Latest / Crosswalk Talk: Celebrity Christian Interviews / He Was Spared on 9/11 and He Has Never Stopped Asking Why

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He Was Spared on 9/11 and He Has Never Stopped Asking Why · Crosswalk Talk: Celebrity Christian Interviews

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  Speaker 1: Life audio hey zujo thanks for joining me great to
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  Speaker 1: be with you zujo john speaker author founder of you
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  Speaker 1: can free us a non-profit organization that fight human trafficking
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  Speaker 1: zujo i wanted to have you on because this is
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  Speaker 1: the 25th anniversary of 9-11 you were in the.
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  Speaker 2: North tower that day you have a powerful testimony of
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  Speaker 2: survival your wife also worked in the south tower we
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  Speaker 2: can talk about that as well take us back to
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  Speaker 2: the morning of 9-11 like i said you worked in
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  Speaker 2: the north tower What were you doing that morning?
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  Speaker 3: What do you remember?
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  Speaker 4: So Michael, you know, we've just come up on the
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  Speaker 4: 25th anniversary of 9-11. It's hard to believe how quickly
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  Speaker 4: time has gone. And when you think of the tragedy
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  Speaker 4: of 9-11, obviously it was a tragedy that hit America,
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  Speaker 4: one of the biggest tragedies to have hit this country
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  Speaker 4: for our generation, a turning point for America for sure.
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  Speaker 4: But the impact of that globally, what that tragedy has had,
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  Speaker 4: you know, we've had two wars since then, the war
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  Speaker 4: in Afghanistan, Iraq, And so every time I share my story,
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  Speaker 4: I'm mindful of the fact that there could be many
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  Speaker 4: who would have served in the military and have been,
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  Speaker 4: you know, have served in Afghanistan and Iraq. And there's
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  Speaker 4: someone watching and many of them, they actually signed up
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  Speaker 4: to serve in the military because of what happened on 9-11.
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  Speaker 4: So firstly, I want to thank them for their service
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  Speaker 4: and for their dedication. And again, a shout out to
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  Speaker 4: any firefighter, first responder that might be listening to us.
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  Speaker 4: They're the real heroes of this country. So having said that,
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  Speaker 4: I'll quickly tell my story about how I came to America.
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  Speaker 4: I grew up in India and I had just moved
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  Speaker 4: to America in February of 2001 with just $ 60 and
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  Speaker 4: $ 50 in my wallet and two bags with a lot
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  Speaker 4: of dreams. I had met Jesus growing up in India
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  Speaker 4: and I just knew that the dream giver could do
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  Speaker 4: something with my life in this country. I just knew
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  Speaker 4: that America is that place where dreams and dreamers collide.
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  Speaker 4: And with that, I came here not knowing what my
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  Speaker 4: life's going to what I had stored. And in the
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  Speaker 4: most incredible way, my wife finds work first on the
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  Speaker 4: 71st floor of the South Tower of the World Trade
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  Speaker 4: Center with Morgan Stanley. And I find work on the
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  Speaker 4: 81st floor of the North Tower of the World Trade
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  Speaker 4: Center with a company called Network Plus. So we both
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  Speaker 4: have good jobs. And what is so exciting is my
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  Speaker 4: wife is pregnant, four months pregnant with our first child.
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  Speaker 4: And so everything going well, I'm rising up the corporate ladder.
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  Speaker 4: I have figured out what my life should look like
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  Speaker 4: for me. I have a business plan to actually start
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  Speaker 4: a data center. I actually have a VC guy from
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  Speaker 4: Canada who's looking into my project. So exciting things in
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  Speaker 4: store and then 9-11 hits. But before 9-11 hits, I
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  Speaker 4: have to share what was going on in my heart.
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  Speaker 4: You know, God's always working in our life and he's
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  Speaker 4: always trying to get our attention. I was serving Jesus.
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  Speaker 4: I knew the Lord, my salvation was at stake, but
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  Speaker 4: I probably had drifted away from My passion for the
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  Speaker 4: Lord was not where it was supposed to be. So
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  Speaker 4: the Sunday before 9-11, I was in my home church
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  Speaker 4: and there was a missionary that came by and they
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  Speaker 4: passed an offering plate and they took up an offering
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  Speaker 4: for his work in Africa. So I put down the
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  Speaker 4: biggest check I'd ever given to the Lord's work. And
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  Speaker 4: in that moment, I hear a voice speak to me.
