The terrorist attack in Mumbai last month hit home for me. I saw the breaking news on CNN.com and immediately called my father. I have aunts, uncles, and cousins that live in Mumbai within walking distance of the Taj and Oberoi hotels. In fact, I’ve been to both hotels on numerous occasions. Thankfully, everyone I know was okay. But the shock, anger, and grief for the Indian people has not yet faded in the aftermath of their own 9/11. As more is learned about how the attack unfolded, where the terrorists came from, and the apparently inept intelligence and response by the Indian government, we can lose sight of the human stories within this tragedy.

Philip Yancey, one of the church’s most gifted writers, was in India during the attack. He’s written a wonderful blog post for Zondervan about his experience, as well as some remarkable stories of courage that have emerged from Mumbai. Here is an excerpt:

The 12-year-old son of a British couple dining in the Taj Mahal Hotel restaurant went to the bathroom just before terrorists attacked. For 36 hours his parents were held hostage, not knowing if their son had made it. All survived, and were reunited. A man who had just made a champagne toast in celebration of a business deal spent the next two days lying in shattered glass feigning death, his arm covering his face so they wouldn’t notice he was a foreigner. A Muslim couple heard a noise that sounded like firecrackers. They went to the window overlooking a popular café and were killed in a hail of bullets as their young son watched.

Just as in 9/11, tales of luck and heroism also surfaced. A dance troupe scheduled to be in the Taj restaurant left an hour early to perform at a wedding, just missing the horror. The manager of the Taj Hotel was helping hide guests in a basement food locker even as his wife and two children burned to death in their executive suite several floors above. One British lawyer, barricaded in his room and hiding under the bed, set up a kind of impromptu network with other hostages who had Blackberries. The Indian nanny caring for the 2-year-old son of a rabbi smuggled him out of the Jewish center, saving him from the torture and death that awaited his parents. (Israel has named her a “righteous Gentile” and offered her citizenship.)

Read Yancey’s entire post here.