{"id":344457,"date":"2026-09-11T23:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T23:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/344457\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T23:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T23:20:11","slug":"christian-groups-preach-jesus-at-9-11-memorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/344457\/","title":{"rendered":"Christian groups preach Jesus at 9\/11 memorial"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Leonardo Blair<\/a>, Senior Reporter Friday, September 11, 2026\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"Twitter\"<\/a>\"PastorPastor Mike Veach (2nd R) of First Bible Church of Staten Island, along with members of his family, church and other volunteers, distributed Christian tracts outside the 9\/11 Memorial on Sept. 11, 2001. | The Christian Post\/Leonardo Blair<\/p>\n

NEW YORK \u2014 In the first five months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in Lower Manhattan, New Yorkers couldn’t get enough of the tracts and Bibles Pastor Mike Veach of First Bible Church of Staten Island<\/a> and his team distributed as they sought to relieve the city from the trauma of the tragedy.<\/p>\n

In one devastating day, 2,977 victims of the terrorist attacks lost their lives, and people wanted answers, Veach recalled in an interview with The Christian Post on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the beginning, the city was obviously hurting. They [the people] were devastated, and there was a hunger for some answers. And we were bringing hundreds of thousands of pieces of literature and cases of Bibles with us every day into the city. And it was so difficult to pass them out because we couldn’t pass them out fast enough,\u201d Veach, who has been ministering at his church since 1990, told CP.<\/p>\n

The demand for Veach\u2019s Christian ministry was so great that, every day for two years after the terrorist attacks, he joined with other churches from across the country to provide spiritual support at ground zero.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were here, and we opened our church; we invited other churches around the country to come and help us minister,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

Veach said he provided volunteers with 50 beds and housed them to help keep up with the demand, and the women of his church prepared meals to support them.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of these people that came from other churches had never done this before. They’ve never actually been on the street publicly handing out literature, having conversations with people like this, so we enjoy encouraging people to do that,\u201d Veach said.<\/p>\n

After those first five months, however, the demand for tracts and Bibles began to wane, and two years after hosting volunteers to work in the city with his ministry, Veach said his staff began to slow down due to burnout too.<\/p>\n

His ministry eventually limited its outreach to a few times a year, including special events like the 9\/11 Memorial. And on the 25th anniversary of the event, Veach admits that even though the demand for Jesus has fallen significantly since the terrorist attacks, his team continues to show up.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the most part, the folks that are taking Gospel tracts are probably the out-of-towners, the visitors. The New Yorkers are back to normal. They’re the greatest people in the world, as far as I’m concerned, but they just have a tough exterior,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Veach said he invited volunteers from 11 other churches to support the 9\/11 Memorial outreach. Four responded and helped him organize a team of just over 50 volunteers to spread the Gospel on strategic street corners around the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, where family members of the victims and four living former presidents showed up to remember the dead.<\/p>\n

\"PastorPastor Jonathan Osborne (L) of Free Will Baptist Church in Rockingham, North Carolina, and his son distribute tracts in Lower Manhattan, New York, on Sept. 11, 2026. | The Christian Post\/Leonardo Blair\"PastorPastor Jonathan Osborne (L) of Free Will Baptist Church in Rockingham, North Carolina, and his son distribute tracts in Lower Manhattan, New York, on Sept. 11, 2026. | The Christian Post\/Leonardo Blair<\/p>\n

The Staten Island pastor and his team of volunteers weren\u2019t the only Christian group who showed up to spread the Gospel on Friday among a carnival of competing protesters screaming messages on issues such as race, gender and immigration under the watchful eyes of New York Police Department officers.<\/p>\n

Among them were Pastor Jonathan Osborne of Faith Free Will Baptist Church<\/a> in Rockingham, North Carolina, and his young son, who noticed the change in demand for the Gospel in the city since 2001.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was here 23 years ago, right after 9\/11 and … the hearts [of people] were certainly receptive [to the Gospel] then,\u201d Osborne recalled as he handed out tracts and streamed his efforts to his church back home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ll say they are not as receptive 1789168809 in our experience, yesterday, handing these out. There’s much more of a hardness in the youthfulness of the city. A lot of them, I’m sure, don’t remember 25 years ago,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"MultipleMultiple protests erupted outside the 9\/11 Memorial service in Lower Manhattan, New York, on Sept. 11, 2026. | The Christian Post\/Leonardo Blair<\/p>\n

Still, Osborne agrees with Veach that they aren\u2019t in ministry because it\u2019s in season or fashionable but because of the Great Commission.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are commissioned with Christ to go and reach the lost, preach the Gospel to every creature in the world. The Bible says, go into all the world and preach the Gospel,\u201d Osborne told CP.<\/p>\n

The North Carolina pastor, who partnered with All Nations Baptist Church in Woodhaven, Queens, to do ministry across the city, said on Thursday they distributed about 800 tracts and estimated the tracts were rejected about 3,000 times.<\/p>\n

He remains undeterred, however.<\/p>\n

\u201cJesus said to go, and we’re going,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will very likely not see hardly anybody, maybe nobody, that we come into contact with today, on this mission trip [come to faith]. But we’re going, and then we’re trusting Jesus to send other soul winners to do their part in the Body of Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n

Contact: leonardo.blair@christianpost.com<\/a> Follow Leonardo Blair on Twitter: @leoblair<\/a> Follow Leonardo Blair on Facebook: LeoBlairChristianPost<\/a><\/p>\n