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  Speaker 4: I don't need your money. I need your heart. And
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  Speaker 4: so from that moment on to Tuesday morning, conversations with
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  Speaker 4: me and Jesus about where is my heart? Is my
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  Speaker 4: heart right with God? And the first thing I did
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  Speaker 4: getting to the towers, I got there 7.30 that morning.
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  Speaker 4: It was a clear cloudless day. And one of the
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  Speaker 4: first things I did was write an email to a
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  Speaker 4: friend of mine in my home church saying something's happening
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  Speaker 4: to me this morning. I know there's a call of
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  Speaker 4: God upon my life. I've been chasing stuff in America.
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  Speaker 4: I need to chase after God. So I sent that
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  Speaker 4: email at 7.30, a little past 7.30 that morning and
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  Speaker 4: 8.48 in the morning. After that email, we all know
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  Speaker 4: what happened. American flight 11 flying coast to coast from
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  Speaker 4: Boston to LA, this huge jet plane crashes into our tower.
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  Speaker 4: The major impact was on the 92nd and above, but
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  Speaker 4: part of the debris of the plane and the jet
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  Speaker 4: fuel that came down resulted in fire breaking on our floor,
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  Speaker 4: walls collapsing. I could see a huge crater, picture of
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  Speaker 4: twisted steel and cable. And as the building is swaying,
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  Speaker 4: we thought we're going to die. And that's when someone
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  Speaker 4: rallies us and says, we've got to beat this fire.
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  Speaker 4: And he challenges us and we follow him and we
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  Speaker 4: make our way to the nearest stairwell. What did you
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  Speaker 4: think it was? So we all thought it was a
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  Speaker 4: plane because what else could hit you at that height?
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  Speaker 4: But we thought it was a small commuter plane. No
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  Speaker 4: one could actually fathom the fact that a jetliner would
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  Speaker 4: be hijacked and that too, it would be crashed. And
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  Speaker 4: typically when a hijacking happens, terrorists have demands and The
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  Speaker 4: plane has flown to some other city, some other country,
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  Speaker 4: and they're told, meet our demands and we'll let the
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  Speaker 4: people go. But rarely is something like this had ever
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  Speaker 4: happened in human history, where a plane had been forcibly
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  Speaker 4: crashed into a building. But we didn't know it was
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  Speaker 4: a terrorist attack. We thought it was a small plane.
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  Speaker 4: But our thoughts were initially on those people on those planes.
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  Speaker 4: And then the major impact, we knew that wherever it's crashed,
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  Speaker 4: there had to be fatalities. But the enormity of what
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  Speaker 4: had happened, we didn't quite realize it. We get to
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  Speaker 4: the stairwell and that's when thousands of people joining us
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  Speaker 4: on that stairwell. And that's when I started calling my
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  Speaker 4: wife on a cell phone. And like I said earlier,
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  Speaker 4: she would work on the other tower, four months pregnant.
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  Speaker 4: And a lot of what she did was connected to
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  Speaker 4: the markets that open early in the morning. And so
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  Speaker 4: she had to be at work around 8.40 every day.
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  Speaker 4: And so my cell phones are not working. None of
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  Speaker 4: the cell phones of people going down the stairwell is working.
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  Speaker 4: And that's when we hear another explosion. And many that's
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  Speaker 4: listening to us today, you saw that happen on your
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  Speaker 4: television sets that day. This is a second plane crashing
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  Speaker 4: into the second tower. In all that chaos and my
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  Speaker 4: anxiety of trying to reach my wife, I think I
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  Speaker 4: do remember some things that were happening around me. You know,
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  Speaker 4: cell phones weren't working, but back then we had this
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  Speaker 4: little piece of thing that people would wear on their
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  Speaker 4: belts called pagers. And I think somebody did get a
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  Speaker 4: message that came on one of the pagers saying, That said,
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  Speaker 4: a plane has crashed into the tower. So I kind
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  Speaker 4: of vaguely remember people talking about the guy reading out
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  Speaker 4: his message that came on his pager. But beyond that,
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  Speaker 4: we didn't know what was going on. So we start
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  Speaker 4: running down. We passed hundreds of firemen, policemen that were
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  Speaker 4: going up. And that's one of the most moving sites
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  Speaker 4: of what I experienced that day as we are trying
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  Speaker 4: to run down these brave men making their way up.
