28 August 2017

What a weekend... massive natural disaster in Texas, so much sorrow.  May God watch over those who trust in Him, may He bless as much as possible those in need, may He help us all to recover from this natural event and prepare for the next. Amen.

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The immediate area around the house where I live had a power loss due to a pole down... and it took about 24 hours to get the power back on.  It reminded me of how hard it is to live without our luxuries... and helped me to resolve to keep less perishables and find a way to make food when this happens again... I think I may get some of those little propane tanks with the stove attachments... that would help.  More candles, too... and get all this stuff into one place!!!  I wondered how I was going to find my candles and batteries in this overnight blackness.  I still don't know where I put them... I am still moving things around and finding a permanent place for tools and supplies and projects.

My small distress made me remember hard times in the past, and the hardships of those in Texas right now.  Nothing much you can do when disaster strikes... we recover the best we can.  I hope the homeless and poor are able to find relief.  People with credit cards and bank accounts and cars and places to go don't know how hard it is to be homeless, even without a disaster.

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This is a good place to share one of the pages I discovered as I sort through my things...  I probably shared it somewhere, but don't recall where right now.  It is called the Seven Steps to Poverty.  It is dated 29 September 2014, with a note about the source being World Vision on a Focus on the Family program.

1.  Imagine only 1 outfit to wear, no other clothing.
2.  No electricity, no power.
3.  No clean water to clean, cook, bathe.
4.  No house.
5.  No food.
6.  No doctor or medicine.
7.  No hope for the future, for tomorrow.

Some other notes on the page...  If you make $40,000 a year, you are in the top 1% in the world.  Three-fourths of the people in the world live on less than $10 a day... which would be about $300 or less.  My current income is Social Security Retirement Benefits of $382 a month, with about $200 in Food Stamps in addition to that...  I am rich by those standards, but would be barely surviving on the streets if I wasn't living at my son's house.  Another note says that most of those included in this global reflection live in a 10 x 10 mud hut with a dirt floor... for the whole family, whatever their size.  Those without food are forced to eat from garbage piles, which makes them ill or kills them.

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Another thing I thought of when I was in the darkness was the solar lanterns I have seen on Facebook and would love to purchase... LuminAid, I think that's the name.  This event makes me want to get one for sure... just to have it in case I need it.

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On a fun level, I also found this handy tip again... I can't wait to try this one, too.  From an old 2010 Woman's Day magazine, and Whitney Cobb ::  Marshmallows---stuff one in the bottom of an ice cream cone to heep it from leaking, or drop one in with your brown sugar to keep it soft.  I was impressed with the ice cream cone part.  :-)

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I don't have a TV of my own... well, I did buy a monitor hoping I could use it for an antennae TV and VHS screen and possible computer monitor... it didn't work very good as a TV because the reception was limited to intermittent activity.  I go upstairs to watch on my son's TV (with cable) when I can, but nothing regular.  So, all of that to say I haven't seen news today.  I hope to find some reports later.  I can only deal with so much pain and suffering... so I like to check on what is happening and then I have to let it go.  It's emotional overload for me.

I was thinking of that today, as everyone want to solicit funds for their program... ministry, etc.  How can we make this better for everyone... make our money stretch as far as it can... make sure it gets used for what we give it for.  I don't know yet, but I am thinking about it.  These are the lean months for ministries... summer.  In bad economies, donations disappear even more.  Our nation is suffering the same lack... money.  We have to find answers that will help us all survive together, without wasting what we have.

That is one reason I worried about my perishable foods in the frig... I can't afford to throw anything away... it would have to be replaced, somehow.  Preparing for things we don't know will happen takes time and money and planning, something I have tried to do all my life with little to no resources. 

Our nation is like a large family.  Its budget is created with our tax dollars.  If we don't spend these dollars wisely, we suffer for it later... well, someone suffers.  It is a pattern of the government to increase taxes, create new taxes, barter taxes for votes, and blame others for their bad choices.  Our current debt load has made us more like a poor family than the wealthy one we are use to being.  We don't want to give up special habits we have, in programs that can be modified or reduced or eliminated for other community partnerships.  As a poor person, as a senior now, I see the repeated pattern of blaming the poor and elderly.  Like our veterans, the poor and elderly cannot survive without some source of financial assistance.  How to meet these needs, fairly, is the challenge in my view.  Blaming people who can't fight back is cowardice, not politically expedient.

In our fight against the national debt, natural disasters are also a threat.  We can't afford them.  We never know when they will happen, and huge disasters like Hurricane Harvey are beyond planning for.  How can we manage our financial problems and include a margin for unexpected expenses like this when our debt is out of control?

I don't know if I like the budget choices of President Trump, but I know we have to reduce our spending and change the political priorities we have lived with too long.  We talk about Federal taxes, State taxes, County taxes, gas taxes, harbor taxes, road taxes, building fees, fines, regulatory punishments, property taxes, income taxes, retirement taxes, unemployment taxes, earning too much, not paying enough, rich versus poor, business versus environment, international trade deficits, import taxes, subsidies, guaranteed loans, tax bargaining, and... you see the trend... it's too much. 

We are a nation of citizens ruled by our politicians... we have lost sight of what is right and good and fair.  Before we lose our lives to the tax battles, we need to find a better way to fund our government, to limit the government to only what a government needs to be involved in, and to change the balance of paying its costs.  I have already shared some of what I think is fair.  Before it is too late to recover from all these political decisions that are not good for us as a nation, I hope we find a better way through this debt problem.

