As part of the marketing department for a telecommunications company in New York City, Sujo John had etched out a part of the American Dream for himself in the beginning of the decade. Originally from Calcutta, India, John worked near his wife on the 81st floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. His wife, who was pregnant with their son at the time, worked on the 71st floor of the South Tower.
As with many Americans, John’s and his wife’s lives changed on Sept. 11, 2001 with the most devastating terrorist attack on United States soil. Now both live in Dallas and John has begun an evangelical ministry that finds him touring around the country to give speeches and working with outreach organizations.
The speech that he will deliver this Wednesday, “Out of the Ashes of the World Trade Center,” John hopes to share with Virginia Tech what happened to him in, during and after the events at the World Trade Center, and how this has transformed his life.
John spoke with the Collegiate Times over the phone days before his speech.
CT: Can you briefly describe the events of that day?
JOHN: It was a beautiful day on the East Coast; it looked like the start of a normal day. At 8:48 a.m. I’m standing by the fax machine and sending some documents out to our office in Pennsylvania when I hear this incredible explosion, and this was American flight 11 that was flying from Boston to L.A. This huge plane had crashed into our tower. The plane struck a few floors above us, but all the debris of the plane tears into our floors, fire broke out, jet fuel spreading throughout floors, the building was shaking. We thought we were going
to die.
It took me more than an hour to come down 81 floors to get down to the lowest level and see all these people jumping out of buildings. The engine of the plane was flying right into the plaza. I decided to walk to the South Tower to look for my wife, and in a way, that is where my story begins. I’m 20 feet away from the building and the South Tower is collapsing. I was looking for my wife, and I was huddled with 15 to 20 people; we knew we were going to die. All kinds of soot, stuff, glass, debris was falling around, and I was there for 15 to 20 minutes. And afterward, I was surprised I was alive. Trying to get up and plastered with soot and glass, I could not breathe. The people that were with me, I got an opportunity to challenge them to pray with me, and we had kind of scattered from that group, they were all dead. There was one man alive who was an FBI agent, and we both helped each other and saw red lights flashing through the smoke and soot. That light was a flashing light coming out of an ambulance. That light what was actually what saved my life. He could have stayed with me, but he went back saying, “I got to go back and get more people.” So he runs toward the North Tower. The North Tower collapsed and he died that day. He was actually the only FBI agent that died.
I spent many hours in NYC saying, “God, why don’t you spare my life? I’m sure my wife is dead,” because the towers didn’t exist anymore. But little did I know that my wife was late to work by two minutes.
CT: What actually went though your mind when all of this began?
JOHN: When it began, we had no idea that it was a terrorist attack. I thought it was a small plane that had crashed into the building. I had no idea it would be a jet plane. I couldn’t even fathom the magnitude of what was going on around us.
My thoughts were definitely with my wife (who was) four months pregnant, going through a really hard pregnancy. So if she has made her way to the building, then there is no way she will come down. I thought of my wife, the child she was carrying, my parents from India that were probably watching the whole thing on TV.
But when the building started collapsing, for the first time in my life I was confronted with the reality of my mortality. I had never thought about death before, and now I realize I could be dying. And what I realized that day was you can chase stuff, and you can chase success and you can have it all, but then one day when you leave this world you’re going to leave it all behind. The only thing that you can take with you, and for me — I say this because of my close relationship with Jesus — is your faith. So faith was definitely very important for me that day and that’s what really helped me pull through.
CT: What was it like when you got that phone call from your wife and you realized that she was alive?
JOHN: That was the most unbelievable call. I had given up hope on her. She had given up hope on me. What was so crazy was, when she called I said, “Hello.” She heard my voice, but her first words to me were, “Babe, are you alive?” That kind of explains what we thought had happened to each other. That was just a miraculous thing when I heard her voice because of everything that had happened. It was surreal. It was amazing how God had spared her life a minute early. If she had been on time she would have been gone. It was just amazing to know that God spared her life. God spared my life and the child she was carrying.
CT: Did you have any friends or close colleagues who did not escape?
JOHN: The story of the folks on my floor from my company is amazing. Ours is the only company to have survived from that; everyone survived from that height. I didn’t lose any co-workers, although we had several that died on our floor. But, I knew a lot of other folks, people that would run into the World Trade Center, people that would ride the trains with me, so there were definitely people that I knew.
When you think about what happened on 9/11, and you think about issues like what goes on with war and so many terrorist attacks, it just brings it all back for me because whenever there is an unnatural death, whether it’s caused by terrorism or an earthquake, it’s just honoring people who go to work in the morning, not anticipating that they’re facing death that day, and suddenly getting caught up, gone and separated from their loved ones forever. So going through the experience has given me a lot more compassion for people who go through stuff. We all have stories. My story is about a building collapsing, but we all have stories. Young and old, every human being has a story. What is important right in the middle of our stories is finding purpose, a reason to be waking up when you’re going through the roughest phase in your life. And that’s kind of my mission, to challenge people to examine where they are in their journey of life. We are all in this journey, and it’s a spiritual journey. In this spiritual journey, as we deal with the stuff around us, as we deal with heartbreaks, and pain and things like that. I think what’s helped me is my faith.
CT: What has your life been like since Sept. 11?
JOHN: I knew that day our lives would change forever. Prior to 9/11, I was trying to go up the ladder and conquer America, but that day was a wake up call. A lot of media covered our story, from TV stations to newspapers. So people started calling us, especially in the beginning, churches started calling us to share our story about how God spared our lives. That began this journey that has lasted the last eight and a half years. God has taken me to over 450 cities in different parts of the world. And what I get to do is challenge people to start their journey with Jesus of Nazareth. And what I spread is not a message for religion, but it’s an offer of friendship that God has for
mankind.
Here in America I speak for Campus Crusaders, which takes me to different universities across this country. I speak at churches and do other events. It takes me to different parts of the world. Right after your event, I’m headed to India. There we have different projects we work with: children that are caught up in sex trafficking. That’s in my heart how you rescue children that are trapped in that. Thousands of children are sold into the sex trade, so we’re starting a non-profit there to rescue those children. We build schools in the slums of India. It’s just an expression of God’s love.
I never thought I would be on this planet. I never thought I would do public speaking. But what I enjoy most about what I do is that I meet people. I love people. It’s fun to meet all kinds of people from all walks of life knowing that no matter where we come from, our background, how we look, we are all created in the image and the likeness of God. Every human being has a beautiful destiny. Some of us may not be awakened to that reality, and my whole plan is to awaken that reality.
Life is just beautiful. Sometimes we make choices, but the beautiful part of life is that we can start fresh again. The person who helps us start fresh is God, who allows us to pick up those broken pieces and create a beautiful mosaic of our lives.
