October 1, 2001
SMOLDERING WRECKAGE marks the former location of the World Trade Center towers in New York City. (RNS/Reuters)
BE THOU MY VISION:
Nothing could prepare for this sight
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communications
___Three Texas Baptist chaplains came to the scene of terrorist attacks on New York City with more than three-quarters of a century of combined expertise in pastoral care and critical incident response. But nothing had prepared them for what they saw at Ground Zero.
___"My experience in Vietnam, over 33 years of police experience, the Oklahoma City bombing (and) the Wedgwood Baptist Church shooting did not prepare me for the horror at the World Trade Center man-perpetrated disaster," Hugh Atwell of Fort Worth wrote in an e-mail after his first day at the disaster scene.
___He described the police officers, firefighters and recovery workers asphysically and emotionally "spent." But he also noted their openness to spiritual matters.
AN AERIAL VIEW of Ground Zero, the former site of the World Trade Center towers. (RNS/Reuters)
___"When you approach them, they all have a story to tell, and I have had no one refuse prayer. They are encouraged when told of the prayer support from across the nation," Atwell wrote.
___Atwell served in New York City with Milfred Minatrea, director of missional church strategy with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, and Michael Haynes of Temple.
___Haynes, a member of Immanuel Baptist Church in Temple, is director of the Faith-Based Counselor Training Institute, the training arm for Texas Baptist Men's Victim Relief Ministry. Although his ministry is devoted largely to preparing other chaplains and grief counselors for crisis situations, no preparation would have been adequate for the enormity of the crisis in New York City, Haynes said.
___When he first saw the smoldering rubble where the World Trade Center towers once stood, he struggled for a point of reference to provide perspective. "It was just beyond my comprehension."
___The chaplains arrived in New York five days after terrorists crashed two hijacked jetliners into the World Trade Center towers. During their time in the city, the focus of workers at Ground Zero shifted from rescue to recovery.
FIREFIGHTERS douse the rubble during recovery operations. (RNS/Reuters)
___Minatrea vividly remembered when recovery workers discovered the remains of one firefighter. He was identified as being from the same station as one of the crews working in the recovery operation.
___Members of the crew tenderly placed their fallen colleague's body in a basket, draped a flag over it, then hooked the basket to a crane that lifted it out of the rubble and lowered it slowly to the earth.
___"For about 10 minutes, everything came to an absolute stop," Minatrea said. "In a totally impromptu ceremony, all of the workers removed hats and helmets, and they stood in solemn silence."
___Most of the recovered remains from the disaster site were taken to a temporary holding area and then a temporary on-site morgue in a golf cart-style ambulance before being transported to the county morgue. But in this instance, the firefighters refused the cart.
___"His brothers from the station physically carried his remains all the way, as other firefighters spontaneously filed in behind them in a parade. It was nothing planned. It was a spontaneous, compassionate memorial," Minatrea recalled.
___"Out of that experience, I had the opportunity to visit with any number of rescue and recovery workers, because when something like that occurs, they are retraumatized."
___Haynes recalled one Canadian firefighter who broke down, weeping uncontrollably in his arms. "Sometimes, all you could do was just hug them. ... It was a ministry of presence more than anything."
___Many of the recovery workers came out of a Catholic background, and the three Baptist chaplains became accustomed to being addressed as "father." Sometimes, workers asked for prayer. Sometimes, they just needed to talk.
___"Father, God is real! I know it now," one New Jersey trooper told Minatrea. The trooper, who patrols the Hudson River by boat, recounted his story of Sept. 11.
___After the attacks, he boarded a vessel heading for lower Manhattan. The captain of the 40-foot craft managed to weave his way into the bay between yachts, barges and docked boats.
___They disembarked and started to work just before the first tower collapsed. The already smoke-filled air became black.
___"Father, if you were to put your head in a black trash bag, that's what it was like," the trooper told Minatrea.
___Rescuers struggled to help more than 100 wounded onto their vessel and lashed themselves to the outside railing. Then the captain, working from memory and reversing the process, retraced his route through the crowded bay.
___"We made our way through that absolute darkness and never scraped a boat," the trooper said, noting that it was beyond human capability.
___Once the crew docked across the river, the trooper called his wife. He explained that he had been part of the rescue operation at the World Trade Center complex, and he was unhurt. He told her to hug their kids and tell them he loved them.
___Then he added, "Today, I found out God is real."
___
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