September 23, 2003 The softball team that I played on this year just happened to get themselves to the Championship Game tonight. They went through the playoffs undefeated in the winners bracket and would play the winner of the losers bracket. About 4 weeks ago, I tore a muscle in my leg which rendered me unable to sprint or run at 100%. I was called today to see if I would be able to play, but I opted not too as I didn't want to re-injure that muscle. But I told them I would be there to watch and cheer them on. My Christian friend Rob and I played on 2 softball teams this year together. He played with me on my team that I had played on for the past 7 years and I played on his team up in Cloquet, MN. �Here is something odd about the 2 team names that we played for. My team was called, The River Inn. They were located in Duquette, MN. There is also another team called the River Inn, but they are from Cloquet, MN. Rob's team was from Cloquet, MN and they are called "Roosters". Last year their name was Richards. New owners of the bar re-named the bar from Richard's to Roosters this year. What is the short name or a nickname for a man with the name of Richard? What is a short name or a nickname for a rooster? Now with an underlying tone of 2 sexual innuendos about the male genitalia, when used in a different context and separately, there is nothing wrong with either of those words, but put them together in this context, and that is funny. Calling a guy Dick because his name is Richard is perfectly ok. Calling a rooster a cock is perfectly ok. Their slogan on the team hats was, "From Dicks to Cocks".� Rob wouldn't even wear one for its insinuation. I didn't wear one either, but I surely did chuckle when I heard that. I think it's funny. The only reason I am writing about it is because of the obvious signs of 2 between the names of the 2 teams and towns they were in, the fact that Rob and I both played on them and the coincidences between them. Now I know some of you reading this are still laughing. It's ok, go right ahead. I couldn't have made this stuff up if I tried! And the fact that it is all true makes it that much more hilarious. I wonder what God sounds like when he laughs?

In the very first game that I played with Rob's team, I hit a solo home run. I usually am not a home run hitter. We lost that game 21 - 1. Rob on the other hand hits homeruns quite frequently. He probably hit one or 2 or 3 in every game this year except for that one game or maybe 2 this year. I didn't keep track of his stats. On my team we did not fair too well. We ended the season with a very poor record. But in the last game of the season for my team, I hit a my 2nd homerun. Rob's son Christian was there watching me, he is 4 years old and told me before I batted that he was going to say a prayer for me. I thought it was the sweetest thing. I went to bat after that prayer and just crushed a good one over the fence and into the trees. Wow, Praise God! On Rob's team I also hit a homerun in the last regular season game, which was also my last game of this season as that game was when I was injured. Cory, the coach said to me after I hit it, "So Flipp, you hit a homer in your first and your last game." That was pretty neat I thought. And the fact that I hit a home run on both of my team's last game was even neater.

Now it was the playoffs, and I was unable to play. But the team did excellent with their new found confidence in using the powerful Mikken Ultra II bat. Rob's team had bought one but it was a dud. They had to send it in to get a 2nd one and were without that strong bat for most of the season.
The Championship game was in front of them. I was there and offered to keep the stat book to record the games hits and runs for our team. If they win, they win it all, if they lost, seeing as how it was double elimination, they would have to play again immediately after. The game began about 30 minutes late because the loser's bracket games had taken longer than expected. It was not even a contest. The other team pummeled us 30-8 and beat us by 22 runs. I walked over to Rob and said to Rob, "What do you think of that score, losing by exactly 22 runs?" Rob and I just smiled at each other. He and I knew without even saying a word that the fact the team lost by 22 runs was not a coincidence. Now we had to play them again. I am 100% positive and I never asked Rob, but I knew before the game that he said a prayer. I also said one.

The 2nd game was intense! It started out very close. We were up by one with a score of 3-2 after the first inning. After that, the other team took the lead and held onto it. The other team had managed to build their score up to 19 runs by the 6th inning. And in the 7th inning they had the bases loaded with no outs. We were down by 2 runs and it seemed as though they were about to increase their lead. I mean, bases were loaded and all with no outs; it was looking like they were in a pretty nice position to capitalize on the situation. But then the incredible happened. The infamous triple play! I don't think I have ever seen one in person before. But in a tangle of errors and quick thinking on our defenses part, it happened. There was a ground ball hit to my friend Rob on 1st base and he gunned it home saving the run from scoring. The catcher gunned it to 3rd quickly which made for a very close play at 3rd. The umpire called him out. This lead to more confusion for the runner at 1st as he just kind of stopped half way between 1st and 2nd and was wondering what the call was. Everyone was just kind of standing around and the 3rd baseman threw the ball to 2nd base and the 2nd baseman tagged out the 3rd guy running very late to 2nd base in his confusion. It wasn't pretty, except for the first out to home which was cleanly a secure force out at the plate. The 2nd out was very close at 3rd and the 3rd out was definitely a mistake made by that runner who just seemed to be in some sort of confused state of what to do.

We came up to bat and needed 1 run to tie and 2 to win. The score was 21-20 in their favor. Our first man up hit the ball to their shortstop and he made an error. We now had a guy on 1st. The next batter hit a pop up fly ball to the 1st baseman. This put the guy on 1st in quite a predicament. He could not run, for if the 1st baseman caught the ball, he would surely be out if he was anywhere off of the bag. The 1st baseman dropped the ball and instead of picking it up and touching the base or the runner who was standing right next to him, he fumbled it at which time our runner on 1st took off towards 2nd base. He reached to pick it up the ball and fumbled it again which allowed the batter to reach first safely and the runner to advance to 2nd base. Wow, I thought, this is unbelievable. I was happy, I cheered and I smiled at Rob.

