BY KERMIT NETTEBURG

e never felt alone", is the way Dionisio Olivo, president of the Greater New York Conference, describes the response of New Yorkers to the outpouring of support from Seventh-day Adventists throughout North America and the world following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. "Our communities were changed by 9/11, and those people who were affected by the loss of life will never be the same after these tragedies. But our membership saw the way that their brothers and sisters from other places responded so quickly to help. We never felt alone."

Cooperation on Every Level
Even before the impact of the tragedies was fully known, Seventh-day Adventists responded to the crisis. Beginning with the Adventist believers who live and work in New York City, and spreading quickly to the entire North American membership, the unprecedented response to the tragedies came from institutions, ministries, local churches and conferences, young people, Community Service volunteers, and the overall membership. The common goal of a myriad of diverse activities was to help get the New York metro community through the crisis.

"From the mayor on down, the push was to get back to normal," says C. A. Murray, communication director of the Northeastern Conference. "The impact is there--people are more concerned about security and terror--but New Yorkers came back to something like a routine and normal life within three or four months of the attacks."

Adventists were on the front line of those who helped New York get back to "normal." An Adventist Disaster Response team, led by Bill Bremner, Adventist Community Service (ACS) director for the Greater New York Conference, was among those who provided assistance to firefighters and police officers immediately following the tragedies. Their distribution of food and water was coupled with transporting rescue workers back to their home stations after the loss of equipment, trucks, and fellow workers following the collapse of the towers of the World Trade Center.

Adventist Community Services volunteers were asked by federal and state emergency management agencies to manage four donated-goods and relief-supply warehouses in New York and Connecticut, and eventually were responsible for the donation management for all of the state-sponsored distribution operations. Under the direction of Larry Bruckner, ACS disaster response coordinator, teams of volunteers from Florida, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Alabama, New York, Michigan, Tennessee, and Connecticut arrived to help. Their contribution included sorting, packaging, and organizing donated-goods such as food, water, medical supplies, and other items for distribution to the victims and respond- ers. Many at Ground Zero recognized the significance of donation management and expressed appreciation to ACS volunteers for their work. "Everything we needed has been provided," said one worker at Ground Zero, while thanking ACS volunteers.

ACS reports that $425,249 was received in donations from various sources for the relief efforts following 9/11. The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) contributed $250,000 of this amount, including a gift of $50,000 from Adventist Health System. "When tragedy struck close to home, we were overwhelmed by the outpouring of sympathy and support from ADRA International donors who traditionally, and faithfully, enable ADRA to operate its ministry in faraway places," says Charles Sandefur, ADRA president.

Long-term Support
In addition to the regular resources for Adventist Community Services that Ingathering: Hope for Humanity provides each year, special resources were developed and used for the relief effort in New York. "Hope Kits" containing prepaid gift certificates for local grocery stores were distributed by local members to taxicab drivers, waitresses, and other groups hit hard by the economic downturn that followed the tragedies in both New York and Washington. According to NAD Ingathering: Hope for Humanity coordinator Maitland DiPinto, "The Hope Kits are a tangible way of showing God's love. More than just money, these little kits are a way for us to be a source of hope for those we reach."

Real Hope, a special CD produced by Ingathering: Hope for Humanity, provided practical and uplifting ways to face the fears and uncertainty that the 9/11 attack brought. More than 85,000 CDs in both English and Spanish were distributed in New York City and through North America to friends, coworkers, and complete strangers by thousands of Adventist members. The CD also contained a brief overview of the Adventist Church and its essential beliefs. In total, Ingathering: Hope for Humanity provided $280,000 in support for projects related to the 9/11 tragedies.

Personal Contact
Adventists set about helping New Yorkers "get back to normal" in many other ways, as well. Adventists responded with a wide variety of affirming and spiritual initiatives that offered counseling, prayer, and friendship. Students from Columbia Union College came to New York just two days after the tragedies to offer support and spiritual counseling. A team of social work students from Andrews University arrived on September 14--the first of three teams of students, faculty, and alumni who came to offer spiritual counseling, friendship, and affirmation to those affected by the tragedies.

In one of the most innovative and inspiring responses to the crisis, students from NAPS, an organization associated with Oakwood College, drove 24 hours to New York City from Huntsville, Alabama, to help in whatever way they could. When they discovered they couldn't assist with the cleanup effort they took to the streets with band instruments, playing patriotic and popular spiritual songs to anyone within earshot, hugging the police officers and firefighters they encountered. The New York Times noted their unusual and inspiring presence, saying that they brought "much needed affection to eight million survivors."

The eXtremeTeam, a traveling youth evangelism team, spent six months in New York, providing coordination for the various youth groups who came from all over North America to help in whatever way they could. All told, more than 700 young Adventists from around North America came to minister to New Yorkers following the tragedies.

NAD Adventist Community Services and Youth Ministries also initiated "We Care Camps," Christian summer camps that were held at more than seven locations throughout the northeastern part of the United States. Families with children who had been directly impacted by the September 11 tragedy were given the opportunity to send their children to summer camp at no cost. NAD Adventist Community Services and other partners sponsored eligible children, adults, and entire families to these camps.

More than 100 pastors in the Greater New York and Northeastern Conferences were offered essential training in grief counseling by Martin Feldbush of North American Division Adventist Chaplaincy Ministries. They also joined fellow pastors in attending crisis intervention training presented by the National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA) in Washington, D.C. These activities have led to the development of the Adventist Crisis Care Network (ACCN), an ongoing service provided by Adventist Community Services and Adventist Chaplaincy Ministry. ACCN is composed of qualified lay and clergy grief counselors who can respond to disasters as part of community response teams operated by Adventist Community Services or other national voluntary organizations.

