Verizon Worker Recounts Her 9/11 Conversation With UA Flight 93 Hero (Todd Beamer)

Agape Press ^ | 9/11/06 | Allie Martin

[wagglebee]

(AgapePress) - As the nation remembers and reflects on the five-year anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, one woman recalls how God prepared her for a pivotal role in the event. On that fateful morning, Lisa Jefferson was the Verizon supervisor on duty who spoke with United Airlines Flight 93 passenger Todd Beamer during the final moments of that flight.

The Boeing 757-222 from which Beamer called that that day was one of the four planes hijacked as part of the September 11, 2001 attacks -- the only one of the four aircraft that failed to reach its intended target. Instead, Flight 93 crashed in an empty field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, about 150 miles from Washington, DC, after passengers and flight crew members intervened in a heroic but ultimately fatal effort to subdue the terrorists.

It was just moments after Jefferson and her staff learned of the terrorist plot that she took the call from Beamer. "I told him, 'My name is Mrs. Jefferson, and I understand your plane is being hijacked,'" the Verizon supervisor recalls. And for the next 15 minutes, she says she prayed with Beamer and listened as the tragedy in the air unfolded.

"The plane took another dive," Jefferson notes, "and you could hear the commotion in the background. I heard men crying and screaming, 'Oh, my God. Jesus help us.' The commotion is something I will never ever forget." Then, she recounts, she heard Beamer and others discussing a plan to take back the plane from the terrorists.

"The last thing I heard from him was, 'Are you ready,' the mobile company worker remembers. "He was speaking to someone else, and he said, 'Okay.' He said, 'Let's roll.'"

Jefferson details that phone call, and how God has allowed her to use her recollections of the events of that day as a witnessing tool in a book titled Called (Northfield Publishers, 2006). One of the messages of the book, she explains, is that believers must be available and prepared for the time when they may be called upon to live out their faith in some unexpected way.

"God has an assignment for you that only you can fulfill," the author asserts. "God put me in the role of being an 'ear witness' to the bravery of the men and women on Flight 93," she says, "and the reason I wrote Called is because I believe any one of us can find ourselves in a similar situation, where we may be called upon to do something extraordinary when we least expect it."

Days after the terror attacks, the woman who found herself on the receiving end of Beamer's fateful 9/11 phone call was able to share crucial details of the hijacking with authorities and to share the heroic passenger's final thoughts with his wife. However, the Verizon worker had no way of knowing when she came to work that morning what a pivotal role she would be playing in the tragedy and drama of the day's events.

In the same way, Jefferson points out, any Christian may find herself or himself surprised by a special assignment from God. "But the question is, are we ready to respond to whatever it is that God has planned for us," she says.

[wagglebee]

In the same way, Jefferson points out, any Christian may find herself or himself surprised by a special assignment from God. "But the question is, are we ready to respond to whatever it is that God has planned for us," she says.

Amen.

[wagglebee]

Special September 11 Ping.

[glorgau]

Lets roll.

Now and forever part of the American lexicon.

[kellynch]

Ms. Jefferson's comments remind me of what struck me most about the film "United 93."

We saw the terrorists praying -- since no subtitles were used during their prayers, I can only imagine they were praying for the strength to kill themselves and everyone else on that plane. We also saw the Americans praying. They were reciting the Lord's Prayer -- a prayer that asks God to give us the strength to forgive those who trespass against us.

While I don't know if the Americans on board actually did recite the Lord's Prayer, the very fact that the man (who proudly proclaims himself to be a liberal) who made the movie had the characters do it shows the basic difference between Muslims and those of us who practice the Judeo/Christian faiths. Those of us who are Christians and Jews know that our religions don't require that we kill ourselves or others to prove our devotion; they do, however, require that we treat others the way we want to be treated and that we forgive those who treat us badly despite the way we treat them.

[wagglebee]

This Verizon operator said the Lord's Prayer with Todd Beamer and it is on tape, it's undeniable.

[TASMANIANRED]

If you look at the actions that emanate from their religion...Muslims worship Satan.

[ladyinred]

God Bless this woman. She is also a heroine of 911.

[the_Watchman]

Mordecai's advice to Esther:

Esther 4:14 For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” [ESV]

[Psycho_Bunny]

That movie was stunning.

[the invisib1e hand]

*sigh* I know it's not supposed to be thought of as a plug for a book but...

[the invisib1e hand]

Today I attended the Memorial Mass at St. Peter's by Ground Zero.

The thought kept occuring to me about what makes us different than our enemies. It's the homilies.

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

Those of us who are Christians and Jews know that our religions don't require that we kill ourselves or others to prove our devotion;

Similiar to what I've been saying since 9-11. The difference between Islam and Judeo-Christian culture/values is that in Islam it is the highest deed kill youreself so as to kill other persons. In our culture it is considered the highest deed to sacrifice oneself to save others.

[KoRn]

Lets Roll!!!

[PleaseNoMore]

That's my favorite scripture.

[Finny]

Glued to the television on 9/11 and the days following, I was fortunate enough to catch an interview with Lisa Jefferson, and of all the televised things I saw in that period, including the towers falling on live TV, the second plane on live TV, all of it -- the interview with Mrs. Jefferson touched me the most. She was so incredibly calm, serene, dignified, eloquent and understated in describing the phone conversation, and it struck me how clearly God's hand was showing.

Here were two strangers, a black woman and a white man, hundreds of miles and a world apart, finding comfort and strength together in the midst of incredible tragic drama, and showing how little things like race and distance are meaningless in the real world. It was so utterly ... AMERICAN!!!

I wept during the interview and they were not tears of sadness, but tears of joy, gratitude, and pride that I am of the same human race as the likes of Lisa Jefferson, and that I share the same world as she. She brought strength to more than Todd Beamer that day. Of everything that happened on 9/11, for me personally, Mrs. Jefferson's role was the most profoundly memorable in that it encapsulated the whole event. God bless her, as surely He blessed us with her presence on that day.

[kellynch]

Which church is St. Peter's? I know St. Paul's, but I don't know St. Peter's. Is that the church between 60 Centre and the Municipal Building?

[bootless]

The difference between Islam and Judeo-Christian culture/values is that in Islam it is the highest deed kill youreself so as to kill other persons. In our culture it is considered the highest deed to sacrifice oneself to save others.

That's so true.

[little jeremiah]

Awesome, thanks for posting this. I'd like to read her book.

[Christian4Bush]

Today I attended the Memorial Mass at St. Peter's by Ground Zero. The thought kept occuring to me about what makes us different than our enemies. It's the homilies.

Slightly off-topic, but a local talk show host in Los Angeles (Bill Handel, KFI) said that it's curious how there was no 5 a.m. mass today on the anniversary of 9/11 (at Los Angeles's Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels),..but there sure was one at 5 a.m. on the "Day Without Illegals".

[sgtyork]

Amen.