Leslie Haskin
Leslie's story begins in Chicago ---- The youngest girl of a family of fifteen, she describes herself an outspoken, independent thinker who was always in trouble.
Leslie excelled in college and in business. By 2000, she was one of only two African American executives for one of the largest insurance companies in the country. Living all the privilege of an executive's life, Leslie surrounded herself with all of the "right" people and "right" things.
Then at 8:43 am on the morning of September 11, 2001, everything changed.
Leslie was in her office on the 36th floor of Tower One when a Boeing 747 airplane slammed into her building, her friends...her life. From that precise second, time was both accelerated and suspended as that once privileged corner office sky, filled with furniture, paper and unimaginable things. Panic was instantaneous, and a mad dash toward the exit stairs began. She closed her eyes and prayed, "God help us."
In the months that followed the terrorist attacks, Leslie was committed to a mental hospital and diagnosed with severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Eventually the medical bills mounted, the illness intensified and Leslie Haskin lost everything that she had worked for. She became homeless with her son, Eliot Hill.
Today, Leslie is successful author and the founder and director of Safe Hugs Ministries. She provides consultation to international humanitarian organizations such as Save the Children, and travels internationally encouraging thousands in their journey with the Lord God. Her message is a simple one, "God is bigger than our burdens."
She has become a favorite on national media such as CNN, The 700 Club, Moody Radio and others. And her books, HELD, God Has Not Forgotten about YOU and the best seller, Between Heaven & Ground Zero continue to inspire readers internationally.
Leslie Haskin makes her home in the catskill mountains of New York.
“I believe the signs we are seeing today most certainly point to the rapture of the church. These are indeed end times. I believe that one day very soon, Jesus Christ Himself will come in the clouds and millions of people will see their battles end...I believe that followers of Christ from all around the world, of every race, creed, color, age, economic standing, and religious affiliation will vanish in a single moment of time ... gone. The Word of God describes it as a 'twinkling of an eye.' In an instant, there will be boardrooms without directors, classrooms without teachers, hospitals without doctors and nurses, cars without drivers, airplanes without pilots, and loved ones disappearing mid-sentance and mid-morning coffee. I am sure that complete chaos won't even begin to describe it. I imagine a worldwide crescendo of screaming voices.When the dust clears, everone left on earth will know emptiness beyond description and a greater sense of evil than has ever been thought to exist. It will be the condition of things. Overwhelming sadness, confusion, loss, and insecurity will be worldwide. It will happen at that time, even as it did on that September morning.”
“Just then, in that instant, I saw His eyes. I recognised them. They were the eyes of that trembling father in a smoke-filled room on the ninety-third floor of Tower One, dialing his little girls for the last time. Those were the eyes behind that calming voice singing 'Amazing Grace' in a crowded and slippery stairwell, trapped outside a roof door when the ceilings began to cave. The eyes of the people who stayed behind with the handicapped victims waiting for police officers who never made it up the stairs. Those were the eyes of firemen who pushed me to safety, the doctor who cared for me for more than a year free of charge, the therapist who visited my home regularly so that I could sleep a little, the children who loved me, the brother who prayed nonstop, and the pastor who became my friend. Those were the eyes of God.”
“We see with our hearts. Our eyes are simple catalysts that carry images. Our eyes capture flowers and out heart knows serenity. Our eyes capture a child at play and our heart knows joy. They capture beauty and we know love. They capture war and we are acquainted with mortality. My eyes captured hatred and suffering, and my heart knew sorrow. They captured death and destruction and my heart knew fear.”
“I often wonder how many prayers flooded the gates of Heaven that day. How many Christians, or otherwise, called on the Lord? How many Jews looked for the Almighty? How many others called, by whatever name, on the one true God? How many nonbelievers, if only for a moment, and if only to ask how this could happen, believed in Him and called on His name: "Jesus"?”
“Whatever we did see and endure in those stairs, we were the lucky ones. For some, there were no stairs and no exit at all.”
“What kind of motherless soul can so easily and savagely murder thousands and proclaim it all to be in the name of righteousness? What kind of righteousness annihilates lives with such contempt and in such a grand scope that it leaves an entire world mourning?”
“It is the perfect contradiction: It is glamorous and degenerate, cultured and crude, beautiful and detestable, ethical and decadent, exciting and scary all at the same time.”