SuperBowl Sunday, 4 February 2018

Thought I would get ahead of my thoughts... maybe.  I think about a LOT of things...  every day.

I'm not watching the big game... sports are low on my list, except for the big games... civil wars, community things, etc.  I'm rooting for the team that has never won the Super Bowl, but I am not sure which one that is... I think it's the Eagles... but, I'm not sure.  I just remember someone reporting that one team had a LOT of wins in recent years, and the other team didn't.

I wrote some of my monthly letters today, did housework, did some baking for today and extra for the week, been working on my piles of papers to get through, working on my goals, trying to plan the coming week, and working on my budget for February.  I checked online... emails, social media, etc.  I'm pretty video'd out from yesterday's binging... but, I may try to watch something later.  There's always something to do.

I discovered a FB post about a woman sharing a story and decided to listen to it... without the sound.  :-)  It was a story about how she was a kid and made her dad late to a meeting at one of the Twin Towers on that terrible day.  It made me cry... I always seem to cry at stories and pictures of 9/11.  It was a major turning point for America.

I recently discovered that a major local paper in Eugene (OR) was sold.  I was shocked.  It was a family-owned paper... and big in local community events, etc.  I had no idea it was in jeopardy.  It built a new building some time back.  But it didn't want to do outside orders.  I wondered why.  I haven't been in the community since 2013, so I have no idea what has been happening there.  I wish I could have purchased the business... it would have been good for my publication dreams.  I guess GOD had other ideas.  I am still shocked.  I wonder what happened... what the employees will do.  A news chain purchased them, but that doesn't mean things will stay the same.

The internet is changing our world... our jobs, our communications, our educations, our lives... and the effects are not yet fully known.  Some predictions go into 10 to 20 years ahead of us.  I said once that the time frame for major job shifts is less than the loan to buy a house.  So what does that mean for people who are buying houses now, based on their best version of the future? 

I listened to Dave Ramsey's DVD called Dumping Debt again... as well as an old Heritage Foundation DVD called A Legacy of Debt.  You can see where my thoughts are.  Personal and national debt are a danger to all of us.  When I heard some news reports about the improvements in our economy being 2.something percent, I remembered that basic inflation is considered 3%.  The value of the dollar was less than 90 cents the last time I saw NBR.  I keep wondering how they put together the jobs reports... are they valid? what kind of jobs are they talking about? seasonal? temporary? low-wage?  What are the details we don't get told?  No one wants to share news that will cause a "panic" -- possibly because a lot of our "wealth" is really on paper, in stocks and bonds, and everything in our measurments of wealth will change if the economy fails.  Bankruptcy makes stock have zero value.  It's all connected.  The whole global economy is connected.  We need to find a way to get our economy truly healthy again... and figure out what the future will bring before it gets here.

I'm not trying to sound scary, but I am scared.  My ONLY income is from Social Security and Food Stamps/SNAP.

I think a lot of other people are scared, too, but they don't say it this way... they blame immigrants, or the poor, or tax reform, or the other person/party... and we never really solve the problems... humanely.  It's always a pay-back for your supporters or your enemies kind of solution.  Manipulating the press, manipulating the votes, manipulating the details, etc.

We can't make the debt go away because we want it to.  It seems that the government is sure that more "credit" will solve every problem until we find a way to pay it off.  If ordinary people tried to do that, they would end up in bankruptcy, at the end of their credit.  It seems to me that the government is like a big "house" or "family" and it will also reach that day when it will fail.  If some people spend their credit cards knowing they will declare bankruptcy eventually, will our government do the same?

My reason for thinking about all these issues is Working Together Inc and it's plan to help the Christian populations through these expected problems.  Prophecy tells us they are coming... just not exactly when.  BITCOIN may be one effort to create a separate economy from the one we have in place.  Working Together is an effort to create an alternative survival option for Christians and other members.  I keep wondering why GOD hasn't provided for it.  Every day the dangers to Christians increase all over the world.

I guess I will go watch the other videos on my list of things to get done... and keep looking for solutions to these national and global issues... and hope to implement them.  One of these days, I hope we are all working on these solutions together, with GOD as our connecting point.

In Christ,
Deborah Martin

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May GOD help us to focus on the truly important things that endanger our lives as families and nations.
May our hearts find the way to faith, may we trust GOD and obey His call forward.
May we gather together and begin to form strong connections of protection for those in the Body of Christ around us.
May our lives be simple and full and thankful.
May we all begin to plan for the worst and hope for the best and be content with the basics to survive.
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May GOD help me to find His path for WT.
Amen.