Christian evangelists help in time of need

NEW YORK -- Ben Cox usually preaches in small-town North Carolina, but he moved his ministry to Manhattan for a week to deliver a message of support from the Rev. Billy Graham.

"I'm concerned that people's hearts are going to get hard," said Cox, a pastor and ad salesman back home.

He is one of many evangelical Christians who have brought the Bible Belt to New York, where the terrorist attacks have left people feeling vulnerable -- and open to hearing that someone is praying for them.

Many of the denominations, such as the Southern Baptists, had at least a small presence here before Sept. 11. But now they have reinforcements.

About two dozen Southern Baptist chaplains were sent to New York, along with a team of relief workers feeding rescuers.

The Billy Graham New York Prayer Center, a nondenominational ministry, opened Sept. 21. It marks the first time an effort tied to the nation's best-known evangelist has had an office in New York, organizer Ken Isaacs said.

Ten days after the suicide strikes, Cox and two colleagues packed themselves into a van provided by the Graham organization and headed north. They came to New York, and began work as a team of roving ministers.

Lots of competition

Cox, of Boone, N.C., hit the streets with his companions -- Randy Cobb, a pastor from Trade, Tenn., and Tina Brookes, an elementary school counselor from Connelley Springs, N.C.

They found stiff competition.

Cox listened to a preacher scream about sin and repentance near the barricades surrounding the charred remains of the World Trade Center. Brookes said she saw people chasing passers-by near the ruins, trying to stuff religious pamphlets into their hands.

The Graham team said they wanted to bring sympathy, not fire and brimstone, to the city. They were relieved when their prayer center replaced its "Need prayer?" fliers with business cards that also asked, "Need to talk?"

"We're not going to cram Jesus down anyone's throat," Cox said.

On an excursion near City Hall, less than a mile from the trade center wreckage, the Graham volunteers approached stranger after stranger with an earnestness some New Yorkers likely would have mocked before Sept. 11. They asked each person if he or she needed help.

Brookes, wearing a flag pin made by her students, asked a group of police officers if she could read them letters her schoolchildren wrote, saying they were sad for New York.

Receptive

Expressions of annoyance on the officers' faces softened as Brookes spoke in the cadence of her North Carolina town. Some of the officers took copies of the notes, folded them up and put them in their hats.

"People who have not prayed, possibly ever, say, 'I don't usually do that, but you go ahead,'" Brookes said.

Cox made sure his clergy identification was visible before approaching a young woman on inline skates at the edge of the City Hall fence. She had been helping feed the rescue workers and spent about 15 minutes telling Cox about her experiences.

New teams of counselors rotate into the city every week, with as many as 40 working at one time. Cobb, Cox and Brookes, meanwhile, returned this week to North Carolina, feeling like they had improved the city's spirits, if nothing else.

"I talked to a woman on the subway. 'I said, 'You know, I'm going to pray for you,'" Cox said. "She said, 'And I'm going to think good thoughts about you.'"