Update on a suicidal ghost

[Bob_Crowley]

Strange title? Strange coincidence.

I’ve mentioned before on this forum that my old Presbyterian Pastor, one Rev. Robert Missenden, once predicted “I think you’ll be doing a cleaning job for a short time. You won’t like it much, but I think the Lord will just want you to hear about a ghost.” Then he added “I think you’ve seen this ghost before.”

Now he would have made that prediction circa 1990/91, since he died in January 1992 himself.

At the time I thought it was ridiculous, and didn’t give it any more thought. But in 2006 I did a cleaning job for about 4 months (“short time”), “didn’t like it much”, and “heard about a ghost” (a former manager who committed suicide sometime in the 1960’s). This was in Ipswich, Queensland.

I finally got around to phoning the nearest priest at Ipswich circa 2008, but I was uneasy as to whether he actually said a mass or not. But in 2010 I chanced upon an Australian priest on this forum. He was the only Australian priest I’d seen on the forum at that point, and guess which Catholic Church he was located at? The very same church where I’d spoken to the main priest 2 years before.

He assured me he reallly would get a mass said for him, and this time I felt more assured.

Tonight I picked up a “Catholic Leader” which i very rarely buy, mainly because something seemed to say I should. So I bought it. And there on page 6 was the priest I’d emailed via the Forum’s email facility in 2010. He’d been at a function supporting a 40 days for life prayer vigil. But what intrigued me was that he was now the main priest at a Catholic Church no more than a few hundred metres from the Presbyterian Church where the old pastor had made his original prediction!

I’ve sent him another email letting him know about it.

What I’m asking from you is prayer. I think God was in the original peculiar “prophecy” (I mean “peculiar” is how He usually works - for a marketing manager use John the Baptist eating locusts and wild honey), and I’d appreciate your prayers to see this odd prophecy to its end, whatever it may be.

 

[MaryT777]

What an amazing account!~ Thanks for sharing it. You have my prayers for your intention.

Mary

 

[Mystical_Seeker]

(I mean “peculiar” is how He usually works - for a marketing manager use John the Baptist eating locusts and wild honey).

 

[tawny]

Great story. Praying for your intentions.

 

[the_phoenix]

Joining you in prayer …

 

[seagal]

He assured me he reallly would get a mass said for him, and this time I felt more assured.

Maybe that’s the reason you heard this prophecy, to make sure a mass would be said for this poor soul. I’m curious about your pastor saying that maybe you’d seen this ghost before.

 

[Exiled_Child]

That’s certainly a very memorable story, Bob. I’m praying.

 

[Kount_C]

WOW

Lost for words. Thank you for sharing

 

[Bob_Crowley]

Maybe that’s the reason you heard this prophecy, to make sure a mass would be said for this poor soul. I’m curious about your pastor saying that maybe you’d seen this ghost before.

When the pastor made the prediction, it would have been around 1990 or 1991 as he died himself in January 1992.

I didn’t give this prediction much thought (any thought?) until it happened, and then it jogged my memory.

I had to think back about seeing the “ghost” before, but it goes back to about 1970.

The “ghost” was in an old store in Ipswich, which is a city about 25kms west of Brisbane. It’s pretty much a conurbation now.

But back circa 1970 my father and I would sometimes go camping at a locality called Legume just over the border in New South Wales. To get there we’d drive to Warwick and then Killarney, and from Killarney go over the border.

These days there’s a Cunningham Highway bypass so to get to Warwick, you don’t need to drive through Ipswich. But back in 1970 there was no bypass, so we had to drive through Ipswich itself.

I remember that one weekend we were coming back from our camping trip, and driving down Brisbane Street in Ipswich to go back home. Now for us to be camping in the first place it was either a weekend, or maybe a long weekend with a Monday public holiday. So it would have been Sunday or a non-working Monday, which meant there would have been very few people in the inner city of Ipswich.

As we drove along Brisbane Street, I remember seeing this bloke standing on the footpath, with a briefcase. I looked at him and he looked at me. He also seemed frustrated and sort of resigned.

For some reason I turned around and watched him as we passed. He then turned towards the shop behind him, and went in. The trouble was the door was shut and locked.

It gave me the heebie geebies! So I did the best I could to forget it, thinking that I’d been seeing things, or something.

But I think this was the same ghost the pastor referred to. Weird - you bet. But he was so accurate it wasn’t funny. I mean this was something I’d made a deliberate attempt to forget, had never said anything to him about it, but he just commented, “I think you’ve seen this ghost before.”

