“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth give way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling” (Psalm 46:1-3).
You are looking at a small and very dark piece of American history.
Twenty-five years ago, this building on Steindamm 103 in Hamburg, Germany, housed what was known as the Al-Quds mosque, regularly attended by Mohammad Atta and two other men. All three were radicalized in this building and later recruited by Al Qaeda operatives under orders of Bin Laden, who was hiding in Afghanistan at the time. This group later become known as the Hamburg Cell. Their mission would become the 9/11 attacks on the United States of America, and these three men would be the terrorist pilots who flew the planes into the North Tower, the South Tower, and the field near Shanksville, PA.
Amazingly, this building is located only a mile away from Zion Lutheran Church, where every Sunday my brother pastors and I bring Jesus Christ in Word and Sacrament to people from Muslim countries and where they hear for perhaps the first time the message of love, forgiveness of sins, and the security of salvation, which only Jesus Christ provides.
May the Lord continue to turn tragedy into triumph, bringing the Gospel through His Means of Grace to anyone and everyone who is as spiritually lost and confused as the men of the Hamburg Cell were.
Indeed, though the earth give way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, and even though passenger planes be used as guided missiles—only Jesus Christ is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
