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Interesting Facts

• Basically: a disabled & retired Steelworker, ex- labor leader, and ex-elected Financial Secretary of Local 4398. Nothing in my background would make anyone imagine there walks an Author and Prospective Disciple of God;— except God. God finds Disciples in the most unlikely of places. Pryor to being a Steelworker I had too many jobs to mention. Rose by family members with the absence of a mother and father; forced to attend Lutheran Church, Sunday school, Catechism, and Vacation Bible School as a child— this was the rule of the house: Attend Church and School until you become old enough to leave home. When I was old enough to leave and strike out on my own church attendance was the first thing to be cut from my new lifestyle. A marriage ending in divorce resulting in drug and alcohol abuse; then after one evening alone and partying my appendix ruptured unknown to me at the time, I self medicated the injury and finally racked with crippling pain drove myself to the hospital emergency room passing out in a no parking zone in the emergency parking area there later to be discovered by hospital security. I awoke in 4 days from a coma and a few members of the hospital staff and my ex-wife convinced me I had a problem and recruited me to the hospital substance abuse program. The hospital had contacted my employer and explained to me that all expenses would be paid, the program was 30 days long and the company would continue paying me a sub pay package during the time I was enrolled in their program provided I graduated. I don’t mind telling you this was a miracle; I would get paid 80% of my wages not have to go to work. All I had to do is attend classes in the air conditioning and stay at the hospital. I had no initial intention of stopping any of my current behaviors. That denial all ended on September 3, 1984.
• Looking back I owe my current success to a grade school teacher that for some unknown reason to me took an interest. One day the teacher asked me to stay for a moment after class and inquired about the reading assignment. I was having trouble reading and looked at my shoes. She then told me that she believed my reading problem stemmed from my lack of interest in the selected reading materials, not my ability to read, then opened her desk drawer and handed me a mad magazine and Ian Fleming’s book about James Bond. She told me to write down the words I was having trouble with and she wanted a daily progress report. That book and magazine lit my fire. I soon became a frequent visitor to the Library The complete works of Fleming, Poe, Twain, and Shakespeare, the classics Moby Dick, Scarlet Letter, Exodus, just to mention a few were all read before I was a freshman in High School. Then a neighbor that shared my reading passion taught me how to speed read. I could now read books in hours instead of days. The new age movement sparked my curiosity and started an investigation into religion that continues today. Now my only interest is the King James Version of the Bible and a few research books. When Ronald Reagan was asked if he was on a desert island and allowed one book what it would be; he immediately responded the Bible. I agree with President Reagan nothing is more challenging, reading it is one thing understanding it is another.

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