Heading into ART for my senior income efforts

 

Every day seems long.  And they all blur into the same thing.

I have so many things on my lists of things to do, sort through, find, downsize, etc.  I worry I will die before I can get to them.

I have been thinking a LOT about what to do for the time I have left.  That also involves letting go of the things I can't really do anymore.  It's a hard place to be.  We want to finish all those dreams we had during our lives, but we don't have the strength, the health, or the funds to finish them.  

I have said this before, as I have been going through this retirement planning, but revisiting my ART goals seems to be the best option for me.  I have seen this for a long time, but I didn't want to commit to just art.  Art is a very subjective activity.  Everyone who buys art has a different idea of what they like.  I am not sure there will be buyers for my kind of creativity.  :-)

This year's plan to use up the supplies I have collected to do my various art and crafting projects is really pushing me.  I am finding space I didn't have before and starting to get things done.  I still need to list some real (original crafted) items for people to buy and see what happens.  There are still issues to overcome, but I am working on the problems.

I found my ETSY About statement again.  It has made me think about what has happened over the past several years and how I got to where I am now.  I started with POD (Print on Demand) because I didn't need to have inventory space.  I somehow ended up without any real crafted products to sell.  I want to change that.   

I will still do some POD products, especially my logo mug, because they are very important.  When I can, or when I die, those products will be owned by Working Together to help it with income options.  This was the original plan.  

I probably need a lawyer to help me get it all legally figured out.  For my part, I may have to list everything for Working Together at the EBAY shop I created for it.  It's the only site I have where I could list things to sell... maybe.  I do have a Facebook page for WT, and a fiverr.com site, but those are for different parts of the WT space online.  Maybe one of the blogs I have for WT would work with the PayPal account I have for Working Together.  What I am learning for my own income needs may work for the sites I have already started for Working Together.  --  Any suggestions are welcome.  Please use the comments for them.

Whatever GOD planned for Working Together will happen, it just isn't what I thought He would do.

I hope you will follow my ETSY shop so you will get a notification of when I list new items.  It will help me and Working Together if you can purchase my items.  Please think about it.  Right now, the best item to purchase would be the digital version of my writing called SERVANTS.  Share the five allotted copies with people you love who are Christian.  It is a very good way to remember our place in God's Kingdom.

Well, I'm planning to post here more often, as I have something to say, or share, or promote.  I will also be updating the Working Together website soon.  I want to put links back up for this blog and maybe some other spaces.

This is a very important election year and the future of every Christian in at stake.  I hope GOD will protect us and help us to win the battles we face for America, ourselves, and the world.  The global approach to all our life needs is quickly becoming the status quo.

PRAY!  We desperately need GOD's help.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

https://work2gather.us 

IT'S EARTH DAY! What can you do to save our planet?

 

I made a new design just to post today.  You can see it is a simple one.  :-)  It is a start.  

Earth Day is important because it brings our attention to the fact we only have one planet, and we depend on it for every life that exists here.

I won't say I agree with the CLIMATE CHANGE mantra/s, but I do believe we have had a part in hurting the world we need to survive as people.

Pollution is a cause of many of our problems, but I think Big Money has taken our focus off of the destruction pollution has done and is doing to our lives.  I look for information on pollution and recycling/reusing just to keep up with what is going on.  I don't see much information on radiation, plastics, chemicals, medical waste, sewage spills or waterways being used as a sewage option, in the news.  A healthy planet is an important part of our survival.  

Something is causing our water sources to dry up.  Within the Earth is a place where our water is stored.  During the Flood, God opened the "great waters."  I once saw a photo from space of the United States and noticed a giant swirl that looked like a water drain.  It was in the place of a multi-state aquifer so I tend to think that our nation, our "breadbasket," may have been where it was located.  God warned us that there will be droughts and famines in the End Times.  It could have something to do with the water that is stored underground.   

Air, Water, Food... no one survives without them.  That is the theme of my other Earth Day creation.  Their importance is in that order.  I heard it called "The Rule of Threes."  Three minutes without AIR, three days without WATER, and three weeks without FOOD - we cannot survive without them.  

Add in all the chemicals we have discovered and used for generations now.  Fuel, oil, fertilizers....

All those poisonous fertilizers we put on our food plants seeps down into the ground.  It kills good bugs as well as bugs that want to survive by eating the food we want.  It contaminates our water sources below the ground.

I also discovered the SUN is expanding.  Some predict it won't affect us for a long time, but I would like to remind everyone that only GOD knows the details.  I also don't think our governments would tell us if there was a greater danger.

I think an expanding sun will affect the entire solar system.  It could be the reason there is a "hole" in the atmosphere - not CO2 (Carbon Dioxide), cow farts, sodas, and other sources.  We have no idea how intricate our solar system is.  If a solar flare can affect us, the expanding of the Sun can also affect us.

Planting trees is my solution to helping the Earth get better.  It is an easy thing to do, anyone can plant a tree, plant tree seeds, plant any green living thing.  Gardens probably apply to this project.  Flowers, bushes, and beautiful lawns too. 

