VOICE FROM AFAR

THE UFO

WHAT ARE UFOs?
MORE THAN HALF OF THE WORLD'S POPULATION HAS NOW SEEN THEM.
HAVE THEY TRAVELED TO US FROM SOME OTHER PLACE IN OUR UNIVERSE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF LIGHT YEARS AWAY
OR, DO THEY COME FROM SOME "PLACE" ELSE?

FROM AGNOSTIC TO MINISTER

A LITTLE PERSONAL BACKGROUND FIRST

The word AGNOSTIC literally means "one who does not know." I suppose that would best describe my first opinion concerning the existence of God during the time leading up to my calling. Before that, I was a little irritated by religious people who went around trying to persuade everyone to believe in God as they did. People who didn't even know how to change a spark plug thought themselves capable enough to dogmatically instruct others about eternity!
These were the "gnostics" -- meaning one who KNOWS.
"How did they know God existed?," I wondered.
Often I was mistaken for an athiest (One who believes there is no God).
I was just trying to be true to my own mind not to deceive myself. I did not know if there really was a God or not. I did not lean one way or the other. I was just not afraid REALLY prove all things.
"How can they just up and say they believe?," I wondered. "Where's the proof?"
The athiests, on the other hand, were equally frustrating to me. How could they believe we "evolved" from a microscopic organism? Life only imparts life. Everything we eat must be organic (living, or have lived) or else we die. No one can live eating only organic substances (rock, copper, iron, etc). Actually, living things must continually sacrifice their own lives that we may continue to live whether it is carrots, beef, wheat, or any of the other foods we eat.
"What is life?," I wondered. What is consciousness?
I looked into the Bible and found certain prophecies that thousands of years later were fulfilled in the pages of secular history books.
How could the scientific community not factor such events into their thinking?
I was surrounded by "gnostic" know-it-alls on both sides. One group KNEW there was a God. The other KNEW there was not! Both were adamant in their beliefs.
Neither one impressed me.
I was not afraid, nor ashamed to admit I would not dogmatically accept either one until, through experience, I knew more.
It was about that time that God's agents began to work with me through a calling that has brought me here ---- writing this to you!

VISITS

The untimely death of my mother-in-law drove me to seek understanding on WHY we live anyway. What is life? What is death. What happens when we die? Is there any purpose to life?

I read information from Darwin and other notable evolutionists. It all sounded reasonable at first ---- taken gradually --- one little concept at a time.

I also gave the Holy bible equal time apart from mainstream denominational influences.

I don't want this to turn into an article about my personal calling, so I will cut this part short. However, I must give a little background.

Being a hunter and trapper I had spent many hours out in the woods at night alone. The point is, nothing on old Mother Earth scared me. I felt very much at home in such a situation. I had explored raw caves in Pennsylvania, and old tombs on Okinawa. I didn't scare easily.

In fact, my personal version of the 23rd Psalm might have read thus:

"Ye though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil ---- for I am the baddest SOB in the valley!"

Imagine a puny little human being with such confidence!

Then one night while I was sleeping, something awakened me. All I knew was that something had happened, and it had awakened me.

Since I could not figure out what it was, I rolled over to go back to sleep. As I lay there half awake and half asleep, I heard an 'airy' small voice say "something that sounded like the letter "I." I then realized that that was the sound that had originally awakened me out of ny sleep.

My wife was alsleep beside me; and it was about 3:00am.

It was so real that I thought about waking her up to see if she could hear it if it happened again. but, while I was thinking on this, I heard it again.

Being fully awake, i heard it clearly this time. The word I heard was not "I", but "why?"

I felt a presence at the foot of my bed, and strained to peer through the dark room to see if I could make out a shape. I couldn't. I got up out of bed. Turned the light on. And, checked the whole house. -- Nothing! I am not one who "hears voices." In fact, I've always suspected I was being lied to when anyone mentioned having experienced such a thing.

The incident actually ticked me off! I was not looking for an "experience".......religious or otherwise. I was merely seeking knowledge and understanding. Actually, I suppose I looked at it as an invasion of personal privacy. I would not have believed anyone else who would have told me of such a thing.

