AN IMPERFECT WITNESS FOR JESUS CHRIST AT GROUND ZERO - SEPTEMBER 11, 2002

AN IMPERFECT WITNESS FOR JESUS CHRIST AT GROUND ZERO - SEPTEMBER 11, 2002 

Reported by Steve Lefemine, 9/18/02

On Monday, Sept. 11th, as I walked north from Manhattan's Battery Park on Trinity Place, I approached the southeast (SE) corner of Ground Zero. There, prominently displayed and elevated above ground level on the eastern edge of the 6 to 7 story deep pit, was the huge steel girder cross, which had been found in the rubble. I knelt and prayed:

Lord, grant us the gift of tears, the gift of repentance, forgive us of our bloodguilt. Please bring the killing to an end. And manifest your sovereignty, and express your mercy, by enabling the sanctity of human life, from the moment of fertilization, to be recognized in law.

Trinity Place comes to an end right at the SE corner of the 16-acre site, and the same road then becomes Church Street, which travels up the east side of Ground Zero. About half a block up Church St., maybe 30 yards or so to the left on the NY Port Authority property, is the steel beam cross, so prominent and visible from Church St.

The crossroad at which Trinity Place becomes Church St. is Liberty Street. So, in one intersection at the SE corner of the 16-acre Ground Zero site, Trinity Pl., Church St., and Liberty St. all come together. Is God not speaking to us with manifold messages, signs and judgments? How many have eyes to see? I believe more do see than so testify publicly. As David Wilkerson, pastor of Times Square Church cried in his heart Sept. 19, 2001 as he stood before the five-story-high pile of rubble at Ground Zero - God is warning this nation to repent.

Monday I walked along the fenced-in viewing area that was once a section of Liberty St. and looked down the 6 or 7 story deep pit - it is very, very large - it looks like it could be some huge construction project underway. The immensity of the hole is not overwhelming until one considers the twin towers that once stood there and came tumbling down into rubble within a couple hours of being impacted by fuel-laden jetliners flying 400 mph.

That was Monday.

On Tuesday, I returned first with 200 copies of Flip Benham's Sept. 10th OSA news release, "9-11, God's Message to America ? - Repent !" I stood right at the entrance gate to the Liberty St. viewing area (corner of Trinity Pl./Church St. and Liberty St.), and the flyers went out quite well. Sometimes there were even multiple hands asking for the sheets all at the same time. On occasion, a few were returned. Then I went back to my van to get two small signs: 1) the 8-week pre-born baby picture on one side, with a later term aborted baby in the American flag (America's Holocaust - ABORTION) on the other side, and 2) the Life Dynamics sign, "CHRISTIANS: Your sins were paid for with the blood of Christ - Your freedom was paid for with the blood of Patriots - Your silence is paid for with the blood of The Unborn"

I returned to the entrance to the viewing area, and gradually displayed the signs while passing out the OSA literature. People would stare at the signs. They took literature. Perhaps just one or two (if that) people criticized me for being there with these signs. Finally, a young, tall NYC police officer came over and told me I could not display those signs there - it was NY Port Authority property (he said), but that I could go across the street. I crossed over to the NE corner of the intersection (Trinity Pl./Church St. and Liberty St.), and displayed the signs and offered literature there awhile, until I was moved by a business security person to the SE corner of the intersection. I stayed there until all 200 OSA news releases were handed out.

That was Tuesday.

Wednesday, Sept. 11th was much different that Monday or Tuesday. Roads were closed off and the municipal parking area I had used Mon. and Tues. was now off limits. I finally found a parking spot, though it looked like there was a risk of being towed. I went with the new large "God Bless America ?" sign (used by Missionaries to the Preborn in Wisconsin) which has a picture of a first trimester unborn child destroyed by abortion, plus 300 more OSA news releases, and a truth horn.

As I made my way up Trinity Pl., it was clear that today the crowd was much thicker than the day before. Today was the day of the reading of the names (all 2,801) of those who had been killed in the calamity of Sept. 11, 2001. There was to be a reading of the Gettysburg address, the playing of taps after the reading of the 2,801 names, and then excerpts from the Declaration of Independence. It was a ceremony. It was a mass commemoration of those who had been killed a year earlier. It was not in any way, shape or form, a Day of Repentance, but rather, a Day of Remembrance. Neither New York nor America has yet come to understand our desperate need of corporate REPENTANCE. With several notable exceptions, neither have most of the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ in America called for repentance. As the Church goes, so goes the nation.

I slowly made my way with the large sign, and caught some negative comments from others in the crowd before I reached the crossroad at the intersection with Liberty Street. I continued across Liberty St. and started to go up Church St., still catching verbal flak from a few in the crowd, including one young, short man in a Marine uniform. I was walking under a temporary overhang and finally found an open space in which to prop up the sign and attempt to hand out literature. I was just about opposite the big steel beam cross prominently displayed on the other (west) side of Church St.

