Sunday, September 12, 2010
letter to my friends on 9-11-01-what we did on that day
Hi,
I just wanted to write and let you know all about our day. It's awesome to see how God can take something bad and turn it into something good!!!
Our day started out like most days. I was fixing to walk out the door to go to Bible study wh...en ...the phone rang. It was my husband. He told me to turn on the news to see the horrid scenes of the World Trade Center burning after a terrorist attack. I was mesmerized and just sat and watched a while-prayingfor all involved. Several things raced through my mind, your's too probably. I thought of missionary friends over seas and people who we love as much as family returning from Jordan by airplane. (Praise theLord they are safe in Amsterdam!!) I thought of family and friends in the service and of young men I have worked with in the youth group-praying that they don't get drafted if America ended up going to war.
Then I had an idea. I called my church and asked if we were having any kind of prayer service. They said they weren't sure and then called back a few minutes later to say we were. My husband was the first to show up there to pray. My daughter and I showed up a little while later to find him and many others already at the alter praying for our country. After praying my husband told me that he felt called or led to do something else. (which is weird -my husband never really felt called before) We then went to talk to my pastor about what we could do. We asked about going to New York, but were told that we would have to wait until he could get in touch with someone who could help us. He was worried about just sending us to New York without a plan. We are actually still waiting to see if we are needed. We have contacted a couple of agencies to let them know we are availableto volunteer wherever they could use us. Since we couldn't go to New York right then, we still felt like there was something we needed to do to reach out to others. We then asked our pastor if there wasa ny way that we could go to the airport to minister to the thousands of stranded people by handing out food and toys. He made a few calls and the people he talked to said that there really wasn't a need and put us on a list to help upon request. After seeing how determined we were and how much we wanted to minister,he told us that if we wanted to go on our own that we could take a church van and anything we needed fromthe food pantry. We chose candy, peanut butter and crackers, pop tarts, chips, and other foods like that- anything that was portable and didn't have to be cooked. We also took diapers. We then recruited another family to go with us and set off to the airport. When we got there many of the people were already gone to hotels and churches who offered their facilities.We walked from one end of the main lobby to the other.(The people were already evacuated from the concourses.) We went up to everyone we saw and offered them food, gum, candy, etc and told each of them how much Jesus loved them. The people were so surprised.Some couldn't believe that someone would come there out of their own free will to GIVE, not sell things to them. There were a few people I know we will never forget.One man was stranded there with his daughter who came over to us to get food. I walked over to him because he had not received anything from us yet. He looked at me with tears in his eyes and said that that he will never forget his detour to Memphis. I casually said,"Yeah, that's just horrible about what happened in New York." He said, "No, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about how you came, gave to me, and showed me Jesus." I thought I was going to start bawling right then. There was also a group of young Asians. (probablyearly 20's) They couldn't understand English very well. WE gave them food and told them how much God loved them. We also told them that we were prayingthat they would be able to get home safely and quickly.There was one girl in their group who was so overwhelmed. She was shaking and on the verge of tears. Just to see her made me feel like bawling again. (Felt like that a few times today!!!!)After we saw everyone still there, we got kicked outof the airport. Apparently we talked to the wrong person to get permission. The head guy in charge of security came and told us to leave. He said that we could be putting poison in the candy and trying tokill all the stranded passengers. He even made a security guard escort us to the van. Oh well,God stil lused us and I know some people were touched by what we did.
I then found out where some of the passengers had been taken. They were staying at some of the local churches. I called those churches to see if we could bring what we had left to give to the people there. They said yes to come on out. It was so awesome when we got there. The leaders of the church met us outside and helped us bring in what we had brought. They let us go around and talk to the people and hand out candy, toys, gum, etc. The people who were strandedt here told me that several different churches had come by too. All different doniminations and races!! Praise the Lord!!!! Before we left, we had prayer with the pastors of the church. It was so awesome to know that we could all come together as brothers and sisters in Christ and serve together.( we were different doniminations) Talk about showing God's Love!!!!WOW!!!!
I was so overwhelmed to think of how good God is and how he used just plain ole people like us to do His work!!He truly is a great God and this is one day I hope my family never forgets. Just think, when my grandkids are learning about this, my kids can say, "I rememberthat day. It started out really bad, but God used meto help that day turn out better for others." That is one thing that won't be in the history books, but will be in our hearts and minds forever.As Christians we need to bind together in prayer for our country and for each other!!!!
God Bless,
Becky Palmer in Memphis, TN
I just wanted to write and let you know all about our day. It's awesome to see how God can take something bad and turn it into something good!!!
