The following story is true. It happened in 1950 at the West Side Baptist Church in Beatrice, Nebraska in Gage County and has come to be known as The West Side Baptist Church Explosion. It is an astounding account of the supernatural hand of God.
Details of the story have been excerpted from various sources on the Internet.
At 7:27 p.m. on Wednesday, March 1, 1950, the church building exploded in what was believed to be a natural gas explosion. The explosion should have resulted in severe injury or fatality to the 15 members of the church choir, who usually met at 7:25 p.m. on Wednesdays for practice. However, remarkably, no one was in the building when it exploded.
It was the first time ever that not just one, or two, but every member of the choir was late for choir practice for one reason or another. The choir director’s daughter said she could not remember a single time when any member of the choir had ever been late. As a matter of fact, everyone was usually ten to fifteen minutes early. The pastor and choir director normally arrived much earlier than the choir members but, on this night, they were both late for the first time ever.
ALL 15 MEMBERS OF THE CHOIR HAD AN EXCUSE!
- The (1) Pastor, Reverend Walter Klempel had returned home after lighting the furnance to get (2) his wife and daughter, (3) Marylyn Ruth. They would be late because Marilyn’s dress was soiled and Mrs. Klempel had to iron another.
- (4) Ladona Vandergrift, a high school sophomore, was having trouble with a geometry problem. She knew practice began promptly and always came early. But she stayed to finish the problem.
- (5) Royena Estes was ready, but the car would not start. So she and her sister, (6) Sadie called Ladona Vandergrift, and asked her to pick them up. But Ladona was the girl with the geometry problem, and the Estes sisters had to wait. Sadie Estes’ story was the same as Royena’s. All day they had been having trouble with the car; it just refused to start.
- (7) Mrs. Leonard Schuster would ordinarily have arrived at 7:20 with her small daughter (8) Susan. But on this particular evening Mrs. Schuster had to go to her mother’s house to help her get ready for a missionary meeting.
- (9) Herbert Kipf, lathe operator, would have been ahead of time but had put off an important letter. “I can’t think why,” he said. He lingered over it and was late.
- It was a cold evening. Stenographer (10) Joyce Black, feeling “just plain lazy,” stayed in her warm house until the last possible moment. She was almost ready to leave when it happened.
- Because his wife was away, Machinist (11) Harvey Ahl was taking care of his two boys. 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 he was already late.
- (12) 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 had time only to tidy up and start out.
- (13) Mrs. F. E. Paul, choir director and mother of the pianist, was late simply because her daughter was. She had tried unsuccessfully to awaken the girl earlier.
- High school girls (14) Lucille Jones and (15) Dorothy Wood are neighbors and customarily go to practice together. Lucille was listening to a 7-to-7:30 radio program and broke her habit of promptness because she wanted to hear the end. Dorothy waited for her.
It was almost time for choir practice to begin when the first members of the choir began pulling into the church parking lot or nearing the church. We can only imagine the tension each of them felt knowing they would be late for the first time ever. At that precise moment there was a tremendous explosion forceful enough to blow out house windows quite some distance from the church and, from all reports, knocked the local radio station off the air.
The West Side Baptist Church in Beatrice, Nebraska was totally leveled. The old gas furnace, which was in the basement directly below the choir loft blew up! Think of the emotions experienced by these 15 family and friends. One of the Internet sources for this post wrote that it was by lucky coincidence that no one was there. The event was later featured on the television show, “Unsolved Mysteries.”
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we know that it was NOT lucky coincidence; it was the sovereign, all-powerful hand of almighty God. A number of the members faithfully prayed for their church on a regular basis, so they knew this was not some luck but the work of the Lord. James 5:6 says, “The effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man availeth much” and 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 tells us to: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
When it became apparent to the group that they were all safe, they praised the Lord and thanked him for their miracle although it took time for them to wrap their head around it. They knew that it was not happenstance, luck, or serendipity. Further, it is not an unsolved mystery, those of us who are in Christ Jesus know who it was although it may be hard for our natural minds to really “get it” because it was not natural, it was supernatural. The mystery is solved! It was a miracle.
View the YouTube video Beatrice Church Explosion Miracle (Credit: Backroads Tourist Channel).