9/11 according to Catie...before and after

Ten years ago today, I was a college junior. It was summit week at Indiana Wesleyan (special services with a special speaker and worship all week long) and I had been asked to sing on the worship team for the services. Monday had gone well, and I was preparing for the extra services on Tuesday.

That morning, I got ready to head over the the PPAC for sound check and rehearsal and decided to grab something to drink along the way. In the dorm lobby, I was standing at the vending machine when my friend Joy happened to walk by and mentioned that a plane had hit the world trade center. To be honest, my reaction was something along the lines of "oh, that's strange." My limited knowledge of the towers included the fact that they were really tall buildings...they'd probably be okay. So I continued on my way to the PPAC. I get there and the other members of the worship team were backstage, along with some of the PPAC technicicans. And everyone was talking about it. "We really made some people angry." "It was only a matter of time before something happened, with all the people we've angered"...something like that. I stayed completely silent, because in the little bubble I lived in, I didn't know anything about people who wanted to kill us or do harm to us. I don't think I even knew what a terrorist was. This was the level of my naivety. But I remember the people around me making decisions that the service was going to be canceled. So I went out into the auditorium and sat down to watch what the PPAC crew had put up on the big screen...Fox News (I think) showing video of the towers being hit. IWU students began walking in for what they thought was a Tuesday morning summit week service, and instead watching history unfold. It was unreal...so unreal that most of it is a blur in my memory. But I do remember it being completely silent in the PPAC. Then a reporter from the Marion paper came in and started talking to students. He talked to me and I remember giving a quote...can't remember what I said.

The only other thing I remember about that day was the memorial service that night...all solemn worship. Then I remember, I guess it was, some time later when the memorial services were happening on tv and being televised. Practically the whole student body gathered in the student center to watch them on the little televisions. And that was my bubble. Life went on.

Ten years later, 9/11 has changed me. I'm more aware of the world around me. I've traveled to several countries and lived in 2 of them, one of them a communist country that is not free like my own. I've come to appreciate my home, a place that I once took for granted and now don't (at least I try not to). I'm more knowledgeable about the world around me as well. I've developed a strong desire to learn about other cultures, religions, and ways of life.

I've learned that there is real evil in this world, people who would do unspeakable acts in the name of religion or personal beliefs.

But I've also learned that God is there through it all. He's seen our country through unspeakable acts and been there every step of the way...if we chose to see Him. He was there with the people on flight 93 when they made the brave decision to storm that cockpit. He was there with a woman who was saved from the rubble of the twin towers 27 hours after they'd fallen. He was there with people like Lisa Beamer who lost her husband. And He's still there.

We all have our 9/11 stories of where we were that morning, how we've changed since then, what we've learned. I just wanted to share mine.