Preparing Vs. Prepping

Almost as soon as I posted last time I started thinking that post sounds a bit like I could be mistaken for a prepper.  In case you have not run across the many online prepper groups or the TV program Doomsday Preppers, let me explain. Extreme Prepping is the act of preparing for some doomsday or catastrophic event.  While most preppers fear an economic collapse of the U.S. government, which anyone who is paying attention to what is happening around the world, knows is inevitable, there are many other fears preppers prepare for.  I am not an avid fan of the TV program Doomsday Preppers but I have watched a few episodes.  A few of the natural disasters people featured on the show are prepping for include, solar flares destroying the electrical grid, meteorites hitting the planet, a polar shift, mega-earthquakes, etc.  The individuals preparing for these disasters all fear that when these disasters occur, there will be riots and looting as hungry city people look for food wherever they can find it.   So prepping involves much more than just making sure you have enough food to last a few weeks in case of a natural disaster.  Extreme preppers literally prepare not only to be able to survive for a year or more, but also to defend what is theirs, with deadly force if necessary.  The goal of an extreme prepper is to stockpile one or more year’s worth of food and water, and stockpile weapons and other items for protection.  Often extreme preppers will talk about ‘bugging out’ or having a ‘bug out place’ which simply refers to a place hidden away where they can escape to and hide protected from the disaster and riotous mobs they believe will soon follow.  Bug out locations could be a bunker buried in their own back yard or a private hideaway nestled in the country where they believe they will be safe.  Extreme preppers often spend $50,000 or more stockpiling food and other supplies so when that disaster occurs (natural or manmade), they will be able to survive.
 

Let me make myself very clear.  I am not a prepper.  Personally, I do not believe prepping and Christianity are even compatible.  Prepping is about fear.  Preppers say I must prepare for the disaster, I must take care of myself and family, everything is up to Me.  If preppers even believe there is a God, their behavior communicates that God is not in control so they must take whatever action needed to be in control of their own life. 

  

Christianity on the other hand is about faith and putting ones trust in God.  1 Timothy 1:7 says fear comes from demons.  Jesus also told us not be anxious about tomorrow, but to trust God instead (Matthew 6:25-34). So clearly faith and fear are incompatible.   

  

That does not mean we can be lackadaisical about our future.  Trusting God does not imply that we do not have to prepare for tomorrow (Proverbs 6:6-8), just that it should not dominate our lives.  Instead common sense should prevail.  A common sense our forefathers practiced when they canned their summer harvest and prepared for the harsh winter ahead.  Sadly with the easy accessibility to grocery stores filled with what appears to be an abundant supply of food; people, including Christians, have gotten lazy about being prepared. 

    

The U.S. Government recommends that every one of us keep a three day supply of food and water in our home in case of an emergency, which I find a joke.  The truth is to be properly prepared for a natural disaster; a two week to one month supply is more realistic.  (Just ask a friend of mine who was without any electricity for 3 weeks after a hurricane hit her area a few years ago.)  Yet very few people even comply with the three day recommendation.  It seems every year we hear about an approaching storm and long lines at the grocery store as people rush to buy food and other supplies.  The day before a blizzard is due is not the time to go generator shopping, yet folks wait tell then to look for such items.  Grocery stores, even supersize stores, only carry about a 3 day supply of food.  So when there is a run at the grocery store, they run out very fast and have no way to resupply their shelves quickly.  The time to prepare for any future natural disasters is today.

  

As stated earlier, I am not a prepper and never will be.  I am a Christian who believes in living a healthy lifestyle.  I am a Christian whose goal is to live as sustainably as possible.  The food available in today’s grocery stores is grown all over the planet.  It is flown or trucked in from far off locations, which is not sustainable.  The soil the food is grown in is often depilated of nutrients.   The food is picked way too early and so lacks the taste and nutrition of what is grown in my own garden.  More and more food is grown from genetically modified seeds which have never been tested for safety in the environment or as a food source.  No one really knows the long term dangers of what we are doing to the food supply, because no real scientific testing has occurred, but there is growing evidence that those changes are harming human beings.

  

Even if God were to tell me personally; that an economic collapse of the US. economy will never occur and I will never again experience a natural disaster, I would still choose to live a more healthy and sustainable lifestyle. 

  

Finally, do not forget this property was purchased in order to provide a safe place for chronically ill homeless people to come live.  God healed me of a chronic illness and I know He is still healing others.  But the chronically ill will not hear that God heals if they are homeless, hungry, and no one will help them.  Neither I, nor AOCCCI have an unlimited amount of financial resources to feed and house everyone who will one day come for help. But by growing our own food, canning the surplus in preparation for winter, learning to make cheese and other products from our own goats, etc. we will be able to help those who truly need help.