(Rockwall) September 8, 2013 – All of us have one appointment we try to delay as long as possible. But death will one day arrive at our doorstep—or come to us in some less hospitable place.
Sujo John had no thoughts of dying as he travelled to work in Manhattan one beautiful morning, though he did contemplate his life’s purpose. He felt blessed to have a good job after emigrating from India just six months earlier. He enjoyed working at the World Trade Center along with his wife, Mary. And a further blessing: they expected their first child. Yet he was conflicted. He’d done nothing to respond to the call that he knew God had placed on his life.
Arriving at his North Tower office that September day in 2001, the young businessman expressed his uncertainties in an e-mail to a church friend. Then he began to work, until a horrific explosion left his 81st floor in view of a crater filled with twisted steel, spewing smoke and fire.
Sujo John descended the stairwell to more horrors on the ground. Then, as he headed toward Mary’s building, the ground beneath him shook as her 110-storySouthTowerbegan to collapse.
Though Sujo experienced peace concerning death, he thought of those around him, huddled near the building. He told them to call on the name of Jesus if they did not know Him. As boulders and steel rained down, he and all the others cried out, “Jesus!”
In three-foot-deep soot and glass, Sujo got to his feet, unharmed, but surrounded by death. He trudged toward a flashing ambulance light. And theNorthTowercame down behind him.
Sujo and Mary survived 9-11. She had been late for work, still on the subway train at the first explosion. Their story went viral after Sujo shared it in e-mails the next day. Both Christian and secular media contacted him for interviews. On Friday, the 14th, he spoke at his church, and saw 86 people come to trust in Christ.
The couple surrendered to God’s plan for their lives that tragic day. Within three months they both quit their job. Sujo John Ministries now points unbelievers to Christ and urges Christians to live with eternity in view.
During evangelistic trips toIndia, Sujo John became aware of the plight of many thousands of sex workers and their children living within a 1.5 mile stretch of road inNew Delhi. In 2010 he founded YOUCANFREE.US, to rescue and rehabilitate victims of human trafficking. This ministry runs a licensed “safe house” for women in that city.
Sujo John and his family now live in the Dallasarea, where a 2nd Annual 5K Run for Freedom will benefit the rescue ministry. The event is planned for September 28, 2013 in Flower Mound. Visit .sujojohn.com and youcanfree.us for more information.
By Blue Ribbon News special contributor Patti Richter of Heath. Patti is a journalist who writes news and feature stories, book reviews and more for Christian publications.
Read more by Patti Richter:
Does your faith travel?
Mother of the Graduate
The God who heals
Not forgetting the least of these
Beholding wonders
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