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12/19/22 04:19 PM

#7223

Lois Takimoto (Kawata) (1969)

Kathy, your God wink stories are wonderful. Thanks for sharing them with us.

A couple of years ago I heard about what the Celtics call the "thin place". It is where heaven and earth are close. I'm sure Tom Stewart can explain it better. But, I think it's what you and I have experienced. I don't think God winks and God-incidences are by chance.

I remember Stan, too. Those of us with last names at the end of the alphabet ended up with lockers in the Music Building. I remember he had the coolest car. I wonder who in the class of '65 had lockers in the Music Building before us.

12/20/22 04:30 AM

#7224

Tom Stewart (1969)

Lois Takimoto (Kawata),

In order to understand thin places, there are a few things you must know about Celtic Spirituality. First, the Celts—pre-Christian as well as Christian—were a spiritual people. They believed in the existence of divinity, they believed people had souls which continued on after their mortal bodies died, and they believed in the existence of an Otherworld. The Celts believed that heaven wasn’t up there somewhere, but instead existed right beside the mortal world. The two worlds were separated by a veil. The veil thinned as the old year drew to a close and a new one started, namely at Samhain. But the thinning of the veil didn’t just happen once a year. There were spots in the veil which were thin all the time. These occurred in specific geographic locations. These locations are known as thin places.

In Christianity we often read about the "two kingdoms", the kingdom of God and the kingdom of man. This is the key to understanding the book of Job and Ecclessiates. Solomon refers to "under the sun", the kingdom of man. He says it is all emptiness, void, without worth, but that which is "above the sun" as an illustration, the kingdom of God is full, and full of worth. Wisdom, knowledge, joy, peace, love.....etc. Kind of interesting and pivotal in understanding the books of the Bible.

We have "God incidents", or whatever you want to call it, on a regular basis. I would often choose out four or five worship songs on video in case the worship leader couldn't make it (his wife had cancer). He would look at the list and he would have three or four of the same songs. I have files of 6-700 songs. That kind of thing might be a coincidence once or twice, but not on a regular basis. It would also happen that I would have a message about eagles, or taking the land, or following Jesus (as examples), and the worship leader would have picked songs exactly on that topic.

If we keep our eyes and ears open God often brings people and situations across our paths for a purpose.

Have a great time this Christmas season with friends and family. Mend hurts, forgive, listen, and open your hearts....

12/20/22 05:32 AM

#7225

Janice Bell (Killian) (1966)

I have so enjoyed the many uplifting stories! I am a firm believer that God wants to be an intimate part of our lives. Many times He has been with me, especially in times of trouble or despair. Often a song or hymn will come to mind, or a scripture verse, just when I most need it. As we celebrate the birth of Jesus, we can look back on all the times He has "stepped" into our lives. Our stories bring Him praise. Have a blessed Christmas and New Year!

12/20/22 06:40 AM

#7226

John Michael Somero (1967)

Kathy's Paul Harvey story brought back a memory, which I'm not sure would be a "God-wink" or not... it doesn't necessarily put the best light on a reasonably well-respected individual. I actually scanned every one of Paul Harvey's "Rest of the Story" archives to find this, and I either missed it or it's been removed. But what I tell is the truth, as follows:

In the late '70s and early '80s I had a job flying two aircraft for a Wisconsin corporation, one of which was a small hot-rod Learjet 24F. The owner of our company was a staunch Catholic, and I'd often have to fly to Minneapolis to pick up the archbishop, and he and the boss would then go to Florida or somewhere to escape the midwest winter. The airplane was small with no solid divider between the cockpit and the cabin, so we could see and hear what was happening in the back, as could the passengers there see and hear what was going on up front. I'd often look back, to see the arch-bishop sitting there, studying his bible, with a cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other.

My personal choice is to abstain 100% from alcohol, having seen and experienced some of the results over-use of that substance can produce. I know many folks that don't imbibe, and it did surprise me to see the arch-bishop indulging but I knew that that was his choice. I thought little more of it.

