I think I have posted my story before,
but here it goes again as it seems to fit what you are asking for.
The Silliest offense that I committed
and was counseled for was working too hard to provide for my family.
Yes I missed some meetings and my field circus slacked off because I
was busy taking care of my family, that was my high crime.
It was on the 4th of July
weekend almost 30 years ago but I remember it like it was yesterday,
because it literally became my Independence Day, the day I got off
the WatchTower,Treadmill.
Long story short: out of the blue I
was chosen by NASA to test and validate the security systems that
protect what would become NASA's most valuable and high profile
asset, the Hubble Space Telescope. At the time of my selection, my
occupation was as a lowly TV / VCR repairman. I was in debt, and
struggling to make a living.
Literally overnight I went from barely
making a living to earning $50.00US per hr. plus all expenses paid. I
should also note this is before I earned even my first college
degree. In fact I had to be granted wavers because I did not even
minimally qualify for this position academically.
I can't over emphasize how
life-changing this was for me and my family or how much faith NASA
put into my assessment of their systems. NASA could not launch the
Hubble until the security shortfalls I uncovered were fully resolved,
and my testimony before the Inspector General became part of the
Congressional Record. It really was a big deal! Incredible is it
not?
But I digress, I am forever greatly
indebted to my (catholic) parents who so strongly instilled in me by
their wonderful example that family comes first and foremost and that
anyone or anything that prevents you from taking care of your family
is not good, is not to be followed, and is certainly not from God.
I am also indebted to a lesser extent
to those two elders that pulled me aside in the back room of the
Kingdom Hall at 1647 Heckscher Ave. Bay Shore NY 11950 on Sunday July
5th 1987 and said in no uncertain terms “Kenneth, you
have to make a choice between NASA and Jehovah's Kingdom”.
Well Kenneth made his choice that very
day, and continued to work for NASA for some years on many projects.
In reality, It wasn't a choice between NASA or Jehovah, that's a
false dichotomy, but it was a choice to continue to do the will of an
evil cult and neglect my families needs or do the correct thing and
care for my family.
To my atheists and agnostic friends,
and they are many, while I respect your views having my own serious
bouts of doubt along the way, it is because of what happened to me,
first hand, directly, and not something I read in a book written by
nomadic sheep herders and tent makers, but was something that to this
day I am at a loss for words to explain. All I can say is that tt
shook me to my very core, and I believe I experienced the very thing
that the character Dr. Arroway (played by Jodie Foster) experienced
in the movie Contact. But this was not a movie, this was real.
Yes even now at 60 years of age, being
a trained scientist and engineer, convinced beyond all doubt of the
fact of biological evolution, the great age of the universe and the
earth, and the plethora of seemingly contradictory things that
should logically put me in the atheist or at least agnostic camp. I
however can never truly join your ranks, for I have had the red sea
parted before me, I experienced something that just does not happen,
and it can't be explained logically, but it was real. It was
life-changing to say the least.
I absolutely believe that I was rescued
by nothing less then the hand of God from this cult.
Freeman
