{"id":15887,"date":"2017-09-11T07:43:11","date_gmt":"2017-09-11T11:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=15887"},"modified":"2017-09-11T07:49:49","modified_gmt":"2017-09-11T11:49:49","slug":"monday-morning-moment-remembering-911-and-the-day-before-a-story-of-god-and-a-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=15887","title":{"rendered":"Monday Morning Moment – Remembering 9\/11 – and the Day Before – a Story of God and a Girl"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Genessa<\/a><\/p>\n

[From the Archives]<\/p>\n

Today marks the 16th anniversary of the 9\/11 bombings in the US, and we all have our stories of where we were when we heard that terrible news. I heard the news as an elevator door opened in a hospital emergency room in Cairo, Egypt.<\/strong> The surgeon watching for us to deliver the patient walking into the elevator, saying, \u201cI am so, so sorry.\u201d I thought he was referring to the precious one on the stretcher beside me, so small and injured from a terrible bus accident the day before. It turns out he was talking about the news that traveled instantly from the States about the bombings. I\u2019d like to go back to the day before. For us, it would help to go there, before I can ever process the grief of this day that we all share.<\/p>\n

It was like any other Monday, that bright, warm September 10th in Cairo, Egypt\u2026until the phone call. Janna was on the other end of the call, telling me that Genessa and April had been in a bus accident on the Sinai. April had called her and relayed their location, at a hospital in Sharm el-Sheikh. These were girls in our Middle Eastern Studies Program, and they were finishing their time with us, taking a vacation together. They would re-trace some of their experiences in Bedouin villages across the Sinai and then enjoy a few days on the Red Sea. They were to return that Monday, traveling in on one of the over-night buses across the desert.<\/p>\n

Details will have to wait for another time, but with this information, my husband, Dave, left immediately with Janna and a local Egyptian friend who was also one of our language coaches. He took these two women because of their relationship with\u00a0each other and\u00a0with all of us. He also understood that there were two injured friends hours away in a hospital who would need women to minister to their needs. I would be praying and on the phone the rest of the day with families, other friends, US Embassy people, and\u00a0our other young people\u00a0in\u00a0the program. I can\u2019t begin to describe the emotional nature of that day\u2026not knowing, hoping, praying.<\/p>\n

When Dave and our friends arrived at the hospital, he was directed to April. She had painful, serious injuries, but none life-threatening, praise God. Then he was escorted into the critical care area to see Genessa. To his horror, it wasn\u2019t Genessa. It was another young woman, unconscious \u2013 an Italian tourist, who rode in the same ambulance with April. April, lucid and still able to communicate, had tried to comfort her on that long dark ride to the hospital. Personal belongings were all scrambled at the wreck site, and the authorities made the\u00a0mistakened decision that because April was speaking to her, she was Genessa.<\/p>\n

Then Dave went on the search for our dear one\u2026somewhere else in the Sinai. He back-tracked toward the site of the accident, checking other hospitals where other injured were taken. At this point, he was also talking to US Embassy staff, as he drove through the desert. Just shortly before he arrived at the hospital where he would find Genessa, the staff person told him they confirmed her identification from a credit card she had in her pocket\u2026in the morgue of that small village hospital.<\/p>\n

Dave and Janna, that friend who received the first phone call, stood\u00a0beside this precious girl\u2019s body, to make the formal identification\u2026to know for sure that this was Genessa. And it was\u2026and yet not. She, the luminous, laughing, loving girl we knew, was gone. It was more than any of us who loved her could take in on that\u00a0Monday evening in Cairo, Egypt\u2026the day before 9\/11.<\/p>\n

\"Genessa<\/a><\/p>\n

As they left the hospital to return to April, two more friends joined them from Cairo to help. For any of you who have been completely spent in every way by such a day, you can understand what it was for them to look up and see Matt and Richard getting out of a car. God in His great goodness alerted them, stirred their hearts to drive all those hours\u2026and then to arrive\u2026just when they were most needed. So many arrangements had to be made\u2026and most importantly, at that moment, to get April back safely and quickly to Cairo for surgery.<\/p>\n

She came into Cairo on a plane near the middle of the day of 9\/11. By the time we got her from the airport in an ambulance to the specialty hospital to get the further care she needed, a series of horrific events had begun taking place in the US. We would hear of them from this caring Egyptian surgeon\u2026who had no idea how numb we were from losing Genessa and how concerned we were that April got what she needed as soon as possible. We were already so drenched by grief, this unfathomable news about the bombings washed over us without understanding the scope of it\u2026the pain of it\u2026for all the rest of America.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Later in that day, with April receiving the best care possible, and me watching by her side, I could take in some of the loss coming at us on the small t.v. mounted in the hospital room. Egyptians were telling us how so, so sorry they were for us (as Americans). If they only knew, they were our mourners for our loss of Genessa, too. In the din of world-changing news, and a country brought together in grief\u2026we grieved, too, a continent away\u2026for the losses of 9\/11 and the day before.<\/p>\n

