I Accept an Invitation

Full transcript of the My True Ghost Stories episode “I Accept an Invitation.” Listen to this episode.

We were invited to a church service where the language was unfamiliar, yet the energy spoke volumes. Welcome to Episode 32 of My True Ghost Stories. In last week's episode, Episode 31, I talked about my project of trying to talk to more people at my gym and my success with that. One of the people that I was able to connect with on a regular basis at the gym was one of the staff there, the head custodian, who I will call Rose. Rose is super friendly and obviously very good at her job.

That's why she's the head custodian. One of the reasons for our friendship is that she wants to practice her English and I want to practice my Spanish. So our conversations probably sound pretty funny. I speak in Spanish to her and she speaks in English to me. So it is a mutually beneficial connection between Rose and me.

After Rose and I had been conversing like this in English and in Spanish, for probably a few years, our conversations became more in depth, less about the weather and more about our personal lives. There's absolutely nothing wrong with talking about the weather. But it was time, after a few years, to get to know each other better, plus I was ready to start using more Spanish vocabulary. So Rose and I talked about family, neighborhoods, jobs. One day I asked her where she met her husband and she told me that they met at church and that started some conversations about church and a little about faith.

Rose was quite inspiring when it came to faith. One day she was finished with her shift at the same time I was finishing up my workout and she was all dressed up and headed out. I said to her, you look nice. What's the occasion? And she answered, motioning to her outfit, oh, I do this for God.

And she wasn't heading to church or anything. She was just all dressed up for God. And I was really impressed by this. And I decided that the next time we talked, I would ask her more about her church, just so I could hear more inspiring messages like that you should dress up for God. So the next few times I saw her, I asked her about her church and I asked her so many times that eventually one day after some church conversation she said, would you like to come to my church?

And she went on, she said, I am inviting you. I was very honored and for some reason not sure I wanted to go. I am actually, believe it or not, a little shy and I wouldn't know anyone but Rose there. So I thanked her for the invitation and said I would probably go one of these Sundays. She then reached into her bag and handed me a little flyer, which had the name of her church, the address, some pictures and the time of their Sunday service.

I love how Rose had many conversations initiated by me about her church before inviting me to come and only then handing me that humble flyer. I was even more impressed with her faith after that exchange. And then she did not mention it again. There was no so Jennifer when are you coming to my church? She had given the invitation and was now letting go of the results.

I wish I could be like that. So maybe a few months went by. Rose and I still had conversations in Spanish and English and I considered going to her church every time I talked to her. But one day I was in my bedroom folding my laundry in the quiet and a message from the other side came through. There was the name Raphael and a vision of the flyer for Rose's church and a clear message to go to Rose's church to free a trapped spirit.

And that was the whole message I wondered. Is the trapped spirit named Raphael? I went to the gym the next day and I don't remember exactly how I did it but I somehow managed to ask Rose when I saw her if there was someone named Raphael at her church. I did not say anything about being a medium but I believe I said something like I had a dream about your church and there was someone named Raphael there. Rose said there was a man named Raphael in the congregation which is not that surprising.

It's a pretty common name. He was the father of one of her children's friends. She even showed me a picture of him. She was a little intrigued by my dream but I could tell by the picture of this young man that this was not the Raphael from the message from the other side. It had only been a name not a face and I knew I would either recognize the face when I saw it or figure out some other way who this Raphael in the message from the other side was.

So I needed to make a solid plan to go to Rose's church to free a trapped spirit like the message said. I asked my daughter who I will call Emily to go with me. She just seemed like she was the right person to bring. She was about 17 at the time. My daughter who I am calling Emily is connected to the other side.

In different ways than I am, she gets messages and interprets things she sees in the world as signs and her interpretations and predictions are usually right. I asked Emily to go to Rose's church with me and she was gay. Let's go, she said. Let's go to that church and free that trapped spirit. I told Rose the next day of the gym that my daughter and I are accepting her invitation and would like to come to her church that Sunday.

Rose gave me the time and we confirmed the address and she said that parking is not too bad on Sundays around this church. So Emily and I decided we would bring the car because public transportation to this location especially on a Sunday would be very tedious. We still planned to leave an hour before the service just in case parking was not as good as Rose said because you never know. That Sunday we dressed up a little. I wore black pants and a decent shirt and Emily wore a pink sundress.

She is fancier than me. We set off at three o'clock for the 4 p.m. service which was only about a 15 minute drive but you know parking. We arrived at the location and found a spot almost immediately about a block and a half away. So we wound up being super early and we took our time walking up the block.

