brief moment, one of the single most evil atrocities in the history of mankind killed over 2,750* people from over 60 countries, left thousands of children without a parent, jolted the USA into a grieving resolve and forged an unprecedented global unity of nations against terrorism.
The impact on the US is nothings short of miraculous. The President called for a National Day of Prayer, the crime rate plummeted, celebrity worship and greed were suddenly irrelevant, and “hero” was redefined in the shape of a firefighter and airplane passengers with cell phones. In the Middle East a truce was called and strange bedfellows lined up in opposition to terrorism as the CNN images proclaim a clear prophecy of their own vulnerability.
After a bomb scare evacuation from a restaurant the night of September 11, my wife, Marcia and I and a friend made our way to eerily silent Times Square – about 50 people wandering in the middle of man-made, galactic-sized billboards lighting night for day. Not one taxi, limo or car to be found. Two days later we were evacuated from our hotel down 21 flights of stairs with a crowd of guests and workers whose minds were each silently replaying TV accounts of people running out of the World Trade Center. Candlelight vigils. Prayer groups on corners in Manhattan. People were scared. Life hesitated, holding its breath.
Marcia and I and some of the Kingdom News Network crew were in New York to celebrate four KNN short films being shown in the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival, one of the largest such festivals in the world. Our first sold–out screening was scheduled for September 11th, but was cancelled because of the attack on the World Trade Center. When the show did happen the next night, a full house of over 300 packed the theater on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. We thought about canceling, for only a second. The crowd proved us right. They needed a powerful, positive, gritty message of hope. When they saw 3 Parables and a Funeral concluding with Mary Magdalene running to the disciples crying, “He’s alive! He’s alive!” from The Cross, you could feel the spirit of the entire group powerlift the heaviness of the moment. This is what life, death and everything in between is really all about. This is what changes the world for good.
Steve Johnson, ACES World Sector Leader and lead evangelist for the great New York City Church, worked for an entire day at Ground Zero in the recovery effort. When asked what disciples could do to help, he quickly responded, “We need to do what we should have been doing the day before the disaster. Seeking and saving the lost.”
Satan is the supreme terrorist. He causes acts of terror every day. But the Kingdom of God is scary when motivated – scary to the devil and all the spiritual realms of evil. We have the power to change the world every day through the cross.
Roger Lamb, October 2001
* revised number after people were accounted for
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