Nebraska Church Miracle
In 1950 a West Side Baptist Church in Beatrice, Nebraska was exploded but miraculously no one was injured because every single member of the choir was coincidentally late in arriving for practice that evening.
Usually all Choir practice members gather at Church punctually by 7:20pm and all memebers will be ready to sing by 7:25pm on Wednesday evenings. But on Wednesday March 1, 1950 at 7:27pm a natural gas explosion happened and church was completely demolished and collapsed to ground. The blast forced a nearby radio station off the air, caused power outages and shattered windows in surrounding homes.
To the miracle every one of the choir’s fifteen members were late for practice that night. Everyone has their own reasons. When each and every member reached to the site of the explosion, they surprised knowing everyone is late and thanked God for saving their Lives.
Going in to the reasons why they were late shocked everyone. Car trouble delayed two women. The minister,his wife and daughter were delayed by a dress that needed ironing at the last minute. Others were late because they paused to complete homework, finish a letter, or hear the end of a favorite radio show. One awoke late from a nap. Some could think of no special reason, but they were just late.
One of the church choir Mitchell said. “Most often, everyone was there on time. I can’t remember a time where anybody came late.”
Reasons Why Choir Members were late
- Marilyn Ruth Klempl, the pastor's daughter, spilled food on her dress and her mother needed to iron a new one.
- Herbert Kipf, a bassist for the choir, was trying to get a letter in the mail on time. He planned to be a few minutes late, deciding that he could drop it off on the way to practice.
- Lucille Jones was too busy listening to a radio program and was late along with Dorothy Wood, whom she was supposed to pick up.
- Royena Estes and her sister, Sadie, were late because their car wouldn't start.
- Joyce Black, who lived across the street from the church, was ready but too tired to get up.
- LaDonna Vandergrift was having trouble with a geometry problem.
- Mrs. Leonard Schuster would've ordinarily arrived at 7:20 with her daughter, Susan. But on this particular evening, she had to go to her mother's house to help her get ready for a missionary meeting.Because his wife was away, Harvey Ahl was taking care of his two sons. He was going to take them to practice with him but somehow he got wound up talking. When he looked at his watch, he saw that he was already late.
- Marilyn Paul, the pianist, had planned to arrive half an hour early. However, she fell asleep after dinner, and when her mother awakened her at 7:15, she only had time to tidy up and start out.
- Martha Paul, the choir director and Marilyn's mother, was simply late because Marilyn was. She had tried unsuccessfully to awaken her earlier.
Firemen thought the explosion had been caused by natural gas, which may have leaked into the church from a broken pipe outside and been ignited by the fire in the furnace. The Beatrice choir members had no particular theory about the fire’s cause, but each of them began to reflect inconsequential details of their life, wondering at how exactly did this happen.
Each person coming late for practice is one-in-a-million chance but that night the entire choir was late. It is impossible but that night it became possible and we say “This is an act of GOD.”
Source: Snopes, Unsolved Mysteries, Beatrice Daily Sun