It was a beautiful summer day and we stopped at the bodega on the corner across the street from the church for some bottled water and some energy bars. In case the service wound up being really long or something we would have some snacks to discreetly eat in the pews. We eventually spent enough time with these strolling and bodega activities to not be ridiculously early for the service. So we crossed the street and went in. As we entered the foyer or lobby the sun was shining in the big beautiful stained glass windows on either side of the staircase and there were two people at the top of the stairs.

One of them was wearing clergy robes and the other one was Rose. These are my guests, the ones I told you about. Rose said to the minister in Spanish as Emily and I walked up the steps towards them. The minister looked at us almost with recognition. They were expecting us.

It was so special. We shook hands. The minister was very happy to meet us and he seemed very happy with Rose for inviting us. After greeting Rose and the minister we went into the church which already 20 minutes before the ceremony had about 40 people there. We walked up the center and picked a pew on the right hand side and sat near the aisle.

The church started to fill up quickly after that and there was this feeling of excited anticipation and people greeting each other with hugs, smiles and chatter which was pretty cool. Now I love my church but there is not excited chatter and hugs before the service. More of a meditative stillness which is also pretty cool. This was just different. It was becoming obvious to me and Emily that everyone in this large congregation knew each other and it was also very obvious to the congregation that me and Emily, the big tall blondes in pew number 20 on the right, were new there and almost every member of that congregation came over and welcomed us.

Emily and I were starting to have a great time and the service hadn't even begun yet. But we hadn't met anyone named Raphael and I hadn't seen a ghost yet. I had gotten a message at home a week or so earlier while at home folding laundry and the message had been, go to Rose's church and free a trapped spirit and something about Raphael. So here we were at Rose's church and where was this Raphael and where was the trapped spirit? But I wasn't worried.

I knew that if I waited, these things Raphael and the trapped spirit would present themselves to me. The service was about to begin. I could see the minister poised at the top of the center aisle ready to walk towards the altar and the congregation quieted down. Well, they quieted down for a second because after an announcement that the service was about to start in Spanish, some very lively uptempo, Cumbia, Christian music began as the minister started dancing down the aisle with the altar servers and the congregation all started dancing in the pews and Emily and I looked at each other with delight. This was going to be an experience.

The minister reached the pulpit, the dance music faded out and he began being baneeze, which means welcome and the congregation answered and Emily and I realized at that point that the whole service was going to be in Spanish, which was going to be challenging as I can sort of understand Spanish thanks in part to my practicing with Rose and my daughter doesn't speak Spanish at all. But it did look like there was going to be some dancing in the pews and maybe even in the aisles and that Emily and I could definitely do. The minister during his opening remarks pointed to me and Emily with an obvious welcome that I could sort of understand and the congregation turned, looked at us and burst into a plow's. This to date remains the most welcoming church experience I have ever had. But still at that point, no ghost.

Emily whispered to me, did you see anything yet? I told her not yet, but I will. About 20 minutes in, we were standing for him, which was not the kind of him Emily and I are used to at our church. It was another fast, kumbia-style song that, thank goodness, had the words projected onto a screen at the front of the church on the left so we were able to sort of follow along. I put a link to this type of pop, kumbia, Christian music in the show notes.

It was during this him that I finally felt the ghost. That's how this sort of thing goes for me. I suddenly become very aware of a presence. In this case, I could tell it was a woman and she was behind me. So I slowly turned around and she wasn't in the pew behind me and I kept searching with my eyes and eventually I looked up to the empty balcony in the back.

And there she was. An older woman holding a bag. She was looking out over the congregation unhappily, not participating, just watching, and I felt her sadness. I felt her longing in the pit of my stomach. Here was the trapped spirit.

I looked at Emily and I slowly pointed up to the balcony. Emily looked up to where I was pointing and I whispered, there she is. There's the ghost. Emily looked back at me and then at the balcony again and then down at the floor in front of her. And after a few seconds, she turned to me and she said, with tears in her eyes, she doesn't want to leave.

It's too fun. And then Emily took off. She ran up the aisle and I watched her run and saw that she was headed for a side door, not the exit. So I didn't run after her. Plus she had left her purse there and the pew with me so I figured she wasn't leaving or anything.

And the hymn continued. It was a long one. And during that hymn, after Emily had run through the side door, I felt communication from the other side. And the communication said that it was time for me to help this spirit cross over. And I needed to call in her guides in order to do it.

They have to sort of escort her. But I wasn't getting a read on who this woman's guides were, which is usually a part of this spirit sending process. So I looked up at the woman's spirit on the balcony and then I noticed the stained glass window up there on her side of the balcony. And the picture on this stained glass window was, Archangel Raphael. Archangel Raphael is the patron saint of travelers and healing the ill.

