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Practical Steps to Preparing a Family for TEOTWAWKI, by Mitch D.

Guest Blogger — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 23:53:38 +0000

I didn’t know it at the time, but my introduction to preparedness came in 1999 when I sat at a large table with about 15 other men in a small town café for our weekly bible study. A small portion of these men were worried about Y2K and urged others to prepare. I thought they were “nuts.” I did respect them as Christian men, however, and prayed for guidance. Looking back, I was a squared away 24 year-old but was still spiritually immature. At that time in my life, I felt no urging by the Lord to prepare for Y2K. About ten years later in the middle of a bitterly cold 2009 winter night, the power went out in my newly-built home. My home, at the time, ran completely on electricity with no form of back-up heat. I was lucky to have in-floor heat on both levels of my home, but the wind was howling that night, as the temperatures outside kept dropping and eventually hit 30 below zero. With the wind chill effect, it was probably near 60 to 70 below. My kids didn’t like how dark the house was, even though we had flashlights on hand for each of them. I put my four children to sleep early and piled on some extra blankets. At 7:00 p.m. it was 60 in the house and I wasn’t worried as my new home was well-insulated and built tight. I went to call my parents, who own the 20 acres bordering the western boundary of our place. Our phones in the house, however, all depended on electricity so I decided that my call could wait until the morning. When I went to bed at 11:00 p.m. it was now 50 in the house and I just assumed the power company guys were having a hard time in the wind and cold. I woke up in the early morning and noticed that it was about 40 degrees in the house and still no electricity. I was now a little uneasy as I didn’t need pipes freezing up on me. At 7:00 a.m. I bundled up the kids and took them next door where I knew my dad had a gas fireplace. To my surprise, his electricity was up and running. To make a long story short, it was just my place without power as the wires from the transformer came loose when my box moved from winter heaving. I called the power company and they had my box fixed within the hour. Nothing bad had happened, but it did get me thinking about a few questions: Read the remainder of Practical Steps to Preparing a Family for TEOTWAWKI.

Advantages of Solar Power for Emergency Preparedness

Guest Blogger — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 03:00:09 +0000

There Are Several Advantages of Solar Power For Emergency Preparedness, More Self Sufficient Lifestyle, Energy and Fuel Concerns, also Money Saving Benefits. Power outages are common following many storms, emergencies, and disasters. Therefore, using solar emergency power as a backup power solution, makes good common sense for survival preparedness concerns. Preparing to be more self sufficient and learning how to live off the land, are both rapidly gaining recognition and popularity, and for good reason. Energy bills are soaring higher and higher, many people are concerned about the rising expenses and the unstable economic conditions we are facing. Read the remainder of Advantages of Solar Power for Emergency Preparedness.

Preparing Your Organization for Disasters, by N.C.L.

Guest Blogger — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 03:08:05 +0000

Where will you be when the earthquake happens? The tornado? The riot? The terrorist strike? The (fill in the blank). If you work or go to school, you spend about 40 hours every week in a non-home environment. Probably more if you count commute time, shopping, recreation, library time, extra-curricular activity time, and so forth. Even if you are a serious prepper, that means about 25% or more of your time each week is spent in environments away from your primary support systems. That also means that there is about 1 chance in four that a disaster will happen while you are in one of these other environments. You will have access to what you have with you and what someone (employer, school, etc.) has put in place for you in such emergencies. Having been employed for 40 years and a student for 20+ years before that I can tell you these other environments have virtually nothing in place to provide for the survival, let alone comfort, of those on premises. Read the remainder of preparing your organization for Disasters.

Sharing Your Faith After TEOTWAWKI, by D.P.B.

Guest Blogger — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 02:39:11 +0000

I can’t help but notice there being a correlation between preparedness and Christianity. Most people I know who are getting involved, and most of the stuff I read on line is written by Christians. The one thing I haven’t read too much about though is what it will look like to share our faith after a collapse. In the grand scheme of eternity being able to grow in your relationship with Jesus and help others do the same is the most important part of being prepared.

