A Poet's Testimony (Part 5)

A Poet’s Testimony (Part 5)

I left work nine months short of a bridge to full retirement, with an eleven month continuation of my monthly salary  (a month for every two years of service), and the after-tax cash buy-out of my contributions to the retirement fund. Essentially, I could continue living as I had been for about a year before my world would collapse.

It is always inevitable that as companies grow, regulations increase, and profits become more important than people, success comes with employing new technologies, streamlining tasks, and down-sizing the workforce.  Previous to losing my job, I had survived five company down-sizing efforts and over the course of five years, watched many of my friends and peers lose their jobs. After watching so many of my friends lose their jobs, I decided to make myself financially liquid two years prior to losing my own job. I sold my retirement home on the river and used the profits to put a down payment on two duplex apartment buildings and bought a third larger and newer duplex in the country with no money down on a 30 year VA loan. The third duplex in the country was the one we called home.

Our medical insurance was transferred over to Cobra and skyrocketed to nearly a thousand dollars a month. Seeking another source of income to help pay the bills when my monthly salary would expire in a year, I took the buy-out from my retirement and put 20% down on two additional duplex apartments. We now had a total of five duplexes. As I rushed to remodel the two newly purchased duplexes, it became apparent that we would not be able to keep up with the mortgage on our duplex in the country. We put it up for sale, sold it and came just short of breaking even. Then we moved into one of the apartments I was renovating. By the grace of God, we managed to get the remaining apartments remodeled and rented just before the cash ran out.

Then the new year and income tax time rolled around and we received the shocker of our lives. My after-tax cash buy-out was now taxable as income towards the purchase of our newly acquired duplexes. I had a reported income greater than what I paid taxes on, I owed the IRS $40,000 and interest was accumulating at $80 a day. I had no money to speak of, minimum income from the apartments, and no way to pay them off. I was forced to sell off one of my earlier duplexes that I had put a large down payment on for a loss. When I first attempted to pay off the IRS, they would not accept the check because three days interest had accumulated while it was in the mail and it was not considered payment in full. I ended up having to overpay them and wait another two years to get my money back.

Shortly after paying off the IRS, a couple of roof rafters collapsed from the weight of snow in the apartment we were living in and we awoke to water running all over my wife’s cherry dining-room table and chairs. I managed to get the roof rafters jacked back up and secured from inside the attic and paid some kids to shovel off the roof. We were thankful that it did not happen at one of the units we were renting.

Before losing my job, I was a collector of animal graphic ginger beer bottles from the 1800s.  I had acquired every animal graphic made in Canada, the U.S., and most from England; as well as a few from Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. Considering my circumstances, I quickly realized that the fun had been in the collecting, not the owning. The internet was changing everything; eBay was just coming into its own and some of the rarer bottles that I had paid $50 or $60 for were now selling for $300 to $1200. I began selling off my collection that had taken me since college to acquire; a bottle at a time to help pay the bills.

We had purchased and sold enough properties by that time that my wife had become friends with a few of the realtors. When a couple of the ladies broke off to start their own real-estate company, they asked my wife to come along, and so she tried her hand at real estate. She was the low gal on the totem pole in a start-up company so there unfortunately weren’t a lot of profits to be made in the short-term.

By the end of my second year of being out of work, I had flown out of state for several job interviews and had countless phone interviews, but no job offers. Then one day, long after all the profitable bottles had been sold, my wife was leaving for work and told me that we had only $800.00 in the bank and that she had no idea how we would be able to buy groceries and make our mortgage payments that month. This was the first time that she had shown any outward sign of fear or worry since I had been out of work. I broke down as soon as she pulled out of the driveway and fell to my knees in prayer, “My God, haven’t I done all that you asked of me? What more can I do? My wife is afraid and I have no way to comfort or reassure her. How can I provide for her? My life and subsistence is in your hands.”

Ten minutes later, the phone rang with what would turn out to be the best  job offer of my entire life from an interview that I had had three days previous. I got off the phone and was driven to my knees by the power of the Holy Spirit. I lifted my arms and began to weep. I praised God for His mercy and grace. This was a job in Wisconsin and it took every bit of our $800.00 to get out there and get set-up. My first paycheck was just in time to pay the mortgages and buy some groceries.

Once there, God spoke to my heart through the power of the Holy Spirit; saying, “This is your time on the mountain. Use it wisely.” This was an answering to prayer and I knew then that my time alone was meant to serve God. I began to pen First Vespers and God again spoke to me through the power of the Holy Spirit to reassure me of my path. The miracles that I have seen are more than this testimony and too many to list. By the grace of God, Jesus has stood in my filthy, dirty house and He has washed it clean with the brightness of His light.