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Quite a few years ago I moved to work in a congregation as a youth minister. I knew before I moved there that the preacher and I had the same first name. We were, and still are for that matter, Ralph. It was easy enough for folks to distinguish between us, because he was Ralph A and I was Ralph B., both in seniority and in actual initials.

But I found over the ensuing weeks and months that there was an eerie number of coincidences surrounding us. His wife and mine both had the same first initial, J. We both had two children and we both drove brown Chrysler product station wagon vehicles. Are you impressed yet?

Before I moved to that church I had been writing a bulletin article each week titled Reflections by Ralph. When I arrived I came to find out that Ralph A. was publishing a weekly bulletin article titled Reflections by Ralph. I discovered that his dad and mine, as well as both our grandfathers were also named Ralph.


One day, several months after my arrival, I was in the secretary's office going through the mail that had just been delivered to see if there was anything there for me. I saw that there was a letter there for Ralph A. But I was dumbfounded to read the return address. His dad lived on Chestnut Street in Abilene, mine lived on Chestnut Street in Lake Jackson!


That was enough for me, I quit looking for more coincidences. I did not want to find that we had be switched at birth or some other unacceptable situation!


Got any tales to top that?