09/05/2026
On a crisp September morning, Stanley Praimnath left for work as he did every day. A church elder, faith was the anchor of his life. Yet before stepping out the door that morning, he felt led to pray an unusually specific prayer, asking God repeatedly to cover his family and bring them home safely. Stanley worked on the 81st floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center. After the North Tower was struck, he initially attempted to leave, but was advised the South Tower was secure. Returning to his desk at 9:03 a.m., he looked out the window and saw a Boeing 767 flying directly toward him at eye level.
In that terrifying moment, Stanley uttered a simple prayer: "Lord, I can't do this—you take over." He dove beneath his desk just as the plane impacted his floor. The explosion tore through his office, trapping him in darkness, fire, and rubble. Remarkably, his desk remained standing, shielding him. Beneath it lay his Bible. Injured and struggling to breathe, Stanley cried out: "Lord, send somebody to help me." God answered through Brian Clark, a fire warden descending from a higher floor with a flashlight. Hearing a voice crying for help, Brian paused his escape and crawled through the debris. Seeing Stanley’s hand reaching through a hole in the wreckage, Brian pulled him free. Together, they navigated the darkened stairwells, reaching safety moments before the tower collapsed. Stanley remains the only known person to survive from the South Tower's direct impact zone. In the years following, Stanley wrestled with a lingering question: Why me? He found peace in Psalm 91: "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty."Stanley realized that God’s presence does not guarantee an absence of tragedy in this broken world, but it guarantees that we are never abandoned. In our darkest moments, when we cannot save ourselves, God is there—often reaching out to us through the hands of a neighbor.
P RAYER REQUESTS
Gary Markle, Verona Brahmin, Dennis Suggs (Betty’s son), John Kinney, Laurie Miller (hospitalized), Mary Fox, Shirley Davis, Jill & Jeff Hanson, the Minger family, Jewel Allen, & our West Oaks Academy’s teachers, students, and administrators. Pray also for our Pastor, our President, soldiers, and the Peace of Jerusalem.
DID YOU KNOW?
Shirley Davis is recovering and rehabbing from a successful knee operation. We miss her on our singing and worship team.
Gary Markle is healing from his surgery.
Labor Day is tomorrow, September 7th.
Our 25th anniversary of 9/11 is this Friday. "Victim 0001" Was a Shepherd on the Front Lines FDNY Chaplain Father Mychal Judge rushed directly into the rubble of the North Tower to pray over victims and minister to first responders. Moments after giving last rites to a fallen firefighter in the lobby, he was killed by falling debris. When his body was recovered, he was assigned the designation "Victim 0001," making the first official casualty of the attacks a minister of God who died directly serving others.
343 firefighters, 71 law enforcement officers, and 55 military personnel laid down their lives on September 11. Their sacrificial courage stands as a living demonstration of John 15:13: "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends." They ran into burning buildings to save strangers, mirroring the selfless heart of Christ.
BITS AND PIECES
• "God gave us two ears and one mouth so we could listen twice as much as we speak.
• "Be quick to listen and slow to speak, mostly because being slow to listen makes you quick to look foolish."
• "Listening is a lot like tithing: it works best when you actually give 100% of your attention instead of keeping back a portion."
• "Loving your neighbor as yourself includes giving them your full bandwidth, not just waiting for your turn to broadcast."
• "Before you offer to be the light of the world in someone’s life, try turning down your own volume."