Just after getting set up, I noticed a small stream of 2 or 3 men in civilian clothes coming toward me. I though it might be some civilian vigilante contingent, which had decided I needed to be removed from the Ground Zero vicinity. They came over to me and identified themselves as police, and told me to follow them. I asked to see a badge and one covertly flashed one for me to see. I followed them back to Liberty St. away from the crowd, and the long and short of it was that the First Amendment was not to be in effect on Church St. during the ceremony.

The roll call of the 2,801 continued with 197 different speakers, including pro-abort former NYC Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, and pro-abort Senator Hillary Clinton, reading the names. A police sergeant (Sgt.) was called, and then his supervisor was called. I think I heard the more senior officer say the sign was not "appropriate." The Sgt. became my primary point of contact with the NYPD.

End of Foray # 1 on Sept. 11th

I walked back to the van, put up the sign, and came back with the 300 OSA flyers, (minus the few if any I may have passed out in today's first foray to Ground Zero), plus the truth horn. I got back to about the same spot on Church St. under the overhang where the police had approached me earlier, and I went out onto the regular sidewalk next to the street - as close to the barricade on the street as I could get. I lasted there a good while, with the truth horn slung over my shoulder, as the recitation of the 2,801 names continued for about 2 1/2 hours. Then a team of plain-clothes police approached me again and brought me down a side street to the Sgt.

They wanted to know what was in my bag, which I told them. They wanted to know who I was. I eventually gave them my ID. Mostly they wanted to know if I intended to interrupt the ceremony with the truth horn, and that if I did, that I would be arrested. I had been trying to decide at what point to speak the short message I had written out, but now I agreed not to interrupt the ceremony. And said that I would look to the Sgt. (Sgt. Robinson) for help in discerning when the ceremony came to an end, since the speakers were not visible from where we stood on the east side of Church St.

The officers were communicating to me the intensity of feeling of some in the crowd and raised the issue of my safety, though Sgt. Robinson did acknowledge their duty to protect those exercising First Amendment free speech. One of the officers asked something about what it was I wanted to say. I shared with him the message I had written out:

"America, Repent
Jesus is the Standard
Repent, America
and turn to Him.
Repent of our child-killing
Repent of our sodomy
Repent of all our national sins,
and turn to Jesus Christ.

The Bible says,

'Repent therefore and return that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.' "

Finally, I was released to go back out to the sidewalk with the truth horn with an understanding that I would wait until the end of the ceremony, and then speak through it.

After I got back out to the sidewalk, something unplanned for occurred. It may very well have been the Lord opening a door for me. I hesitated, went through, but then came back out. What happened was this. Large numbers of people from the east side of Church St. were being allowed to cross the street on to the west side of Church St. and on to the Port Authority property overlooking the Ground Zero pit, in the immediate vicinity of the large steel beam cross. I went over to the west side of the street for a little while, but then came back to the public sidewalk on the east side of Church St.. Fear of arrest (Sgt. Robinson and the others did not appear to have responsibility for the other side) and fear of the crowd (composed of those possibly more closely tied to the victims) if I spoke out with the truth horn in that location, were influencing me. I very likely may have missed an opportunity that God had given me for a bigger impact of His message - drawing back out of fear. May God forgive me if I failed to obey Him fully.

The end of the ceremony came with NY Gov. Pataki reading excerpts from the Declaration of Independence. That would have been a strong time at which to speak out. People began leaving from the viewing area on the west side of Church St., and it looked clear that the ceremony was most likely now over. I looked to get a nod for a go-ahead from Sgt. Robinson, who appeared to be trying to get confirmation of the ceremony's conclusion, but a response from him was not forthcoming. He was even walking away while using his cell phone.

The minutes were slipping by, and more people were coming away from the viewing area on the west side of Church St. It seemed as though the timing of when to speak was slipping past. I began to fumble with the truth horn and was getting ready to use it when plain-clothes police approached me again, took the truth horn from me, and again brought me to Sgt. Robinson. He had them give the truth horn back to me. He had not confirmed the ceremony was over, but so it appeared, and he said to do what I had to do, an agreement was an agreement.

I went back to the edge of Church St. and with the volume turned up to 10 (max), still fumbling a bit, began to introduce and then read the message:

"America, Repent
Jesus is the Standard
Repent, America
and turn to Him.
Repent of our child-killing
Repent of our sodomy
Repent of all our national sins,
and turn to Jesus Christ.

As I had begun reading, a uniformed NYPD captain in the street came over and told me I could not use the amplification device without a permit. I finished the statement above, then ceased use of the truth horn, and just preached on the sidewalk.

I finished reading the statement I had prepared with the Scripture reference from Acts 3:19:

"Repent therefore and return that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord."