Later, I got a job flying and teaching for a regional airline, and in 1990 I resigned that job to work for Lufthansa Airlines' training center in Goodyear, Arizona. I wanted to be home with my young family more, and the northern Michigan winters for much of my life made Arizona look very attractive, which I found to be true in the 17 years that we lived there! Imagine my surprise when I was driving through Phoenix, listening to the radio, some 25 years later, when I heard Paul Harvey begin an episode of his "Rest of the Story" and it went something like this. "Arch-bishop **** *****, of the Minneapolis Diocese, spent last night in jail after driving his car through a plate glass window of a local convenient store." And it continued, but ended with "However, Archbishop ***** still maintains that alcohol is one of God's good gifts to mankind!".

So, there's the rest of my story.

12/20/22 08:36 AM

#7227

Tom Stewart (1969)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGoqOv-4URA

Miss Fogarty's Christmas Cake

12/20/22 08:40 AM

#7228

Tom Stewart (1969)

Miracles....not only at Christmas.....but any time....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FPUFx3EPw0&t=32s

12/20/22 11:48 AM

#7229

Ron Blickle (1963)

While we are talking about "The rest of the story", I had the good forturne to hear Paul Harvey in person at a convention I attended about 1989. He was the main speaker and when the program was concluded, some of us had the opprotunity to meet him and have our pictures taken with him. He had the biggest smile and warm personality that would light up a room. My wife and I were big fans of his radio broadcasts and would often discuss his subjects. As you can see, from the exerpt below, he died in 2009 at age 90, so we were so glad to have had that opportunity to meet one of our heros.

Sorry the photo is on it's side, but like many of us, I am challenged with technology and just glad to get this photo into this site! As Paul Harvey would say at the end of his progarms, "Good Day" Paul Harvey Aurandt (September 4, 1918 – February 28, 2009) was an American radio broadcaster for ABC News Radio. He broadcast News and Comment on mornings and mid-days on weekdays and at noon on Saturdays and also his famous The Rest of the Story segments. From 1951 to 2008, his programs reached as many as 24 million people per week. Paul Harvey News was carried on 1,200 radio stations, on 400 American Forces Network stations, and in 300 newspapers.

12/20/22 04:46 PM

#7230

Theresa Eve (1964)

Ron, Good Story with your picture.

12/20/22 05:12 PM

#7231

Lois Takimoto (Kawata) (1969)

Tom, thanks for your explanations. Yeah, so much we miss seeing and are not aware of. Keep looking for miracles.

Ron and John, loved your stories. I enjoyed Paul Harvey's Rest of the Story on my drive home from work. Hope more people will share their stories. I love to hear how God works in our lives.

12/20/22 08:13 PM

#7232

Pam Wohlfrom (Johnson) (1969)

Just another "Oh,my gosh!" quick story. The family (10 of us) went to Hawaii for Thanksgiving. Don and I went over early and stayed longer. We started in Kono on the big Island then when the family headed home we spent an extra 5 days in Honolulu in a huge Marriott property overlooking Waikii ... a week early for our 40th anniversary. We ate in the breakfast room each day and had the same waiter..Todd. He was great, speaks at least 4 languages and was lots of fun. On our last day, we were seated across the room from our usual spot and we had our usual long chat with him. We pretty much "closed" the room. Just us and the couple at the table next to us and Todd. He spent quite a while talking with them also then came back to us to say.."the lady sitting next to you is from your town"!!! Whaaattttt!!??
So that led to a very nice conversation with Nancy Reynolds-Cochran!... WHS class of 1964.. and her husband Sam. They live in North Carolina. What are the odds! From Carolina and California sitting next to each other in Honolulu. Promised I'd send her the Decades Reunion info... she wants to come!

and look at all that Orange! ! (Nancy, Pam, Sam, Don)

12/21/22 11:10 AM

#7233

Ron Blickle (1963)

Here is another "God Winks" story, but surely more than a wink!

My wife Bonnie and I are regular church goers at Divine Savior Catholic Church in Orangevale, CA. Bonnie is a greeter and I serve communion to the parrish. So, one day last year, Bonnie was standing near a side door greeting parrishioners. During a lull of people entering through the side door, a nicely dressed lady walked through the door and went right up to Bonnie and announced, "I love you". Bonnie was taken aback and not sure what to do with this information. Then the lady took Bonnie by here shoulders and looked directly into Bonnie's eyes and said, "No, I really love you" at which time Bonnie hugged the lady to determine if she was real. Bonnie had never seen this lady before, but the lady walked into the church. Shortly thereafter, Bonnie walked into the church looking for this lady to find out who she was. Bonnie could not locate the lady anywhere inside the church and has never seen her since that morning. Bonnie's only conclusion was that this lady was possibly an Angel.

