When Your World Falls Apart: Life Lessons from a Ground Zero Chaplain

Usually it’s only the “major” catastrophes—plane crashes, hurricanes, terrorist attacks—that make the news. And the most vividly remembered tragedies in recent history took place on 9/11/01.

But there are thousands of other disasters that never make the news. They happen to us, our family, our friends. Death, bankruptcy, divorce, terminal illness—any of these tragedies (and many others) can leave people feeling devastated. When a person’s world falls apart, it seems like nothing can put it back together again.

Mike MacIntosh, a pastor and police chaplain with specialized training in Critical Incident Stress Management, is specially qualified to help people in times of crisis. He has written this book to do just that. Drawing on over thirty years of pastoral and counseling experience, as well as some of the painful passages of his own life, Mike shows us the stages we go through during the course of any personal catastrophe. Then he helps us understand what needs to happen during each stage and gives us hope that we can survive our own disaster and move forward.

As a member of a National Disaster Response Team, Mike was on call for the month of September, 2001 and spent several weeks ministering to rescue personnel at the site of the World Trade Center disaster. Though he describes some of his New York encounters, this is not primarily a book about Ground Zero. Its main purpose is to help you make it through your own devastating experiences, and then move forward with God.