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  Speaker 4: When I share that part of my story, I always
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  Speaker 4: love to talk about the fact that, you know, when
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  Speaker 4: 9-11 happened, It was Al-Qaeda terrorists, 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists, full
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  Speaker 4: of hatred for this country that attacked America that day.
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  Speaker 4: And the first response to that didn't come through our military.
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  Speaker 4: It came through these men. They showed the world what
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  Speaker 4: this country is made up of, that there are men
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  Speaker 4: and women willing to lay down their lives so that
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  Speaker 4: others could still be around. They were living out what
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  Speaker 4: is said in the Bible, right? Greater love has no
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  Speaker 4: man than he who lays down his life for his friend.
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  Speaker 4: So I think for everyone that's reflecting on 9-11, you know,
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  Speaker 4: I just want to encourage you. If you see a fireman, policeman,
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  Speaker 4: wherever you are today, just stop and say thank you.
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  Speaker 4: If you want to go take your kids to a
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  Speaker 4: fire station, do that. Because they are the real heroes.
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  Speaker 4: They did that on 9-11 in New York City and
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  Speaker 4: in the Pentagon. And they would do that in your community.
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  Speaker 4: That's what these men are made up of. So we
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  Speaker 4: high five them saying you guys are real heroes. We
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  Speaker 4: continue that way down. It felt like it was taking forever.
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  Speaker 4: And we get to this level, which is called the plaza.
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  Speaker 4: We're still in the building. And when you look on
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  Speaker 4: our left, that's when we see this picture of just devastation,
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  Speaker 4: bodies and body parts of people that jumped out of
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  Speaker 4: the building, of people in those planes, part of the
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  Speaker 4: debris of the plane lying there in that plaza. And
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  Speaker 4: as we watch that picture of death, people are breaking down.
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  Speaker 4: And that's when this fireman says, don't look on your left,
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  Speaker 4: turn on your right, go down this escalator, which is
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  Speaker 4: still working. It will take you to the concourse level,
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  Speaker 4: one more level down. That's the street level. And then
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  Speaker 4: get out of these burning towers. So I get to
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  Speaker 4: the concourse level. In a way, that's where my story
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  Speaker 4: really begins. And I see thousands of people being let out.
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  Speaker 4: And I'm thinking, what if my wife's been delayed to work?
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  Speaker 4: If she's been delayed, she could be there looking for me.
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  Speaker 4: So I started, I saw the sign that said the
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  Speaker 4: South Tower. So I started walking towards the South Tower.
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  Speaker 4: And that's when the ground shakes. I'm in the middle
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  Speaker 4: of this this revolving door, glass door, the glass is shattering.
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  Speaker 4: I thought it was a bomb, but Michael, this was
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  Speaker 4: not a bomb. This was a south tower imploding and
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  Speaker 4: going down. I come to terms with my eternity, my
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  Speaker 4: mortality at that moment. And I said, God, if I'm
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  Speaker 4: going to die, where will I go? And in all
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  Speaker 4: that fast pace of what was happening around so quickly,
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  Speaker 4: the chaos and the fear, it's almost like for a
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  Speaker 4: few seconds, You know, there was this calm, and I
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  Speaker 4: felt God taking me back in time. Age 15, Calcutta, India,
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  Speaker 4: when on bended knee, I asked Jesus to come into
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  Speaker 4: my life. And I had this peace that if I
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  Speaker 4: were to die, I would make it to heaven. And,
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  Speaker 4: you know, until then, I was a classic Christian. I
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  Speaker 4: would never be really vocal about my faith. I felt
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  Speaker 4: the Lord saying, these people that are with you, where
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  Speaker 4: are they going without me? So I started crying out
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  Speaker 4: Jesus and I prayed with those 15, 20 people to
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  Speaker 4: call upon the name of the Lord, which they did.