Merry Christmas to all,

Ron

12/21/22 12:26 PM

#7234

Anne Douglass (Loud) (1964)

I am adding to the Vickery story. I took piano lessons from Harriette Vickery on that piano (I am only assuming it is the same one Tom had) at the Vickery home at the intersection of Hollister and West Keystone, which is near Beamer School. I lived a block away on Sunset Avenue. I remember her perfectly manicured nails clicking on the keys as she played. Her husband was Jess Vickery, with daughter Sharon and son Tom. According to the Corner Drug website, "Richard Alge, owner of the adjoining Armstrong & Alge building, used the building as rental property until selling it in 1934 to Jess Vickery who named it the Corner Drug Company." Then "In 1959 Howard Gregg and Karl Hanke became partners with Vickery." Hanke became the sole owner in 1980.

12/21/22 12:53 PM

#7235

Monte McCray (1966)

Hi Mel. merry christmas.

12/22/22 04:57 AM	#7236
Janice Bell (Killian) (1966) Ron, what an inspiring story. I share your belief that the lady was an angel, a special messenger from The Father. Have a blessed Christmas.

12/22/22 09:29 AM

#7237

Ron Blickle (1963)

Thanks Janice. Yes, we believe it was an Angel because we can find no other explanation. Nobody saw the lady that my wife described and our priest knew nothing of that lady either. It has been a great comfort to my wife to know of God's great love on a very personal basis.

12/22/22 11:50 AM

#7238

Connie Logue (Wilson) (1966)

Anne Doulass inspired these memories: Mrs Vickery, Lee Jr. High, 1960-1961, choir - Every Christmas season, every time I hear O' Holy Night, I remember Mrs. Vickery's choir class. I was an alto, so I had to learn how to harmonize to O' Holy Night. To this day, I've not forgotton the harmony, and, the crecendo she led us up to, in the hymn. Another memory connected to Mrs. Vickery-Does anyone remember Cotillion at Lee? Boys lining up on one side of the room, girls on the other. I was taller than most of the boys, and was usually the last girl picked. That is, until Mark Dozier, God bless him, walked across the floor and asked me to dance. He was taller than me! I've never forgotton Mark's kindness. Cottiion was quite the adventure for a very ackward Lee Jr. High girl. What great, sometimes painful, memories of Mrs. Vickery,; chior and cotillion.

12/22/22 12:51 PM

#7239

Lois Takimoto (Kawata) (1969)

12/22/22 01:02 PM

#7240

Rick Potter (1966)

This is my first-ever posting on this sight. The talk of Mrs. Vickery brought back a memory. In 7th grade at Lee, she put Bill Northrop, Robin Springer, me and one other boy(don't remember his name) in the 8th grade choir because we could sing higher than most of the 8th grade girls(still have the choir pic). That summer our voices changed and in 8th grade we were baritones.

12/22/22 01:27 PM

#7241

Lois Takimoto (Kawata) (1969)

Sorry. I couldn't figure out how to add my text after I uploaded the book cover. I know I sound like a broken record. But, I really love the stories you have shared.

Tom, It is amazing how you and your worship leader chose the same songs. Pam, it was amazing how you met Nancy in Hawaii. Ron, I think it's amazing that your wife was blessed by an Angel. But, I don't know why I still find it so amazing. Like Tom said. It happens all the time.

Since my diagnosis of ALS in 1999, I feel God wanted me to know I was surrounded by celestial and earthly Angels. I usually email Steve, my brother, or friends about my God-incidences. In August 2021 I wrote that I had downloaded Billy Graham's daily devotional as usual. But, instead of that day's message, an image of an Angel came up. I thought it was the wrong page. But, further research revealed that it was the cover of a different book. When I log into Bookshare, it has 10 books I can click on to read. The book about Angels was not 1 of the 10 books. And, clicking on Billy Graham's name didn't bring up that book. I believe God wanted me to read that book. I did.

12/23/22 06:45 AM

#7242

Burke Fong (1967)

Here's my God Winks story.