 

I have considered the need to build small forests on flat land, for cattle to shelter under in winter, or other livestock.  Feeding hay in winter is a newer process, I think.  I don't know what they did in the time when Jesus was alive, so this is just my idea for becoming more self-sufficient and less burdened by the costs of growing hay for winters.  Wild animals survive winter.  I think livestock should be able to survive it as well.

I also don't think it helps the animals to eat corn instead of hay... but, that's me.  I have big issues with GMO foods.

I have watched different things over the years about livestock becoming healthy within weeks of changing to organic feed and getting sick again if they had to eat GMO feeds again.  This wasn't just cows.  I think it applied to pigs and other farm animals too.  There is something seriously wrong with the way our farming has "progressed."

We have no idea what GMO foods do to our bodies or the bodies of the animals we eat, or the plants we eat.  We also have little choice in the matter.  The most impacting information I discovered about this topic was a documentary that shared animals who ate the leftover stalks of GMO crops (in another country where poor farmers trusted the companies that brought the option of growing GMO food to them) died because of it.  The poison from the process (Round Up, I think) was in the plant... it is what kept the bugs away.  It seemed to me that if it was in the stalk, it was in the part that was harvested.  That is scary to me.

I remember the big controversy at the beginning of GMO crops, in Oregon, was the destruction they did to neighboring fields, often organic.  The pollen cannot be controlled.  We may lose all of our organic and heirloom food sources over time.  

GMO foods will be a huge issue in the future.

What can we do to save our planet?  

I hope we do a lot more than we have been doing, from a government position and as individuals.

I should add that I watched one or more videos about the government beginning to use conservancy as a way to control what is grown and what is not.  I am sure the words organic will be attached somehow, but the idea that the government will control all of the food sources one day is frightening, especially in America.

The government currently focuses on GMO foods, and has for a long time.  It is how they became legal so fast.  The idea is the amount of food produced, not the health of the food or the people/animals who eat it. 

We have already heard that government wants digital currency so it can control what people are allowed to buy.

It's a scary future because people who hate GOD and don't know what the Bible tells us are in charge.  People like this make choices for different reasons than believers would, often for money or power.

PRAY for all of us.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

https://work2gather.us

Voting for America's Future

The battles for control of our country, and the world, get pretty tough.  Unfair attacks are what irritate me.  Like the gay community suing cake makers, and people who would do the same thing suing Trump for trying to keep an affair quiet.  It becomes public "news" to create fear, to control everyone who hears it, and get their way.  

In Truth, these efforts destroy our nation and take us away from the problems that are truly important for our national survival.  We are crumbling under the weight of so many issues it will be a miracle if we survive and rebuild.  

I am sharing this design today because the next election is probably the most important election we have ever faced... more important than the last election.

We are a struggling nation because of our debt loads - national, state, and personal.  

The Democratic Party is a symbol of taxation to provide government programs that become the authority for the things we need to survive... Life, Death, Housing, Food, Medical, Education, Transportation, Phones, Internet, Public Safety, Military... what else can I name?!  The government says they need the ability to control in order to do the job.  We trust them so we let them get bigger and bigger and bigger until we can't change back to what we use to be - Free.  

I exist because I am on the government's payroll in one way or another.  I don't want it to be like that, but I haven't been able to get out of this cycle.  

If I had a minimum wage job, I would still need a government program to exist.  Mandated Healthcare premiums would be impossible for me to afford after paying taxes, housing costs, food, utilities, monthly living needs like toilet paper and laundry supplies, some kind of transportation option, and personal needs.  I would still be poor, still be dependent on what the government might provide.

The unexpected expense is what always destroys anyone with a tight budget.  

For me that might be losing money to bank fees (which are very high now) when a bill collector attacks my account trying to get their money.  My budget is small, I don't have credit cards, and it takes enormous struggle to save any money.  Every loss is huge.

For the government it could be a natural disaster or act of terrorism.  The bridge in Baltimore is an example.  Winter ice storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, protests and riots -- they all affect the budget -- and require unplanned spending.  

If you don't have a reserve fund to cover these events, they can destroy your life.  You end up losing everything and have to start over again, from nothing.  We don't have reserve funds, emergency funds, or any funds that could be used for unexpected events that require money... as a nation or as individuals.

I don't know if the Republicans would act any better, they have their own list of things they want to control, but the path they want to go doesn't include the government being the only authority in charge, the only source for every need.

 

I watched a short video about New York tonight.  In a huge urban space like New York there is no space to expand.  It is thick with buildings and people and needs.  This video was just about the problems trash removal causes, and the city's inability to deal with it.  They don't have the money to pick up their trash and keep the streets clean.

I have also seen how trash (and sewage) is dealt with in poor countries.  Mostly it's the poor that have to live with their trash, filling their water sources, contaminating everything, causing diseases and death.  BUT, where would they build the systems they need to take care of water, trash, sewage?  They live in "thick" urban spaces, too.  Who would pay for these needs?

The point is it takes money to build the important parts of communal living.  But where should it come from?  Only taxes?  Only business?  Only government?  What is the limit of government?  What is the limit of businesses?  What is the responsibility of the people?  And how does government keep private business from abusing the people to make money?

These seem to be the same battles we fight over and over again... because people don't always do what is right.

