Later that day, church members flocked to Nichols' mother, Rose, with money orders and cashier's checks, as Nichols had said was required by the estate's "lawyers". One of them called the cars "miracle cars," since Bowers had intended them to be miracles for people who had led dreary lives. The name stuck. Almost overnight, Rose Nichols "sold" $30,000 worth of cars to relatives and church members. Gomez and Nichols soon claimed that the fleet of company cars was much larger than the original 16 vehicles; and before long the proceeds reached $1 million. News of the "miracle cars" was spread by word of mouth through the Christian community, and Rose was overwhelmed by the number of people coming forward. Nichols and Gomez then designated several "team captains" to handle "miracle car" sales. It wasn't long before they were overwhelmed as well.