Our day started out like most days. I was fixing to walk out the door to go to Bible study wh...en ...the phone rang. It was my husband. He told me to turn on the news to see the horrid scenes of the World Trade Center burning after a terrorist attack. I was mesmerized and just sat and watched a while-prayingfor all involved. Several things raced through my mind, your's too probably. I thought of missionary friends over seas and people who we love as much as family returning from Jordan by airplane. (Praise theLord they are safe in Amsterdam!!) I thought of family and friends in the service and of young men I have worked with in the youth group-praying that they don't get drafted if America ended up going to war.
Then I had an idea. I called my church and asked if we were having any kind of prayer service. They said they weren't sure and then called back a few minutes later to say we were. My husband was the first to show up there to pray. My daughter and I showed up a little while later to find him and many others already at the alter praying for our country. After praying my husband told me that he felt called or led to do something else. (which is weird -my husband never really felt called before) We then went to talk to my pastor about what we could do. We asked about going to New York, but were told that we would have to wait until he could get in touch with someone who could help us. He was worried about just sending us to New York without a plan. We are actually still waiting to see if we are needed. We have contacted a couple of agencies to let them know we are availableto volunteer wherever they could use us. Since we couldn't go to New York right then, we still felt like there was something we needed to do to reach out to others. We then asked our pastor if there wasa ny way that we could go to the airport to minister to the thousands of stranded people by handing out food and toys. He made a few calls and the people he talked to said that there really wasn't a need and put us on a list to help upon request. After seeing how determined we were and how much we wanted to minister,he told us that if we wanted to go on our own that we could take a church van and anything we needed fromthe food pantry. We chose candy, peanut butter and crackers, pop tarts, chips, and other foods like that- anything that was portable and didn't have to be cooked. We also took diapers. We then recruited another family to go with us and set off to the airport. When we got there many of the people were already gone to hotels and churches who offered their facilities.We walked from one end of the main lobby to the other.(The people were already evacuated from the concourses.) We went up to everyone we saw and offered them food, gum, candy, etc and told each of them how much Jesus loved them. The people were so surprised.Some couldn't believe that someone would come there out of their own free will to GIVE, not sell things to them. There were a few people I know we will never forget.One man was stranded there with his daughter who came over to us to get food. I walked over to him because he had not received anything from us yet. He looked at me with tears in his eyes and said that that he will never forget his detour to Memphis. I casually said,"Yeah, that's just horrible about what happened in New York." He said, "No, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about how you came, gave to me, and showed me Jesus." I thought I was going to start bawling right then. There was also a group of young Asians. (probablyearly 20's) They couldn't understand English very well. WE gave them food and told them how much God loved them. We also told them that we were prayingthat they would be able to get home safely and quickly.There was one girl in their group who was so overwhelmed. She was shaking and on the verge of tears. Just to see her made me feel like bawling again. (Felt like that a few times today!!!!)After we saw everyone still there, we got kicked outof the airport. Apparently we talked to the wrong person to get permission. The head guy in charge of security came and told us to leave. He said that we could be putting poison in the candy and trying tokill all the stranded passengers. He even made a security guard escort us to the van. Oh well,God stil lused us and I know some people were touched by what we did.
I then found out where some of the passengers had been taken. They were staying at some of the local churches. I called those churches to see if we could bring what we had left to give to the people there. They said yes to come on out. It was so awesome when we got there. The leaders of the church met us outside and helped us bring in what we had brought. They let us go around and talk to the people and hand out candy, toys, gum, etc. The people who were strandedt here told me that several different churches had come by too. All different doniminations and races!! Praise the Lord!!!! Before we left, we had prayer with the pastors of the church. It was so awesome to know that we could all come together as brothers and sisters in Christ and serve together.( we were different doniminations) Talk about showing God's Love!!!!WOW!!!!
I was so overwhelmed to think of how good God is and how he used just plain ole people like us to do His work!!He truly is a great God and this is one day I hope my family never forgets. Just think, when my grandkids are learning about this, my kids can say, "I rememberthat day. It started out really bad, but God used meto help that day turn out better for others." That is one thing that won't be in the history books, but will be in our hearts and minds forever.As Christians we need to bind together in prayer for our country and for each other!!!!
God Bless,
Becky Palmer in Memphis, TN
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
yay!!!
I am so excited. I have been trying on and off for weeks to remember my blog log in with no luck. Decided to try again tonight. Had to go thru hoops to figure it out, but I did and I'm back in business. Hope to be blogging a lot more now. Just not tonight though. Bedtime... haha... Good night folks
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