How can we protect ourselves from the government?  That was the goal of the Founders of our nation... they were trying to keep the people safe from tyrants and dictators and greedy rulers.

It looks like Trump and Biden may be our only choices in November.  We have to choose one of them to become our next leader.  I don't want a country that looks like the Democratic Party plan.  I think our only hope is the Republicans.

I hope you will think about this election and what America needs to survive.  Use your vote wisely.

 

In the blink of an eye...

 

I have been watching the news on YouTube lately.  And watching other videos about crimes.  And sometimes videos about disasters.  Tonight I watched a video on the 2004 Tsunami.  

I was amazed by the devastation I watched... by the way we see events in our time... by the desire to show all the graphic details of tragedy in other people's lives. 

Where I live there is a major move of tectonic plates expected, like the cause of the 2004 Tsunami.  I was trying to imagine what will happen here... to find out what might happen here.  This video had survivor accounts and actual video collected from people who filmed it as it happened.  It was a horrible disaster, killing hundreds of thousands of people of all ages.  There was no warning.  

I think about our lives and how they change in an instant.  

I was in an automobile accident many years ago.  I was rearended by someone going so fast the front of their car, probably their engine area, was folded flat and upward over their windshield.  The car lifted my back end off the ground.  When it disconnected, my van rolled across the center median and somehow landed on its wheels.  I had a son sleeping in the back with all our belongings.    

We survived.  I had small head injuries from the windshield breaking and slicing the top of my scalp without making a gash.  I thought I had survived without injuries, but it opened after I tried to get out of the van.  There is a permanent indentation there.  I feel GOD was with us through this unexpected event.  My son was protected by all the boxes we were carrying and the mattress we had for a bed.

These things happen without warning, without our ability to escape, and we have to live with the results.  The people in the Tsunami video said the same thing.  They survived, but not without scars.  We are thankful to have survived, but we never forget. 

Natural events like earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, and floods happen yearly, somewhere.  Accidents, crimes against us, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, terrorism, and so many more events we don't expect, happen suddenly, without a hint of danger.  Most we can't prepare for.  

A lot of people think GOD causes anything bad that happens.  Natural disasters are often called "Acts of God" because they are out of our hands. 

When GOD acts through nature in the Bible it seems to be in one specific area, like fire coming out of the sky to incinerate the offerings to Baal or the destruction of Sodom or Jericho (leaving just the place where Rahab was).  There is always a purpose to His judgments.  

We don't really understand what lies beneath the surface of our planet, why tectonic plates exist, what makes them shift and create earthquakes and volcanoes.  It could be we have done something to our planet to cause the destruction we endure.  

I have considered that taking out oil and water and gas from the earth is creating empty spaces under the ground, deep down in places we cannot reach.  It alters the way the earth is structured, changes it in ways we don't yet know or understand.  

Perhaps the weight of our cities affects the stability of the earth.  We don't really know.

I am not looking forward to the BIG ONE in the place where I live... wherever or whenever it happens.  I will prepare for it, as best I can.

The graphic I used today is my saying about challenges we face and how they change us.  When I was looking for the perfect photo to go with my words, I came across a Getty photo that looks a lot like this one except the climber is disabled.  He was climbing with artificial limbs.  That really impacted me.  I don't know what caused his injuries, but the fact that he was even attempting to climb a huge mountain with artificial limbs told me he was braver than I could ever be.

He learned how to overcome the tragedy in his life.  

I hope we can all find a way to do the same.

Politics as a weapon

 

There seems to be a liberal uproar over Arizona keeping an abortion law from the 1860's.  I am wondering why the law was necessary in that time of history.  I was never that great in history classes.  I remember a few things, major things, things that mattered to me.  I wasn't collecting details about abortion when I was young.

I have heard my whole life that abortion is about "saving" women from all the things that will be lost if she has the child she conceived.  The outcry is always about the adults life, not the childs.  No one in media or liberal politics talks about how a child can make a woman's life better.

When Trump was first running, the life of an unborn child was part of his campaign promises.  Now it is about "compromise" and finding a way to win.  I thought this was an important point in his platform.  I have been pro-life all of my life, not just because it is the murder of an innocent child that cannot protect itself, but because I was conceived out of wedlock.  

This is one of my designs for the statement it shares.  We can never know the impact a single life can have on this world.

I remember someone saying that when we kill an unborn child we may be killing a person who would have saved our world.

Many are aborted because there is some disability discovered through sonograms or blood testing.  It is true some children are born with physical or mental disabilities, but it is also true some become disabled during their lives.  We don't have a guarantee that any life will be without changes in health, struggle, pain, or unexpected events.

There is a verse in the Bible that says the weak are more important than the strong.  It took me many years to figure out why GOD would say something like that.  I realized the weak are GOD's tool to keep our hearts, as individuals and as societies, kind and caring.  They keep mercy and compassion alive in our world.

The Bible also says the love of many will grow cold in the Last Days.  We can see that happening more every day.  When I thought about this prophecy in my younger years, I decided it would be because of the media, which now includes the Internet.  I have been watching the topics on the internet becoming more and more frightening as the years pass.  There are so many stories of need because they are coming from all over the world.  We are becoming numb by the constant bombardment of all these tragedies.

