D'Amicos helped "walking wounded" after attacks
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___NEW YORK CITY--As thousands of people fled the scene of devastation at the World Trade Center Sept. 11, Baptist missionaries David and Ana D'Amico walked toward the explosions.
___The couple, missionaries to the New York diplomatic community appointed by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, live about eight blocks from the World Trade Center and immediately became involved in relief ministry.

DAVID AND ANA D'AMICO

___News of their work was reported via e-mail by Patrick Anderson of Jacksonville, Fla.
___Mrs. D'Amico told Anderson she and her husband first made their way to the New York University Mental Health Hospital, where they began helping medical personnel with what she called the "walking wounded."
___Medical personnel were so overworked caring for injuries that no one could help people wash off the soot and ashes covering everyone.
___The D'Amicos helped people wash and gave them clean clothes to wear after receiving medical treatment.
___Mrs. D'Amico has experience as a hospital administrator. That and the couple's language skills proved valuable, they said.
___"Many people who learn to speak English forget their English in crisis, so David and Ana translated for many people," Anderson explained. "They helped reconnect families.
___"She told of one man who they put up in their apartment with his animals temporarily while they tried to find his wife, who he feared had been killed in the explosions. They were able to locate her after much effort and saw them reunite."
___Among those the missionaries encountered was a group of atheists who had just returned from a meeting in California, Anderson reported. "As they ministered to them, one of the atheists asked, 'You are religious people, aren't you?' Ana replied, 'Well, I do not know if we are religious or not, but we believe in God and believe he is here with us right now.'
___ "The man said, 'Then please pray for us!'"
___ The day after the tragedy, the D'Amicos provided cash to help people as they were released from the Medical Center. They obtained lots of quarters to help people make phone calls.
___ In the diplomatic community to which they minister, many people were afraid and panicking, Mrs. D'Amico reported. The Muslims, for example, feared they would be targeted for violence.
___ Meanwhile, a team of 32 Southern Baptist disaster relief volunteers from western North Carolina was among the first to respond to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in Washington, setting up a feeding kitchen in the southern parking lot of the Pentagon.
___ Additionally, eight units from six states left for staging areas outside of New York to await assignment. Arrangements also were being made for Southern Baptist chaplains to assist with grief counseling and pastoral care in the affected areas, both as part of the disaster relief units and through other official avenues.
___For the New York response, Baptist feeding units from Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky were activated Sept. 12 to travel to Raritan Baptist Church in Edison, N.J. They were to be joined by communication units from Georgia and South Carolina, as well as two trailer-mounted shower units from North Carolina. A feeding unit from New York also was sent to an American Red Cross staging area in White Plains, N.Y. All of the units anticipated assignments in cooperation with the American Red Cross.
___J.B. Graham, executive director of the Baptist Convention of New York, said Southern Baptists were devastated by the destruction.
___"There are, of course, dear friends and colleagues who work and minister in Manhattan, and we are greatly concerned about their safety," Graham said. "We are simply in shock. But we have a strong faith, and we are standing by ready to do what we can as soon as we determine what is needed."
___ Graham said he had been in contact with David Dean, executive director of Metro New York Baptist Association in midtown Manhattan.
___ "He said the staff is OK and they are all accounted for," Graham said. "We praise God for that."
___ Lisa Chilton, volunteer coordinator for Metro New York Baptist Association, said she watched events unfold on television at the association's offices.
___ "It was just a shock," she said. "We've spent the morning praying."
___People working near the World Trade Center had to walk home when subway service was canceled. Chilton said people were still walking past the association's office, about four miles away, six hours after the attack.
___ Baptist workers in the association, which covers about 100 square miles, had been praying for some time about how to minister to people in the area, she noted. "This is the perfect opportunity to put into practice what we've been praying about for the last few months."
___ David Waugh, pastor of Metro Baptist Church in midtown Manhattan, said he believes all members of his church family are safe. He said the church was open for prayer, food and shelter. At least 26 people who couldn't get home slept on the church floor Tuesday night, he said.
___ "We are a bit numb," Waugh said, describing the challenge of ministering amid such widespread grief. "How do you counsel? What do you say? How can one help? There is nothing to do but offer the ministry of presence and pray that God is in that presence."
___ In Pennsylvania, site of a related plane crash, phones were "ringing off the hook" at the Baptist Convention of Pennsylvania-South Jersey, reported Glenna Hegenbart, executive administrative assistant.
___ "Our director of missions is also the chaplain for the emergency response teams in Somerset, so he is quite busy this morning," Hegenbart said Sept. 11. "We are just in disbelief. There is such a sadness for the loss of life."
___ Meanwhile, Baptist leaders from across the world expressed condolences through the Baptist World Alliance.
___ "It is time for religious leaders to condemn all violence and terrorist activities," BWA General Secretary Denton Lotz said from Jakarta, Indonesia, where he was meeting with Baptist leaders to discuss concerns about religious liberty there. "As Baptists, we are called upon to be peacemakers. All forms of religious, political and social fanaticism must be condemned in the name of God."
___ The BWA received messages of support from Baptists in Norway, Croatia, Italy, Bengal, South Africa, Germany, Poland, Russia and Slovakia.
___ One of the most poignant came from the Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists in the former Yugoslavia, a region wracked by war in recent years.
___ "When we heard the breaking news about the attack on America today, we stayed without a word," the message said. "We are shocked by severe and evil terrorist action again America and American people. In this very dramatic day, we want to tell you that we sympathize with you and your people and will continue to pray for you in these hard days you are passing through.
___ "We sympathize especially with families of killed people, and we pray for them to have God's power to overcome loss of their beloved ones."

___ With reporting by Baptist Press, Associated Baptist Press and the Baptist World Alliance communications office





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