A Flight 93 Legacy

A week after the 9/11 anniversary, I visited the newly dedicated Flight 93 Memorial near Shanksville, PA.

The town gained unexpected prominence at 10:03 AM on September 11, 2001 when United Flight 93 from Newark, NJ screaming at 560 miles per hour crashed into the ground upside down at a 45-degree angle. Hitting the soft earth of a strip mine overfill, the plane basically disappeared, puzzling the first responders who could see little that resembled an airliner.

We later learned that radical Islamist terrorist had slain the pilots, taken control and were heading toward the U.S. capitol. Courageous passengers, aware through cell phone messages of the terror ahead, strove to overcome the villains, regain control of the aircraft and possibly survive. Time ran out as the terrorists chose death for all rather than capture, and the rest is history.

Aboard Flight 93 were two friends of mine, Donald and Jean Peterson, who were believers in Jesus Christ as their Savior. Also on board was fellow believer Todd Beamer, whose wife, Lisa, I had met years before when she was a teenager in Peekskill, NY. There may have been others who personally knew Christ as Savior, but I’m focusing on Don and Jean Peterson whom I knew.

Don was retired from his business, and he and his wife had dedicated themselves to supporting Christian ministries. Don was special to me. He had served with me on a Bible college Board of Governors, had engaged me to speak to neighbors gathered for Bible teaching in his home, had booked me to speak at a crisis pregnancy center event, and sent periodic gifts for our ministry. Further, he was counseling addicts at the Keswick Colony of Mercy in Whiting, NJ and had even helped some begin business anew after their recovery.

On September 11, 2001, Don and Jean were bumped to an earlier flight as they headed for a family gathering in California. But God had another plan to bring them to a heavenly family reunion via Shanksville.

When the first responders arrived at the crash site, only two objects could be clearly identified: a part of the aircraft landing gear and Don Peterson’s Bible—fuel stained, yet intact. Even more remarkable, inside the Bible was a loose sheet on which were the names of ten men in the addiction recovery program for whome he was praying.

Isaiah 40:8 promises, “The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.”

“By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks” (Hebrews 11:4 – emphasis mine). The godly speak long after their deaths as Revelation 14:13 notes, “Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, ‘Write: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.”’ ‘Yes,’ says the Spirit, ‘that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.’” (emphasis mine)

On Sunday morning, September 11, 2011, Bill Welty, Director of Keswick, shared Don’s story with the 40 men currently in Colony of Mercy rehab program. At the invitation, ten received Christ as Savior. Don is still speaking, and he does it again every time I tell this story in meeting, on radio and even now on the Internet.

Todd Beamer led the charge against the terrorists saying, “Let’s roll!” His faithful and courageous wife, Lisa, authored a book titled with those two words. It made The New York Times best seller list and is often read and reread. She has encouraged countless discouraged people to keep on in trying circumstances.

I’m so grateful to Don and Jean and Todd and others who “overcame him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and…did not love their lives to the death” (Rev. 12:11).

Dave Virkler