One Last Thought
by Eric Reed
January 1, 2002
Pastor Rob won't forget his first day at his new church. The two-day drive from Maryland to Illinois was trying, especially the second day. The radio was on constantly, and only turned off the few times Rob pulled the van to the side of the road so his family could pray. They arrived at the parsonage beside the red brick church building about five o'clock, to find deacons ready to unload the van and church members gathering for an impromptu prayer meeting. There were hugs and tears: hugs for the new pastor's family and tears for our nation. Rob arrived on September 11, 2001.
I thought about Rob often that week. I had finished 16 months as interim pastor at that church only the Sunday before. Rob's first sermon, an anticipated celebration, would instead address crisis. I wondered about the lasting impact the terrorist attacks would have on his ministry, on all our ministries.
"It depends on how close you are to the disaster area," a Salvation Army pastor told me. He had shipped in from Wisconsin to New York for a two-week stint at Pier 94, the Manhattan dock where all the relief agencies had set up, offering financial assistance to displaced workers and families who had lost their breadwinners. "For once, the people in my congregation—alcoholics and drug addicts—know there's someone who has bigger problems than theirs. I will tell them about my experiences here, but I don't expect it will last."
For pastor Taylor Field on Manhattan's depressed Lower East Side, the images remain vivid. His son Freeman attends Stuyvesant High School a few blocks from the towers. Field tells of pedaling his bike to Ground Zero to search for his son, at the same time the students were running from the dust cloud of debris and smoke. The younger ...
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