So where all this will end up remains to be seen. But this Australian priest just seems to crop up now and again, with some sort of connection to this “ghost”. I sure he has no intention of doing so, and wouldn’t have known about it if I hadn’t emailed him. But there it is.

Incidentally I’ve had heaps of spiritual experiences, but this is one of the more peculiar ones.

 

[Bob_Crowley]

(I mean “peculiar” is how He usually works - for a marketing manager use John the Baptist eating locusts and wild honey).

Because of this particular post, and the fact I’ve stuck my neck out emailing priests, I thought I’d make a few more cases in point on God’s unusual methodology.

To start the whole ball rolling, choose a bloke living in a tent with a barren wife and promise him descendants who can’t be numbered (Abraham).

Pick on a Jewish Egyptian living on the backside of the desert for 40 years, all washed up, nudging 80, wanting to retire, but al that’s available is looking after more b____y sheep, and tell him you want him to confront the world’s number one military power. And make sure you take you stick - you’ll need it. (Moses).

To announce Israel’s greatest king, pick on a runt of a kid reeking of sheepdip, and give him a slingshot and five rocks to knock off the Philistines’ version of the Transformers. (David).

To bring your Son into the world pick on a teenage virgin and tell her she doesn’t need to worry about losing her virginity. (Mary)

Announce the fact using a bunch of Shepherds, the lowest of the low, with a cow or two chewing the cud in the next room. (Bethlehem).

Use a clown wearing camel hair and eating locusts and wild honey as your main marketing manager. (John the Baptist). Imagine the Imperial Romans or Intellectual Greeks lining up to hear the message - who? what?

Fast forward to 1917, with the world at war and millions of men dying, send Mary to three nearly illiterate kids in a Portuguese backwoods village indirectly named after Fatima, Mohammed’s daughter, and expect them to get the message out, despite the fact two of them would be dead in two years. (Fatima).

Then circa 1970-73, send Mary to an elderly, deaf nun in Japan, and expect her to warn the world of impending judgement. (Akita).

No doubt God is prepared to work within in the system when it suits Him. But it seems to me that whenever He is going to do something extraordinary, He does anything but. I doubt we’d even recognise the event.

 

[the_phoenix]

This is brilliant!

Because of this particular post, and the fact I’ve stuck my neck out emailing priests, I thought I’d make a few more cases in point on God’s unusual methodology.

To start the whole ball rolling, choose a bloke living in a tent with a barren wife and promise him descendants who can’t be numbered (Abraham).

Pick on a Jewish Egyptian living on the backside of the desert for 40 years, all washed up, nudging 80, wanting to retire, but al that’s available is looking after more b____y sheep, and tell him you want him to confront the world’s number one military power. And make sure you take you stick - you’ll need it. (Moses).

To announce Israel’s greatest king, pick on a runt of a kid reeking of sheepdip, and give him a slingshot and five rocks to knock off the Philistines’ version of the Transformers. (David).

To bring your Son into the world pick on a teenage virgin and tell her she doesn’t need to worry about losing her virginity. (Mary)

Announce the fact using a bunch of Shepherds, the lowest of the low, with a cow or two chewing the cud in the next room. (Bethlehem).

Use a clown wearing camel hair and eating locusts and wild honey as your main marketing manager. (John the Baptist). Imagine the Imperial Romans or Intellectual Greeks lining up to hear the message - who? what?

Fast forward to 1917, with the world at war and millions of men dying, send Mary to three nearly illiterate kids in a Portuguese backwoods village indirectly named after Fatima, Mohammed’s daughter, and expect them to get the message out, despite the fact two of them would be dead in two years. (Fatima).

Then circa 1970-73, send Mary to an elderly, deaf nun in Japan, and expect her to warn the world of impending judgement. (Akita).

No doubt God is prepared to work within in the system when it suits Him. But it seems to me that whenever He is going to do something extraordinary, He does anything but. I doubt we’d even recognise the event.

 

[Bob_Crowley]

A bit more of an update - in my OP I included the paragraph concerning the “Catholic Leader” (which is the main newspaper in Queensland for the Catholic Church), as shown below.

Tonight I picked up a “Catholic Leader” which i very rarely buy, mainly because something seemed to say I should. So I bought it. And there on page 6 was the priest I’d emailed via the Forum’s email facility in 2010. He’d been at a function supporting a 40 days for life prayer vigil. But what intrigued me was that he was now the main priest at a Catholic Church no more than a few hundred metres from the Presbyterian Church where the old pastor had made his original prediction!

Now for another little “co-incidence” - the church where I picked up the “Leader” was St. Catherine’s at Jimboomba, about 20km from home.

