THE MANY FACES OF TRAUMA:
Etched on the minds of missionaries
___By George Henson
___Staff Writer
___NEW YORK CITY--When most Americans think of Sept. 11, they see the twin towers of the World Trade Center crashing down. But those who have been on the front lines of ministry in New York City and Washington, D.C., see something different--faces.
___David and Ana D'Amico, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship missionaries in Manhattan,
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PRAYERS at a makeshift memorial to the New York City victims. (RNS/Reuters)
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and Taylor Field, North American Mission Board missionary and pastor of Grafitti Church in Manhattan, each has many faces to remember.
___One of the faces etched on the mind of Field is his son. Freeman Field attends Stuyvesant High School, located a block and a half from where the World Trade Center towers once stood.
___"He saw everything happen that morning from beginning to end. He saw five people die that morning before his eyes--three of them when they jumped from the building. Two others were waving white shirts from windows trying to attract the attention of rescuers when the tower collapsed," Field said.
___The students were sent home as firefighters and medical personnel turned the school into a triage site.
___As they walked away from the school, the second tower fell.
___"My son saw that tower fall, and the smoke and debris were coming right toward him. He was running for his life that morning," Field said.
___Another face in the minds of Baptist missionaries belongs to Todd. When the D'Amicos met him, he was distraught. He and a co-worker had been on the 87th floor of the World Trade Center when it was struck by a commercial jetliner. While Todd was anxious to get to the stairwell to start their flight from the building, his co-worker despaired and decided to jump from a window to the ground. Todd struggled with his friend and suffered deep scratches from the nails of his friend's fingers. In the end, Todd lost his battle with his friend and saw him jump to his death.
___Another young man also named Todd was on the 60th floor in one of the towers sightseeing with his girlfriend. They became separated, and he did not know if she was alive or dead. David D'Amico helped him begin calling more than 100 hospitals in the New York City area until the girlfriend was found--injured, but alive and expected to recover.
___A tattoo-covered woman is one of the other people Field won't forget. She came to him in the days after the attack and said: "I own the tattoo shop down the street, but since the attack, something has changed. Everything I do is so superficial."
___The D'Amicos also sought to minister to Bob, a man who worked on the 42nd floor of one of the towers. His clothes were ripped to shreds by the force of the explosion. He said he could not remember anything but the terrible noise.
___Many people are left wondering why they lived when others died, Field said.
___"I talked with a man who said, 'We were leaving the building when a chair flew across the room and killed my co-worker. Why did I live and he die?' Another man stopped to call his wife before exiting the building. After the call, the exit all his co-workers took was packed, so he used a different exit. They all died, but he lived. There are a lot of stories like that," Field said.
___"This has been a trauma beyond words," Ana D'Amico said.
___The D'Amicos spent the day of Sept. 11 and those immediately following at New York University Medical Center.
___"They were very, very busy days," she recalled. "The first three days were heartbreaking, but we felt like we needed to be where the survivors were being taken."
___They also were deluged with telephone calls and e-mails from friends and acquaintances from across the country. Some wanted to check on the D'Amicos and offer words of encouragement, and others were hoping the missionaries might help check on the status of friends and family they were unable to locate.
___Even though it was but a short walk for them to Ground Zero, they did not go there until the Saturday evening after the attack--their ministry to survivors and their families had not allowed the time before.
___Even then, the D'Amicos were unprepared for what they found.
___"Even after numerous personal encounters with hospital patients who had been injured by the explosions and with various rescue and medical personnel, nothing could have prepared us for what we saw," she said.
___"The levels of noise in this part of the city, especially at this time on a Saturday night, are very, very high," she recalled. "But that Saturday night, you could hear the silence. There were hundreds of people just walking around holding pictures of family members or friends who were still missing, but no one was speaking. The only noise came from the heavy machinery that was at work clearing away the rubble.
___"We stayed there for a long time and hugged hundreds of rescue workers who were taking a moment to change clothes," she said. "Most of them had not even left to sleep for days. They had just slept an hour or two at the site without going home.
___"One of the rescue workers told us: 'This is my truck. I have lived here since Tuesday. The water, the food and your presence have kept us going. I am not tired, I am just very frustrated because we are not finding many survivors.'"
___Encounters with people wounded by the attack continued the next morning as the D'Amicos attended church. Their wounds, though internal, were just as obvious as the ones the couple had seen at the hospital.
___"Close to me sat Bob, a young man in his 30s, who told me without my asking, 'I work at the World Trade Center,'" David D'Amico recalled. "He almost burst into tears. I replied, 'I'm glad you are alive and in church.'"
___D'Amico said it was obvious Bob did not attend church regularly. He tried to help him find the hymns, follow along in the bulletin and sing along with the anthem.
___"During the singing of an anthem, I could not resist my paternal feelings and extended by arm around his back, like I would have done for my three grown sons," he said.
___After the service, Bob assured D'Amico he had a Bible and was going to start participating in the ministries of the church that had started a prayer and counseling ministry following the attack.
___"I think it is tremendously important for people to talk about what's happened," Field concurred. "On the day this all happened--my son is on the football team, and he brought 14 teammates home to our small apartment. They lived in boroughs all across the city, and transportation was very difficult that day. But as we tried to work out ways for them to get home, I sat with each of them and said, 'Tell me about it, what happened to you today.'"
___Ana D'Amico urged people across the country to continue praying for the people of New York City and Washington, D.C., as well as those across the country who have lost loved ones.
___She also stressed the importance of remembering those who have lost jobs, spouses and other things.
___But the most important work should be done in every neighborhood across the nation, she said. "People have to reach out to people in their own communities. Reach out to people of other religions and faiths. We can't live in isolation anymore."
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