Some Honest Thoughts on Preparations (PART 1)

So why do I prepare? I want to be part of the solution; not part of the problem. I have seen first hand the turmoil of what we called the "High Stress Environment"; which can be war, famine or disaster; either natural or man made.

A number of years ago; after the military I free lanced and contracted with a large aerospace company. My contract was to organize, train and equip the core of their design engineers to survive the what-ifs. One of the men was a German born believer. His story is very relevant to us today. He was a small child in WWII Germany. The prophetic word was flowing that hard times were coming and God was telling His people to get ready. The long and the short of it was his father received the prophetic word and prepared by buying some bags of beans. The rest of his extended family, all believers, did nothing and they all died of starvation. Part of God's provision to them was the warning to prepare.

Some people will say that I am preparing out of fear. Let me say that our motivation must not be to survive, but to place ourselves in a position to be a willing, useful tool in the hand of our Lord. God is ready to bring down the walls of the nation and the personal walls that are not of Him within each of us. If you are fearful seek the One that casts out all fear. Preparing is NOT about fear; it is the WISE response to approaching danger, it is obedience.

Some will say they don't worry about it because the Lord will provide. First off His warning is in itself a provision; a notice to prepare. But, secondly we in this nation have so many resources available; our thinking has grown short and near-sighted.

Say you are flying in a small plane and that plane crashes unexpectedly on a small uninhabited island. Can you expect the Lord to care for you; of course you can. His provision is with you. Now say that same plane is going to drop you off on that same island for one year. If you didn't take what you thought was necessary; whose fault is it if you are hungry. It is your fault of course, because you were foolish. Would God provide anyway? Maybe He would or maybe He wouldn’t.  Well we are to trust Him; but being so foolish we may tempt Him to wrath.

Two hundred years ago here in this country and many people even today world wide today live a life of faith. Faith that when they plant the seed that it will mature and then later feed them. If it doesn't they will starve. Put action to your faith. Faith without works is dead.

Two-thirds of the world cooks outside over something burning and much of the world has never talked on a phone. Many people live without shoes, and there are some people in the world that have never even seen shoes. We in the First World live a very spoiled life.

I believe the reason most of the remnant that have heard the above word of coming judgment and are not physically preparing is two fold.

1. We really don't believe God is going to shake us. And if they do something physical they mentally have to then deal with it. Remember what the serpent said to Eve in the garden; "Hath God said?"

2. We are lazy! Preparing takes time and money. I will guarantee you that after "it" happens you will have wished that you had prepared. Right now supplies are cheap and abundant.

This is a very serious matter. I urge you, I beg you, in the name of our wonderful Lord Jesus to consider this matter seriously. Even a small effort can provide big benefits.

Quite frankly I don't think most people really care. Time is short, very short. If you are going to do something, do it now, not tomorrow, now!

Getting Started

First of all do what God tells you to do, in spite of what I might say here. And above all seek Him; if that’s all you can do; then do it. Do not let physical preparations sidetrack you from Him. That said, don’t be as a Christian friend of mine who say’s he doesn’t have the money to prepare but recently bought a big screen TV.

There is much good information out there concerning preparations, so there is no sense in duplicating the good here. However, there is much poor and misleading information. It is my prayer to try to give you a different perspective and some additional information that is not readily available. Remember that most people giving information are trying to sell you something. It is my burden to give you some recommendations that will allow you to properly filter the value of information available.

The catch term used today in the military for a time of war, or famine or disaster; be it natural or manmade is to refer to it as a “High Stress Environment” or “HSE”. Big understatement!

In a knife fight statistically the person that gets cut first usually loses. That is because each of us never expects anything bad to happen to us. So with first blood, that person goes into shock and gives up.

Getting through a HSE is like a knife fight; so the key is recognizing the fact that you are going to be cold or hot, hungry or thirsty and probably at least inconvenienced. Attitude is everything.

Daniel Boone was lost for a several weeks; when asked about it he said “I wasn’t lost, I just didn’t know where I was for a few days.” Again attitude is everything.

I believe this is partly why God tells His people what He is doing; so that they can prepare and so that when it happens there is less shock and delay in their response to the needs of others.

Let us put everything in perspective: no matter how much you prepare, no matter how many supplies you put away; it will not be enough and essential things will be missing. If you had ten semi-truck loads of food it probably wouldn’t be enough to feed everyone. So, do what you can; and expect God to make up the difference. BUT, DO ALL YOU CAN! OR MORE CORRECTLY DO ALL GOD CALLS YOU TO DO!

We are coming into a time of extreme darkness for the world and extreme light for the remnant. We are coming into a time of supernatural provisions.

I had been a survival instructor with the US Government for a number of years. It was such a part of me, I loved it! As I grew in the Lord I knew He was calling me to other things; so I withdrew myself at the first opportunity. However, for the next fifteen years I had nothing to do with anything related to survival. I even stopped camping and hunting. I thought that is what He wanted.

We had a major quake hit where I was at that time. It hit early and I was still asleep. I awoke crying with the Lord all over me. He was calling me to repentance; to repent of the fact I was not prepared for what was coming and I of all people should know better.

