The morning newscast crackled in the air while those in the Administration Department upstairs in Founders started their work.
Geoffrey Edling, PHC’s Office Manager (now Mail Center Manager), was entering data into a computer when he blinked, realizing he'd missed something important. Some announcement on the radio about a plane crashing into… a tower? What plane? Where? The Sears Tower in Chicago? That’s nuts. Those things stick way up into the air. How are you going to miss a building that high? He thought.
That was when the office began rumbling with voices, all talking about one of the Twin Towers being hit.
Now, no one was even remotely listening to the radio anymore. “Go make sure everyone knows,” someone said to Marian.
Halfway out of the building, she ran into Dr. Michael P. Ferris, the Founder and then President of PHC. “Make sure everyone’s awake. Tell them to gather in the Dining Hall (now the Library Study Center). We need to be in prayer,” he said.
In the dining hall, everyone split up into groups, kneeling on the floor, arms around each other, praying, crying, and comforting.
It was not long after that, with tears in his eyes, Dr. Faris stood on the little elevated area at the front of the room to announce that the second Twin Tower had been hit and that America was under attack.
They kept praying.
Somebody with a guitar took a stand on the platform and started playing worship songs. Everyone began singing their hearts out to God and asking Him to help.
She was one of the students who somehow called her parents even though phone lines were jammed and the internet was out. She left on their answering machine the staticky recording, “I'm sure that you've heard what's going on. I’m sorry I missed you. It's pretty scary here, but we're all doing okay. I love you, and I'm praying for you. God is helping me. I'll call you back as soon as I can.”
It was a huge blur of a day, supporting each other and running to God, while not knowing what would happen next in America.
Many students were at PHC for the Government major, to directly spend their lives in conscious service to their country and community. That day, the students fulfilled that calling through prayer.
“Prayer was the most powerful thing that we could do,” Edling said. “I've wondered if that's the reason those brave people took over the flight that crashed in Pennsylvania instead of the White House or Congress.”
“I'm so grateful that I experienced that day surrounded by people who shared an eternal compass. Fear and uncertainty drove us all collectively more toward God and each other,” Marian said.
Photo credit for banner image and pictures in body text: U.S. Customs and Border Protection / Andrea Booher
Patrick Henry College exists to glorify God by challenging the status quo in higher education, lifting high both faith and reason within a rigorous academic environment; thereby preserving for posterity the ideals behind the "noble experiment in ordered liberty" that is the foundation of America.