That was 16 years ago\u2026April healed from her injuries (only she and God know what all that took on the inside), the other young people in our program have gone on to careers and families across the US and around the world. We have also gone on\u2026back to the US for now, and to other work.<\/p>\n

Two things have not changed\u2026a beautiful girl, who fell asleep by the window of a bus in the Sinai night and woke up in Heaven\u2026 and\u00a0the God who welcomed her Home.<\/strong> There is so much, much, more to this story, but I have to close with this. As her family back in the US were pulling the pieces of their lives back together, and going through Genessa\u2019s things, they found a little cassette player on her bed\u2026there left by her, two years before, as she left for Cairo. In it was a cassette where she\u2019d made a tape of her singing one of her favorite songs, I Long for the Day<\/em>, by Dennis Jernigan. If we look at Genessa\u2019s life through the lens of some American dream, then we would think how tragic to die so young, so full of promise. Look through the lens of how much she loved God, and knowing Him was what mattered most to her\u2026and all who knew her knew His love through her.<\/p>\n

This God\u2026and this girl.\u00a0 \"Genessa\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>I Long for the Day by Dennis Jernigan<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

I long for the day when the Lord comes and takes me away!<\/p>\n

Whether by death or if You come for me on a horse so white<\/p>\n

And anyway You come will be alright with me<\/p>\n

I long to just hear You said, \u201cNow is the time. Won\u2019t you come away?\u201d<\/p>\n

And I\u2019ll take Your hand, surrendering completely to You that day!<\/p>\n

And no, I can\u2019t contain the joy that day will bring!<\/p>\n

Chorus:<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I get to see You face to face<\/p>\n

When I can finally put sight to the Voice I\u2019ve embraced<\/p>\n

It will be worth all the waiting for that one moment I\u2019ll be celebrating You!<\/p>\n

When I get to feel Your hand in mine<\/p>\n

When I can finally be free from this prison called time<\/p>\n

When You say, \u201cChild, I\u2019ve been waiting for this one moment of celebrating, too!<\/p>\n

For this one moment of celebrating you!\u201d<\/p>\n

O Lord, while I wait, I will cling to each word that You say.<\/p>\n

So speak to my heart; Your voice is life to me, be it night or day.<\/p>\n

And anything You say will be alright with me.<\/p>\n

You see my heart\u2019s greatest need<\/p>\n

You and me, walking intimately.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re my only love, and I am waiting patiently for Your call.<\/p>\n

When You call me to Your side eternally.<\/p>\n

(Chorus Repeat)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lord, I celebrate You!<\/p>\n

Forever with You! No crying there.<\/p>\n

Forever with You! No burden; no more worldly cares.<\/p>\n

My heart is anticipating eternally with you celebrating You!<\/p>\n

Forever with You I long to be;<\/p>\n

Forever worshipping, knowing You intimately!<\/p>\n

When You say, \u201cChild, no more waiting\u201d [No more waiting, children]<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll spend forever just celebrating You.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll see all my loved ones gone before<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll get to be with them, laugh with them, hold them once more<\/p>\n

There\u2019ll be no more separating! [No separating]<\/p>\n

Together we will be celebrating You!<\/p>\n

Together we\u2019ll worship You and sing.<\/p>\n

Forever praising Lord Jesus, our Savior and King.<\/p>\n

When You say, \u201cChild, no more waiting\u201d [No more waiting, children]<\/p>\n

Enter your rest, and start celebrating, too.<\/p>\n

Forever Lord, I\u2019ll be celebrating You.<\/p>\n

Chorus Repeat:<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I get to see You face to face<\/p>\n

When I can finally put sight to the Voice I\u2019ve embraced<\/p>\n

It will be worth all the waiting for that one moment of celebrating You!<\/p>\n

When I get to feel Your hand in mine<\/p>\n

When I can finally be free from this prison called time<\/p>\n

When You say, \u201cChild, I\u2019ve been waiting for this one moment of celebrating, too!<\/p>\n

For this one moment of celebrating you!\u201d<\/p>\n

Dennis Jernigan, from the album I Belong to Jesus (Volume 2)<\/em><\/p>\n