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  Speaker 4: We scattered away from that huddle that we had huddled
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  Speaker 4: for a few minutes and I'm being burned in debris.
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  Speaker 4: I didn't have any big stuff fall on me, but
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  Speaker 4: it was soot and ash and dust. I felt like
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  Speaker 4: I was burned in that and I thought I was
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  Speaker 4: going to die, covered, plastered with soot and ash. And
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  Speaker 4: just when I thought that I was going to die,
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  Speaker 4: the fact that I cannot breathe is going to take
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  Speaker 4: my life. I feel someone pull me and I begin
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  Speaker 4: to pull into This turns out to be an FBI agent.
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  Speaker 4: I asked him, do you know Jesus? And he said
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  Speaker 4: he did. And we both told each other we're going
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  Speaker 4: to die. And that's when something miraculous happens, a red
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  Speaker 4: light flashing to the soot and the smoke. It's a
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  Speaker 4: flashing light coming out of an ambulance from the street level.
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  Speaker 4: So we follow that faint light. That gets us out
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  Speaker 4: of the pit. The man says, I got to go back,
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  Speaker 4: get more people. He runs back into the North Tower.
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  Speaker 4: The ground shakes again. The North Tower collapses. This brave
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  Speaker 4: American hero died that day. The only active FBI agent
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  Speaker 4: to have died. So I'm out of the debris thinking, God,
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  Speaker 4: why did you spare my life? For sure my wife
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  Speaker 4: is dead. But unknown to me, known to God, she
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  Speaker 4: was late to work by a couple of minutes. So
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  Speaker 4: late that day, my cell phone rings and it's my
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  Speaker 4: wife on the other side. You know, I was so
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  Speaker 4: sure that she was gone. She thought I was gone.
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  Speaker 4: And the crazy part also, my story was my last
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  Speaker 4: working day, I signed up a life insurance policy. So,
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  Speaker 4: you know, my last conversation with my wife was before 9-11,
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  Speaker 4: September 10th night, I went to play tennis. I didn't
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  Speaker 4: even finish a set. I came back home and my
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  Speaker 4: wife had fallen asleep. I tried to wake her up
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  Speaker 4: and said, I got to talk to you about something.
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  Speaker 4: She says, what is it? I said, it's called, it's
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  Speaker 4: called death. And she stared at me like, boy, we
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  Speaker 4: are young. Why do you want to talk about death?
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  Speaker 4: I said, there's a baby on the way. I signed
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  Speaker 4: up a life insurance policy. So this is what you
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  Speaker 4: need to do if something were to happen. We'll not
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  Speaker 4: talk about this again. And we went to bed. The
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  Speaker 4: next day it was 9-11. So all that conversation played
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  Speaker 4: on her mind. And she's seeing people jumping out of
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  Speaker 4: the building. And she's thinking, I'm one of them. But
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  Speaker 4: a girl grabs a believer and says, you have to
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  Speaker 4: get out of here. You're pregnant. Takes her to a
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  Speaker 4: place of safety. This girl takes her to her boss's
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  Speaker 4: apartment and opens the Bible. and stays with her till
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  Speaker 4: my wife was able to reach me. So both our
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  Speaker 4: lives were spared, but we weren't sure what was going
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  Speaker 4: to happen to our son because my wife had inhaled
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  Speaker 4: all of that and went through all that trauma. But miraculously,
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  Speaker 4: we were scared till he finally came out into the
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  Speaker 4: world because our doctors wanted us to abort him because
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  Speaker 4: of everything that he inhaled. And we were like, no,
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  Speaker 4: that's not an option. And so he's a young 24-year-old
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  Speaker 4: kid now in med school. And so God has done
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  Speaker 4: something amazing in our lives. And I look back and
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  Speaker 4: I just say that God is so faithful. It's not
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  Speaker 4: that I deserve to be here or those people had
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  Speaker 4: to go. I don't understand all of it. When you
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  Speaker 4: walk on this side of eternity, you don't get it.
