Remembering 9/11

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Good morning. It’s September 11. We will never forget. Epoch News Post 09.11.26 Ivan Pentchoukov   My high school was across the street from the Twin Towers. After 25 years, I’m sharing my memories from that day.    Before that, here are today’s top stories: President Donald Trump on Thursday evening addressed a crowd in Dallas, touting his administration’s achievements on the closing night of the two-day midterm convention, laying out a flurry of proposals that he said Republicans would pursue in the coming two years. President Donald Trump said he is providing $500 rebate checks to nearly 1 million people who he said were “wrongly overcharged” through the Affordable Care Act—President Barack Obama’s healthcare law, known as Obamacare. The night before, Trump promised a $5,000 dividend check to every adult in the U.S. if Republicans win the midterm election in November. Supporters at the first Republican midterm convention told The Epoch Times that to triumph in November, the party should emphasize its economicwins while challenging what they called the democratic socialist pitch of “free things.” Three people narrowly avoided being trafficked to China, where they allegedly would have had their organs forcibly removed, after being lured by fake online postings offering illegal work, according to prosecutors in the northern Taiwan city of Taoyuan. 🍵 Health: Protein is your body’s primary repair engine. However, finding your personal magic number takes more than a glance at a food label. Your needs vary depending on whether you are sedentary, fit, or older.

9/11 Visitors watch over the reflecting pool at the 9/11 Museum and Memorial during the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, in New York, on Sept. 11, 2021. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images) The Day Has Come Deep in my bones, I still remember the impact of the jetliners.   The tremor that shook the windowless building of our high school across the street from the twin towers felt like a minor earthquake.   Mr. Capo, our energetic accounting teacher, stopped the lesson mid-sentence and sat down at his desk. The class fell quiet.   How did the jitters hush a class of teenagers who would usually take over if a teacher disengaged? Did the vibrations that traveled down the steel beams of the north tower, into the ground below, and up to our room carry in them the last heartbeats and agony of the souls that perished above?   The principal’s voice on the intercom broke the silence.   “We are going to shelter in place,” he said, likely not realizing that none of us knew what was going on. The top two floors of the building had windows, and he saw what we didn’t.   If it was quiet before, now it was ominous. I closed my eyes and rested my head on the desk.   The school trembled again, sharply this time. The south tower was just 500 feet from our building at 100 Trinity Place. I didn’t believe in the unseen at the time, but that tremor carried with it a cold, electric pulse of anxiety. As I kept my eyes closed, images flashed before me of feet clad in heels, and sneakers, and black leather oxfords running in terror over the polished floor of the mall beneath the towers.   I knew the spot where all these feet rushed by. I passed by it every morning with the crowd of commuters who poured out of the turnstiles from the A, C, and E trains. I had bought strawberry-banana smoothies from Mrs. Fields Pretzel Time here after school. I wonder whether the lady who worked there made it out alive.   The principal was on the intercom again. “Line up against the wall outside the classrooms,” we were told. We filed out and stood in silence with our backs to the walls. Messages crackled over the radios of the security guards, and we were told to go down the fire escape.   The stairwell had steel safety bars separating us from the outside. A surreal rain of ash and paper came down steadily, on and on. It had wafted onto the landings and the stairs.   As we came out onto Thames Street, we were met with the figure of a soot-stained, ash-covered firefighter, collapsed in a motionless heap on the curb, staring into space. After years of risking his life, after rushing into a burning skyscraper, what did he see that stunned him so? From stories from those who were near the buildings that day, I think that I know.   The teachers corralled us down Thames Street toward Greenwich Street, where the burning towers would come in full view and where I would experience what psychologists call peritraumatic dissociation and micropsia. Instead of seeing the full view of the disaster, my field of vision became a black canvas, in the center of which a tiny black-and-white television showed the footage of the towers burning. I had the sense that I could turn its controls to change the channel.   My buddy Mohammed patted me on the back and shook me out of it. I now saw the towers burning in full frame, debris snowing down, fire and smoke roaring. The school staff hustled us away, downtown on Greenwich Street toward Battery Park.   The English teacher told a group of us that this was a terrorist attack and that planes had crashed into both towers. Mohammed and I had a bright idea. We'd split from the group and go see the airplanes sticking out from the other side of the buildings. We broke off and headed to Broadway, which was abandoned except for our gym teacher, his hands on his waist.   He asked where we were going. We told him about our plan. I thought that he might join us.   He said, “You guys are [expletive] stupid.” He may have saved our lives. In roughly the amount of time it would have taken to walk to Ground Zero, the south tower collapsed.   We watched the dust wave race up Greenwich Street toward the park, and then we were engulfed, and everyone panicked. We ran into the park, feeling ahead of us as it was hard to see. The class clown, Freddy, followed another kid who crawled under a bench.   We grasped around the park until we found the river and sat there with nowhere to go to flee the cloud. As the dust settled, the Statue of Liberty rose in the distance. I had an intense fear that they would hit the statue next.   Someone said, “This is war.”   Small ships and ferries began to arrive and pick up some of the crowd stuck in the park. The only way out was by water.   Mohammed lived in Queens, and I lived uptown. None of the ships were going our way.   So we stuck around. We watched the second tower fall, and another cloud of dust engulfed the park. We made face masks out of our T-shirts. A man with a van showed up and passed out water, Band-Aids, and gauze. All of the ferries were going to New Jersey, but after a while, The Screamer, a tourist speedboat, pulled beside us and the captain asked whether we'd like to get on. I asked where they were going. The captain looked at me like I was the most ridiculous kid on Earth and said, “Chelsea Piers.” We got on.   The eight-or-so of us were all covered in the dust and ashes from the towers. The captain gave us life vests. He said he would go slow for us and steered uptown. The Screamer sailed in silence.   I walked east on 23rd Street and caught the subway home to Washington Heights.   I still remember the tears of our chemistry teacher. Before the first tower collapsed, we ran into him, a small-statured man who was passionate about his job. He was leaning against a wall with two streams of tears steadily running down his face and wetting the top half of his shirt. I asked him why he was crying. He said he'd realized that hundreds of people had died in the towers that day.   It would be a long time until my psyche let a genuine emotion like this surface. I dealt with the shock mostly in nightmares in the years that followed. When our building was dug out of the rubble six months later, I looked the other way while ducking through the crowd of gawkers who came to see the pile.   I still can’t bring myself to visit the 9/11 Memorial. I sense that when I look at the reflecting pools, I will be like my chemistry teacher for the first time. After 25 years, I feel the day has come.