The Universe is a very big place.  We like to think our planet is the only one that matters, and our lives the most important thing on the planet, but we are just a speck of dust.

It is important what we do as individuals because our lives affect others.  Abortion doesn't just happen to a woman or a child, it happens to all of us.

Once pregnant, there is no path back to not being pregnant.  There is a consequence, sometimes more than one.

The woman who gets pregnant has to choose between keeping the child, giving it up for adoption, or killing it through abortion.  They all have a lifetime consequence for both the mother and the child, and the father, and the rest of the family, and the world.  Abortion is not a simple solution to a difficult problem.

The Bible tells us that our lives have purpose.  Letting a child live, and find their purpose in this life, seems to be a better choice than killing it to avoid the consequences of our choice to sin.  Adoption is a better choice for an unplanned pregnancy than abortion.  It will be a blessing to the parents who want it and allow a child to find its purpose in GOD's Plan.

I hope you will always choose life for your child.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

Making important choices in Life

 

This is my first "poster" design.  It is a bigger version of my CHOICES design that I had created into a magnet (but forgot to add my contact information) to sell.

When I was young I loved serious, beautiful, meaningful posters.  Every time I have checked on what is available today (whatever year it was), I only found sports and other stars for kids and teens to purchase.  I could see the reason we had problems in our society.

I'm not sure my poster could ever be compared to the ones I loved, but it was a first effort.  I think my magnet design would be better for a fridge.  I think a lot of Christian products are suffering and companies are closing.  The society we live in wants to get rid of GOD, and all the products that remind people of Him.

Today I have been thinking about what I want to create and sell to improve my income... and be worth investing my time in.

It has been the hardest part of my life because I don't have what I want to do what I want to do.  :-)  The same cry of most everyone.  So I need to "use up the supplies I already have" to get to the place I want to be.  This is my goal for 2024 - to use what I have already.

Today is a day of thinking and praying and seeking the best direction to reach GOD's place for me.

What did I discover today, again, because I forgot this bit of information over time.  I sold 5 items in my ETSY shop in the past few days, all to the same person.  After the costs of the items, shipping charges I had to cover, and fees to ETSY (about 25% of the order income), I ended up with about $7 in profit.  :-)  Not good.  If you look at the amount ETSY will put into my bank account, it seems like I made money.  But that amount doesn't cover the costs outside of ETSY.  That's the thing I forgot after all these years of inactivity.

So, I have been thinking again about what I want to sell to earn income.

This is a copy of an ad I had in a Christian newspaper in the state I live.  I never had one response.  I would have thought there would be some kind of response.  What do you think?

I am considering focusing on mugs and small posters, so I can share my words and designs with other Christians and people browsing ETSY.

Or I may just carry a few products that are "Print on Demand" (POD) and begin to list my art and vintage and other items for sale online.  Maybe some digital inspiration would work. 

I have had my writing called SERVANTS listed for many years and no questions or purchases yet.  ETSY said I couldn't sell my booklet about the Rapture there, with no ability to respond to whatever their objections were (because I didn't get told what was wrong with it).

I see this as part of the End Time process.  It is that same hidden persecution that humanity has always inflicted on their "enemies."  It is the Black issue, the Mexican issue, the Jewish issue, the disabled issue, and the issue for anyone someone hates.  I might include the Gays in this list, but they are also perpetrators of anger and hate toward anyone that disagrees with them.  True Christians would not purposely hurt others, but there are people in churches that are not true Christians.  How would anyone know they didn't represent GOD?

I found this design again today.

I have two on this topic, but I want to share this one here.  Once we are truly saved, we want everyone we love or know to find salvation through Christ.  We discover the difference GOD makes in our lives.  We change.

We don't want to hurt anyone ever again, even though we will somehow.  If we do hurt someone, we try to make amends for what we have done.  And we try never to do it again.

I think we choose to suffer ourselves because we know we will be going to heaven when we die, we understand others don't have the GOD we do, and we just wait for GOD to heal their hearts and bring them to salvation.  It isn't easy.  We hurt as much as anyone else.  We just want to trust GOD for whatever is wrong in their heart and life.  I am always so glad GOD found me and saved me.  Life without Him is so much harder.  I have seen trials and persecutions as a Christian.  They can be very hard, but life without GOD would be unbearable.

We are in times no one could have imagined before.

How to get through the times we live in without hating back... that's something we will have to learn.  I hope we can find a way to do it together, and the whole Body of Christ.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin, work2gather.us

Busy with my designs...

 I had to sign in with my CANVA account and rediscovered my posting designs there.  I hope to post some of the better ones over the year, especially my political opinions.  :-)  Here are a couple of my favorites. 

I believe this was one of my mug designs when Trump was running the first time.  Maybe.  I also discovered the quote by Charlton Heston and really became motivated by it.  

This was created in the fashion of my original AMERICA writing, which can be found on the Working Together website  ( work2gather.us ).  I don't know why this copy has a greyish line in the middle of it.

This one was inspired by the battle over the rainbow.