The next man up hit for a clean base hit and loaded the bases. Then we popped one up for the 1st out. Then another hit brought in the tying run. A ground ball to the shortstop next was the last play of the game, for he threw it to 2nd and got the runner out from 1st, but the 2nd baseman did not complete the double play and our runner from 3rd scored during the play. This ended the game with the final score of 22 - 21. (There's that number 22 which came up significantly tonight - twice.) All I could think about was of back in the year 1980 and how the Team USA Hockey won the Gold Medal in the Olympics and when they beat the Team from USSR to go to the finals, Al Michaels the announcer just yelled, "Do you believe in Miracles?!!!!!!!!" It was all I could think of and I said it out loud in a very happy and blissful voice. I looked at Rob and he said, "Well, Of course I do!" I did too. It was the greatest and most fun softball game I have ever watched.

I was looking for a great ending to my book, although I don't think that the 2's have stopped coming, I was looking for a really cool and fun ending to this part of it. I need to post this story for people to read and if I kept on writing it, it might never be read. I was wondering if something really huge was going to happen. I just have that feeling that something grandiose was going to happen and that I was going to witness it and write it down as my big finale'. And then I picked up my bible and in the very last chapter of those 66 biblical chapters is a book written by the Apostle John. It is called "Revelation". Revelation is the last book in the Holy Bible, and so if you go to the bible and look at how the bible ends you will see that there are 22 chapters in Revelation. And in Chapter 22 there are 21 verses.

Revelation 22:21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.


(I don't think I could have ended this book any better than that.)
Thank You Father for that revelation and this great ending!



Although it is not over, this part is. Jesus will come again for the 2nd time. The time is very near.

Closing Thoughts
Some of you reading this might not believe that the signs given to me were truly miracles. But to you I want to ask, if you had a series of things happen to you, no matter what they were, but to you they were supernatural in context, wouldn't you tell that to someone? Let's say for instance you came home from work and everyday you found that at 4:00 pm a green vehicle drove by your house. Let's say it happened for 10 days in a row. Now even to be aware of this in the first place you would have to be tuned in and looking for it, otherwise the vehicles would just drive on by and you would think nothing of it. Well I believe that those kinds of things and more are happening all the time, but people are missing it. So when you ask God to come into your life and accept Jesus as your savior, then you will suddenly be tuned in. Not only will you see those 10 cars on 10 straight days but you might even notice that the 2nd car after the green one is always blue. Now what would you do if you had 10 green vehicles go by your house at exactly 4:00 pm 10 days in a row and then they were all followed by 10 blue vehicles? Wouldn't you tell someone? Is this truly a miracle? Well, it surely would not be purely coincidental. It would definitely be a sign. And then once we finally see the sign, then we want to know what it means. It means God is there, and he is saying, "See what happens when you open your eyes, I am here and it is a miracle." But then don't close them, learn more. Pray. Read the Bible. And then more things will be shown to you. You will meet people, a series of events will unfold that will shed light on things and things will start happening like a chess game in where you won't see things right away but 30 moves later you will see things and go, "WOW, is that why those green cars kept driving in front of my house and why the blue ones followed!"

Or what if you were looking for an apartment to rent and you were on a tight budget and could only afford $500 a month. You searched and searched and could not find the right place for the right amount of money. But then a friend at work tells you of a place that will be coming open because someone they know is moving out of state. The person moving out of state got a new job. The job was offered to them by a large company that sells toys. You move in and you absolutely love the place and you thank God for helping you to find it for so cheap. Your son's birthday comes and the party is at 4:00 pm and he gets a present from an old friend of yours that has toy cars in it. The set of cars are all green and blue and there are 10 of each of them. This gets you really thinking because 2 months ago when you started looking for a new apartment you saw those green and blue cars and told your best friend at work about them, who happens to be the same best friend who told you about the apartment for rent. You then ask your old friend, why he happened to get that specific gift for your son? He says that he submitted an idea to a toy company and they really liked it and it was such a big hit they had to open up a new factory to build them. And that is why the man had to move in the first place. Then you later find out by one of your new neighbors that your son's name is the same as the name of the guy who moved out of state to go and work at the new toy factory.

These things happen. If those things happened to you as I just wrote, wouldn't you want to tell that to all your friends, your relatives, to everyone? Wouldn't you want to say, "Guess what happened to me?" Well that is exactly how I feel and why I am telling you this. Open your eyes, look for your signs, they are there. Mine just happened to be "2!" The next time you do something by accident like by a newspaper and totally by accident you bring home 2, you might just want to stop and think. Write things down. Keep a Journal. Look for your "2!" God wants to talk to you, He wants to show you things; will you let Him? He has a plan for you.

I have always wanted to write a creative book, but even I could not have been so creative to come up with all of these things. But now I know that anything is possible through God. This would make a great series on TV, or a movie. I can even envision the number "2!" on the movie theatre sign. It has the possibilities of going on and on and on. Part 2 will be called "2!!" Part 3 will be called, "2!!!" Maybe I will just keep on adding to this book and make it longer and longer. God only knows. I will always keep my eyes and my heart open for Him.

Check back to see if things get added, tell a friend, print this out, share it with whomever you want. I did not copy write it. I don't think I need to. I just want to share it with everyone for free. I will always know in my heart that this is my story that God gave to me as a gift. Well actually He gave me "2!" and then some.

The End - or is it?

Thank you Father!!

The signs do continue, and if you would like to jump ahead and read about the rest of the signs click here to go to Part 2. The rest of this page tells about me and how I grew up and about my life before I became a christian. There are amazing signs and coincidences of 2's I never even knew about until I wrote them all down and looked at them with my own eyes. I was truly amazed that something in my life was going on without me even aware of the magnitude of all of this.