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An ominous feeling of danger overshadowed September 10th, 2001. It was a special anniversary of a Wisconsin couple, Ken and Dee. Feeling unsettled, they cancelled original plans to travel out of state on Monday the 10th and Tuesday the 11th, but Sunday Ken was determined to celebrate in some small way. Though it was a gray, rainy day they headed toward a Frank Lloyd-Wright home about 90 miles west of their Wisconsin home.
Dee was reading to Ken from a paperback “Names of the Holy Spirit” and they were discussing Nehemiah 9:20 “You gave your good spirit to instruct them.” She was trying to keep her uneasiness to herself, but when you’ve been with someone for 40 years it’s hard to hide anything. As she strained to hear or see what she could “feel” was approaching as they drove along, secreting frequent glances at the horizon, her unrest did not go unnoticed. Ken’s soft question “What is it? What’s bothering you?” forced her to crack a small tight smile. She should have known that he would sense what she was feeling. “I don’t know yet.” was her honest answer as she nervously glanced out the car’s side window again. Ken questioned if they should turn back and she hesitantly confessed to an eerie feeling that something ominous - something dark and evil was coming from over there, pointing Northeast outside her window.
They could not pull over as the rain was forceful and so they began to pray aloud, listing the family and loved ones as they came to mind. When they got to their niece Trinity and her husband Larry, Dee became overwhelmed with concern for them. They lived far away in New York and though she had only seen them and their little daughter Autumn Lea but once, her concern mounted, so they frequently stopped to pray for Trinity and Larry during the trip that day, over lunch, and on the return home.
Increased concern did not allow sleep that night. Dee tried praying through their usual list of prayer needs, but Trinity and Larry’s faces rose before her almost hourly, and she wondered what physical or spiritual need they had that stirred such an unusually compelling control over her heart and mind. Exhausted and armed with her sister’s Florida phone number she headed to work hours later, intending to send a message to Trinity, as soon as appropriate. Lack of sleep and the early hour at which her workday began made it difficult to keep her mind on her work. Knowing it was even earlier in New York and Florida frequent glances at the clock showed it was too early to call. Each time she checked the clock she prayed for them again, mystified at the continued feeling of oppression, darkness and concern for her niece’s family.
At 9:15 a.m. she was called to the outer office and told to look at the small monitor where the news of the attack on the World Trade Center was being televised.
Instantly she understood the previous hours of turmoil. Larry worked near the World Trade Center, and frequently stopped at a coffee shop there on his way to work. She ran to her office and called her sister. Without a hello she answered, “Larry and Trinity are OK. He had not left for work yet.” and then she shared the rest of the story. Trinity and Larry had planned a little family outing at the mall beneath the World Trade Center prior to Larry’s scheduled work time. They planned to take the subway there, breakfast and shop before he went to work.
The evening before, their usually happy baby had numerous brief periods of fussiness – almost hourly - with no obvious illness or reason for her behavior. Little Autumn had kept her parents awake all night, and they’d finally collapsed to sleep in the early morning hours. Awakened by a call from Larry’s mother, they rushed to the television and saw the same horrific scene Dee and the rest of the world was viewing. Realizing they’d overslept and missed their plans for the morning, their eyes met with one thought “we would have been there.”
Dee’s sister was astounded when she shared the prayer vigil for them the nights previous. She’d said when she saw the news and called her daughter and son-in-law they were understandably shaken. She assured them that God had kept them from harm and Trinity told her “We believe, Mom, we believe.”
Dee and Ken continue to thank God that his Good Spirit instructed them to pray for the kids in New York - not just on that one day, but in these days to come as well. Looking back each September 11, they join many who feel that prophesied things have only begun to happen and that they must continue to pray with the same immediacy and concern for all mankind.
That resolve was highlighted when a dying friend told Dee that “at times like these only two things are important - my relationships with my God and my family.”
Luke 21:36 says it well - “keep on the alert at all times, praying in order that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
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