“It was eye-staggering,” Witman said of the health kits assembly line. “There was not a dry eye.” The auction was put on hold at noon on Saturday for a prayer service and hymn sing, he said, as he spoke of the event as the “Lord’s work.” Witman hopes to “pull out all the stops” at next year’s auction, the 30th annual. “I never would have thought 29 years ago we would have had in excess of $10 million to give away to disaster victims. God worked,” he said.

Excerpted from September 28, 2005 Newsline