I have thought about this issue for many, many years.  This is the solution I came up with.  We all know the government will not want to give up the endless search for income through taxation... but, if I could, I would try to change it.  I heard an old recording by Paul Harvey about taxation called FREEDOM TO CHAINS.  I have added my social media posting graphic about it.  It is worth your time to find it and listen.  The government has the legal right to tax us to 100% -- which will be implemented some day... maybe by the Antichrist, maybe sooner.

We don't really think about what the world will become without the influence of godly people.

Already there are many in power who have chosen themselves over the people they govern, in money, in power, in laws, in mandates, in desperation to survive the problems that have been created over time.

The Bible warns us of man things, we just don't take the time to notice.

I will close with this graphic I created.

No matter how bad we become, or have been, Jesus is the path to salvation and a new way of living.

It's hard to describe the way our lives change and how thankful we become as we realize this change.

We have to make that decision individually.

When we stand before GOD in the final judgment, no one will be with us.  

No wives, husbands, children, parents, friends, or pastors.  

We stand alone.

Make sure you are not doing things you know are wrong to please anyone else. 

I will be busy with more creating in the days to come.  I have a lot of ideas to turn into reality.  Lots of hope that GOD will provide for all the needs I have and you have.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

Food question! Is this a GMO tomato issue?

I was fixing my salad for lunch and this is what my small non-organic Roma tomato looked like when i cut it open.  I have never seen this before.  It was ripe and slightly soft, but I didn't expect this.  It has never happened to me before today. 

I suspected my produce was GMO but had no clear info about it.  I am trying to find out if this is normal for any kind of tomato or just an effect of GMO products.  

I ended up just using the outer rinds for my salad and giving the rest to the chickens we have at the house.  I just couldn't eat the middle parts until I find out what is happening to this tomato.

I

This is the best photo I could get, with the primary sprouting issue most visible.

The entire (almost) tomato seemed to be sprouting, kind of like bell peppers sometimes grow new peppers inside themselves.  But even bell peppers don't have so many seeds sprouting like this.

I am aware that tomatoes are modified to make them last longer because of shipping needs.  I don't recall what they are modified with, what plant or organism is used.  I was wondering if the other genes were growing these seeds inside this one tomato.

I have never seen this before, and I am over 70 years old!

Our food supplies are really contaminated with GMO foods.  It is beginning to affect us in ways we have no idea are happening.  I can't grow my own food, or buy all organic from the stores, or shop solely at Farmer's Markets.  I don't believe any poverty household, or even higher incomes, can buy the food they want to.  

I hope there is someone in the world who knows whether this is normal for Roma tomatoes or a problem with GMO foods.

I may write again about Christian issues later, or leave this as my Thursday post.  I am also thinking about posting this on social media to see if anyone there has answers about this issue.

Pray for our world.  People bigger than the ordinary man have been manipulating our world for money and power.  We will suffer the consequences because of it.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

work2gather.us

Where does the time go?

Just discovered I missed my post yesterday.  :-(  This is another reminder for me to make my posts earlier in the day.  Nothing spectacular to report.  I got caught up in watching my YouTube videos in the evening... then got so tired I just went to bed not even thinking about the post.  I suppose that is life as a senior... maybe.  :-)  

I can do this!  I need to find a better path.  So, I will keep working on this.

This morning I became aware (again) of how fast time passes through our lives.  I make lists for every day.  The things I hope to get to, the things I have to get done.  Every day things come up that aren't on my lists.  I am trying to get better at deciding what is essential to get done, at what will make a difference in making my life better and my income greater so I can do more things.  I don't know that I am winning my battle, but I do keep trying.

When you are the only one to do anything that needs to be done, it can be a challenge to find the path through all those little things.  Everything takes time.  Showers, laundry, making and eating food, washing dishes, vacuuming, sweeping, etc.  Living in one small room is also a challenge for my goals.  

I think it was last weekend I found a video where a man in another country was trying to help people in very, very poor circumstances.  This video was about a young woman who was forced to be with an older man and had a child at 14.  She also had another child about four years later.  By the time of the video she was away from that man who didn't treat her well and was trying to care for her children alone.  She (and her children) lived in a small metal building that had housed a cow in the other half of it.  Metal structures get hot in the sun.

I think she worked for her housing because there didn't seem to be an cash available to her, or very little money.  She was collecting food that would be considered garbage for them to eat.  The had some kind of mattresses on the ground.  I wondered what happened to her housing when it rained.  She did create a separate space for a toilet area.  I think she was trying to grow food in a very small part of her dirt area, but the soil looked like hard clay because of the heat where she lived.

I wondered what she could hope for without an education or money or anyone to help her.  When the video was done and her living space was changed to something much better, I wondered who would steal it all from her when the man was gone.  It was a hard video to watch and to think about.

There are so many millions of people suffering in our world.  How do we help them?

Even if Working Together was fully funded, there would still be millions we could not help.  Any government that exists cannot help everyone.  Churches do the best they can, but the wealthiest church that exists cannot help everyone.  

The cry we hear is that the government is the one to trust with the task -- and to accomplish this goal they want to take everything from everybody (starting with the wealthy) and then share it among all the people.  I wonder what that would be per person if we actually did the math.  

Even this will not work.  All these cries forget that the people in charge never want to suffer the slightest lack.  These kinds of leaders take what they want first, then they forget about the poor because the poor cannot fight back.