Subsequent to that, everytime I picked up the Bible and had gotten deeply down into it, a "presence" would interrupt me. On occasion I would look up to see what my wife, or son wanted only to realize I was home alone and they couldn't have beckoned for my attention.

Although the religious "community" had never sent anyone to my home before, I now began to ge deluged with them.

They wouldn't leave me alone even though they went home scratching their heads wondering about the things we had friendly differences of opinions over.

There was the Mormons, the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Nazarenes, and the New Apostolic Church. They kept me busy defending the things I saw in the Bible. Each one not knowing the others were visiting me also. They would go back to their organizations and return a week later with their "elders."

On one occasion I was out in my yard after dark when a Dodge pick-up truck came down the road. I noticed it had a camper shell on the back as it pulled down into my yard.

I watched as four men slid out of the front of the truck. Three of them stood there waiting as the fourth raised the camper's tailgate to let eight more out!

The twelve of them surrounded me, and one began to "interrogate" me about baptizing for the dead. A baptism by "proxie" for those who have died unrepentant.

Their spokesman was elderly, with white hair that reflected the silvery moon light. Out of respect, I waited until he had completely finished. It was obvious. He knew "of" a lot of the Bible, but he understood little.

I used his own knowledge to lead him into understanding the reality of, and the purpose of, the second resurrection in God's plan. A resurrection designed expressly for those who have gone to their physical graves, not understanding God's truth, or having been conquered in this life by the god of this world --Satan.

Subsequent to this experience, I also had an experience with a pillar of red light, an encounter with a demon possesed man, a helpful stranger that could only have been an angel, a 12 year experience with the Worldwide Church of God, where I was trained to be a speaker and teacher.

It was in the Worldwide Church of God that I learned to live as a "legalist". However, it did develop an unparalleled dedication to God as a way of life rather than merely a "week-end" christian, as is too often the case today.

The Worldwide Church of God has under gone major changes today; and now pursues a christian walk based upon Grace, and Faith, rather than the letter of the law.

I separated from the WWCG in 1990 before those changes were made and began an independent ministry producing the Voice From Afar radio broadcast and mailing articles around the world to those who requested them, as well as, ministering to the congregation of the 20th Century Church of God here in southwestern Pennsylvania.

NOW, THE UFO

It was about 10:00 pm on a warm summer night in late June, 1970. My wife and I were travelling home from a visit to my mother and father's farm in the countryside outside of Jefferson, Pennsylvania.The blacktop road stretched out in front us leading us to the horizon or the last hill that hid the lights of Carmichaels from view. A community Medical Clinic sat off to the right just as we topped the hill.

I glanced into the mirror. It was such a clear night that I could see the road stretching out behind the '64 Chevy Impala into the distance as we passed the Clinic. There was not a sign of another car in sight, neither in front of us, nor behind us.

I slowed the car down to a crawl on the very top of the hill where I could still clearly see the road behind us in the rearview mirror. I rolled down my side window and leaned out to get an unobstructed look at the magnificant stars that filled the night sky.

After three or four seconds, I rechecked the rearview mirror to make sure there was no traffic coming up behind us, and stuck my head back out for a last look as we began to descend the hill.

I was looking straight up into the night sky when the leading edge of something began to protrude beyond the edge of the roof of the car. My immediate reaction was to flintch, as if something was falling onto the car. However, I immediately noticed that it was not as close to the roof of the car as I first thought it was. Instead, it was up in the air about 200 feet directly above the car. It was moving over the road from the south to the north as we were headed east. It was so close, and so REAL, that its stark, unexpected presence destroyed any disbelief I might have had.

As I looked, it continued to come more, and more into view. It was huge (about 200 feet in diameter), and shaped very much like the graphic image at the beginning of this writing.

I stopped the car, reached over to grab hold of my wife, and actually thrust her toward the open side window asking, "What do you see?"

Silence. She didn't say a thing.

"Well," I asked, "What do you see?"

All she could say was, "What is it?"

"What does it look like?," I asked.

She replied, "I don't know. It's a big silver thing......"

I then pulled her back into the car and quickly checked the mirror. We were now stopped dead-still in the road, but the road was completely empty of any traffic behind us.

