STORM TRACK: January 31, 1981 (Volume 4 Issue 2)

as told to Mabel G. Daniello, with kind permission of Mrs. Daniello (and special regards to Charles Vlcek who referred this story to me)

Soon after the end of World War II, my church in the Detroit suburb of River Rouge was bursting at the seams. Early in 1946, we purchased a plot of ground and began plans to build a new meeting place to accomodate our growing congregation.

We had already sold our old property, and the buyer wanted to take possession in late June.

I applied to the federal government for a priority permit to build, but the permit was denied on grounds that our church was "not a priority need." (At that time, the government still restricted civilian building programs.)

Meanwhile, all our attempts to locate a temporary meeting place failed, and the buyer of our property asked that the building be removed before he took possession.

We consulted a contractor about moving the church building. After studying the situation, he told us the building could not be moved; it would have to be torn down. The fee for demolishing the building would be $5,000 -- an amount we could ill afford.

Days rushed by, and we found no solution to our dilemma. Finally, in mid-June, the Sunday before our deadline, I called a special prayer meeting after church. Nearly everyone in the congregation stayed, and we prayed until we felt sure God was going to do something for us.

The next day, June 17, we started Vacation Bible School as scheduled. The old building was filled with children all morning. Various members were in and out of the church all afternoon. I left around 6 o'clock to go home for supper.

As I drove the six blocks, I reminded myself I was due back at church for a 7 p.m. wedding rehearsal.

My wife Sylvia and I were just starting to eat when the phone rang. "It's Betty Brady," Sylvia whispered as she answered the call. Betty was a church member who lived in a fourth-floor apartment across from the church.

"Where's the pastor?" Betty asked in an urgent voice.

"Why, he's right here at the supper table," Sylvia replied.

"Thank God!" Betty breathed. "Just a few minutes ago, I saw his car outside the church. Then I heard a loud rumbling, ran to the window, and saw a huge black cloud. It must have been a tornado, for when it lifted the church was gone! The sky is still a strange color."

"But tornadoes are unheard of in this area," I reasoned, as we drove to see what was left of our church.

What a shock to find a pile of rubble where the old building had stood! At first my mind didn't want to accept what I saw, especially since surrounding buildings had been barely touched. But one lone tornado had headed straight for our church, lifted it up and smashed it into a thousand pieces. Not one person had been injured.

When I recovered from the shock, I stepped gingerly around the rubbish and found a few small items that had survived the wind.

On Tuesday morning I returned to the church to salvage a few chairs, hymnals, and other items from the debris. When a bystander offered to clean up the grounds and buy the scrap lumber for $375. I quickly accepted his offer.

The Lord, I realized, was in it all. First He had sent a wind to level the one building in its path, saving us $5,000 which we could use toward the building of our new church. On top of that, He gave us another $375. He was indeed doing something to meet our needs.

But He didn't stop there.

A few weeks before the tornado hit, I was speaking with an agent about renewing the insurance on the old building. Though we'd never carried wind damage coverage before, he suggested we add it to the policy. God moved me to say "yes," and when our claim was settled we collected the full coverage of $4,000.

After I called a building official in Washington, D.C. to explain about the tornado, a federal inspector came to view the site. He acknowledged that my application for a building permit was certainly a priority now.'

Because of the building restrictions, many contractors were unemployed at that time; so we were able to negotiate a favorable contract, saving us nearly $100,000.

Though our VBS had to be cancelled that year, the local school board invited us to meet in their beautiful school building rent-free until our new church was built in December 1948.

I'll never forget how God spoke in no "still small voice" that summer when He used a tornado to solve our church's many problems.

--- As published in Power for Living", June 22, 1980