Love For His People Ministry was founded in 2010 by Steve & Laurie Martin. Charlotte, NC USA

Back to Jerusalem. Soon and very soon.

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Steve Martin and David Lauka - soon and very soon.

“Be Not Caught Unaware” by Steve Martin

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​Be Not Caught Unaware

The unexpected happens. That which you “just knew” was going to happen, happened.

Were you ready? Did your foundation shake? Were you still standing when the dust had settled?

Every day dramatic and unexpected moments come about. You dread expecting them. You believed you were better prepared, but it turns out you were not.

The car accident. The tragic weather storm. The phone call from the hospital. The terrorist attack out of nowhere.

So, what do you do? What can you do?

Can we be best prepared for the news we do not want to hear or receive?

Strong foundations need to be established so that when tragedy does strike, even for “good people,” we are not caught unaware.

How can we be prepared with a solid rock to stand on?

The strongest, tallest buildings are not built over night.

When I worked uptown Charlotte, North Carolina, and a massive, tall building was being built, I was literally amazed when I looked through the peep hole in walled metal surrounding, keeping the area safe. The massive hole being dug went multiple stories down. It was incredibly deep!

The same can be said for our spiritual foundation. If a great strength, stance, and very secure position is going to be needed, as great a foundation must be in place to hold it.

“Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts on them, will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock.

And everyone who hears these words of Mine, and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. ...” Matthew 7:24-27, NASB

Happy building. Be ready, for that time will surely come.

Ahava and shalom,

Steve Martin

Love For His People Ministry was founded in 2010 by Steve & Laurie Martin. Charlotte, NC USA

“Direction - Get Some” - new book by Steve Martin

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Amazon for $5.95 paperback

Click here:  https://a.co/d/00iBJ5k9

In these times of the unexpected and the unknown, it is good to have the Solid Rock on which to stand. To have His direction, the Lord Jesus (Yeshua), and His Word is necessary for our lives these days.

Publishing life’s journey, for others to follow, has been a joy to share with you. This book contains some of what I have experienced.

A few of these messages were written while with the Christian Friends of Israel ministry team from Jerusalem; I have included them as they were sent out via email.

I hope you are blessed and encouraged, and that your walk with our Lord is strengthened in your reading time.

And…I included photos and images which I enjoyed taking and creating!

Buy now on Amazon: paperback for $5.95

Click here. https://a.co/d/0gbCJh0S

“Love Letters” by Steve Martin

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Love Letters

 

Discovering what makes you “tick”, or energizes you, may be a good indicator of your calling in the Lord. Even if you are retired and wondering, “What next, Lord?”

 

That happened to me earlier in my life (and several times since), as I was seeking the Lord and His will. But it was not easy.

 

Reading His Word; asking others for counsel and advice; receiving prophetic words…I was for sure looking for that next part of the journey as best as I knew how.

 

“What next, Lord?” had been an ongoing question.

 

In 2010, after coming back from another Israel trip, having just started Love For His People ministry, that question was foremost in my mind.

 

I am sure you too have been at that crossroads along your path before.

 

His response, which came as clearly in my mind as I again write about it here, was quick and unexpected.

 

 “Write love letters.”

