Sujo John left his house Sept. 11, 2001 never thinking he might not see his family again.

John, a Sept. 11 survivor, travels around the world to share his spiritual story.

“If you came here tonight to simply hear the story of my escape, you will be disappointed,” John said. “I travel with my story so I can share the story of God.”

John’s life and spirituality forever changed three years ago.

John worked on the 81st floor of Tower I in September 2001. John’s wife worked on the 71st floor of Tower II.

At 8:45 a.m., as John stood by his fax machine, he heard a tremendous explosion as the first plane hit about 10 floors above.

John escaped to the ground floor and headed to Tower II to find his wife. As he looked for her, Tower I began to implode.

At the sight of the crumbling tower John said he fell to his knees and said, “God, you gave me this opportunity to get down 81 floors, but now death has caught up with me.”

John said his thoughts turned to his wife who he thought was dead. In fact, his wife had been late for work and never went inside Tower II. She and their four-month-old unborn child were alive.

People on the street saw him covered in debris and knew he had been in one of the towers, he said. They pulled at him, showed him pictures of their loved ones and asked if he had seen them.

“I could only look into their hopeless faces and ask God, ‘What am I supposed to tell them?’” John said.

John had few answers that day, but his spirituality has grown to fill in the blanks.

“The most important thing I learned is you will never know what the day will have in store for you or your family,” John said.

John asked audience members what would happen if they went to bed that night and did not wake up.

“Are you at peace with your loved ones and creator?” he said.

Most of the audience had a positive response to John’s speech.

“It was awesome. Sujo John rocks my face off,” sophomore accountancy major Josh Plant said. “I’m Christian, so I guess I have a bias. But this was totally worth it if just one person accepts Christ.”

Some audience members agreed with John when he said life is too short and money and material things do not matter.

Freshman sociology major Jim Nagle said, “Everything we work for in life, the money we have, will go away when we die. Everything that we work for will one day really mean nothing.”

Some students did not like the speech’s spiritual emphasis.

“I liked it until it turned to the whole God thing – because I’m not religious,” said Ingrid Brand, a freshman child and family studies major. “The flier said to come listen to a survivor, not hear him preach.”