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Commentary: I never met Jessica Sachs. But I really hope her influence in Amherst, Mass., transcends that of Emily Dickinson's, arguably the town's most famous resident. Jessica, 22, recently graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and went to work as an accountant for Pricewaterhouse-Coopers in Boston. As a student, she attended a small, evangelical church with an offbeat name - Mercy House. Texan Robert Krumrey is Mercy House's youthful pastor. Before he and Melanie, his wife, and their children moved to New England, he served as a college minister in Stillwater. On Thursday night, I sat in the Krumreys' dining room next to Linda Meadows, my houseguest from Guthrie. We listened to Robert as he invited a roomful of college students to attend Jessica's memorial service and told us about the emotional conversation he had had with Jessica's father. The room was quiet after he finished speaking. There is a time, as the Scriptures advise, to be silent. This was that time. Jessica was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 11 that crashed into the World Trade Center tower Sept. 11. She left Boston for a business trip but never arrived. Jessica, however, was prepared to die. "Her relationship with Christ was central to her life," explained Melanie Krumrey to a local newspaper. In lieu of flowers, Jessica's family has requested that donations be sent to Mercy House (www.knowmercy.org). Robert plans to use those gifts to establish a building fund, since the church presently holds Sunday worship services at the public library. If you live in a community overflowing with churches, like Edmond, OK this may not sound like a big deal. But in a college town - where anti-Christian and anti-American sentiment runs rampant- located in a liberal state that was the cradle of the Revolutionary War and Christianity, this is huge. This could be Robert Krumrey's God-given opportunity to bring revival to the area. I can't imagine a more powerful legacy to leave behind in this life. By now, I have heard a multitude of responses to Sept, 11, 2001. I think it's safe to say that the vast majority of Americans are in mourning. We are also furious. Some pundits are seizing the moment to condemn the United States government for bombing innocent civilians in the Sudan and Serbia. Meddling in the affairs of other nations, they say, is coming back to haunt us. Others are saying just the opposite - that we have been too soft on the radical elements of the Islamic world. That there was no retaliation, in fact, when the USS Cole was bombed in Yemen. Some Americans aren't offering any foreign policy analysis. They are practical people who are busy hanging Old Glory, donating blood, pondering enlistment in the armed services, or advocating that airline personnel carry firearms. When we have ceased to mourn, opine and work, I think the next order of business for America is a spiritual one. Let's begin to transform ourselves into a nation of strong, holy patriots. The Rev. Billy Graham said at the memorial service in Washington, D.C., "We're facing a new kind of enemy. We're involved in a new kind of warfare. And we need the spirit of God.'' It will take much effort to discipline ourselves to read the book of Isaiah, as well as George Washington's farewell address. It won't be easy to pray more and talk less. But in the end, wouldn't it make our children's children's hearts swell with patriotic pride that what was said about Jessica Sachs, in her darkest hour, could be said of us? That it was their relationship with Christ that was central to their lives. I think so. (Isabel Lyman's views have appeared in various national publications, including the Wall Street Journal. Her columns appear in this space periodically. Formerly of Edmond, she now lives in Massachusetts. She can be reached at ilyman7449@aol.com.) 
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