Where were you when you heard the news about 9/11? Did it affect your life in your location at all? I ask because I kind of felt like we missed the effect it had on America for a while, and... I'll share my thoughts in the comments. I want to hear about your feelings from that day!
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I don't know that it affected my life too much. I remember as a college freshman, that I was scared I wouldn't be able to fly home for the coming breaks. For me it was the beginning of a long journey toward realising the sovereignty of God.
ReplyDeleteIt affected my life directly. I was in El Salvador with my family. After a two week stay, we were supposed to return to the US on 9/11. I remember still the phone call of a Salvadoran friend minutes before we left for the airport. She told me not to go, that all flights were cancelled, and to turn on the television. At first I didn't believe her when she said airplanes had hit the twin towers.I thought I wasn't understanding her Spanish. We were forced to spend an extra week there, a tense week of calling the airport daily to see when we could leave...
ReplyDeleteI was in China at the time and was sleeping when it happened. My roommate came and woke me up and said that there was a terrorist attack in the US, but we didn't know any details. It took awhile to figure out exactly what had happened. It was so strange walking around town the next day. So many total strangers came up to me out of compassion and asked if I had hear the news and expressed their condolences. There were also the kids in the university cafeteria who cheered as they watched it replayed on the news, but this was the exception.
ReplyDeleteToday is the 11th anniversary of when we first moved overseas. So, we were really busy that day. We had no idea why they wouldn't let anyone off the plane when we landed in Moscow. Later, while my husband searched for lost luggage, I saw the towers going down on a TV monitor in the airport, but I thought it was some kind of movie, not real life. And then, in those busy few months of getting settled, not much internet, no real contact with America, we didn't even realize how significant it all was.
ReplyDeleteThe next time we went back to the states, we were really struck by how everything had changed! And by then, everyone else around us was used to it. I remember clearly a moment when I finally understood, sitting in a bookstore, flipping through a book about 9/11.
We were in Chihuahua, Mexico completing our missionary training. They told us the news in class and then classes were cancelled for the rest of the day. I remember sitting and crying for a while as I tried to comprehend what I thought were over 25,000 deaths in the WTC buildings (later we would find out it was a lot less, but still). I also remember being extremely frustrated at not being able to watch much of the news, although we did spend some time watching at one of our teacher's house. Later, there were rumors the border would close, although that didn't happen. I think I did miss being able to be in the U.S. and go through that experience with family and friends there.
ReplyDeleteWe were in the United States without even the seed of foreign travel in our minds. I was pregnant with our second child and my husband worked in a federal downtown building. I still look back on that day with such amazement. I turned on the television in time to hear the news of the first tower and was startled when Diane Sawyer yelled something about a second plane. At that moment my television broke and I was not able to get any pictures- only sound.
ReplyDeleteI remember listening as things unfolded and wondering if the baby in my belly would ever know a fearless childhood (I was convinced he wouldn't). I remember begging my husband to come home and how he ignored my pleading and how he did not understand the enormity of what was happening (he was stuck in a cubicle without even a radio.
I remember the next day and how eerie it was to see a sky without planes (we lived next to an airport and an airforce base).
It was years later that my little family would feel God's call on our lives and the day we flew I was again amazed at how that one day in history effected so much of our trip even years later. Especially so when we returned to the US and had to toss the ice pack we needed to keep my son's insulin cold.
I'm slow in responding -- I was a college student, but was at my parents' home that day helping my youngest brother with homeschool Spanish classes. My dad called from work and told us to turn on the TV. We watched the events unfold in horror, and cried together. The week that followed was such a surreal time on campus. Everyone talked to each other and many people were open to talking about spiritual things. I remember, because of what had happened, being able to share the gospel with a girl I had never met before as we walked back to our dorm. I remember American flags flying everywhere, even on people's cars. I also remember being shocked by the differences in the airports when I flew not too long afterwards. At that time, even though I was helping my brother with Spanish, I had no idea that someday I would be living in a Spanish speaking country!!
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