On Thursday, September 6, 2001, Bandmaster Ronald Waiksnoris called the composer and asked him to consider setting the worship song There Is a Redeemer for trombones. Work was commenced on the evening of September 10, 2001. Upon waking on September 11, 2001, the composer was confronted, as was the rest of the world, by the obscenity of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Suddenly, this request for the New York Staff Band took on a different life. It is a tribute to those fellow Salvationists who serve those who serve. It is also a personal statement, as the composer believes that Jesus, our Redeemer, is the only solution to the world’s problems: