My $200 Earring

Here’s my favorite story from last week’s Bible conference in Indio, California. By way of background, I should say that the conference draws RVers and Snow Birds from the Pacific Northwest, Canada, Southern California and Arizona. Because there is no preregistration, the conference organizers never know who is coming, and they pay all the expenses of the conference by receiving one offering on Wednesday night.

Early in the week two women were talking, and one said to the other (who was her sister-in-law), “That preacher (she was talking about me) is wearing an earring.” The other woman took a look and said, “No, he’s not.” But the first woman persisted and said, “Yes, he is.” “I’m sure he’s not.” And so it went. Finally the woman who was sure I was wearing an earring said, “You want to bet on that?” (I’m not making this up. How could I make this up?) So she offered to bet $100 that I wasn’t wearing an earring. They decided that whoever lost would put the money in the Wednesday night offering.

Evidently the woman who thought was I wearing an earring saw the wireless microphone that wrapped around my left ear and came to a wrong conclusion. I guess the two women came up and inspected me after one of the services because the woman who offered to make the bet said, “Since we’re going to put the money in the offering, I’m going to double it to $200.” And that’s how my “earring” ending up adding $200 to the offering on Wednesday night.

Totally true story.