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  Speaker 4: But here's what I know. There's an appointed time for
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  Speaker 4: every human being You know, one day you're born and
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  Speaker 4: your family gets a piece of paper called a birth certificate.
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  Speaker 4: And one day everyone listening to me, your family's going
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  Speaker 4: to get another paper about your life. It's called the
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  Speaker 4: death certificate. And they're going to put your birth date
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  Speaker 4: and your end date on a tombstone somewhere. And in
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  Speaker 4: between there'll be a dash and that's life. And so
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  Speaker 4: I just want to encourage those that are listening, you know,
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  Speaker 4: I know it's a story of death and facing death,
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  Speaker 4: but hey, it could come any time. It doesn't have
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  Speaker 4: to be a building collapsing. It could be anything. Or
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  Speaker 4: if Jesus were to come, just live every day knowing
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  Speaker 4: that you've made your peace with God, that you've made
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  Speaker 4: your peace with your family, and you've made your peace
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  Speaker 4: within yourself. And the only way to be at peace
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  Speaker 4: within yourself is to truly connect with Jesus and start
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  Speaker 4: this friendship with God. Not that you're going to be perfect.
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  Speaker 4: I'm not a perfect human. I have flaws. I've made mistakes.
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  Speaker 4: But it's the loving grace of Jesus that keeps drawing
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  Speaker 4: us when we mess up.
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  Speaker 3: Let me ask you three or four follow-up questions there
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  Speaker 3: from what you said.
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  Speaker 2: So the doctors wanted you guys to abort the child
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  Speaker 2: because of the air she had breathed and just the trauma.
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  Speaker 4: But I remember her words to us were two things.
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  Speaker 4: She said the good news and the bad news. The
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  Speaker 4: good news is that you both are young and you
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  Speaker 4: can have more babies. And the bad news is you
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  Speaker 4: may have lost him or there could be issues when
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  Speaker 4: he's born. because of everything. Because you see, one of
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  Speaker 4: the things that we didn't know was the toxicity of
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  Speaker 4: the air and the impact of that. And it's sad
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  Speaker 4: that we live in such a culture of death that
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  Speaker 4: in America, that one of the first options that the
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  Speaker 4: doctors give you is this. So I, obviously, that was
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: not going to be an option for us. But I
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  Speaker 4: sometimes wonder, like, I don't know, my brain, I think
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  Speaker 4: a lot because of that.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm sure.
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  Speaker 4: Women could have taken that option or may have taken
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  Speaker 4: that option because they are too inhaled a lot of
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  Speaker 4: that stuff. And that's what the doctors told them.
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  Speaker 3: So your wife is late to work that day. So
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  Speaker 3: where was she?
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  Speaker 4: She gets off the last train that made its way
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  Speaker 4: towards the towers. So the first plane had already crashed in.
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  Speaker 4: So the train didn't make its way into the building.
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  Speaker 4: The trains would actually go to the basement of the building.
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  Speaker 4: So one stop ahead, the trains were stopped. She gets out,
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  Speaker 4: but she's still in very close proximity to the towers,
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  Speaker 4: a little tree in front of her. And so that's
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  Speaker 4: when she sees... you know, the second plane crashed into
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  Speaker 4: our tower. It literally, plane literally ran in front of her.
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  Speaker 4: She saw the plane crash in the second tower. She
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: sees these people jumping out of the building. And I'll
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  Speaker 4: leave it at that. There's a lot more graphic things
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: that she saw that day that is, it is not even,
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  Speaker 4: I mean, because these are humans, they are fellow Americans.
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  Speaker 4: It is so difficult to even put it like the
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: way it was. It was a picture of hell in
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  Speaker 4: downtown Manhattan. And the story didn't quite end there, right?
