Daylight Shows Storm Damage at N. Greenville University

In Upstate South Carolina, Monday, July 21st was a night of damaging winds, lightning, heavy rains, hail...

And a gigantic miracle.

It happened in Greenville County at North Greenville University, a Christian college in Tigerville.

About 8:00 pm, strong winds ripped much of the roof off Donnan Administration Building and threw it into the structure behind it, Neves Academic Building. Both have significant damage.

Here is where the miracle comes in, as told to me by Dr. Jimmy Epting, NGU President, live via telephone on News Channel 7 at 11: ""We have about 900 campers here from all over the Southeast, as they call it, a centerfuge camp with the Southern Baptist Convention. They were to be in these two buildings (Donnan and Neves) at 8:15. The storm hit at eight o'clock. (The campers and students) were all in our chapel in worship service. So we just thank the Lord that they were not in these buildings, that they were in chapel and worshiping, and that no one was injured."

"It worked out to be just a real miracle that that happened. We hate that both of the two buildings have been damaged the way they have. Our administration building, half the roof is gone. And our Neves Academic Building, half the roof is caved in on it. So there's some serious damage. But we can be thankful there were no lives lost."

Dr. Epting calls it "the miracle in Tigerville."

North Greenville University has known miracles before. In June 2006, the new Vandiver Residence Hall caught fire just weeks before 80 students were to move in. A jogger spotted the smoke, which got the fire department there sooner. The damage was soon fixed, and more importantly, no one was hurt.

Dr. Epting is ready to hopefully see another miracle happen at NGU and have tonight's damage repaired in time for the arrival of record enrollment.

"We have insurance adjusters coming. They will be here tonight. We'll let them look at it. We'll start first thing in the morning trying to fix everything as best we can. It'll probably take a few weeks, I guess, to make that happen. But we're confident we can be ready for school. Our school year starts August 15th. We still have a little bit of time to get these buildings back into operation."

Damaging storm... debris being thrown everywhere... as hundreds of young people were worshipping in a chapel...

Epting summed it up this way: "You just sit back and say, 'Thank you, Lord.'"

Yes, thank you, Lord. Instead of a disaster, You gave us a miracle to report.

Who says we don't like good news?