God told us what He thought we should do.  

I try to see/discover what could be done to help as many as possible without taking away their freedoms and respect.   I still come up with the problem that everyone cannot be helped in every way.  PLUS, any effort to help others has to deal with those who steal for themselves.

I have also spent my life trying to decide what is enough.  What are the basic needs we have to find to survive and grow and build a better world for the future?  Food, shelter, and work that benefits us and the world, or that cares for the vulnerable, of which I am now one, are the first basic needs.  Then we have to deal with other basic needs that differ by person/family.  

How much will this cost?  How can we build a place that will accomplish this?  

The End Times create a whole new environment for surviving.  I don't know how Christians can protect themselves in a world of growing hate and violence, corrupt governments, and poverty.  I remember watching Hunger Games and wondered how it might reflect our future.

One of my ongoing projects is to prep for disasters.  The first goal is just enough to get through the first two weeks so you can find out what else needs to be done to survive longer if that is required.  This is the topic of a lot of the videos I watch.  Everyone has a different way of preparing for their family.  

If a serious emergency happens, life will change in so many ways.  People who don't have the supplies they need will want to take them away from others.  And there won't be law and order anymore.  I imagine America will become somewhat like those other places we see in the news: violent and abusive and ruled by dictators, criminals, or military forces.

Time seems to fly by because we are so busy with our own survival needs, we don't have time to notice all these changes happening.  We trust our government and/or have to deal with what it creates.  There isn't an easy solution to what prophecy warns us is coming.  We have to stop and think about our lives now so we can prepare for what is coming.  

I hope you can do that.

In Christ,  

Deborah Martin

Finding the way forward... one day at a time.

This seems to be the theme of my life.

One day at a time.

The Bible tells us this moment is all we have but we think our lives will be forever.  Well, a long time.  Now that I am up there in years, it seems this one day at a time theme is still the only option.  The reasons why seem to change, but there is even less of a guarantee we will reach tomorrow, or our next birthday, or the many goals we still have.  

Today I came across a YouTube Short about Christian things.  I think the channel was called The Bible Minute, but I am not sure.  The topic of the video was a question many unbelievers ask about God... about people who have never even heard about God - asking how He can judge them.

My reply was the Bible tells us Creation is a witness of God.  

I also mentioned reading in the Bible that some are made for the day of evil, for the End Times.  We will not all be saved.  This is a big question in my mind.  How are some of us created just for the days of evil?  To me it is saying some of us will not have the option to be saved.  I don't have my answer about this passage yet.  I am just thankful that I found God and salvation.

I am struggling with the details of living in these End Times.  Technology has brought things into our lives that I never thought possible.  And there is no way to stop them.  We will have to learn how to cope with them as they create the fulfillment of prophecy.  Living one day at a time is our only choice.  

We are heading into robots, into internet controls we don't even know about, into microchips in the body and becoming a computer ourselves.  No one in the days when the Bible was created could ever have understood what we are living.  Symbolism, interpretations, words that are chosen to describe what is seen, these are things we have to deal with as we try to understand what the Bible says.  I am thinking of the visions of John in Revelation... about the many times the Bible says "like" when it is describing something in a vision of the future.  I am thinking about all the things that are missing from the details we have.

I believe God's Word is fully true.  I don't know if we can fully understand what is being shared with us.  I know that every time I read the Bible I discover something new because I have been changed by my own experiences and knowledge.  

I suppose this may be why there are so many denominations and ways of seeing parts of what the Bible says.  

Through Working Together I wanted to create a yearly event I called "40 Days in the Wilderness."  It was meant to be a way of gathering all the representatives of the many denominations together to share their views on these differences, find what GOD meant by them, and discuss what we could do to overcome them to become ONE BODY of CHRIST.  I wanted to find a way to solve these issues that divide us.  With the internet, we could all watch the discussions and find ways to participate.  Later, I realized this could become the way the Gospel would be heard all over the world.

Because of all the things I have wanted to do through Working Together, I can see why there has been so much opposition in my life.  What I don't understand is why GOD hasn't provided for Working Together.  I have to assume it was not the right time.

This could be a good sign for Christians.  It might mean we have a little more time before the Antichrist gets here, openly.  Global dominion takes time, I hope.  It's hard to know.  I see the power of the internet, the goal of digital currency as our global money, and the microchip already in human bodies.  I don't know what God's Plan is on the way to the Antichrist. 

I can only do what I am able to do in each day.  That is all God holds me responsible for.  I just wish I could have helped more people, more Christians.  I hate to see suffering that might have been prevented.

Pray for all of us.  It's going to be a lot of chaos when these struggles finally reach us.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

Working Together Inc - https://work2gather.us

Housing is the foundation of surviving any crisis.

I have been watching a lot of videos again.  It is my "recreation" at the end of the day, and the reason I end up posting late.  Some videos are about housing designs, others are about homeless issues, and some are about food or other survival topics.  Tonight I watched a couple new topics - evictions in low-income mobile home parks and squatter rights. 

When everything falls apart, however that may happen, housing will be the main issue.  When we need to overcome huge problems in our lives, having a stable home to start from is really essential.  Trying to solve problems as homeless people/families is very difficult.  

