![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/imgs.jpg\")
<\/p>\nDiane Coxe\u2019s mind could not accept what her eyes were seeing. Running late for her job at a law firm in the World Trade Center, Coxe had just emerged from a train station when a plane struck the North Tower.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a second, I thought, \u2018Maybe they\u2019re filming something,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cI didn\u2019t think it was really happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the chaos that followed, Coxe only vaguely recalls making it home. Twenty years after 9\/11, though, she\u2019s never forgotten how she spent that night.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did a lot of crying and a lot of praying,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Relief came from reaching out to help others who were struggling as she was.<\/p>\n
Sharing comforting words from the Bible \u201cwas like medicine for me,\u201d said the Uniondale, New York, mother of two.<\/p>\n
The ministry that she had shared in for years as one of Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses took on a new role for her and many others.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I was telling my neighbors was sounding down my own hope for the future and helping me deal with my feelings,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Helping others has long been linked to better emotional well-being in psychology research. The book \u201cThe Healing Power of Doing Good: The Health and Spiritual Benefits of Helping Others\u201d describes \u201cpowerful\u201d effects, even for helpers who\u2019ve experienced trauma themselves.<\/p>\n
Trauma was all too common among the many volunteers at Ground Zero. Roy Klingsporn, a Brooklynite who volunteered at Ground Zero nearly every day for two months, recalled on one occasion approaching a man who sat slouched in a golf cart near the site\u2019s makeshift morgue.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I asked him how he was doing, he burst into tears,\u201d said Klingsporn, now of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. \u201cHe said, \u2018I\u2019m tired of picking up body parts.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Within days of the attacks, Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses set up teams that spent hours each day in Lower Manhattan, Bible in hand, consoling everyone from the families of victims to first responders battling physical and emotional exhaustion. It was a work that changed how the organization approaches disasters, with an organized comfort ministry now being an integral part of its response to natural disasters and even the pandemic.<\/p>\n
Recalling the gut-wrenching days he spent as one of those volunteers near the smoldering remains of the Twin Towers still stirs deep feelings in Robert Hendriks.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very emotional and extremely difficult for me, but the faces of those I passed on the street said it all,\u201d said Hendriks, now U.S. spokesman for the Witnesses. \u201cThey needed comfort, and the best thing I could give them was a hug and a scripture.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Brown \u201cButch\u201d Payne, the events of Sept. 11, 2001, tore open old wounds, bringing back vivid wartime memories the Vietnam veteran had tried to forget.<\/p>\n
From his East Village apartment, Payne recalled the crowds of frantic people streaming north from Lower Manhattan. \u201cThat sight stirred up a lot of emotions in me,\u201d he said. \u201cIt shook me to the core.\u201d<\/p>\n
Payne found relief in rendering aid the best way he knew how.<\/p>\n
\u201cSharing the Bible\u2019s message of hope softened the blow for me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Offering a shoulder to cry on brought Klingsporn comfort too.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was satisfying to be of help to my community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Two decades later, Coxe continues to find comfort from reaching out \u2014 this time in talking with pandemic-stressed neighbors while coping with the death of her sister in February.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith every trauma I\u2019ve been through, the ministry has soothed my heart,\u201d she said, although now doing so through letters and telephone calls instead of going door to door. Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses paused their in-person preaching in response to the pandemic in March 2020.<\/p>\n
Payne feels the same. In 2016, after 50 years of marriage, he lost his beloved wife to cancer. On days when his grief feels overwhelming, Payne writes heartfelt letters that lift his neighbors\u2019 spirits \u2014 and his own. He shares scriptures and resources that have helped him, like articles on coping with trauma and loss on jw.org, the official website of Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses.<\/p>\n
\u201cEncouraging others to look to the future helps me to do the same,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n