I asked the Lord how I should prepare. He responded by telling me to do as Hezekiah responded to the threat from Assyria. Hezekiah physically prepared Jerusalem; doing what he could with what he had. And in the end it was not his preparing; but God’s supernatural provision that saved Jerusalem. Such it shall be for many of us. But we are still called to be obedient.

There are some basic questions to ask yourself and seek the guidance of the Lord on:

1. When it happens where might I be? (Home, work, traveling, etc.)

2. Will I go or will I stay? If I go, where will I go?

This is very important: The Last thing you want to become is a refugee!

I am not talking about moving to another country with all your possessions following. Nor am I talking about moving into the local High School for a couple of nights because your community’s threatened by a forest fire. I am talking about you heading out with a sea of unprepared people not knowing where they are going, with no water, no food and no hope; fleeing some larger then life disaster.

Understand that to enter a government shelter the law requires you to turn over all your food, water, weapons and animals. Current FEMA procedures in a national type disaster allow for the separation of women and children from the men; who will be put into labor work groups. This law allows for those of age 50 and older to be used in the dangerous clean-up of High Radiation or toxic areas.

Statistically teenage boys do the best as refugees. Small children, teenage girls and elderly do the worst.

So do I go or do I stay? The Lord may want you to minister to people in the very center of a war, or a famine, or a plague. But Proverbs says the wise man sees the trouble coming and hides himself.

Some things to consider; with no power most cities will have little reserve water or sewage capability. Experience has shown people will continue to use their toilets even when they have no water to flush them. Multiple level dwellings will soon have sewage backups on the lower floors. In other words, a very short time and many cities can become a massive health hazard.

A interesting side-note; some families successfully survived some of the worst fighting in Beirut, by dragging all the dead, rotting animals they could find and putting them around their buildings. The stink was so bad no one would approach their street. They successfully used a health hazard to their advantage.

If you choose to stay in an area with no power, make sure you have a provision to cover up your windows on the inside. On a dark night even a small sliver of light that shows outside of your dwelling when no one else has any light, be it from generator or kerosene; will draw someone to come and borrow it permanently. Stapled up heavy Roofing paper works well.

During a recent power outage in NYC; NBC made the statement that the city only had food reserves for a half day! The “just in time” method of supply literally sets the reserves of everything to zero.

Why do you need to know before hand if you are going or staying? You could wait and see what happens. The problem is if you need to go you may not have the time to collect your supplies or you may not have the means to transport them.

If the time comes to flee, you don’t want to have to take much. If you are on foot you only want a small pack with enough food and water to get you where you are going. If in a vehicle, you want the same pack, but it will indubitably be filled with clothing, extra food and personal mementoes.

If you are going someplace else, you need to pre-position your supplies there. If you can’t put them where you are going; put them in another location close to your destination. For example say you live in San Francisco and you plan to go north to some friends on the Oregon Border. But these friends think you are weird anyway and so you don’t want to stress your witness; so you pre-position your supplies about half way at some other friends. Your supplies would be outside the major population area, so hopefully you can pick them up as you move. You could pre-position the supplies at a storage place. But; in a time of national emergency; the law allows the Federal government to seize all storage places. This is along with all forms of transport such as: trucks, boats and ships and aircraft.

Most states have some kind of hoarding laws. They consider hoarding to be having food for more then a specific number of days. Various states range from 21 days to 3 months. The particulars are hard to nail down. In other countries when hoarding laws have been invoked, typically rewards are a portion of the confiscated goods given to those who turn in hoarders. In Cuba for example those turning in anyone with extra food received half the food back as a reward.  This is a big stick if your neighbors and friends are starving.

Also in all your considerations, insure you have before hand prepared copies of all important documents, such as birth certificates, marriage licenses and degrees. If the Lord has in anyway quickened you, you may want to have a passport available.

SO HAVE A PLACE TO BE AT; EITHER A PLACE TO STAY AT OR A SPECIFIC PLACE TO GO TO.

(Note: I didn’t intentionally bold it; the caps lock got hit accidentally. I think the Lord is trying to say this is important.)

If you are going somewhere, plan and rehearse the route. Note locations where you could obtain fuel, shelter and water. If you are meeting others along the way set up meeting areas where messages can be left. Keep a can of bright spray paint handy. Use it to spray paint predetermined coded messages in the street or on walls for any that may get separated when you leave and to mark cross points as you travel to your destination.

This is good place to bring up the Rule of Threes; always have three ways of going somewhere or doing something. For example; if you are going to go to a destination, have three ways of getting there. You could get there by Car, on Bike or on foot. On foot is always the last resort.

A point to consider here is the size of any group. Usually the bigger the better; remember it was the stragglers that were picked off when Israel was in the wilderness. But if it is a hostile situation sometimes one or two together can slip thru unnoticed.

Expect roadblocks both official and by locals. The local checkpoints can be there for a legitimate reason or simply to take supplies or worse from those going thru them. This is another reason to travel light. If you don’t have anything of value to steal, you are generally safer.