It was requested of me to share my testimony here at the testimony forum, so here it is.
October 2, 2002
For years I had been blessed with never having to deal with the Sabbath sunset issue. Every employer I worked with had one form
or another of flex time so I was able to leave way before sunset with time to spare, but no more. My company is currently in the
process of changing our hours of work. It will be from 8AM to 5PM starting in a few weeks.
My first test. Many have faced the issue of sunset time off with different experiences, but this was my first experience and that made all the difference in the world.
It was a struggling few days of e-mails back and forth with my boss, explaining the Seventh-day Sabbath with a lot of tension to say the least. They had agreed to let me leave work from the period when daylight savings ends and Sabbath sunset starts at 4:57PM through the end of February at 4PM.
The earliest sunset for Friday will be 4:43PM on December 2nd and that will be tight as it takes me 35 to 45 minutes to get home, just
enough time to get into the door of my home.
Then when February comes to an end I will leave work to 5PM to the next year. What could and might happen by then could change
all that.
My test had come and gone, but I knew this was probably going to be just the first of possibly more. What I did not realize was how soon that was going to be.
October 10, 2002
It had been clear to me that the way our company was going that sooner or later there needed to be changes, so just when I thought all was settled at work regarding my Seventh-day Sabbath, we all got another big bang and I got another opportunity to witness.
Thursday, the three top bosses at our office plus the human recourse person were in meetings all day. The tension in our office was so very great as we all waited for the outcome. We all knew something was going to happen. It was bigger than we had expected.
October 11, 2002
The end results happened Friday. Four people were laid off in our building, the department was reorganized so th at we could absorb
their work. In the other building two more will be gone in December and the third person will come over to our building and she will be gone in June, 2003.
The person who had been my boss, who had hired me 12 years ago and I answered to through those years at my former company
and the almost three years of working at this Catholic organization that took over is no longer my boss. She was the person who I had
just settled the Seventh-day Sabbath with a week and a half as stated above.
My former boss now only has one person under her. There is no more billing department, but I still will be doing billing among other
new jobs projects. For the time being the CFO will be my boss on the clinical side which I am now part of until they hire a new clinical
office Director, then she will be my direct boss.
When the meeting was over as a group and the dust had settled my CFO boss and the director of both clinical offices called me into a
private office for a talk.
Unbelieving to me the topic of the Sabbath was brought up again. My new CFO boss said that she needed everyone to be in the office
from 8AM to 5PM. I said that was fine accept for when sunset starts after daylight savings time ends in November through end of February.
She said I was one of her best persons and she would hate to lose me, but I had to make this choice. That is when I spoke to them
both face to face from the Bible and why my Sabbath had to be kept. I do not remember the words, they came freely from my lips so if you ever wonder what you will say, never worry, as the words came out without any effort.
The closing words were the only words I do remember and I told her if it comes between my job and my faith, my commitment to my God is above everything. Then I said: now it is your choice.
They said that they would talk about it together and get back to me. Then they went on with my hearing service dog. They seemed
to think my having a dog was some kind of perk for me. I will not go into the games they played, but suffice to say whatever I said she ended up changing her mind.
I left when we had finished and then she called me back to talk alone and said that I can keep the previous arrangement that was had been set up with my previous boss. Now I have professed my faith to four people in less than two weeks.
Many times I had wondered over the years what this day would be like. So now I know and the spirit of peace that I feel is greater than I have felt in a long time.
It will never be known to me what motivated them regarding the time off early for my Seventh-day Sabbath. That in reality they
could not at this time afford to lose another person and I was needed, but could still be laid off at some future date. Or that
the legal ramifications regarding the laws respecting a person faith, which is far stronger in California than other states. That my former boss had already approved it. Or that the power of the words moved them.
Whatever it was it sure did not take them very long before I was called back in, so it was a quick decision.
This will at least give me time to prepare for the worse when and if that comes which is another blessing unlike those of yesterday that never saw it coming.
We never know of that day when we will need to stand for the Sabbath. Important to know is the words will come if you allow the
Spirit to move you, never fear. I never dreamed it would happen twice in such a short period of time, but it did.
We also need to remember that we never know when. We only must trust in Him and he will make the road smooth and the path sure.
In closing I wish for you to know that I was not sure that I would write this part here. I also want you to it was not easy for me to write this. I am a single woman, never married, no children and no extended family to fall back on. I have two friends that have said if worse comes to worse I could park my little trailer on their property until I got back on my feet. I am sure they are praying it does not come to that. I still owe on my car, two personal loans due to the illness of my previous hearing service dog who passed away last year. Also to find a new job as an older person, who is disabled that requires a hearing service dog would be infinetly hard.
So if any of you are struggling with the Seventh-day Sabbath issue there is a little book put together by Crystal Earnhardt called Trials and Triumph. I had just read the book a few weeks before. That is timing.
This book is a compilation of personal testimonies of people who have faced the very experienced I now shared. I must say it is one thing to read it in a book, but it is a whole other thing to experience yourself.
Liane
[This message has been edited by liane (edited 10-12-2002).]