We watched the craft continue slowly across the road above us. It was spinning very slowly and travelling only about 30 mph. We watched as it travelled directly toward the Carmichaels Area High School building, from where she and I had both draduated.

As it passed along the football field, I was certain it was going to crash directly into the school building.

"We are about to witness a catastrope," I thought, as I tightened my grip on the steering wheel.

Suddenly it rose in a gentle arc right up over top of the building. I had no idea who or what had been piloting the thing, but I could imagine them struggling to keep the thing going without hitting anything. I thought they were in trouble, but it soon became obvious that they weren't.

After they cleared the school building, the craft continued in a northerly direction right toward a large wooded hill that made the horizon as we looked on. As it approached the hill, the same thing happened.

If you have ever tried to push the "like" poles of two powerful magnets together and felt that invisible cushion of power that denies their them touching each other, then you can imagine how it seemed an invisible field of power gently lifted the craft over the school building and the hill.

At this point, I still thought it was in trouble, "coming down." I thought itwas going to crash somewhere in spite of the efforts of whomever was commanding it.

It rose above the hill barely above the tree tops. We watched as it disappeared from view, dropping downward on the other side.

I searched my mind trying to picture the lay of the land in the area where it surely was about to crash, when suddenly........BOOM!!

Something had exploded down the road in front of us toward Carmichaels. A cloud of white smoke filled the air near the traffic light that marked the beginning of the business district of this small town of maybe 3,000 people.

There was flashes of light streaking through the air......pink, green, and blue. then, suddenly the siren mounted on top of the bank building began to scream loudly into the night.

"This is it , Viv!," I yelled, "Let's beat them to the crash site!"

I pulled the floor shift into low gear, pushed the accelerator to the floor, and popped the clutch. We went zipping past the fire station as they were preparing to back the truck out. Through the cloud of smoke and around town square we went.

I had a good idea where it must have landed. We made a three-quarters circle around the square and shot off in a northerly direction down the road that passed the old covered bridge and the entrance to the Laurel Point Cemetary.

I had invisioned it crashing in the area of the old abandoned Novotny Farm about a mile and a half north of town.

I kept looking in my rear view mirror as we raced up the old dirt road, thinking fire trucks would soon be "pushing" us up the road.

They never came. Instead, the fire department was feverishly fighting to put out a transformer fire at the traffic light intersection.

Transformers have a mile or more of copper wire coils submerged in oil. It was the burning of this combination that was causing the "light and smoke show" at the intersection.

Then it dawned on me.......no one was following us. No one, other than we two, had seen the thing narrowly miss hitting the hight school. We were the only ones heading out to the Novotny Farm!

Following the winding dirt road down hill, we finally came to the area I had in mind. I noticed the usual chorus of singing peep frogs was gone as I let the car coast to a stop. I shut the engine off; and with both side windows down, we sat there......just listening. There was absolutely no sound.

I had a specific place in mind that I invisioned the craft had crashed; and there was no way I could just turn the car around and go home. I asked Viv to stay in the car.......keys in the ignition.....engine off.

An old, sagging barbed-wire fence drapped along the top of the bank on the left side of the road separated me from the field I wanted to get into. I climbed the small bank, and easily stepped over the fence, pushing the top strand down with my hands.

I looked back at the car. Everything was quiet. No one else was coming up the road in either direction, so I started to walk up hill through the field.

Up ahead a thin cloud of fog began to obstruct my vision.

"Damn," I thought, "Why here?"

The farther up the hill I went the thicker the fog got. Eventually, I had to stoop down in order to see ahead beneath it. Another 200 yeard and I would have made it to the area I had in mind. But now I was standing in a dense fog bank that obsecured everything. I couldn't even see the stars any longer. Being frustrated, i stood there for a moment trying to decide what I was going to do. Either I had to walk back to the car, or go on feeling my way as I went with my hands sticking out in front of me to keep me from walking in to anything.

I started off uphill with my arms out, and proceeded for a dozen or so steps when I remembered Viv sitting alone in the car. I realized I couldn't even check on her by looking in that direction. I didn't like the idea of feeling control of the situation being taken away from me little by little. Anr now here I was standing in the middle of dense fog, hearing nothing and seeing nothing .