Not having housing makes it very hard to work, to go to school, to take care of yourself or your family, to eat, to do laundry, to shower, and all those little things we don't even think about until they aren't there anymore.

Being alone, being elderly or disabled - or both, being poor, being without a job, being without close family, being a minority or having a criminal history, being a single parent, or having other problems that affect housing options, makes the challenge to overcome our crisis more impossible.

Stable housing allows us to find solutions. It helps us continue in the same neighborhood we have been living in and to access the resources we already know.  Starting over in a new neighborhood means we have to rebuild all those networks we have had.  It takes time to find new resources in a new neighborhood.  If we have to move again, and again, and again, we are starting over each time.  It makes recovery so hard and it takes so long.

In the mobile home eviction video, one elderly man had planned to live out the rest of his days in a mobile home he bought for his retirement.  He didn't have anyone left in his life except his neighbors.  The entire mobile home park was being evicted.  He had no one to help him through this crisis and no where to go.  He planned ahead.  Then, when he was not able to help himself, was being forced to leave everything he had planned and built and needed to survive the rest of his life.  

Someone bought the land.  They wanted to build a different future with their property.  Is anyone guilty of a crime?  No.  This is a process that happens everywhere.  People want to make as much money as they can.  People have to cover the expenses of a new mortgage.  A new property owner has their own vision and plans.

So, what is the solution?

Somehow, the people in the housing park need to be helped to find an equally priced new situation for living.  But that isn't really possible in our age.  These people were living in the same place for years and years and years.  They never thought about moving.  The homes they owned were too old to be moved.  They didn't have other mobile home parks to move to... the other mobile parks in their city were also being closed.  

The poor cannot suddenly find money to overcome an eviction.  The elderly are often surviving on a limited income.  They cannot make it grow to cover new rent prices.

Christians will suffer these kinds of problems as our End Times become worse.  This is not just the problem of a mobile home park or other low-income property being changed into something else.  Christians are losing jobs, houses, and lives they thought would never change.  Christians have prepared for their future, but their future is changing.  Where will they turn when those difficulties happen?

I don't know.  I didn't really find adequate help in my own trials.  I watch these videos and I see again there is still no hope for people in a sudden crisis, even for Christians.  I hate to think about what is coming and what it will do to Christians and everyone else. 

The government is not the answer.

A crisis that turns everyone toward the government as its only support option is a path to socialism, to government control in greater and greater amounts, slowly, in a hidden path, one that makes the government seem like a savior.  Welfare, SNAP/food benefits, Unemployment, stimulus acts, housing subsidies, and programs like this all lead to the government being the sole support of our lives.  It is changing us from free and independent people into dependent followers of whatever the authorities/government decides is what will be. 

Housing is one way to break our sense of freedom.  

Food is another.  

Jobs are another.

What about the lockdowns we all submitted to willingly, which became legal "rules" and brought police force into our lives... over a mask!

COVID really hurt our nation - and we are not yet recovered.  There are still people in authority who want to keep it going.

These YouTube videos on evictions after COVID say there will be more to come.  The government cannot print enough money to save us... printing money leads to even more financial problems.

We must find ways to protect our communal resources.

Keeping our eyes focused on GOD.

Well, what do we do to keep our minds, our hearts, our eyes, focused on what matters?  I listen to my Christian playlist on YouTube.  It helps me remember that whatever happens in this life, we belong to GOD.  Salvation matters more.  Heaven is the goal.  And suffering happens to every life.

I can't remember how many songs I started with.  I had one main music list and decided I needed to have the Christian songs separate.  Now I have a Christian playlist and one called "Other Favorites," which has anything not considered Christian in nature.  My old favorites.

I have 73 songs on my Christian list right now.  I haven't decided how many is enough.  I listen to them on automatic replay... all day, all night, sometimes for more than 24 hours.  It depends on what the days are like.

I usually play them in order, and know what song comes next.  Lately I have been doing the song shuffle.  It changes the order.  Makes it random, kind of.

Every now and then I search for new songs to add.

I'm thinking of making different lists for Christian listening.

Sometimes, lately, I turn on my small radio and listen to a pre-tuned Christian station.  When I first set it up, I think I left it on for two entire days.

All this is background music.  I go about my day with this music playing.  It is amazing how certain songs come up when I am in range of the device I have on.  

There are old Christian songs I haven't found yet.

I think about life without money, without electricity, without the internet.  I think of people who would destroy everything we care about.  I wonder how to save these treasures of our lives.  I can't imagine my life without music.

If God had blessed my efforts, I was going to collect as many as possible from the Body of Christ, sort them, create a library of them, find a way to make themed playlists... like worship, prayer, family, dancing (?), and whatever other lists that come up.  It was meant to be a way to save and protect and replay the best of our history in music.  

I remember the lessons of history where all the books were burned.  Now we have the internet as a single consuming source for all our information... with censorship, hacking, and altering the details.  It's not much different than burning books.  Easier, actually.  And no one really knows what has been changed unless they are an authority. 

We are heading into the rule of the Antichrist.  Imagine what he will do to our history.

