Vesta Cook and Joy Cook Peterson
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at Rawtenstall England
This is the story of the miracle of the rain which happened to the Dale R. Cook family while they were on the building mission in Rawtenstall, England from November 1964-1966. This mission was a grand experience but also a trying one for the site we were assigned to build on was on a steep hillside with no way up onto the site but by way of cutting an entry through a stone wall and making a sharp turn off of a narrow road which led up onto another plot of land above our site.
Back in that day, the building of churches for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was done without hired labor except for specialists such as plumbing, electrical and bricklaying. A man was called on a mission to be a building supervisor in charge of the construction. Young men were called to be building missionaries and the members volunteered to complete the crew.
Dale and Vesta Cook at Building Site
On a gloomy Tuesday morning Dale asked the two missionaries and those brethren who volunteered that day to help him prepare the site to get ready to pour the floor of the chapel and part of the entry way to the classroom area the next Saturday. We spent the next three days getting the heating ducts, rebar and other needed work done. During this time it rained hard day and night. When we went home at 10:00 at night we poured the water out of our boots, tossed them in the corner and dropped into bed exhausted from the long hard days.
When Saturday came the ground was ready to pour but….it was still raining. Dale, the building supervisor and the brethren were on the site at the usual 6:00 a.m. ready to pour. At 7:00 Dale called the concrete plant. The second the manager answered the phone he recognized Dale’s voice and said, “I guess you called to cancel” to which Dale replied, “No, I called to confirm.” The manager retorted, “Cook, you’re crazy. It hasn’t stopped raining in over three days and nights. Dale said “yes, I know, we have been working out in the rain for the past three days getting ready for this pour.” Again he commented “Cook you are crazy and you are going to pay for this concrete.” Dale responded “Just send the concrete out by 8:00. We are ready.”
At ten minutes before 8:00 it was still raining. The brethren talked it over and decided that only a miracle would allow them to accomplish this feat. They all gathered together on their knees and fervently petitioned the Lord to stop the rain so they could build His church. As they heard the engine of the first truck coming up the hill the rain began to let up. The driver turned up onto the site and got set up. As he lowered the chute on the truck the rain stopped and the men went to work. They poured and finished concrete from then until 10:30 that night without a drop of rain on the building site. That was not the only miracle though.
The miracle was that on all four sides of the site it was still pouring rain. The sky was so dark from the angry clouds boiling over us that we almost needed lights to see by. I have never in my life seen such angry clouds. Something was holding them back. (I have never doubted the story of Moses parting the Red Sea.)
People began coming from all around the area to see what was going on. They would just shake their heads in wonder. “What is with you Mormons?” they would comment. Even the concrete manager came to check out the tale spreading around. He just shook his head and walked in circles. Later that night as Dale and Arthur Clarkson were pulling their trowels over the final corner and Vesta was covering the concrete with plastic the heavens opened up and dumped the contents of a hard day’s rain on us in a few minutes. The next morning there was about a foot of rain water in areas where the plastic had room to settle.
Keith Cook age 9 told us later that he and a friend would walk up to the wall and stick their hand through. On the outside it was raining, on the inside it was not. What a curiosity this was for the children.
The scriptures say that faith precedes the miracle and some say that faith is built on miracles. I am sure that miracles strengthen faith, but does that make the miracle less? That local non-believer recognized something they did not understand was happening and they wondered, “what is with you Mormons?” We know and the Lord knows. When we are in the service of the Lord and the cause is just——Then comes the miracle.
Janean, Keith, Arlene, Gaye—-back-Vesta, Joy, Dale Cook