A friend of mine used to own and operate a Christian bookstore. His family bought it in the summer of 2001 and did okay. They were able to make ends meet and they were satisfied knowing they were helping people get closer to God. For the rest of that year following the 9/11 attacks my friend said he was pulling in nearly $10,000 a day. That was more than they made a month during that summer. He told me that people think more about God when tragedy strikes and we are reminded why we need Him.

Everything goes in cycles. If and when the next Crash/Collapse/Outbreak happens it will not be anything that the historical timeline hasn’t seen before. Honestly I’d say we’re overdue. One thing that you will find that comes along with almost every huge upheaval is a revival of the things of God. When the world goes to chaos people want to talk about God. They might start by railing against Him, but it doesn’t stay that way for long.
            When reading your Bible I challenge you to find a passage that even alludes to the idea that when all Hell breaks loose we are to hide and let the damned be damned and the saved be saved. Read through the prophets (especially Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Habakkuk) and you will see what God’s chosen are called to do when the SHTF. Just because things get really bad doesn’t mean God is giving up on us. Don’t start thinking that He has unless he tells you to build an ark and two of every kind of animal show up at your retreat.
            When the SHTF we who are Christians we are called to be ever more vigilant. Paul charges Timothy to: “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction” (2 Timothy 4:2). I firmly believe this charge is to all of us who call ourselves believers. We are not exempt from sharing out faith just because things get really difficult.
            You are right to assume that I have never shared my faith after a serious collapse. I have been blessed to live in America and do my ministering here. The closest thing I have is ministering after 9/11. What I have more of is experience in sharing my faith with the desolate, homeless, and forgotten and when the SHTF those people will be the majority.
            From that experience I offer these points on Sharing your Faith after TEOTWAWKI:

Take Care of Your Family- I promised my God, family, and self that I would not sacrifice my family on the altar of ministry. In 1 Timothy 3:4+5 Paul says of leaders in the church: “He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God's church?).” It will be very difficult after TEOTWAWKI to minister to others if your life (spiritually and physically) is not in order. Our first line of ministry is to our families. We must make sure that in the days after a crash that our family is well fed, healthy, and spiritually sound. While working with teens, most coming from broken homes, I have found one of the most Christian things I can say is, “No, I can’t go hang out with you I have to spend time with my family.” This shows them a better way. Imagine how much we can show by our strong family unit after TEOTWAWKI!

Take Care of Physical Needs of Others- Jesus gave us many beautiful examples of how to minister to both body and spirit. Jesus healed many physically; He fed multitudes, and even made money appear in the mouth of a fish. Jesus never ignored the physical needs of those He was talking to and He never passed up an opportunity to share His faith afterwards. As we prepare, if possible, store up enough provisions for at least another person. Have more than enough ammo, food, junk silver, and supplies to give out freely. This may not be possible right away but as you grow your own food and store it make sure a reasonable portion goes into your “Charity Stash.” This will give you ample opportunity to show others what Christ has done in your life. It is very hard to for a hungry person to hear the Gospel over the sound of their own stomach growling.

Take Care of Spiritual Needs of Others- In the aftermath of a serious crash people will be extremely desperate and searching for answers. In times of trouble people start to turn back to God. There are examples of it in the Bible and through out history. People will be in a very open state when they are destitute. In the package you give the people who come to your door be sure to include a copy of the New Testament. A complete version of the Bible would be best, but New Testaments are considerably cheaper and easier to store and hand out. You can pick up Bibles cheaply off Amazon, or CBD.com and library book sales. They may not have a lot of the study guides and fancy stuff but it has the Word. This doesn’t mean that everybody you help will fall to their knees and accept Christ on the spot but remember we are called to proclaim the Lord not convert people. Even if somebody leaves your retreat with a bag of rice, some ammo, and a Bible and they don’t seem to care you can’t know what God has in store for them.

