From: "Barb Kavouras (by way of Rev. Eric J. Stefanski, )" To: Subject: CLIMB: Chaplain Field Report NYC 10/11/01 Date: Friday, November 02, 2001 12:54 PM These reports may be forwarded as long as they are reproduced in their entirety. In Christ, Barb K Cleveland kavouras@multiverse.com Field Report 10/11/01 Dear Friends, Since I've probably driven you to sensory overload with my previous reports I'll try to keep this one short. It's now 6:10 p.m. on Thursday the 11th. My partner and I finished our shift at about 6:00 a.m. this morning and tried to get back to Manhattan before rush hour. We had another good night, he caring for bodies and minds, I for souls. The highlight of the night was, once again, opening the 5:30 a.m. roll call for the NYPD. The Word of God was read and preached to approximately 80 personnel, giving them strength for their work and the dignity it deserves - for their profession is created and blessed by God, according to St. Paul in Romans 13. I read Psalm 91 to them and prayed the prayer on the sheet, which you all received with yesterday's field report. My partner, agent Jerry Richards, who sits in the back of the tent while I do this, took note of the reactions of the officers both days we did this. He reports that all was well received, all came across loud and clear. Though he isn't out working the landfill, besides his "employee assistance" duties, he is actively involved in the investigation of this crime. So he too needs this mighty Word of God to uphold and defend him, a word which he receives most gladly. In a spirit of unity with our flock, Jerry and I donned space suits last night and spent two hours raking with the troops. The drill is this: to bring the truckloads of debris from the WTC to this landfill on Staten Island. It's then sifted through giant construction sifters (probably used normally for road demolition, to separate dirt from chunks of asphalt etc.) with ¼ inch mesh. The dirt is checked, the remains (human or otherwise) are then examined, and the ones deemed useful are logged. (All human remains are reverently handled and taken to the morgue on Manhattan.) However the larger debris - very large pieces of the towers, parts of the planes etc. - are then picked up by front end loaders and spread over large areas and systematically raked through by agents of the FBI, Secret Service, NYPD and others. The goal is to recover human remains, the "black (orange) boxes" (correction from last night: there are only *two* per jet, for a *total* of four) and anything else of evidentiary value which will better help piece together more details of the story. I found a soup spoon and butter knife (both bent) and what appeared to be a Chinese or Japanese coin. Of less value I found pieces of carpet, a table cloth (perhaps from the restaurant), clothing (most likely from one of the many stores in the building) and much violently twisted and broken metal, concrete, compressors, pipes, I-beams and who knows what else. If you've ever doubted how transitory human life is and how passing its accomplishments, you would only need to come to Staten Island for few minutes. But to properly understand this whole event of 9/11 and put it into its most proper, and comforting perspective you would need to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest Psalm 90. (This by the way is the Psalm on which Isaac Watts based his immortal hymn: Our God Our Help In Ages Past - TLH 123) Without apology it tells us that: God turns men (and our accomplishments) back to dust; that He sweeps men away in the sleep of death; that we are consumed by His anger; that He sets our iniquities and secret sins before His face; that all of our days are nothing but trouble and sorrow; and that we should learn to number our days - that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. But then this same majestic Psalm, in its latter verses, preaches the Gospel of Jesus Christ by means of a prayer. A prayer answered 1300 years after Moses first uttered it from the depths of his mortal grief. Answered by the sacrificial death and victorious resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ very early Easter morning - that great act of salvation which freely gives resurrection hope and resurrection power to all who put their trust in Him; and roundly trumps death and the devil. It's a prayer He answered for you in baptism, and will always answer for you even now! It goes like this (Ps. 90:13) "Relent, Oh LORD! How long will it be? Have compassion on your servants. Satisfy us in the morning (Easter morning) with your unfailing love (Calvary), that we may sing for joy and be glad all the days of our lives. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble. May your deeds (deeds of salvation accomplished for us on the cross) be shown to your servants, your splendor to their children. May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us (and it does); establish the work of our hands for us - yes, establish the work of our hands." In one final story I'll tell you about a man whom for anonymity's sake we'll call Tom Pierce. While walking through the landfill, greeting the officers and bringing them God's peace in Christ, I noticed one particular young officer, in his 30's, more or less wandering about his given area. He had his rake lying horizontally over both shoulders with his arms hooked over it. We talked for a while in that hallowed place and he told me of his little daughter and his upcoming days off. As I was saying my farewells I offered him one of the already-mentioned prayer sheets. He asked me to unzip his space suit (it's actually called Tyvek) and put it into his coat pocket. He then said, "Chaplain I'd like to show you something." He took off his safety helmet and pulled out a laminated photo from above the webbing. It was of two boys, perhaps seven years old, sitting at a kitchen table with their seven year old smiles. He said "that's my friend Tommy Pierce, Chaplain, he's in here somewhere and I want to bring him out." And so in closing we can pray the words of Psalm 90:17 for this officer and for all of my Law Enforcement flock, and for their chaplain: May the favor of Christ our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us - yes, establish the work of our hands." I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Phil. 4:13) Rev. Dean Kavouras, Chaplain FBI Cleveland Division Cleveland Safety Forces + + + Confessional Lutherans in Missionary Boldness + + + The CLIMB e-letter brings you unedited, uncut reports directly from the mission field, whether in South America, Africa, Europe, inner-city, rural, or collegiate America, or military installations and battle sites around the world. It is our contention that those who truly hold to the ~Book of Concord~ as the pure exposition of Holy Scripture and the true confession of the Christian faith are also the most zealous supporters of the preaching of the Gospel in every corner of the world and, as such, ought to be kept thoroughly informed of how those endeavors are faring and shown how they may be rightly carried out without the destruction of orthodox doctrine and practice that some within the pale of Lutheranism now advocate. 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