Another Special Life in Christ:
These lives are not "role models". Jesus is the role model! These are lives wonderfully touched & changed by Jesus!

Todd Morgan Beamer:

His Life Before Jesus Came In:

Do you remember that disastrous Tuesday of the World Trade Center suicidal airliner crashes 11 Sept. 2001? Remember the crash in Pennsylvania?   Would you like to know "the rest of the story"?

Todd was born in 1968 in Flushing, Michigan and raised in a devoutly Baptist Christian family. He graduated from Wheaton College where he met Lisa Brosions. Their first date was 2 November 1991, and they married 14 May 1994. They had 2 children and she was 5 months pregnant with their 3rd when he was killed by the barbaric terrorists. He was an account executive for Oracle. The Beamers were members of Princeto Alliance Church in New Jersey (part of the Christian & Missionary Alliance denomination). Apparently Todd became a believer as a boy.

His Life Since Jesus Came In:

"I don't think we're going to get out of this thing. I'm going to have  to go  out on faith."  It was the voice of Todd Beamer, the passenger and Wheaton College  graduate who said "Let's roll!" as he led the charge against the  terrorists who had hijacked United Flight 93, the one, you will  remember, that crashed in the Pennsylvania countryside.   The whole world knows how brave Beamer and his fellow passengers  were on September 11. But later we learned more fully what  buttressed that bravery: faith in Jesus Christ. Todd died as he lived, a  faithful Jesus believer.

  In an article titled "The Real Story of Flight 93," Newsweek magazine (3 Dec. 2001 issue) revealed  gripping new details from the actual transcripts of the now-recovered  cockpit voice recorder. "Todd had been afraid," Newsweek relates. "More  than once, he cried out for his Savior."   After passengers were herded to the back of the jet, Beamer called the  GTE Customer Center in Oakbrook, Illinois. He told supervisor Lisa  Jefferson about the hijacking and that the passengers were planning to jump the  terrorists. And then he asked her to pray with him.   As Newsweek relates, "Beamer kept a Lord's Prayer bookmark in his  Tom  Clancy novel, but he didn't need any prompting. He began to recite the  ancient litany, and Jefferson joined him: 'Our Father which art in  heaven,  Hallowed be thy name.' "   As they finished, Beamer added, "Jesus, help me!"...this was the "rest of the story". And then, Beamer  and his fellow passengers prayed a prayer that has comforted millions  down through he centuries-the prayer that David wrote in a time of great  anguish:   'The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want . . Yea, though I walk  through  the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.'   And then the famous last words, uttered naturally off of his confidence in his preceding (and unreported by the media) plea:   "Are you guys ready? Let's roll!"   

We now know from the cockpit voice recorder that Beamer and other  passengers wrestled with the hijackers and forced the plane to crash into  the ground, killing themselves but foiling what was believed to have  been  the hijackers' plan to fly Flight 93 into the Capitol or the White  House.   As Christians, we know that God can bring good out of evil. In Todd  Beamer,  the world could witness a faith that held up in the extremity of fear. A  faith that is even now comforting his widow and two young sons.  

Lisa Beamer told NBC's Dateline, "You know, in the Lord's Prayer, it  asks us to forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass  against us."   As Todd prayed this prayer in the last moments of his life, in a way,  Lisa  said, "He was forgiving those people for what they were doing, the most  horrible thing you could ever do to someone."   It wasn't Todd Beamer's job to fight terrorists. He was just a  passenger  who (along with several others) did what he didn't have to do in order to foil  a  terrible evil that might have been done to his country. As Flight 93  hurtled towards destruction, Todd Beamer could not have known that his  quiet  prayers would ultimately be heard by millions. Or that the story of his  last  acts  on earth would be a witness to the Lord he loved and served and a  lasting  example of true heroism.

Except for the Newsweek article, the media won't report the REAL story of the root of Todd's courage and self sacrifice. But, in days to come, will you respond with "the rest of the story" if Todd's story ever comes up for discussion...especially with your children or grandchildren? Lisa has launched the Todd M. Beamer Foundation and written a book about Todd, Let's Roll...Ordinary People, Extraordinary Courage.

(posted 20 March 2002; latest update 20 February 2004)