On the morning of September 11, 2001, Sujo John arrived for work on the 81st floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
It was, at first, an ordinary Tuesday morning in New York City.
But for John, something had already begun stirring in his heart.
Just one day earlier, he had found himself wrestling with his faith, his priorities and the direction of his life. He remembers sensing God telling him, “I don’t need your money. I need your heart.”
Then, at 8:05 the next morning, sitting inside the World Trade Center, John sent an email to someone at his church.
“I know there’s a call of God upon my life,” he wrote. “I’ve been chasing stuff. I need to chase what is on God’s heart.”
About 40 minutes later, everything changed.
Listen to the entire conversation between Crystal Thornton and Sujo John in the Podcast below
When the Tower Was Hit
American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower at 8:46 a.m.
John remembers the explosion, the building moving and fire breaking out around him.
At first, he and the people around him did not understand what had happened. They assumed a smaller aircraft must have accidentally struck the building.
Then they began searching for a stairwell.
Thousands of people were making their way down.
John was among them.
But while he was descending 81 floors, another thought consumed him.
His wife, Mary, worked on the 71st floor of the South Tower.
She was also four months pregnant.
That morning, because of her pregnancy, Mary had left home later than John. She had already told him she was on her way to work.
Then another explosion came.
United Airlines Flight 175 had struck the South Tower.
John did not know that at the time. He only knew something else had happened, and he feared his wife was inside.
The Men Who Were Going Up
As thousands rushed down the stairwell trying to escape, John remembers seeing firefighters and first responders moving in the opposite direction.
They were going up.
Twenty-five years later, those faces remain with him.
“We had seen fire on almost every floor by then,” John told K-LOVE. “We had no idea that these brave men were literally walking up to their death.”
To John, their sacrifice remains one of the defining images of September 11.
“They showed the world what this country is made up of,” he said, remembering the men and women willing to put their own lives at risk so strangers could live.
For John, their actions also carried a deeper spiritual meaning.
“They were living out what is said in the Bible, ‘Greater love has no man than he who lays down his life for his friend.’”
And in those firefighters running toward danger, John sees a picture of Jesus.
“Just like those men raced up those towers, Jesus is right there wanting to pull us out of the debris that we find ourselves in.”
Finding Jesus in the Rubble
John eventually made it out of the North Tower.
But he still did not know where Mary was.
He began moving toward the South Tower searching for her.
Then it collapsed.
John remembers believing he might die.
Surrounded by debris, fear and uncertainty, his thoughts went back to the moment he had accepted Jesus as a teenager.
“I felt the Lord saying, ‘If you die, you’re going to make it to heaven.’”
Then John looked around at the people huddled near him.
Another question came into his mind.
Where were they going if they died?
John began praying and calling out to Jesus with the people around him.
He says something changed inside him.
Fear gave way to peace.
Twenty-five years later, John believes that lesson extends far beyond September 11.
“Everyone has a building or something that’s collapsed,” he said. “Maybe someone’s going through something right now and you don’t need an intellectual answer for what you’re going through right now. What you need is comfort that comes from Jesus.”
John says the power of the Gospel is that Jesus does not remain distant from human suffering.
“He came right into our brokenness,” John said. “Jesus understands your tears because He wept.”
The Phone Call He Thought Might Never Come
Hours passed.
John believed Mary was dead.
Mary believed her husband was dead.
Then John’s cell phone rang.
It was Mary.
Her life had been spared.
She had been delayed on her way into the World Trade Center by just a few minutes. Her train stopped before reaching the towers, and when she emerged, she saw the devastation unfolding.
A woman nearby grabbed the pregnant Mary and urged her to get to safety.
“You have to live for this child you’re carrying,” John recalled the woman telling her.
Their unborn child survived too.
Today, that child is an adult.
For John, the story of September 11 became not simply a story of what he lost or nearly lost, but a question he would wrestle with for years:
Why did I survive?
“Why Am I Still Here?”
In the weeks following 9/11, John remembers hearing church bells and seeing funeral processions.
Some of the people who had helped save his life did not survive.
Survivor’s guilt was real.
But over time, John says God began answering his question through the life he was being given the opportunity to live.
He began sharing his testimony around the world.
People came to faith.
And eventually, another encounter changed the direction of his life again.
While visiting a red-light district in India, John brought roses to women trapped in exploitation.
One woman grabbed him.
“If you really care about me, get me out of here,” she told him.
John remembers immediately feeling overwhelmed by the enormity and danger of what she was asking.
Then he sensed God reminding him of his own story.
“You were physically rescued and you were spiritually rescued, and that’s the mission.”
John returned to the United States convinced God was calling him to act.
He founded You Can Free Us, an organization devoted to rescuing women and children from human trafficking, helping survivors heal and working to reach vulnerable children before traffickers do.
John says hundreds of lives have been transformed through the ministry, while nearly 1,000 vulnerable children are currently receiving education, life skills and support through its prevention work.
The man who once walked down 81 floors searching for freedom now spends his life helping others find theirs.
God Does Not Waste the Broken Places
For John, September 11 will always carry grief.
Nothing erases what happened that day.
But he believes tragedy does not have to have the final word.
“God will not allow that tragedy to go to waste,” John said. “God can redeem that.”
That is the message he wants to offer anyone facing their own “before and after” moment, whether it is the death of someone they love, illness, betrayal, loss, addiction or a future that suddenly looks nothing like the one they planned.
John does not promise easy answers.
In fact, he says answers may not be what hurting people need most.
“You need a comforter,” he said. “And that comforter is Jesus.”
Then, when the time comes, John encourages people to allow God to use the places where they have hurt to help someone else who is hurting.
“The very thing that caused you pain, there are others going through that pain,” he said. “Begin to love on people that are going through the same thing that you’ve been through.”
Twenty-five years after September 11, Sujo John still carries the memories of the World Trade Center.
But he also carries the evidence of what can happen after the worst day of your life.
The rubble did not become the end of his story.
It became the place where another chapter began.
And for John, that is still the hope of the Gospel:
God can step into what was broken, redeem what was meant for evil and give purpose to the life that remains.
Learn more about You Can Free Us here.
I’m Crystal Thornton for K-LOVE God Stories, where every story points back to the one who changes everything.