"I wanted to expand, get out, and see different parts of the world, but I knew it was God's spirit leading me saying this is where I want you in the world at this time," says Jordan St.Cyr, who served at Ground Zero with YWAM after 9/11.

St.Cyr was just finished high school in a small Southern Manitoba town when the 9/11 attack happened.

"I was just out of high school and I was working for an electrician. I remember we were in the van having a coffee break. We were listening to the radio and all of a sudden this news was coming down at us," says St.Cyr, recalling where he was when the planes hit the twin towers in New York. 

Now 20 years later, St.Cyr shares that the news hit him hard that day. 

"My jaw dropped. I was floored and I couldn't believe something of this magnitude was happening. We also didn't know why it was happening yet. I didn't want to go back to work because I was just in such a state of grief."

It wouldn't even be a year later when St.Cyr would be in New York, serving the front line in the aftermath of 9/11.

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"I've always had this missional heart. I wanted to go out into the world, see new things, see new people, and hear their stories," he says. 

With this idea of serving and seeing the world, St.Cyr attended Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in Montana. The first three months at the base are focused on learning about God with like-minded people. The last three months of the program are outreach and missions. 

"I thought Bolivia, Bangladesh, China, you know, someplace like this for my mission. Then the option of New York came up and it was so immediate. Like I knew right away, that's where I'm going."

St.Cyr spent three months at Ground Zero in New York serving with his YWAM team. 

"There were still buildings in rubble just under a year after the attack. We were in food services so we served from 11:00 pm until 7:00 am. We served police officers, firemen, the ground crew. There was this sacred sense in like, you're here to serve, you're not here to talk."

While St.Cyr understood this calling to serve his part, quietly, a few frontline workers did open up on their own. 

"There was this one police officer that told us this story. He said, 'When I go home, I never sleep. As soon as I put on my uniform and get in my car, I sleep like a baby. It's because, when the attacks came, I wasn't ready and now when I'm in my car, I'm ready.' It blew me away, this PTSD was still there, it's just something else."

St.Cyr says the experience had a life-changing effect on him. He shares that he made life-long friendships with the YWAM team he was with.

"We live in a broken world. In our hearts and minds we so long for answers. I think that's why it's vital to know Jesus and to know He holds us even when life doesn't give us what we need, He can."

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