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  Speaker 4: Even after the planes crashed in, for those of us,
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  Speaker 4: I mean, after the, I got out and all of
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  Speaker 4: the World Trade Center complex has been turned to dust
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  Speaker 4: and ash. But there was this fear because there's F-16
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  Speaker 4: fighter jets flying over New York City giving cover. And
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: we didn't know what was going on. The fact that
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: other planes were also missing. And then, you know, one
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  Speaker 4: had crashed in Shanksville. The other one had crashed under
• 16:03
  Speaker 4: the Pentagon. And that America was under attack. So we
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  Speaker 4: thought those planes were dropping bombs on all the skyscrapers
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  Speaker 4: in New York. You know, for those old-timers that's watching,
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: If you've seen those movies, those old movies, Left Behind
• 16:17
  Speaker 4: series movies, you know, like they had that funny music
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: about the end times. I forget the name of the movie, right?
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: I remember watching it as a kid. And, you know,
• 16:25
  Speaker 4: people just going crazy. Like, where do I go? Running
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: here and there, you know, and Left Behind. I think
• 16:29
  Speaker 4: that was the name of the movie, right? And it's
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: almost like that, where the chaos on the streets of Manhattan,
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: because no one knows. And there are people from all
• 16:37
  Speaker 4: over the world, every walk of life, young, old, and
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: even older. Even the law enforcement and first responders, you know, typically,
• 16:46
  Speaker 4: you know, if there's a tragedy somewhere, they know what's
• 16:49
  Speaker 4: going on. They know what to do. But in this case,
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: they even don't know what's going on. Everything is so fluid.
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: So it was a crazy, crazy day and crazy experience
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: around Manhattan.
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: Did you struggle with thoughts of why God spared your
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: life when so many others died?
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: Yes, I did. But, you know, interestingly, I didn't struggle
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: with that for a whole lot. And I'll tell you why.
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: That's a question people always ask me. The first few days, yes.
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: for several days, I had pictures of people that I
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: knew that died that would flash on my mind. And
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: that would be unbearable. You know, where we lived, we
• 17:18
  Speaker 4: used to hear the church bells go on, there were
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: funeral processions. All of that was incredibly difficult. But then,
• 17:24
  Speaker 4: you know, media covered our story and people started calling
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: me around this country to come and speak. And I'd
• 17:30
  Speaker 4: never done public speaking. And I don't have a ministry background.
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: I have a business background. And I started seeing people
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: getting saved. Every time the story was being told on
• 17:40
  Speaker 4: On television, I was speaking, people connecting with Jesus. So
• 17:44
  Speaker 4: I walked away from my job and went into full-time
• 17:47
  Speaker 4: ministry right after that. And so because I've seen the
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: impact of that, thousands of people coming, overflow room and
• 17:52
  Speaker 4: overflow on room on top of that. And the people
• 17:55
  Speaker 4: are getting their hearts right with God. And deep within
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: me was this burden now to challenge America and remind
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: them that this country has been founded on nothing less
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: and nothing more but the gospel. And so that kind
• 18:05
  Speaker 4: of purpose in seeing, telling my story, had its benefit
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: of healing me, but also seeing what God was doing
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: with my story. Probably that was the one that, probably
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: one of the things that kept me sane. Because I
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: know a lot of other survivors, others that I know
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: of personally, have dealt with incredible personal trauma trying to
• 18:26
  Speaker 4: process what happened. And PTSD has been a common thing
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: that a lot of people who face 9-11 have gone through.
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: They're not the same, none of them. And some of
• 18:36
  Speaker 4: them you know, even in these last 25 years, it's
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: not that they're, it's just that they lost their mojo.
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: They're just not the same people anymore.
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: So the sermon that you heard the previous weekend combined
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: with 9-11 dramatically impacted your faith and that led you
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: to form a ministry or a nonprofit organization, I guess
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: it's both, called You Can Free Us. Tell us about that.
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: I don't want to, I don't want to let you know.
• 19:02
  Speaker 4: So I started traveling and I started You know, I
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: would meet people, you know, that would say, hey, you know,
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: how can we help? How can we link arms? And
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: I was traveling globally in different parts of the world,
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: doing water projects, building schools and churches and orphanages. And
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: in all of that, somebody asked me to see a
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: red light district in New Delhi, India. And I saw
• 19:19
  Speaker 4: the horror of trafficking where women literally kept in cages
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: and cells. And that red light district was 37,000 sex
• 19:26
  Speaker 4: workers then on a street a mile and a half
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: in length. And I took roses for these women thinking,
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: I bought 500 roses thinking I'll give these rose. And
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: that's when a girl grabbed me and said, if you
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: really care for me, get me out of here. And
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: she grabbed my arm. And I was like, what can
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: I do? This is controlled by the mafia. And just
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: when I'm thinking, you know, men buy these women. So
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: I was feeling horrible about us men. that do this,
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: men that do this to women. And that's when I
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: feel the Lord speak to me saying, two things I've
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: done for you. I've physically rescued you and spiritually rescued you.