I preached about our need to repent. God is telling this nation to repent. I preached that we rightly remembered the 3,000 killed at Ground Zero, and that justice should be meted out to their murderers, but that we should also remember the 3,000 unborn who are killed every day in America. I talked about the Civil War as God's judgment on America for the national sin of slavery, and that today our national sin is abortion.

I looked around at the onlookers and asked if any would like to join me in asking God's forgiveness for our shedding of innocent blood. One older woman of those who were present, I believe with a camera, raised her hand high. I got down on my knees, probably on my hand carry bag, on the sidewalk, and cried out to God. When I finished, I got up, and walked away.

End of Foray # 2 on Sept. 11th

I went back to the van (which thankfully had not been ticketed or towed), put up the truth horn, and moved the van closer to Ground Zero on Rector St., next to Trinity Episcopal Church, where the Archbishop of Canterbury ("leader" of the world's Anglicans) was present Wednesday. I took out the "God Bless America ?" sign again and walked up Trinity Pl. again, and set up just short of Liberty St. A supportive doctor from Alaska and a Christian NY woman originally from Jamaica stopped as I stood next to the sign and offered the OSA flyers - trying to hand out all 300 I had brought that day. It did not take long for a police officer to approach me and say that this was (now ?) a 'restricted' area and we couldn't be there (with the sign - other people were allowed to be there - President GWB came to Ground Zero in the afternoon), but that we could go one block east to Broadway.

So this woman of God from Jamaica (Patricia) whose presence was such an encouragement to me, and I walked up to Broadway, and first started to pray. I had placed the sign on the ground on its side with the graphic picture of the murdered baby facing out, and I soon noticed, while we were still praying, that we were attracting police attention.

One female officer politely waited, not wanting to interrupt our praying, but she gently took my sign, slid it out from along the fence, and turned it around so that the dead baby was not showing. When Patricia and I finished praying, we were told we couldn't stand there on the west side of Broadway, but we could go across the street to the east side. We finally got to where God apparently wanted us to be, I suppose.

We were on the sidewalk, in front of a small open plaza, with the office building set back 25 yards or so from the sidewalk, and a piece of typically confused modern art in the middle of the plaza (a cube or something). There was a small 'prayer booth' also set up in the plaza.

Patricia preached Jesus Christ and handed out tracts, I held the sign, spoke some also, and handed out OSA press releases. In my black and gray carry bag I had the 300(-) press releases, some 'Did You Know' pro-life tracts (gave away several salvation tracts to a young man who was a devout Christian for distribution), and an OSA 'Jesus is the Standard' T-shirt. I was wearing a white baseball cap. New Yorkers walked by and stared, they stood and stared, they covered their eyes and walked by, some took tracts and/or news releases, and several expressed their displeasure at the "God Bless America ?" sign - Patricia continued to preach and hand out tracts, Steve continued to hold the sign, speak some, and hand out press releases. The passing out of the press releases was much slower on Sept. 11th standing next to the "God Bless America ?" sign than had been the case on Sept. 10th standing next to the gate at the Ground Zero viewing area.

Two other women came individually to stand and bear witness with us, encouraging by their presence and with their words the witness for Christ and His Word being presented there on the sidewalk.

The wind was gusting at times. Patricia and I prayed for the Lord's wind to blow. Not long afterwards, the wind blew in a very strong and interesting way. The New York Times the next day reported wind gusts in the NYC area of 40 to 60 mph (one reported death and three serious injuries were wind-related). I was holding the "God Bless America ?" sign; the wind blew me backward across the sidewalk, and finally took the sign ( 3' x 5' ) right out of my hands. It sailed in the air, like a kite without a string, up at least as high as the 2d story of the office building set back from the sidewalk in this small plaza. Then it came back to the ground - nearly hitting a few men I believe - and then sliding underneath a parked car with some kind of official lettering on it. I went around to the street side of the car in time to stop the sign from escaping out the other side and recovered it.

I looked up and saw this whirlwind of papers flying up in the air - it was an amazing sight - the papers had come out of my hand carry bag - probably 250 or more of the OSA press releases and a few 'Did You Know' brochures - they were airborne, swirling. I saw my black and gray bag slide across the side street where I was and recovered it. I saw a woman bend down and pick up one of the OSA press releases. I went back to where I had been standing with Patricia and there in front of me in the plaza was the OSA T-shirt, somewhat sullied from its apparent out-of-bag travels. Somehow I also have my baseball cap.

Patricia said it was a sign from God - He was showing His power. The next day's papers talked about the wind blowing up the dust down at the bottom of Ground Zero. Elsewhere one man was killed when a small boat capsized, and another man was critically injured by falling debris from a construction site. Two high school students were also seriously injured. The winds blew in NYC, and I later learned they blew 60 - 70 miles out on Long Island, as well as way up in Vermont and in Pennsylvania.

God is All-Powerful; He is Omniscient, Omnipotent and Omnipresent - May America come to know Him in the Mercy of His Remedial Judgments Before He Must Visit Us with His Full Calamity and Wrath.