 

And thus began by ongoing love for writing about Him, about what He was revealing to me, and how to encourage others.

 

I knew I wasn’t a Bible theologian. Nor was I one to stand up in front of others and expound on the 88 reasons why Jesus was coming back when others said He was. (I’ll let others do that.)

 

My task, which has become my joy, was to write words of encouragement, as if they were love letters from the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

 

And you know that has been a real joyous gift He has given me.

 

What are your gifts? Are you using them to bring about His Kingdom, share His love, reach out to a dying world?

 

He will direct your path to and with them as you ask Him to.

 

“What next, Lord?” May be your question too. So, keep asking Him until He shows you.

 

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.” 2 Corinthians 13:14, NASB

 

Ahava and shalom

Steve Martin

Ai and Tbe Beast - Lance Wallnau & Ben Petersen

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Photos and images. Steve Martin

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Some photos and images. Good stuff.

Steve Martin

“Remember” by Steve Martin

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Remember

 

Most of our memories from “way back when” are good ones. The ones we cherish and look to as guideposts and solid rocks on which our lives were shaped and refined.

Those “markers” in days gone by when we lived the moment, and we swore we would never forget them, are good memories. 

“Keepers” for the future to tell our children and grands. (My son Ben often says, “That’s a good memory” after a new one has been completed.)

In May 2023, nine of us from our home group and beyond went on a journey overseas. In time it became known as the “Nine By Design,” as together we traveled the land where Jesus (Yeshua) walked. In this the Land and nation of Israel, we saw and remembered what He did and still does.

By all accounts, out of the mouths of the bonded  friends, “that was a good memory” as we reflect on that trip past.

“I shall remember the deeds of the Lord; I will certainly remember Your wonders of old.” Psalm 77:11 NASB

Often our Father’s Word encourages us to remember. Sometimes it is even a command, for He knows we best not forget His promises, His provision, His ongoing faithfulness in our lives. Because of Who He is, and our need for Him daily.

“Since God us assured us, I’ll never let you down, never walk off and leave you,” we can boldly quote, God is there, ready to help; I’m fearless no matter what. Who or what can get to me?” Hebrews 13, The Message

Give some time to meditate on what the Lord has done, for you, your family, your nation. If you do not end up with a “Thank You, Lord” in your spirit, then you have not thought long enough.

Ahava and shalom,

Steve Martin

Time To Return by Steve Martin

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Aug. 27, 2026 Greetings once again from Charlotte, North Carolina. I first want to thank Moses Julius, Light TV in Pakistan, for publishing my book BACK TO JERUSALEM in the Muslim country. He sent me three copies. (Photo above.) On September 15, David Lauka and I begin our return trip to Jerusalem, Israel. We will have six weeks with Christian Friends of Israel, bringing comfort to the nation as the Lord gives us the ongoing opportunity.  If you would also like to bless the people there in this time of their need, all contributions are appreciated. (Donate below by going to our website. Thanks!) As time quickly speeds on, in the years ahead, I want to focus more on and in Israel, especially as the nations continue to turn away, including the USA. We must stand strong alongside our Jewish friends. I will continue sending these messages from Jerusalem on this 31st trip for me, along with more updates posted on our website, LOVE FOR HIS PEOPLE.  And of course I will be uploading new WALK WITH ME videos as I have always done previously. Yeah Lord! Our younger generations especially need to know and walk in the truth. It is our job to lead them. In line with this, my newest book, BACK TO BASICS, was published this week. (See below.) Ahava and shalom, Steve Martin P.S. Photo below: The Christian Friends of Israel Jerusalem team heads home this week after three months in the USA having had numerous meetings in several states.(I like my ChatGPT rendition I did below.) P.S.S. Please share these messages with others. I am thankful as you do. Steve’s newest book, BACK TO BASICS, published August 2026. Everything that is to last a long time needs to have a firm foundation to hold during the times of pressure and uncertainty. Life is no exception. And humanity received that solid rock on which to stand when Moses was given the tablets of stone with life’s directives to take to the people. We all want to enjoy having the good things in life, and often do that which is good, or not so good, to achieve that goal. But what if we sought the One who created us to find out what His thoughts are, what His ways were meant to be, and to actually walk in the chosen path He ordained for each of us to follow? I personally think we might discover the best way to live and find real purpose in discovering and walking out His perfect plan and purposes for you and me. These messages, drawn from decades of walking with my Lord Jesus,will help to encourage you to get on the path that He, the Lord Jesus Christ, Yeshua HaMashiach, specifically created for you to also walk on. Life has purpose. Life has meaning. If we look to the Creator, we will know what that is. Enjoy the reading, and seek the Living God in all His ways. You will surely be rewarded for it, now and forever, amen. Buy now on Amazon: BACK TO BASICS For more and to subscribe visit our website LOVE FOR HIS PEOPLE Love For His People Ministry | 12120 Woodside Falls Road  | Pineville, NC 28134 US