The priest involved emailed me today, as follows -

Hi Bob,

Thanks for sending that through. If you want to be even more freaked out, Jimboomba is my previous church, before going to the seminary.

I hope you are having a good day.

 

[Bob_Crowley]

In a nutshell, in case anybody is having trouble following the development -

1. Circa 1990/91 my old Presbyterian pastor makes a comment - “I think you’ll be doing a cleaning job. You won’t be doing it for long, but I think the Lord will just want you to hear about a ghost.” and “… I think you’ve seen this ghost before…”.

He also predicted I’d lose my then job, and become Catholic, both relevant to story.

He was located at Wilston Presbyterian Church in Brisbane.

In 1995 I lost my then job, and I became Catholic circa 1996/97.

1. Basically forgot about the prediction as over the top, but in 2006 I did a cleaning job for about four months, didn’t like it much, and heard about a “ghost” - former manager who committed suicide downstairs sometime in the 1960’s in Ipswich. If I hadn’t lost my previous job as per pastor’s prediction, I wouldn’t have been doing cleaning.
2. A couple of years later circa 2008 I finally got around to phoning the nearest priest in Ipswich but felt uneasy about whether he really did say a mass for the “ghost”.

If I hadn’t become Catholic as per the pastor’s prediction, I wouldn’t have thought about having a mass said.

1. Wondering what to do when circa 2010 I spotted an Australian priest on Catholic Answers Forums. Despite the fact he was the only Australian priest that I’d seen on the forum, he just happpened to be located at the very same church as the priest I’d rung previously. So via the Forum email he reassured me he would make sure a mass was said.
2. Last Sunday I happened to see a photo of this same priest in the “Catholic Leader” at a right to life function, where he’s now based the Catholic Church at Wilston, just a few hundred metres from my old Presbyterian Church where my old pastor made the prediciton.

At the time I bought the copy of the “Leader”, I was at St. Catherine’s Catholic Church in Jimboomba.

1. I emailed this development to the priest at Wilston, and emailed me a reply saying that just to raise the spooky levels of coincidence, St. Catherine’s at Jimboomba had been his church before he went to Seminary.

Nice little prophetic round trip for a prediction from a wise old Presbyterian pastor sitting at his desk circa 1990/91.

 

[Mystical_Seeker]

Because of this particular post, and the fact I’ve stuck my neck out emailing priests, I thought I’d make a few more cases in point on God’s unusual methodology.

To start the whole ball rolling, choose a bloke living in a tent with a barren wife and promise him descendants who can’t be numbered (Abraham).

Pick on a Jewish Egyptian living on the backside of the desert for 40 years, all washed up, nudging 80, wanting to retire, but al that’s available is looking after more b____y sheep, and tell him you want him to confront the world’s number one military power. And make sure you take you stick - you’ll need it. (Moses).

To announce Israel’s greatest king, pick on a runt of a kid reeking of sheepdip, and give him a slingshot and five rocks to knock off the Philistines’ version of the Transformers. (David).

To bring your Son into the world pick on a teenage virgin and tell her she doesn’t need to worry about losing her virginity. (Mary)

Announce the fact using a bunch of Shepherds, the lowest of the low, with a cow or two chewing the cud in the next room. (Bethlehem).

Use a clown wearing camel hair and eating locusts and wild honey as your main marketing manager. (John the Baptist). Imagine the Imperial Romans or Intellectual Greeks lining up to hear the message - who? what?

Fast forward to 1917, with the world at war and millions of men dying, send Mary to three nearly illiterate kids in a Portuguese backwoods village indirectly named after Fatima, Mohammed’s daughter, and expect them to get the message out, despite the fact two of them would be dead in two years. (Fatima).

Then circa 1970-73, send Mary to an elderly, deaf nun in Japan, and expect her to warn the world of impending judgement. (Akita).

No doubt God is prepared to work within in the system when it suits Him. But it seems to me that whenever He is going to do something extraordinary, He does anything but. I doubt we’d even recognise the event.

This is brilliant!

I agree that it is brilliant!

 

[Bob_Crowley]

In a nutshell, in case anybody is having trouble following the development -

1. Circa 1990/91 my old Presbyterian pastor makes a comment - “I think you’ll be doing a cleaning job. You won’t be doing it for long, but I think the Lord will just want you to hear about a ghost.” and “… I think you’ve seen this ghost before…”.

He also predicted I’d lose my then job, and become Catholic, both relevant to story.

He was located at Wilston Presbyterian Church in Brisbane.

In 1995 I lost my then job, and I became Catholic circa 1996/97.

