Ok. Against my better judgment, I will share another coincidental happening in my life that may very well make me look like one of those crazy Christians that Hollywood makes so much fun of. Not only did this happen, my wife was in the room.
Several years ago, my wife and I periodically attended Vineyard Cincinnati (VCC) in Tri-County. By periodically, I mean once every 3 or 4 weeks. It was easy to not go because we live on the Westside of town, and Tri-County is a good distance away (45 minutes). Two of my mentors (Evan and Steve) both attended this church regularly, and they encouraged us to go, but they understood the difficulties of driving so far. With that said, I would frequently be given a “hard-time” for not going to church.
Then the phone rang one day. We had recently moved from an apartment in Cheviot to a house in Delhi. During the first few weeks of unpacking, we hadn’t turned the landline phone on because we had our cell-phones. There was (…actually still is) an old rotary phone hanging on the wall much like the one pictured above, but only white. As we are organizing our kitchen, this wall-phone rings, which startled me because the phone was not turned on. It rang a few more times, with that really loud metal-bell ringing sound, and so I answered it, … saying “Hello?” The person on the other end of the phone didn’t say anything for a few moments, so I again said “Hello.” Then the person on the other line said that he was looking for the Westside Vineyard, and this is the number he had. I said, well this is just a house that we moved into recently. The person apologized and hung up. I turned to my wife and said, “They must be opening up a Vineyard over here.”
I called Evan to ask about a Vineyard opening up on the Westside of town, and he said that he did hear something about it. I told him what happened, and he said: “Buddy, if you’re looking for a sign to get your carcass back into church, … this is it.”
Even with that, it took us almost three more years to check out VWS. Now that we’re here, I wish I had listened sooner. So, is this just a coincidence or something more?
I know that this is sounds crazy, ... like I am making it up, ... but it’s true! My wife was right there in the room when I answered.
It gives me chills to even think about the odds of that happening. Crazy. Amazingly crazy!
7 comments:
Awesome story! You are part of the VWS body for a reason...do you know what it is yet? 1 Corinthians 12: 14-31...
Holy cow! I had to de-lurk for this one.
Wow!
Welcome aboard.
Great story, Mike! Although it happened to you, the written word allows us to experience as well. Best thing I've read all day.
Wow! Amazing. I got the chills reading that and it is not because I am cold. Well, you know you're at VWS for a reason, figure out why and let God blow your mind!
Pretty cool.
Anncalcara: Thanks for the urge to read Corinthians 12. Very fitting.
Melanie: Glad to have you de-lurked!
Anonymous: You are right. The stories we find ourselves in individually are usually more connected to others than we know.
Kelly: I am certainly working on it. Like I've said, fear keeps getting in the way...
Dan: Let's get coffee sometime.
Very cool. We started going to VWS because of the billboard they put up in front of Panera on Glenway. I saw that they were starting a Vineyard on the West Side and went home and told my husband that we should look it up online. But I told him that if it was a big mega church like VCC, I didn't want to go and if it was far from our house, I didn't want to go. We looked it up online and found out that it was a new church plant 2 blocks from our house. We went that Sunday and the rest is history.
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