Media Initiatives
Concurrent with the immediate relief efforts were a number of media initiatives by various church organizations and ministries. The General Conference published full-page statements of support and concern in newspapers in both Washington, D.C., and New York City. Northeastern Conference sponsored statements of support and solidarity in newspapers in New York, in part proclaiming, "Our doors are open. We're here for you." Commenting on the media efforts, Don King, then president of the New York Conference, said, "Now is not the time to be silent. This is an ideal time for Adventists to share our hope and show our support for our friends and neighbors."

The broadcast media initiatives prompted by the 9/11 tragedies included a special satellite broadcast on Friday, September 14, 2001, called A Seventh-day Adventist Response to the U.S. Tragedy, that included messages of hope and spiritual comfort from Jan Paulsen, president of the General Conference; Don Schneider, president of the North American Division; and Mark Finley, director-speaker of It Is Written. Pastor Schneider also addressed church members via satellite on Sabbath morning, September 15, during the Southern Union Conference centennial commemoration in Atlanta.

The Voice of Prophecy radio ministry preempted its regularly scheduled programming on the weekend following 9/11 to air a program entitled "Voice of Prophecy Responds to Attack on America." In the program Lonnie Melashenko discussed how Christians should respond to tragedy, using the Bible for guidance. "Jar of Tears," a song about the tragedies written and performed by Voice of Prophecy cohost Connie Vandeman Jeffrey, was included in the October 2 Voice of Prophecy broadcast and distributed to 160 radio stations and media outlets.

The It Is Written television ministry produced a documentary anchored at the Pentagon called Terror From the Sky. The documentary program, which first aired on September 30, was hosted by Mark Finley, and presented the message of a loving God who is there in spite of trouble and sorrow. Renowned broadcaster Paul Harvey provided notice of the broadcast on his own radio program on September 24, and encouraged his listeners to view the program. (The Terror From the Sky documentary was later recognized with two awards by the Excellence in Media organization.) A companion brochure to the broadcast was also produced, and several hundred thousand were distributed throughout the New York metro area. To date, more than 5,000 requests for Bible studies have been received as a direct result of the use of the brochure. In December It Is Written aired two additional programs that focused on the impact of the 9/11 tragedies.

In late autumn, 2001, the North American Division taped a Christmas program, The Greatest Gift, in the Ephesus Seventh-day Adventist Church in Harlem. The taping, as well as the broadcast itself, provided a powerful message of support to New Yorkers. The program featured firefighters, police officers, and survivors of the tragedy along with Sandi Patti, Wintley Phipps, the Harlem Boy's Choir, and now chaplain to the U.S. Senate, Barry Black. It aired on NBC during the Christmas season, 2001, and was viewed throughout North America, as well as on the networks that serve American Armed Services.

Help for Local Congregations
In October 2001 Don Schneider and the North American Division announced The New York Project, a divisionwide initiative to help plant new congregations in the New York area. The project launch was a one-day convocation called "Changed in a Day," sponsored by Adventist-Laymen's Services and Industries (ASI). The program featured preaching by It Is Written speaker Mark Finley and Amazing Facts speaker Doug Batchelor.

With the The New York Project, the focus of Adventist response to the 9/11 tragedies widened to include evangelism and church planting. Through the work of community service volunteers, Adventists continued to demonstrate a commitment to the people of New York, and the new initiatives offered communities opportunities for ongoing support and spiritual development through the establishment of churches and companies.

Several conferences and organizations supported The New York Project by sending professional personnel to minister in the region.

Pastor and Mrs. Terry Nennich came from the Minnesota Conference for six months from November 2001 to April 2002. They worked alongside Salvation Army volunteers at Ground Zero, served in a pastoral role at the Eleventh Street Seventh-day Adventist Church not far from Ground Zero, and reached out to the community around the apartment complex where they lived.
Mr. and Mrs. Mark Regazzi came to Manhattan as volunteers sponsored by the North American Division, and spent six months developing friendships and relationships throughout the Upper West Side of Manhattan, near the Church of Advent Hope.

Pastor and Mrs. Jim Wood came from the Kansas-Nebraska Conference for six months to assist in coordinating the various groups that were coming to New York, and to make the overall work of the volunteers more effective. They worked alongside pioneer evangelist Gordon Henderson, who came to New York to coordinating the overall effort on behalf of the North American Division.

Local churches in Manhattan and throughout the boroughs of New York have continued to respond to the change in community attitudes as a result of the tragedies. Several of the churches, including the Eleventh Street church, the Washington Heights church, and the Church of the Advent Hope, report new and thriving initiatives that have grown out of the local efforts to minister to a community in transition.

In the Northeastern Conference the program to adopt police precincts and firehouses has grown by 400 percent since 9/11, and now includes more than 40 individual stations and precincts. "This is an extraordinary opportunity for long-term service and support," says C. A. Murray, communication director for Northeastern. "We are working together everyday on issues of broad interest to our community. This is the best way to prepare for any further crisis, and to live Christlike lives within our communities."

In Greater New York Conference more than 30 new churches and companies have been established since the 9/11 tragedies. Dionisio Olivo, president of the Greater New York Conference, shared this perspective on the renewed community involvement: "All our churches, and maybe our conferences, throughout the division, should do everything possible to get involved in their communities, so the presence of the church can be felt as a caring organization before any crisis ever comes. That's how we should live in these times."

Jim Gilley, vice president of the North American Division, was the overall coordinator for the church's diverse efforts in New York following the 9/11 tragedies. "The people of God have responded with grace and generosity to these terrible incidents. God has blessed their efforts, and our work is growing in New York as a result. Pray for our members, our new congregations, and for the people of New York, that the message of Christ's love might reach every heart."

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Kermit Netteburg is assistant to the president for communication in the North American Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.