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: This is what these girls need to experience. I feel like,
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: you know, we look at our world when we live
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: our world. We go about a normal day of life.
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: We look at each other with our natural eyes. But
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: someone who follows Jesus, Every now and then God will
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: show us the world through his eyes, which is spiritual eyes.
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: And if you catch something with the eyes of God,
• 20:18
  Speaker 4: then you better say yes. And you may not have
• 20:22
  Speaker 4: the resource or the tools or how to do it.
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: So I just felt it was a God moment that
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: God chose me to see what I saw. And I
• 20:30
  Speaker 4: said yes. And so we started this movement which rescues
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: women and children and rehabilitates them. They stay with us
• 20:35
  Speaker 4: for two years in our safe houses. We also work
• 20:38
  Speaker 4: with at-risk kids. In fact, I've got 900 at-risk kids
• 20:41
  Speaker 4: from some of the most at-traffic communities in the world.
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: They will all be sold as a child bride, the
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: girls especially. And so we give them education, clothing, meals.
• 20:51
  Speaker 4: So it's the joy of my life to see these
• 20:53
  Speaker 4: women and children set free and find their inner peace
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: with God. And I feel like that is a challenge
• 20:59
  Speaker 4: that I would like to throw it out to all
• 21:01
  Speaker 4: of the church in America and around the world. You know, Jesus...
• 21:06
  Speaker 4: You know, the whole values on which the Western civilization
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: has been built on freedom and liberty, they're all gospel
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: values that comes from knowing who Jesus is. And, you know,
• 21:16
  Speaker 4: we all know that is a mandate of the gospel.
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: Jesus says in his coming out speech, in his Day
• 21:21
  Speaker 4: of the Union speech, he says, I've come to proclaim
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: freedom to the captives. And there's 50 million people who
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: are captive physically, and many of them even in America.
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: So for those of us that value freedom, freedom in
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: America is, but also our spiritual freedom. I think we
• 21:38
  Speaker 4: owe it. It's not a, it's a mandate. It's not
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: an option. What can you do? Somebody can go, somebody
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: can pray, somebody can give, but we all can do
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: something to see these people meet Jesus and experience freedom
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: in their life.
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: And for those who want more information, they can find
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: it at youcanfreeus.org. And I believe you also have a
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: website as well.
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: Is that right, Shusho? No, I'd like to point that
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: to youcanfreeus.org because I do have a website, but I'd
• 22:03
  Speaker 4: rather them go there because I feel like our work
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: is in a crazy space of acceleration. So if somebody,
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: there's so many great causes out there, right? I mean, Michael, there's,
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: I mean, somebody has a heart to feed children. Somebody
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: has a heart to build churches. Go do that. Every
• 22:18
  Speaker 4: cause is important, but if there's somebody that's looking to
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: invest in a cause that's fighting for justice and women
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: and children, and only then, then support us. And by
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: the way, Don't send us your tithes. Your tithes go
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: to your local church. Please don't send it to us.
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: But if you have extra and if you have passion
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: about fighting, trafficking, and supporting women and children, then yes,
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: please come visit our website, YouCanFreeUs.org.
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: Sujong, thanks so much.
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: Thank you, Fran.
• 22:48
  Speaker 5: If you liked today's episode, please subscribe and leave a
• 22:50
  Speaker 5: five-star review. That's how we help more people just like
• 22:54
  Speaker 5: you find the show. A big thanks to the team
• 22:56
  Speaker 5: at Life Audio for their partnership with us on the podcast.
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: If you go to lifeaudio.com, you will find dozens.
• 23:03
  Speaker 5: Of other faith-centered podcasts in their network.
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: See you next time.