In poverty there are no choices... you struggle just to find the basic needs of food and shelter, everything else is like a gift. 

If the government is economically poor, what would our basics look like?
What is the government really responsible for providing for us? 
How can we replace what the government provides with community supports? 
What rules and regulations are truly necessary for our group survival? 
If we had just ONE TAX, which one would be the best, and how would you limit it permanently, and what would be a fair amount for everyone to pay? 

Will the government decrease itself? 
I don't think it will... so how do we create a new financial foundation for an old country?

In Christ,
Deborah Martin

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May the GOD of our universe help us to make the right decisions.  May He show us what is truly important, necessary, and critical to our survival.  May His Hand of Protection be on those who are striving to honor Him with their lives, and choices, and actions... with the wisdom of Truth and Faith.  May we all begin to help each other and not rely on the government to do it.  May churches begin to grow by the needs of those who search for GOD at their doors.  May our nation find a way to pay down its debt and create the financial cushion we need to survive unexpected emergencies, natural disasters, military conflicts, and anything else we need money for.  May our hearts find rest in our efforts to be better than we think we can be.  Amen.

The Way Forward

I spend a lot of my time thinking about the problems in the world... mine, America's, and global issues that affect us.  We know about every disaster and tragedy that is reported, but we cannot solve every problem, as individuals or as nations. 

How do we help as many people (and other living creatures) as we can?  The previous charity models will not work for the future.  We can only reach out when we have enough to give.  We have to be financially healthy ourselves to reach out to those in need.  This is true for our own citizens as much as it is for the requests of other nations for financial assistance to deal with their problems

Without realizing it, this endless outreach has moved us into a government intervention model.  We have come to think of the government as the solution for every problem, especially the ones we cannot afford ourselves. 

Many think it is the poor that cause this imbalance in our financial status, but I think we would see a different picture if we really looked at government spending, if we connected the dots between elections and contracts, if we explored the supports for legislation that should never have been funded, and if we followed the trails of controversial court decisions.  Ending Welfare is not going to solve the core of our problems... attacking innocent immigrants is not going to solve our financial crises... and printing more money to meet our debt needs or fund generous commitments to other countries or programs will not make the threat of bankruptcy go away.

The taxes we pay collectively cannot support the desires of every organized group in the nation, it cannot support the healthcare we want it to provide, and it cannot support all the unfunded legislation that gets passed... taxes already cannot support the services they have been committed to.

Why is this important to the people of GOD?

Because all of these issues are leading us toward the Antichrist and the Mark of the Beast, which is really just a money system, like a credit card. 

Those who don't know about prophecy, about the Antichrist, or about the Mark of the
Beast, have no idea what technology is heading into.  Computers seem to offer the way to the future.  The Mark will seem like a safety issue, a logical way to do business, a great way to function in a world of too many passwords, increasing crime, decreasing morality, and the ongoing effort to pretend GOD doesn't exist.

This election is showing us how far we have fallen from the values of the Bible.  Neither candidate is a model American or a committed Christian.  We can see the media controls our political conversations.  The issues we currently face are more than any party, or individual, can solve.  No matter who wins, the next four years are going to be dramatic, and critical to the survival of the US and its effect in the world.

Our biggest problem, in my view, is the debt.  As a new recipient of Social Security, I was alarmed to recently discover my very small allotment of less than $400 a month is paid to me as a credit expense... meaning that it is paid like a credit card withdrawal of cash, adding to the debt that threatens to destroy us.

How many more Social Security payments are made with a credit card every month?  It is my understanding that Social Security is broke, there is no more funding in the ransacked trust fund... so all of the funds paid to any Social Security recipient every month are cash withdrawals from the government's ATM machine.

The debt takes away our ability to meet the many crises that happen every year, like fires and floods and tornados, and unforeseen events like 9/11, Katrina, and the housing/bank crisis.

How can we hold the government accountable for its own bad decisions?  If we rise up and pay the debt down to a reasonable amount, what will keep our financially desperate government from replacing our efforts with another escalation of national debt?  We have to find a way... soon!!

Changing the mindset of government is the one thing I hope Donald Trump will accomplish if he wins the presidency.  We need to change from a government totally reliant on tax income to a government limited to ONE TAX that is invested for ongoing and increasing profits and savings and growth.  We need a government that is self-sufficient instead of always desperate for more money.

Our government has become a tax addict and withdrawals will be painful for everyone.

Reducing its tax income, reducing government paychecks and benefits, eliminating jobs by eliminating departments and programs, limiting its outreach to those most in need, will force the government to save money and eliminate wasteful legislation.

Changing to income-producing investments with tax dollars instead of grants and repeated program funding, organizing for rapid changes in jobs and industries because of increasing use of technologies that replace humans, moving social intervention efforts back to the community level, and bracing for the consequences of changes in laws concerning drugs like marijuana, will also take us into major social upheaval.

We must deal with these issues as Christians, as citizens of our country, and as global outreach providers.  Lives are in danger... near to us and beyond our borders.

I keep remembering something about the Great Depression that motivates me to prepare as much as I can for harder times than we have ever known.  I remember the stock market crashed in a relative moment in time... without any acknowledged warning.

I also keep remembering the Dust Bowl, caused by our ignorance and our belief that "science," or maybe it was progress, was infallible.

And I keep thinking of biblical prophecies about these days... wondering if there is anything we can do to stop this downward trend... if there is any way to prepare.

I wish the media would search for these kinds of answers, for solutions that will work for America and not just those with the power to manipulate the system.

We are in grave financial peril... who will be able to steer us through this swamp of debt and politics?