Pastor Recollects How Much Life, and Faith, Changed after 9/11
By Ralph Zubiate, Tribune Editor - Sep 12, 2016 Updated Jan 2, 2018
Tom’s recollections of 9/11 drive across country August 31, 2016 in Gilbert, AZ.
Link to Original Article Here.
Tom Shrader was in Virginia that day, having spoken to a convention of executives in New York City earlier that week.
He was like millions of other Americans when he heard that an airplane hit a building.
“I remember we were standing in a gift shop, and a lady was saying, ‘My, that’s a big accident, how did that happen?’
“You didn’t think terror then,” he said. “The world has changed so much.”
Shrader was lead pastor of East Valley Bible Church in Gilbert on Sept. 11, 2001. Now, he’s pastor emeritus for the church, since renamed Redemption Gilbert.
Shrader and his wife Susan were staying at Hot Springs, Virginia during that visit. On a day off, they were being tourists, visiting Appomattox Court House.
“Then we heard what happened, and the park was closed. You had to go.”
In the days after the 9/11 attack, planes around the nation were grounded. Instead of waiting in Virginia or trying to find an empty seat on an Amtrak train, he decided to rent a car to get back to Arizona.
“I was trying to find a map, and I asked the guy at the rental place. He said, ‘You go down here, make a right, and when you get to Flagstaff, take a left.’
“I didn’t realize I-40 was outside.”
On that long, difficult drive, Shrader found out something interesting about the mood of the nation.
“The further you got from the East Coast, the less impact it had.
“That was the way it felt like, driving further away from the pain.”
Shrader and his wife had only a radio on the drive, and heard news bulletins and stories on the way back. It didn’t seem as desperate on the radio. But, he said, a picture really is worth a thousand words.
“We’d get to a hotel, and once you flipped on the TV, it was a totally different scene. Radically different.”
He saw a different world on the road, too.
He remembers rolling in to Henryetta, Oklahoma, to eat.
“The Pig Out Palace. At the center of every table, there was a roll of paper towels.”
Shrader saw many other people there and on the road in pain, trying to make their ways back home in the aftermath. Uncertain of their next move.
“Every car I saw was filled with five or six people in suits.”
At the time, people were seeking comfort and answers. Some sought that in churches.
“Back in Arizona, businesses in the area were calling, asking us to open up the church. They wanted their employees to be able to pray.
“We were helpless and scared. You kind of intuitively kick out to something bigger than you.
“It’s a pattern that follows. Either it pulls you closer to God, or it shatters who you really are.”
Shrader and his wife got back to Arizona on Saturday, Sept. 15.
“The next Sunday was like Christmas. The church was jammed. It was a life-changing experience.
“That lasted two weeks.”
Some commentators at the time were expecting a spiritual revival in the United States. Shrader wasn’t.
“I can be a bit cynical, but I think it was a collective foxhole conversion.
“You survive the moment and it reinforces the illusion that you’re self-sufficient. But it really exposes how needy, how vulnerable we are. It’s all outside of our control, but not outside God’s control.”
Shrader still preaches these days, though not as often. He knows that 9/11 still resonates, but in a different way.
“I have this view that we have our own 9/11s around us. We’re sick, we’ve lost a job. For us, it’s personal, traumatic.
“The comfort we find is in knowing Christ, and knowing that God is sovereign. Faith is assurance that He is in control.”
There were things to learn from 9/11, Shrader said.
“One of the big messages is that we’ll never be the same again.”