Article published July 12, 2003
A message from the heavens
Did God speak when lightning hit Forest, Ohio, church?
Lightning hit First Baptist's steeple after the Rev. Don Hardman said God's voice sounds like thunder.
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THE BLADE/HERRAL LONG
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By DAVID YONKE
BLADE RELIGION EDITOR
"Do you have an arm like God's, and can your voice thunder like his?"
- Job 40:9
Does God speak in mysterious ways? Some people think so after a recent revival service at the First Baptist Church in Forest, Ohio.
The Rev. Don Hardman, a traveling evangelist from Virginia, was preaching when a summer storm began rumbling in the distance.
According to the Bible, Mr. Hardman told the crowd, God's voice often sounds like thunder. "That's right, God! We hear you!" he said, looking heavenward, and - KA-POW! - a bolt of lightning struck the little church, located in Hardin County about 60 miles southeast of Toledo.
"There was a big flash right in front of everyone's eyes," said 15-year-old Erick Smith, who was sitting in a back pew at the July 1 service. "He was wearing a cordless mike and I saw sparks of electricity go from his belt buckle up to his microphone."
Erick's mother, Ronnie Cheney, said there was a "blue aura" in the building as the lights flickered off and on and the church's sound system exploded.
"It just lasted a second, but it was pretty wild to say the least," Mrs. Cheney said.
After a pause, Mr. Hardman resumed his sermon and preached for another 20 minutes.
"We tried to focus back on what the evangelist was saying until a neighbor lady came in the back door and said the lightning had hit the steeple," Mrs. Cheney said. "Then one of the church trustees said the steeple was on fire."
"I smelled something burning," young Smith said, "but I thought it was the sound system. We didn't know it was the steeple."
Meanwhile, several heavy clay tiles had fallen from the steeple and crushed a car in the parking lot, Mrs. Cheney said. The wrecked car was parked where Mr. Hardman had kept his family's motor home until earlier that day, when he moved it because of problems with a nearby bees nest.
"That was the first miracle, that the tiles didn't crush the Hardmans' camper," Mrs. Cheney said.
Since the incident, hundreds of people have driven past the church to get a glimpse of the site where God apparently spoke thunderously.
Reporters from around the globe, including the BBC in London, have been calling for comments from the Rev. Mike Hannah, pastor of the 75-member church. Mrs. Cheney was interviewed live by a Los Angeles radio station Wednesday morning.
It's the most attention anyone can remember the town of 1,000 ever getting, Mrs. Cheney said.
"I think the world is in such turmoil and the media grabbed onto this as a quote-unquote sign from God," she said. "Brother Hardman was on the Today show and probably spoke to more people in those few minutes than he had in his whole career. But I personally don't think it's a sign.
"When you're a believer, nothing surprises you," she said. "When you're a nonbeliever or a skeptic, you go, `Whoa, if a little bitty church in Forest can be communicated with by God, then a little bitty person like myself can be communicated with.'"
Her husband, Jeff Cheney, owns a local construction company that is repairing the 100-year-old church and estimated the damage at $20,000, Mrs. Cheney said. The repairs should be completed in about two weeks.
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