I Get the Same Message Again

Full transcript of the My True Ghost Stories episode “I Get the Same Message Again.” Listen to this episode.

an old church and a recurring problem. When history keeps repeating itself, things are bound to get messy. Welcome to episode 25 of My True Ghost Stories. I have told many stories about my church. Speaking paranoically, it is an extremely active spot.

Lots of ghosts, bumps in the night, spooky stuff, and also lots of spirits needing help. If you've been listening to this podcast, you've heard these stories about my church. And you've heard how I've been able to help trap spirits there. And you've also heard about the protective spirits that look after this building. A few years ago, one day, I started to get a message about my church.

And it was coming from an unknown spirit. I couldn't tell much about the spirit, but I could tell that the spirit was benign, not trapped or troubled. And it was trying to get an important message to me. At first, this message was not so specific. Just a feeling that some spirit was trying to get my attention and that it had something to do with my church.

And the feeling of someone trying to get my attention was going on all day. So I paused what I was doing and I asked, okay. What is the message? And then it came through very specifically. And the message was, check the pantry.

It's starting again. And this meant nothing to me. What pantry? What is starting again? But that was definitely the message and it was definitely about my church.

Now, despite being somewhat involved there at my church, I don't know everything about my church. I don't know everything they do. I don't know the entire layout of the entire building and stuff like that. So in trying to picture a pantry, the one mentioned in this message, I recalled walking past the kitchen of the rectory and I remembered that there were some dark colored cabinets above the sink. So I thought that might be the pantry and whatever they meant by, it's starting again.

I had no clue. So like I do, whenever I get a message from my church, I called my friend Margaret who works there and I told her that I had a message from a spirit about the church and could I come by just to walk around and see what the message might be. I did not tell her the exact message because it was too weird to me and it didn't make sense. Check the pantry. It's starting again.

I mean, what is that? So I thought I would hold off on saying it until I got a better idea of what it might mean. So we made an appointment for a few days later. I am so honored that they trust me so much and I arrived at the appointed time later that week and Margaret and I headed straight to the basement where most of the spooky activity takes place in this building. And despite the pantry message, it felt like we should start in the basement.

We went down there, we walked around. And I was getting nothing. I was starting to think maybe it was nothing, maybe the message about the pantry doesn't mean anything. And I was feeling a little embarrassed because I was just walking around with Margaret in the basement, looking into rooms and closet saying, no, nothing here, nothing here. This isn't it.

So I decided to just tell Margaret the weird message and see if it meant anything to her. I said, hesitantly, Margaret, they are saying to check the pantry. Okay, she said. And I started walking toward the steps to go upstairs where those dark colored cabinets in the rectory kitchen were, but then Margaret said, oh, the pantry? The pantry is over here.

And she headed down this little hall in the basement that ended with a door that led to the rectory driveway. And on the left was an unmarked door to a room and I had never noticed that door before. Margaret took out her keys and unlocked the door, turned the knob and swung the door inward. And she said, this is the pantry. There was a little window to the driveway inside the room and from the light coming in, I could see shelves lined with huge tubs of peanut butter, boxes of cereal, canned vegetables, cartons of oatmeal, bottles of ketchup, like a little store.

And this was not the pantry that I was expecting. I was expecting like a little cub board or something. And I asked Margaret, is this for the clergy who live in the rectory? It seemed like a lot of food just for the few people who lived there. No, she said, this is a community food pantry.

We give out bags of groceries once a week. And I had no idea that my church did this. And I told Margaret that. And she said, yeah, we don't make a show of it. People can just come around the side door.

She said, motioning to the driveway door at the end of the little hallway. And they know when to come. So here was the pantry. And I could tell now it was the one from the message. I knew there was a reason I wanted to start in the basement.

This made sense, but I thought to myself, what about the second part? The second part of the message, it's starting again. It still seemed so weird. And I was embarrassed to tell Margaret, but I didn't know why we were standing there in the pantry. So I decided to go ahead and tell her.

And I said it really quietly. Have to myself. I said, just as hesitantly as I told her the first part of the message, I said, the message is it's starting again. It's starting again, she repeated. Let's turn on the light.

