9/11: A decade later
By Ruth Schenk | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
September 11, 2001 changed everything.
Southeast members Jim and Kim Baker were packing for a Caribbean cruise when hijackers flew planes into the Twin Towers in New York City and the Pentagon in
Washington, D.C.
Flights were cancelled, and cruise ships were grounded. No one knew what was ahead, and fear and uncertainty eroded carefully constructed plans for the Bakers’
vacation.
As they moved to Plan B, the Bakers decided to drive to the Smoky Mountains for a few days. They left on Sept. 16, less than a week after the attacks. As they drove
east on Interstate 64, they heard an interview with a disaster relief team from the Louisville-based Kentucky Baptist Convention. Team members described preparing
and serving meals for first responders under the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City.
Kim picked up her cell phone and called the convention to see if they still needed volunteers. When they said “yes,” Jim turned the car around and headed toward
New York. It was more spontaneous than anything they had done before.
Ten years later, on the 10-year anniversary of Sept. 11, Jim said, “It’s the best thing we ever did.”
But what is clear as they talk about all they saw and heard at Ground Zero is that the experience still is not easy to talk about. As memories bubble up, it is hard for the
couple to find the right words. There are long pauses and tears as they remember details of their time in New York City.
The Bakers never had been to New York before 2001. Without a GPS, they weren’t even sure how to get there, but they were sure it was what God wanted them to do.
Through the duration of the 16-hour drive they saw homemade signs on overpasses that said, “God Bless America,” and it seemed that American flags were
everywhere.
“The first thing we saw in New Jersey was a giant mountain of debris from Ground Zero,” Jim said. “As we saw crushed fire trucks and cement, it became real.”
A warehouse under the Brooklyn Bridge served as the staging area for relief. It was there that the Bakers were told to buy sleeping bags and pick a cot on the second
floor. Stacks of peanut butter, food, flashlights, bottled water, raincoats and work gloves from donors across the nation filled the first floor.
The Bakers met other volunteers from across the United States who dropped everything to help. One group brought a portable shower for volunteers. That provided
welcome relief after long days at Ground Zero. The contingency from Kentucky brought a mobile kitchen that could feed 3,000 meals at a time.
No one complained about their tasks. The Bakers were assigned to the food detail, where they prepared meals for rescue workers and first responders, then
cleaned up.
Jim said he was glad to do dishes 16 hours a day. It was not a sacrifice when he saw weary firemen, police officers and EMS workers. They saw pain, sorrow and
shock. When they took the trash to a United Parcel Service parking lot, the Bakers saw smoke rising from the giant hole where the Twin Towers once stood.
“Being at Ground Zero was eerie. Surreal. Like nothing we’d ever seen before,” Kim said. “When we got closer to Ground Zero, everything was covered in gray soot.”
The Bakers never will forget shop windows covered with photos of those who still were missing, homemade monuments for family members and friends, candles
that burned day and night and endless bouquets of flowers placed around Ground Zero.
Talking with New Yorkers
One night, they listened to a college choir sing worship songs and hymns to comfort those working at Ground Zero. And they talked with New Yorkers who told their
stories about where they were when the planes hit, who they knew at Ground Zero and how life changed with that day.
“I had always heard that New Yorkers weren’t friendly,” Jim said. “That certainly wasn’t true at Ground Zero. Everyone wanted to tell their story.”
The Gideons, a nonprofit organization that distributes Bibles around the world, gave volunteers at Ground Zero stacks of Bibles to distribute. One night, the Bakers
went to Wall Street with a group of volunteers. Jim was asked to read portions of the Bible out loud to passersby while others in the group talked with those who
stopped.
“It was way outside my comfort zone,” Jim said. “But things began to change as I kept reading. Within 15 minutes, people began stopping to talk. It seemed that the
Word was drawing them in. Since we were close to Wall Street, many of them were executives in business suits.”
Kim met a refugee from Liberia who was trying to start a church on Staten Island. They became friends and stayed in touch for years.
Repeatedly, New Yorkers stopped to say, “Thank you for coming.”
Kim said they never felt vulnerable or afraid working at Ground Zero.
“I think we had a real peace because we were where God wanted us,” she said.
As life changed for New Yorkers after 9/11, it also changed for the Bakers. They returned to work at their real estate company in Indiana, but it changed their view of
missions.
Jim said one of his goals this year, on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, is to return to New York City on a short-term mission trip. The city also holds a special place in
Kim’s heart.
“I’ve gone back twice for short-term mission trips,” she said. “I have seen their suffering, and I have seen their needs, and on these mission trips, I have seen their
openness to the Gospel.”