Church moves away from Emergency Preparedness?

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Michelle
captain of 1,000
Posts: 1795

Re: Church moves away from Emergency Preparedness?

Post by Michelle »

freedomforall wrote: June 15th, 2017, 12:16 am Food Storage Sources. Note, this is an old list. Some sites may not link as listed.

http://www.shelfreliance.com/product

http://www.nitro-pak.com/products/freeze-dried-foods

http://www.pleasanthillgrain.com/foodpak1.aspx

http://www.ehow.com/about_5394613_lds-f ... tions.html

http://www.simplyprepared.com/food_sour ... licies.htm

http://familysurvivors.com/lds-food-storage.htm

http://www.bordeglobal.com/foruminv/ind ... 14&t=28554&

http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnex ... &hideNav=1

http://www.ldscatalog.com/webapp/wcs/st ... =&cg4=&cg5

https://providentliving.lds.org/?lang=eng

http://www.thereadyproject.com/

http://beprepared.com/

http://www.bulkfoods.com/grain.asp

http://www.azurestandard.com/

http://honeyvillefarms.net/

http://www.waltonfeed.com/
I didn't go through your whole list and I am definitely not trying to disagree with any degree of preparedness people are willing to engage in.

I will say that in my own life when I contemplate the suggestions that are and have been made by the church regarding food storage a few things come to mind. Some learned by hard experience.

The healthiest options in a long term situation will be the least processed. So wheat, oats, beans, etc. I know a lot of people say they don't know how to use those, but I think that is part of the point, learning now is so much better than learning then. You may end up wasting it while you learn, but it can be replaced right now.

Receive the blessings of greater health now, be prepared with health, not seaking it in an emergency. Trust me, it takes times for your gut to adjust from prepackaged to real food.

In a looting type situation your "just add water" food will probably get stolen first. I assume most looters who look at my buckets of wheat won't even consider them food becuase they don't know what to do with it.

I know this is debated, but fresh rotated food storage of the kinds I mentioned can be sprouted and eated as a vegetable, and possible be used to grown new food. Can't do that with dehydrated, freezed dried, or packaged foods.

tribrac
captain of 1,000
Posts: 4367
Location: The land northward

Re: Church moves away from Emergency Preparedness?

Post by tribrac »

My friends stake did the self reliance early this year. Our stake is doing it right now. I like the two predominant messages: 1-Jesus Christ can help me with my problems, and 2-I am responsible to take care of myself (temporally and spiritually).

As for moving away from Emergency preparedness, I agree the general attitude seems to be going away from food storage. In my little world it seems the closer a member gets to BYU or church headquarters the more likely they are to look down on and mock people who take food storage and especially prepping serious.

For example, a while ago I mentioned to another ward member (who would fit into the BYU or church headquarters category) how I admired a recent move-in family's food storage (even though I didn't like carrying in the house and down the stairs) to which he responded: "Oh they are one of those" . It really surprised and troubled me. One of those? One of those what? - People who like to eat? -Mormons who believe they are following the prophet? People who shop case-lot sales? Why was food storage instantly equated with a negative?

tribrac
captain of 1,000
Posts: 4367
Location: The land northward

Re: Church moves away from Emergency Preparedness?

Post by tribrac »

I think what troubles my mind the most is the vast spectrum of attitudes towards emergency preparedness. some people have very little and look down their noses at the 'preppers', while others are ready to live out every dystopian nightmare from the comfort of their buried shipping container, and there is everything in between.

I was suprised to help a family move out once, they were nice quiet Mormons, very conservative and modest in their lifestyle and actions. I wouldn't even have guessed they had any prepping supplies....but they had an AR-15 for everyone in the household over 14, their daughters came carrying them outside while the EQ was loading the sofas. It freaked the ward out a little I think.

Older/wiser?
captain of 100
Posts: 538

Re: Church moves away from Emergency Preparedness?

Post by Older/wiser? »

Now that is funny! Over my lifetime I've learned many lessons , I do all I can to hear the counsel given us , old and new . I sacrifice to be obedient and consider a partnership with the Lord . I will be buying grains and supplies when I am 90 yrs old . It is a lifestyle of frugality maybe it will be an inheritance needed or not it is our lifestyle. Daniel ate pulse, refused to eat at the kings table. Lesson learned: if more of us refused to eat at the kings table, stored and put away what the "True King" has admonished we would eat in days of tribulation and find health and wisdom that we yet lack.

freedomforall
Gnolaum ∞
Posts: 16479
Location: WEST OF THE NEW JERUSALEM

Re: Church moves away from Emergency Preparedness?