But in this case, given that the spirit of the woman was trapped and she needed to pass to the other side and she was holding a bag, I think he was there to help her travel. I turned around a little. The Kumbia Christian hymn being sung had many, many verses so I had time and I was able to get the woman's spirits attention. And my guides told me to tell her that she can have even more fun on the other side. They said to tell her that it's okay to go and that it's time to go.

And this is what I was told by my guide to tell her in order to convince her to cross over. When I think about her, I realize that she was not happy up there on the balcony watching this congregation sing and dance and be with each other. She was isolated from them up there on the balcony watching and wishing and being unhappy. No, it was time to go. My guides told me to tell her that the church would be okay without her and Archangel Raphael was going to travel with her.

So I told her that Raphael is reaching out to you. I told her to join hands with him, which she finally did. Her fear and resistance were strong, but I was able to communicate with her and point her towards her guide, Archangel Raphael. But I guess she finally felt safe enough to leave this world behind and cross over. And I felt her relief as she left this world and entered the next.

Meanwhile while I was doing this spirit crossing upstairs, downstairs, my daughter Emily was having a much different supernatural experience. And I'm going to tell it to you in her own words. She told it to me that day after the service, but I asked her to write it down for me when I started preparing this episode. And here is the story in Emily's words. Emily said, I remember going to the church and sitting at the end of a pew on the center aisle.

The service was in Spanish, but everyone sang and danced up and down the aisles to every him. So I was having a great time, even though I couldn't understand the language. When you, me, her mom, pointed out the ghost in the balcony, I of course couldn't see her, but I could picture her, watching her congregation sing and dance. And I realized that she didn't want to leave. And as the service continued, I understood why it was so lively and joyful and I started to cry.

But then the crying became so forceful I couldn't stop it, trying to hold in my sob. Emily continues, eventually I was crying so hard and so noticeably that I had to run out of the service, running down the stone stairs where I found a bathroom. I sobbed extremely hard in the bathroom for a minute and I had the sensation for a moment that I was that woman spirit on the balcony that I didn't want to leave, like I was feeling her feelings. I kept sobbing for a minute when the sadness just suddenly left and I was left looking in the mirror, red eyes and pink sundress wondering what the hell was that. So this was what was happening to Emily downstairs while I, Jennifer, was upstairs communicating with a very sad and resistance spirit trying to convince that spirit that it was okay to leave.

So what I think happened here was, as I said in the beginning of this story, my daughter Emily is extremely sensitive to ghosts, spirits, messages and feelings from the other side. So what I'm pretty sure happened in that church that day was that Emily was taking on the sadness of the spirit. Emily was the one who figured out that the woman's spirit didn't want to leave and that sudden stop to Emily's crying downstairs, I'm sure that this sudden, unexplainable end to Emily sobbing was when the woman ghost from the balcony took Archangel Raphael's hand and crossed over. Emily's crying stopped at the same time that I felt that spirit's relief and back to that church service. After I had finished helping the ghost of the balcony, I turned back around as the hymn finally ended and people dancing in the aisles went back into their pews and here came Emily walking head down, back toward me.

She told me later that after the crying suddenly stopped that she had splashed some water on her face and walked back trying to look like she had not just run out of the service sobbing and she had been a little embarrassed. Although I don't think any of those wonderful people in that congregation would have disapproved of her becoming emotional during their service. The minister assigned a man from the congregation to sit with us during the sermon and translate it into English for us. And after the final hymn, several members sat down with us and asked if they could pray over us to which we happily agreed. Emily particularly enjoyed them praying over her because she was so rattled from her weird crying experience.

After they prayed over us, which was really moving, it was time for us to go. We were invited to a coffee hour downstairs but we were exhausted and we decided to head to the car. We were of course told to come back anytime which we haven't done yet but might someday. While we walked to the car, a block and a half away, we compared our stories and told each other the details of what we had just experienced. And we were overwhelmed by the whole thing.

The welcoming no strings attached, charity of every single member of that congregation, the free, energetic worship that they displayed, the emotional passing of the woman spirit. And mostly Emily and I were deeply moved by this bond that we had created between us with this supernatural teamwork. As always, if you have enjoyed this episode of My True Go Stories, please take a second to review, subscribe and share it with a friend to help this show grow. And that's all for today. Thank you for listening to today's episode.

And if you think your house is haunted, want energy cleared from your space or need a custom spiritual ritual, I'm here to help. Visit jpclearing.com or email me at jpclearing60 at gmail.com. Don't forget to join me here every Tuesday for a new episode. Until next time.