This battle has been going on for all of life here on earth.  It's a spiritual war, with unseen warriors on both sides.

What will we do?  I don't know.

I remember the part in the Bible where the Jews found the scriptures again and it was read aloud to the people.  I wondered how they lived before it was found again.  I wondered what God did in the years when their Bible was not available.  I wondered how they might be judged in the future judgment we all face... except the martyrs.

Keeping our focus on God can be very hard without daily reminders.  We get busy with our needs.  Slowly we forget about God and what He has told us.  It is a tool of the Enemy to keep us from His Word... slowly getting it out of our lives, our focus, our world.

What can we do in these last days before the Antichrist rises and destroys us?  Who will still be left?  How will they remember all the things we have learned over the many years of out lives?  How will God keep Himself alive in their daily existence?

I wonder if there is anything we can do to leave our history in ways and places they might be able to find it....  We are becoming a 100% surveillance world.  Will there be any hope to reach anyone that lives beyond us?  

I really don't know.  I imagine the forces of Satan will have kept a record and will destroy all our efforts.

A world without godly people is not going to be a good place to live.

 

Spring means gardens.

Been working on my garden plans for this summer.  Today I planted my first seedlings.  Ever, I think.  Some containers I have for my seedlings are planted with old seeds I collected or packages I bought in previous years.  I still want to try them, but there's no guarantee they will sprout.  I tried doing direct planting with others last year and it didn't turn out well.  This year I am trying "official" seedling planting.  I am also trying them without the soaking option to see if they are still viable.  If they don't work, I will be buying starts at the stores.

I have collected several old plastic containers to try this year.  Burned holes in the bottoms for drainage.  Now I have to figure out the soil I need.  I already have a list of things to consider, like bagged mulch or shavings, bagged manure, and several kinds of bagged dirt.

I probably already shared this in another post.    

I think I have one more sunny day before the rains come back.  Will have to get all this done before it gets wet and muddy and cold.

I'm trying another new option for me -- having my seedlings outside, in the empty storage containers.  This will be like one of those early planting boxes for outside... where they have a window section on top, one that can be lifted during the day for air.  I have a plastic sheet over mine.  I plan to remove it, or prop it up somehow, for air flow every day.  This is another gardening experiment for me.

Today I also trimmed the berry patch we have here.  I cleaned up some of the ground around the blackberry plants and then laid some ground cloth under it.  I still need more landscape pins to secure the entire space.  Or I may do some other things to keep the area covered... straw, shavings, bark mulch, dirt, or ???  Before I buy something to do that, I still need to get the supplies for making support poles for the patch.  

My main goal has been to keep the berries up high, for easier picking and more berries.  I watched several videos on YouTube this month about putting in supports and they also had information about how to prune the vines.  I could have watched these videos long ago but I didn't think of doing a search for it.  I was using what was around here and didn't really see YouTube as a source for that kind of information.  I also didn't have funds to buy anything.  FYI - There are LOTS of videos to watch.  I discovered some of them this season.

This year my theme is to use up as many of my collected supplies as possible, which includes finishing all the projects I have planned to do.  The berry patch is one of those projects.

I haven't really created a lot of food with my garden efforts.  This is why I am trying larger containers this year.  I don't know how much food I could make for myself, but I am trying to learn how to grow more.  Fresh produce is so much better than store bought, even store organic foods.  If you can take it from the garden and eat it right away, it is very different than buying it and then making it into something you eat.

I understand that Farmer's Markets and CSA's are almost like getting the food right away, but not always.  Some seasonal foods are stored for selling later, even in CSA's.  Usually this is a winter CSA issue, for potatoes and things like that.  Organic is still better than not organic.

I don't know about Farmer's Market foods.  I can only afford them when I get the Senior Farm Checks -- about 8 small payment vouchers that can only be used at Farm Markets and only for produce (not processed farm products like meats and canned or packaged foods).

These kinds of foods are pretty much out of my budget range.  I found one SMALL CSA in the local area, that delivered, so I tried it.  I hope to one day afford a permanent CSA, but I have a lot of things that need to fit into my budget.  

Organic at the grocery store is my reachable goal.

I would like to end this with a statistic I found in a USA Facts email today ::

Federal Minimum Wage is still $7.25 an hour.  Forty (40) hours equals about $15,000 a year at that wage (BEFORE taxes).  The 2023 poverty level for a single person under 65 was $15,852.

Throughout the entire USA, the median gross income was $58,140.

That's a big difference.

My income is less than $10,000, and includes my Social Security Retirement Benefits and SNAP food assistance.  I think I have only gone above $10,000 in wages once in my life.  I understand poverty, homelessness, programs, missions, subsidized housing, and all the other parts of urban (and some rural) needs.  Poverty is hard.

As all these national crises happen, Christians will need to find support in their churches and in their communities.  If they don't have a church, can't get to the places where help can be found, seniors will suffer alone in their homes.  I don't know what we can do to stop that from happening, but elderly and disabled people often don't have anyone caring for/about them.

I hope you will try to notice your neighbors, set up pantries in your churches, and find ways to make it less hard for people who have never needed help to reach out for it.

May GOD guide us as we pass into any hard time ahead of us.