Seat saga deemed a miracle

As Missy Nelson stood in the midst of McCook Memorial Auditorium Friday afternoon, shivers of thankfulness, pride and excitement coursed through her body and into her heart and soul.

"It's a miracle. It truly is," she said as she watched more than 500 comfortable new auditorium seats being bolted into place. "I never want to forget this feeling. It's an awesome testimony to God's powerful role in our lives," she said in a trembling, emotion-filled voice.

The miraculous part is that the seats could not have gotten here any later and still been ready for tonight's start of the Christian Women's Conference.

The drama-packed week began when news came from the Tennessee assembly plant that it was highly doubtful the seats could be shipped until Friday or Saturday. That, of course, would have made the seats of no use at the conference, as there would not have been time to install them for the Friday night concert and the Saturday meeting.

Upon hearing the discouraging news, Missy and the other members of the Evangelical Free Church planning committee did what they have been doing throughout the seat fund-raising and installation campaign. They prayed. They prayed with feeling and fervor, leaving the matter in God's hands.

The turnaround came quickly. The next day, the news from the seat supplier was much better. "Our machines are working. We may make it in time after all," he announced, seemingly stunned at the news himself.

Still, the delivery was not a done deal. The standards, due to arrive Thursday, were delayed when the truck had a fender-bender in Kansas City. Then, the seats, which were due to arrive at 7 a.m. Friday, didn't get here until 10 because the delivery trucks had to go through a snowstorm in Kansas.

But, just in the nick of time, the seat saga reached a successful conclusion. Thanks to generous contributions of time and effort by men from the E Free Church, the city staff and the Work Ethic Camp, more than 500 of the seats were installed at the Memorial Auditorium with just a couple of hours to spare before the concert which opens the Christian Women's Conference began. Both the concert and the conference, attracted a turnout of more than 1,000 women and men to McCook.

The seat story will be a lasting testament for the Christian women. It will also touch the lives of the others who took part. "The Work Ethic guys worked so hard. You could see the pride in their eyes when the job was finished," Missy said. "I told them that they had just witnessed a miracle which would not have been possible without their help."

What a simple thing: auditorium seats. Yet, their impact on this community has been immense. The lesson they have taught us will resound through the years.