Post by freedomforall »

Michelle wrote: June 15th, 2017, 11:19 amI know this is debated, but fresh rotated food storage of the kinds I mentioned can be sprouted and eated as a vegetable, and possible be used to grown new food. Can't do that with dehydrated, freezed dried, or packaged foods.
I see and understand what you are saying, however, as one gets older and older, easier ways of preparing food becomes greatly more appealing. Can't worry solely about flavor, rather, to stay alive. Just think of what people are capable of eating when they are starving.
As far as theft goes, one has to have faith that God will take over and help out because of the obedience shown in storing needful things in the first place. Think about it, faith is required to adhere to doing what is counseled to do. It takes faith to try and decide what type of food, the amount of food and how food is prepared in order to feed a family and have them like it. My wife and I prefer freeze dried. Depending on where one buys it, for the most part it tastes good and lasts a reasonably long time.

The story in 1 Kings 17 is a good example of exercising faith.

On the flip side, there are two things we cannot escape...death and taxes, although the latter is debatable. Death comes to everyone and the time, date and method is irrelevant. It requires faith to hope one can live a long life, especially in today's environment.

Tree
captain of 100
Posts: 164

Re: Church moves away from Emergency Preparedness?

Post by Tree »

The Church is over burdened by the financial needs of many members. For what ever reasons life/bad personal decisions has placed them so they cannot keep up the pace of the financial world. Better Employment & managing money would be a great enhancement.
The Church has realized that this burden cannot be on the Church itself but the individual person. When the time comes the Church as a whole will not be able to handle the over whelming physical needs of the people, so breaking the problem down to individual responsibility makes sense.
It is a good change of focus, especially since bad tribulations are far off as well as the Second Coming.

gardener4life
captain of 1,000
Posts: 1690

Re: Church moves away from Emergency Preparedness?

Post by gardener4life »

I guess you just have to pray about it. There are a lot of people who have had recent things they call dreams about using their food storage. So the question is if they received that as an answer to prayer or were smoking weed the night before? I guess you still have to confirm it with the spirit on your own.

I haven't seen any letters from the pulpit recently on food storage and emergency preparation being done away with.

The self sufficiency thing you can see is inspired. It answers the what will happen if I'm laid off and how would I rebuild after I start using the food storage. I think people see also that these big greedy companies don't want to employ the full population. They want to save a few elites that they consider their slaves and cut away the chaff. That leaves a lot of people they think are chaff. If you don't believe this then why do you never see businesses employing handicapped people?

Also having to do more doesn't mean the church is trying to get you to do more, its the adversary pushing harder and the church is just trying to help you survive a fallen world. But so many people come back to this idea that the Church is asking them to do this...as if the problems are the church's fault...

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JK4Woods
captain of 1,000
Posts: 2507

Re: Church moves away from Emergency Preparedness?

Post by JK4Woods »

The very mindset of self-sufficiency is what cultivates survivability within a confident people.

Those who have gone through the exercise of planning, purchasing, storing, rotating (and occasionally eating) food storage and other essentials are better equipped to weather storms and hard times, even if their material goods are wiped out!

A certain level of confidence becomes a part of their personalities, and these people are more likely to pull themselves up by their boot straps than wait around helplessly in a shelter...

If my house burned to the ground tomorrow, or was lost in a Katrina flood, or Hurricane Andrew, or by a whirlwind, even though I would have lost all my preps, I would still be miles ahead of my neighbor who never gave a thought to self sufficiency and self-reliance.

If a 7.0 struck Las Vegas today, everyone in my family knows to isolate the water heater, and fill as many pots and pans with water as possible, turn off the gas valve, and hit the main breakers to cut the power; (and set up a neighborhood fire watch). Plus they know where our rally point is, and to stay put instead of going out in fruitless search of family members away from home.

For all the speculation on this site regarding whether the Church is toning-down emergency preparedness and pumping up financial security instead, I hope you're not following the optimistic national economy into boosting personal wealth by any and all means.

To me it doesn't matter when a prophet said we should do something, the context is not important, the current affairs of our cities, states nation and the world have little bearing when a prophet encourages us to do something.

Just do it, be happy you're obedient, and reap the blessing if hard times ever come your way.

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