I walked back to the car. I told my wife about the fog, and that I had not been able to reach the area I had in mind. We then went home.

There was no way we were going to begin telling others about what had just happened.

The craft was so close when we first saw it that I know I could have hit it with a stone. And, I'm convinced, had I hit it, the stone would have bounced off something solid. IT WAS THERE!!!

Years went by with very little discussion of the event. We had probably mentioned it to four or five people in the past 25 years. There is one discrepency between Viv's account and mine. She once asked what I had been doing while up on the hill in the fig.

"Nothing", I said, "Just looking around in the dark. Five minutes up, two minutes just standing there, and five minutes walking back."

"You were gone for at least a half hour!", she said.

She still maintains this ti this day. I do not remember it being that way. I remember just what I have said.

The next day the local newspaper reported a transformer fire at Carmichaels. Causes unknown....it just exploded.

Years later I went back to school and got a degree in electronics and eventually began my own small electrical contracting business. On several occassions I have had to replace transformers in all kinds of devices because they were melted, and had caught on fire. My schooling had taught me than when a moving magnetic field encounters a conductor (i.e. wire) it induces a voltage in that conductor. It cannot be a stationary field, it has to be one in motion.

Once I was called out to troubleshoot a problem with high pressure sodium lighting at a local health care center. I inspected the situation and made a report to the administrator. The lights hadn't worked properly for two years.

On one end of the building, the transformer was melted into a black mass. Farther down the building the transformer in that light was burned black but had retained its shape. Further yet down the building, the transformer was visibly okay, however, a test showed the internal wiring was shorted out. finally, the last light worked.

I stood back and considered the situation. Obviously a strong magnetic pulse had occured near one end of the building and raced toward the other. The stronger lines of magnetic flux near the point of incident fried the closest transformer. The magnetism got progressively weaker as it raced away toward the other end of the building. It was progressively weaker, and had done progressively less damage.

I told the Administrator that some source of electrical pulse had occured near the end of his building, and the associated magnetic field had raced along his building taking out the transformers until it had weakened to the point where the last light was still operational.

I then asked him if he had any record of any unusual events occuring two years ago.

He thought for a while, the said, "We used to have a big oak tree standing here, but about two years ago it was struck by lightning. Would that have done it?"

"Yep!," I answered. That's it.

That is only one experience I have had with troubleshooting the problems caused by the passing of a strong magnetic field.

And, that is what I believe happened to the transformer at Carmichaels that night in 1970. It was FRIED by a voltage induced within its windings by the "magnetic shadow' of the UFO that passed overhead that night!

Looking back, I believe this event is somehow connected with my calling to understand the Bible. A calling I would have denied, and even laughed at, had someone told me about it ahead of time.

About ten years after the "UFO" incident another unsuspected, unannounced incident occured. By that time we had moved away from Carmichaels to a house we had built on land adjacent to my parents farm.

It was a two story split-entry home. With the children in bed, Viv and I were sitting at the dining room table having a cup of coffee when a low pitch roaring sound began to vibrate the house. We took our coffee and walked out onto the back deck to see what was causing the sound.

We watched as some kind of craft cruised overhead about 500 feet or so up in the air. It was immense! As it travelled from the north to the south it took a course that paralleled the wooded ridge line behind our house. As we watched, I could see walkways.......cat-walks. and ladders extending down aways from it. I could see girding beams. It was not aerodynamic at all. Lights were positioned all along the walkways.

In less than a minute it was gone over the southern horizon.

"Why us?," Viv asked, as we stood there watching it disappear into the distance.

When I see the UFO....Exteraterrestrial....Alien .....articles on the front of the tabloids at the check-out counters, I have to laugh. They are a joke! They do a GREAT discredit to an incredible reality! They belittle, and disinform. They perpetuate a myopic view of reality. They keep the serious scientist under the opinion that UFO's are a figment of self-deception by the cerebrally challenged. Religionists put on the blinders and rush back to grandma's "old time" religion, spouting poignnant words of self-righteous indignation as they go.

So be it. I saw it. I believe it.

Oh, yes. My wife saw it, and she believes it also!