In Ohio: a Vision West of Town

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One man had 1,000 coffee mugs made up with I SAW THE IMAGE written on their flanks and sold out, at $4 a pop. John Broski of Fostoria invested his savings of $1,800 in I SAW THE IMAGE T shirts, and expects to walk away with a tidy $2,000 profit. As for the image itself, Broski says, "I think there's something there. What it is is probably naturally explained. If the Lord were doing something -- that's a big if, O.K.? -- the oxidation, the vapor lights, whatever, the Lord would do it that way, naturally. It would get the people to come back to the faith. Aw, let me just say it's unusual."

And what of Rita Ratchen these days? "I see it as a natural phenomenon," she said over coffee the other morning in the LK Restaurant down the road from the soybean tank. As she spoke, a waitress came over with a tally sheet from the home office, showing that the establishment's volume since Jesus was sighted has moved it from 53rd place in a 55-restaurant chain to third place. "It is caused by the lights and the rust," Rita went on, "but I believe the Lord permitted it to happen. Just as I believe the Lord permits things to happen in our lives, even illness, in order to bring us closer together."

That said, the 58-year-old widow -- mother of four, grandmother of nine, devout Catholic, independent businesswoman -- smiled broadly, her eyes fairly twinkled, and she added, "Besides, if they took me to the nuthouse now they'd have to take thousands with me."