Be part of Community- One of the first things God told Adam in the Garden was: It is not good for man to be alone. (Genesis 2:18). God knows we grow in community. After things start to settle down after the crash it would be good to be part of a community of people both Christians and Non-Christians. Hopefully at your retreat you will be surrounded by people of similar faith and will be able to have daily Bible studies and worship sessions, but after things settle it would be good to meet with others outside the retreat. This may include people from another retreat or refugees squatting in vacant houses and buildings. Starting a church wouldn’t be very hard at all and any one with a love for Jesus and good Bible knowledge could take over as head pastor.

In reading the Bible it is impossible to deny that God will at times crash our world in order to get our attention. Habakkuk prayed for God to bring the Israelites back to Himself and God’s answer was enemy invasion and seventy years of captivity. It is our duty out of God’s love to be prepared to bring others to Christ as long as we draw breath.

4th Anniversary — Katrina Communications: Doomed to Repeat!

abrown — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 05:15:56 +0000

Striving to right communication wrongs of past natural disasters.

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast area of Texas causing an estimated $81.2 billion in damages. Despite this devastating impact, more than a 1/3 of that area’s residents still say that they don’t have an emergency communications plan in place. Here at WeAreSafeAndSound.com, we working to make sure that all citizens have a way to get in touch with friends and family when it matters most.

As the 4th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina passes, we are surprised how few people have not taken the time to set up a disaster communications plan. Nothing is worse than not being able to reach your loved ones during a natural disaster.

During Hurricane Katrina, people in the impacted areas experienced cell phone and land line outages and had no way to contact friends or family. Families went several days with no communication going into or out of the gulf region and were left to simply watching the news in the hopes that they could find more.

Knowing this, we invite and challenge each of you to be more proactive not only during Hurricane Season, but in life period. Our team has worked hard and diligently to design WeAreSafeAndSound.com as a complimentary, centralized communications plan to prevent Katrina incidences and those in likeness from ever happening again.

Just think a moment. What would happen if you were separated from your family and down to the last bar on your cell phone battery life with spotty coverage? How is it possible to notify everyone? It’s not before your battery dies!

However with WeAreSafeAndSound.com, it is possible to notify all family members with one call and voice message mass communicated to family members associated with the account! You don’t have to hope your battery or cell phone holds up long enough to make multiple calls to your brother, uncle, aunt, sister, cousins, parents, grandparents, other family members or friends. Now, what more could one ask for in having family and friends know your whereabouts and well-being should you experience a disaster?

We invite you, your family, and friends to sign up for a free account today. We would rather you have a plan and not need it, than to need it and not have it! Today, it’s a hurricane, but tomorrow it could be a flood, tornado, earthquake or wildfire. In short, be prepared with a WeAreSafeAndSound.com account! Learn more

Easy H1N1 Fever Screening

Guest Blogger — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 16:35:00 +0000

Answering the needs of officials and organizations around the world for early detection of H1N1 cases, Extech Instruments has recently released their IR200 Non-contact Infrared Forehead Thermometer. Designed for fast, simple and accurate fever screenings, those being screened...

Read the rest of Easy H1N1 Fever Screening.

You Can & Should Prepare for a Potential Swine Flu Pandemic!

Guest Blogger — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 20:32:00 +0000

With the Center for Disease Control warning of impending Swine flu deaths in the United States over the next several weeks, California declaring a state of emergency due to recent deaths in the Los Angeles area, President Obama requesting 1.5 billion to enhance capability for disease response and treatment, and Mexico battening down the hatches for a prolonged fight with the bug, reasonable people are becoming increasingly worried about what they should do to prepare for a potential life-threatening pandemic.

As you ask yourself what you should do to prepare for a potential swine flu emergency, please remember that a swine flu pandemic, or the outbreak of any infectious disease process, is really not that different from any other threat that we regularly face in life, such as earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, infrastructure disruptions and the like. Simply put, people should be prepared with emergency supplies and survival equipment to weather the storm in the safety of their own homes, and these preparations should be made well in advance of an actual emergency.

Read the rest of You Can & Should Prepare for a Potential Swine Flu Pandemic! here.