In 2001, my job title was Software Project Manager for AT&T/SBC. I had just completed a 6-year project implementing a Human Resources system for the entire AT&T/SBC empire. I was one of the roughly 25 Project managers on the project that was comprised of approximately 400 team members. My team created the telephone login access for the system.

In February, I told my boss that I wanted to retire immediately. He asked me to stay another month so that they could bring in another manager to take over my team. I was paid my full salary while the new manager had a month to learn what I learned in 6 years. I asked my manager what he wanted me to do. His response, "I don't care. Surf the internet."

So I spent 8 hours a day surfing the internet. One day, a pop-up ad for classmates.com appeared on the screen. Normally, I would ignore those pop-up ads but since I had nothing to do, I logged into classmates.com. I accessed the data for Woodland High School and found Andrea. Later, Andrea told me that she had only accessed classmates.com a week earlier. Call it a coincident, but we know it was a God winking moment.

We talked for a month before actually meeting face-to-face. During our conversations, she revealed that a close church friend had predicted in March of 2000 that she would find her true love within a year. I told her that one of my close friends had made a similar prediction for me 6 months earlier. Being a life long bachelor, I didn't think too much about that prediction.

In the months before we met, her friend kept telling Andrea that her future husband was nearby, but couldn't understand why she hadn't met him. Andrea was living in Davis. I was living in San Francisco, but I was visiting Davis almost every weekend picking up my god-daughter who was attending UCD. My god-daughter lived 2 blocks away from Andrea. On our first date, I picked up Andrea from her home and, as we were leaving her neighborhood, we see my god-daughter.

During our talks, we found out that we worked within 2 blocks of each other in San Francisco for almost 5 years during the early 1980's. Both of us frequented the same restaurants, but we didn't see each other. God was not ready for us to meet.

I proposed to Andrea on Mother's Day of 2001. We picked October 6th of 2001 as our wedding date. We found a wedding venue and October 6th was the only date they had available for months. We found a photographer and that date was the only date that he was available for months. In less than 5 months, we were able to have a wedding for almost 300 guests that happened without a major clinch. God was definitely touching us.

Here's another incident where God was a factor in our wedding. We wanted to have engagement pictures taken at Baker Beach in San Francisco. The day that we took the pictures, the weather was perfect. We have a picture of us sitting on a log with a golden sunset in the background. When we picked up the pictures, our photographer told us," God must love you". We asked him, "Why?". He told us that the days before and after our photo session, the beach was completely fogged in and he couldn't see 10 feet.

We had a lot of incidents during our 20+ years of marriage that we contributed to "God winking" at us.

12/23/22 07:04 AM	#7243
Janice Bell (Killian) (1966) Burke. I love your story! You marriage was truly made in Heaven. John and I have often been lead by God throughout our life together. Merry Christmas!

12/23/22 12:03 PM

#7244

Connie Long (Brace) (1963)

What wonderful God Wink stories and so appropriate for this time of year when the spiritual can be lost amid the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. Ron, if I am remembering correctly, Jim and I frequently attended mass at Divine Savior Catholic Church when my parents were still living and we were making regular trips to Carmichael to spend time with them. Divine Savior was a new chuch then and (if I am remembering the correct church) was meeting in a large tent. We attended there the first time because it was convenient and kept returning because we found such a beautiful and welcoming spirit everytime we visited.

Wishing all on the forum a Blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year.

12/23/22 02:49 PM

#7245

Ron Blickle (1963)

Yes, Connie, that church started in a bingo hall behind the Raleys store on Madison & Hazel before they bought the land on Greenback Lane and erected that tent. A couple of years later, they built the church, office and large hall. Bonnie and I have been going there for about 20 years now. We have been through about 6 priests, but always enjoy the service and closeness of the people who attand. We will both be serving on Christmas morning.

Merry Christmas to you and your family!

12/23/22 03:57 PM

#7246

Mary Collins (Schreckenghost) (1969)

12/23/22 05:08 PM

#7247

Janet Long (Levers) (1966)

Slight correction: it was Mrs. SANTONI who oversaw us learning the foxtrot and how to dip, at Cotillion. Thursday night was 7th graders, Friday night for 8th graders. And us girls needed to cross our ankles, very demurely.

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