JW subtitle extractor

I grew up in a small town,
and I had a good childhood.
My parents instilled in me
from a young age a love for God
and a respect for the Bible.
We were regular church attenders
and I went to a private school
and I had Bible classes each and every day.
Despite all of this, however,
I felt like something was missing.
When I was 15,
my life changed in a moment’s notice.
I was playing high up in a tree,
the branch broke, I fell to the ground,
and I was paralyzed.
At that moment,
I went from an active kid who could run
to one who was paralyzed from his neck down.
I couldn’t feel anything.
By the time I was 18,
I gained enough physical strength in my arms
that I once again had my independence.
At that point, I attended a university
and lived on campus.
My life changed dramatically once again.
Here I was exposed to drugs, alcohol,
immorality, and I fell into that lifestyle.
Every night, though, I still read the Bible;
I still had this strong faith in God.
But when I prayed and went to sleep at night,
I just knew I was going to end up
in that hellfire that I had been taught
from an early age.
During this time, I met a girl named Julie,
and we were married shortly after.
She was
in the same hippie lifestyle that I was in,
and we knew
that if we were going to stay married,
we had to move away from our bad influence.
We were looking for God,
and we wanted him in our lives.
One day, I was in the park by myself.
It was a beautiful setting
—there was a lake in front of me,
a mountain in the background—
and at that point, I said a prayer to God.
I told him that we wanted to serve him,
but we just didn’t know how.
About 10 minutes later, a guy walked up,
and he started talking to me
about a paradise earth.
Everything he said made sense;
I had read it before.
The thing that really stood out to me
was his explanation on hellfire.
It was so clear, it was so logical!
It just made sense to me.
He invited us to the Kingdom Hall
the next day and we went.
My wife and I
will never forget that first meeting
37 years ago.
I had my long hair, holes in my jeans.
I don’t think
I even wore shoes that first time.
As we’re sitting there,
I’m thinking that the older brother
who is conducting on stage
is going to find us so disgusting.
But to our surprise,
right after the meeting
he came up, he greeted us,
and he invited us
to spend time with his family.
We don’t remember anything
that was said at that meeting,
but we’ll never forget the greeting.
We immediately started attending
all the meetings at the Kingdom Hall
and also began a Bible study
with the brother we met in the park.
The changes in our lifestyle
did not come overnight,
but the brothers were so loving
and patient with us.
We now had a purpose in life.
The emptiness that I had felt for so long
was no longer there.
We no longer had to live
in that self-centered lifestyle.
Now we had Jehovah,
we had the brothers, and we had the ministry.
We made our dedication to Jehovah
and we were baptized.

We Will Never Forget the Greeting