Taken from: DL Online

Becker sheriff’s chaplain helps in New York
Charlie Walker finds plenty to do in aftermath of devastating terrorist attack

By Nathan Bowe




When New York City staggered after the Sept. 11 terrorist attack that toppled the twin towers of the World Trade Center, people from all over the country rushed to lend a stabilizing hand. One of them was Charlie Walker, 51, of Detroit Lakes, a volunteer chaplain with the Becker County Sheriff’s Department. He went with Detroit Lakes native and singing evangelist Mark Johnson, now of the Twin Cities, who has ties to the New York area.

Walker helped found a church in New York City in the early 1980s, and Johnson also helped found a church there and has longstanding ties to the Rev. Richard Del Rio’s Abounding Grace Ministries. Rev. Del Rio operates a church in the area and was on the scene 20 minutes after the first airliner crashed into the first tower.

Johnson and Walker offered their services right after the attack, but were told that the big old Ukrainian church was flooded with volunteers and it would be best to wait. They arrived on Oct. 8 to find fellow volunteers from all over the country, Walker said. “Even when we got there a month later there were 28 people sleeping on the floor of the church,” he said. “They were booked through January with people wanting to help.”

Volunteers staying at the church included a group from Texas who helped feed workers laboring among the wreckage of Ground Zero, and a group of former motorcyclists called Soldiers for Jesus. There was a Hell’s Angels clubhouse a few blocks away, but the group warned fellow volunteers to steer clear, Walker said. “These guys said ‘they’re the real deal, don’t play games – they’ll kill you.’’’

Walker and his compatriots visited fire halls and police stations praying for the survivors and helping to give courage to the sick of heart. “Mostly we were telling people about the Lord, doing street evangelism,” he said. He remembers praying for an exhausted doctor at the twin towers site, which was “still smoking big time when we were there.” The slumping doctor agreed to be prayed for and seemed re-energized afterward, Walker said. “He stood up. pumped out his chest, put his face mask back on, and marched right back into Ground Zero — it was really neat to watch.”

Walker chose not to use his Becker County Sheriff Department identification to gain access to restricted areas. Instead he worked with the Ground Zero Clergy Task Force, an interdenominational coalition of about 100 clergy members that was set up earlier by Del Rio. The task force established and staffed a command center to provide grief and trauma counseling and to help overwhelmed and burned-out local clergy members deal with the tragedy. Another priority was to help the city’s police officers and firefighters. The smells at Ground Zero varied depending on which way the wind was blowing — from the smoking wreckage or from the huge wall of flowers for emergency workers that formed a memorial near the twin towers site.

Messages are posted there from family members of those who perished in the attack. “There are all these letters,” Walker said. “’Daddy, thank you for teaching me how to throw a football, Daddy, thank you for...’ you can only read so many before you lose it.” As a guest of Del Rio, Walker was able to drive right up to the site and shared a remembrance ceremony platform with top city and federal officials. “I was totally amazed to get back there,” Walker said. “I just stood on that platform and cried.”

The tragedy brought out the best in people, Walker said, remembering a doctor from Mississippi who drove up and lived in his car, enduring repeated break-ins and parking tickets. Finally his car was towed away. “He wouldn’t leave until he made a difference,” Walker said. He remembers the New York City cop who got tears in his eyes when Walker explained that he was a Becker County, Minnesota, chaplain who just came to help out. “When there is an outpouring of love, that will change things,” Walker said. “New Yorkers are still New Yorkers, but this thing brought out the best of them.”