1. Basically forgot about the prediction as over the top, but in 2006 I did a cleaning job for about four months, didn’t like it much, and heard about a “ghost” - former manager who committed suicide downstairs sometime in the 1960’s in Ipswich. If I hadn’t lost my previous job as per pastor’s prediction, I wouldn’t have been doing cleaning.
2. A couple of years later circa 2008 I finally got around to phoning the nearest priest in Ipswich but felt uneasy about whether he really did say a mass for the “ghost”.

If I hadn’t become Catholic as per the pastor’s prediction, I wouldn’t have thought about having a mass said.

1. Wondering what to do when circa 2010 I spotted an Australian priest on Catholic Answers Forums. Despite the fact he was the only Australian priest that I’d seen on the forum, he just happpened to be located at the very same church as the priest I’d rung previously. So via the Forum email he reassured me he would make sure a mass was said.
2. Last Sunday I happened to see a photo of this same priest in the “Catholic Leader” at a right to life function, where he’s now based the Catholic Church at Wilston, just a few hundred metres from my old Presbyterian Church where my old pastor made the prediciton.

At the time I bought the copy of the “Leader”, I was at St. Catherine’s Catholic Church in Jimboomba.

1. I emailed this development to the priest at Wilston, and emailed me a reply saying that just to raise the spooky levels of coincidence, St. Catherine’s at Jimboomba had been his church before he went to Seminary.

Nice little prophetic round trip for a prediction from a wise old Presbyterian pastor sitting at his desk circa 1990/91.

I’ve revisited this development for a reason. I’ve sent emails to the priest who seems to have been unwittingly appointed the “ghost buster” and my own priest, along with one of the old pastor’s sons, whom I think is going to be one of the “beneficiaries” of this peculiar development. I’ve probably worn out my electronic welcome a bit.

Now the fact is that there’s a been a pecuiiar and extremely unlikely set of “coincidences” all along the track. But by itself that doesn’t achieve anything. In other words, what’s all this leading to?

The old pastor made another prediction involving myself, his youngest son, and a local move about “getting the churches together.” I think that’s where this is leading, and I suspect the priest who’s been included in the whole business may end up being a sort of go-between, or if you like, a starting point for the pastor’s other prediction.

Because right now, the priest is located in a Catholic Church no more than a few hundred metres from the Presbyterian Church where the pastor made his original prediction, and no more than about three kilometres from where the pastor’s youngest son has his business premises.

I can’t think of anything else that this peculiar prediction of his was leading to viz. “I think you’ll be doing a cleaning job for a short time. You won’t be doing it for long, and you won’t like it much, but I think the **Lord **will just want you to hear about a ghost.”

I may as well stick my neck out and give you the pastor’s other prediction - “I think you and Tim (his son’s name) will have a bit of a humour ministry. You won’t make much money out of it, and if you try to use it anywhere else, it will fall a bit flat. God will use it to bring the churches together somehow, and He’ll want it kept for the church.”

Now I’m not a brilliant humorist, but Tim* is*! He really does have a gift in this area. His business is in concert lighting, and he has done work for Catholic schools that I know about, despite being a Protestant. When we had World Youth Day over here in 2009, he was involved in one particular presentation providing some of the lighting and sound fixtures. So he already has experience with Catholic groups. And he’s already got a foot in the door for concerts and the like. When the pastor made the prediction, concert lighting was just a hobby for him, with a few bits and pieces in a box. Now he’s got a warehouse full of stuff.

I’d most likely be the fall guy. Anyway that’s what the pastor said, and I suspect the peculiar “ghost” prediction may be setting the way with the priest who I first located on the forum happening to be in the same place as the “ghost”, then down the track moved very close to the church where the prediction was made, and whose home church happened to be the same one where I read the “Leader” about 3 weeks ago which led me to revisit the whole thing. So I think what God might be doing is setting him up as the “ice breaker” to use a Toastmaster’s term. Weird and long winded way to do so, but no more unusual than sending an Archangel to an unknown village girl in a backwoods village two thousand years ago, and bypassing all the usual formal channels.

I"d appreciate your prayers about it. Because the next stage is in God’s camp - it’s His responsibility, if it’s going to lead to anything.

It’s up to Him now, if this prediction is going to be anything more significant than just a series of unlikely events. And if it does lead to something, then what God will have done is to use the evil of a man’s suicide approximately 50 years ago to lead to some sort of church “togetherness”, or a “good”. Weird!

 

[Falco]

thank you for sharing this story with us - food for thought as we mull over our own lives and Godincidences that could not just be random occurrences.