So Margaret flicked on the light, a single bulb in the middle of the ceiling, and then I could see all of the room, now that there was more light than just the window. And I scanned the room. Nothing, nothing, nothing. And then my eyes landed on the edge of a white plastic grocery store bag that was sticking out from between two bottles of ketchup. Whatever it was, this plastic bag, it was on the shelf behind the bottles.

And I got a strong message that that was it. And so I walked over there, I pulled the bag off the shelf from behind the bottles, and I opened it up, and inside this bag was a brown wig and a pair of high heels. And I thought in a food pantry, a wig and heels, I pulled the wig out of the bag, and I looked over at Margaret who had the same baffled look on her faces, I'm sure I did. I looked around at the other shelves, holding that wig in my hand, and I noticed that there were plastic bags like this on all the shelves behind the jars and the cans. Look, they're everywhere, I said.

Margaret and I started to pull the bags off the shelves and open them up, and inside were more shoes, hats, some had shirts, some had chaachkis, there were candles, one bag had five stuffed animals in it. And we discussed what the message had been, something in the pantry was starting again. And we opened a few more bags, and there were some cutlery plates, even more shoes. And then Margaret said loudly, the clutter is starting again. Now, if you've been listening to this podcast, you might remember back in episode 10, I told the story of the severely cluttered storage room at this very church, the clutter that was a big, giant fire hazard and a threat to the building and all who lived and worked there.

And in that story, I told about how the spirit used some pretty innovative ways to get everyone's attention and address the clutter situation to keep the building from burning down. And I suspect it was the same spirit who had sent this message. Check the pantry, it's starting again. Well, that room with the clutter, the one I talked about in episode 10, that room after being discovered had been cleared out and organized, but now it, the clutter, was starting again in the pantry. It's these donations, said Margaret.

People keep leaving bags of stuff on the steps. And she guessed that the volunteers who helped maintain this church have been just putting the bags in the pantry. Nobody knows what to do with this stuff, she said. And apparently this is a common problem at churches unwanted donations. I put a link to the show notes to a cool article about this unwanted donation issue.

So my job was done. The spirit and I had led Margaret to the problem, another fire hazard in the making. And I knew she would get moving on it right away. We went upstairs and I got my coat from the coat rack in the hallway as Margaret holding the bag with the wig and the shoes, headed into the office. And once she got in there, I heard her describing our trek to the basement.

And part of what I heard her saying was, and then she makes a beeline for the shelf and pulls off this bag. And then I heard some plastic crinkling. And then I heard people say, ew, when I imagine she pulled the wig out. We got to get the guys down there to clean out the junk. I heard her say.

I headed to the exit and I popped my head in the door where sure enough, Margaret was standing there in front of the office staff holding the brown wig in one hand. Okay, bye, I said, see you on Sunday. And they all say goodbye, I walked away. And then as I turned the handle on the door to leave, Margaret came quickly out of the office and asked, do we have to do some sort of special disposal ceremony for this wig? I just throw it in the garbage, I said.

The problem was not the wig, it was what it represented, the clutter. Just get rid of it all. I said, as I walked through the door, no ceremonies necessary. I don't let any more clutter in. I said, when I arrived at church that next Sunday, walking past the rectory, I saw a fresh new sign on the door in big black letters.

No clothing donations, please. And I think they should have added or wigs. But I think that no clothing donations should get the message across. They had also put the same sign on the fence in front of the church steps. And they started having a truck from a local church that does accept clothing donations, come by once a month, and they announced the day that the truck is coming almost every Sunday at the end of the service and they put it in the bulletin.

And I think all that has worked. As far as I know, unwanted bags of hand-me-downs are going to the donation truck and not to the church steps and definitely not into the pantry. As I've said before, this church building is very important to the other side. The someday I will go into health, then the supernatural veil is at this location. It's a whole episode and a half just to explain it.

But I and the clergy and staff there are so grateful for the guardian angels who are obviously watching over the building, protecting its mission to the living and to the departed. If you've enjoyed today's episode, please take a second to review it, subscribe, and share it with a friend to help the 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. And if you've enjoyed today's episode, stay for a new episode. Until next time.