CHAPTER TWO - PREPARATIONS

Summer progressed. Dad had his garden. That made Mom plenty of work. I went to summer camp. It was pretty hot that week. My brothers played softball. I got to see a couple of the games. My sister, Mel, and I went to hunter safety training. There are a lot of things people say about the Pennsylvania Game Commission and not always nice things, but Dad always says, give credit where credit is due and the Game Commission’s hunter safety training program is an excellent program. I did not know if I was going to go hunting one day or not. In Pennsylvania, it’s a requirement that you have this safety course before you are allowed to buy your first hunting license. So even though I did not know for sure if I would want to go hunting this was the time do to it. I went along hunting sometimes with my dad. I enjoyed seeing him and my brothers shoot, especially that black powder rifle. So maybe, someday, I will hunt too.
My sister, however, must have had other reasons to attend the class. Whether she was ever going to go hunting one day or not was debatable. I heard her and Dad talking a little bit about it. She’s looking one day to be employed in the business arena and that might entail moving to an urban area and I guess her thinking was she would just like to be familiar with firearms and know the safety procedures involved with handling them. And again, Dad had stated that the Game Commission’s program was an excellent one that everyone should take advantage of.
The course went well. Eventually soccer practice started. I was ready for that but I was not ready for school, middle school; just didn’t like the whole idea. For my brothers and sister, school was easy. It wasn’t for me. I managed. Teachers turned out to be very helpful and so were my friends, and Dad, and especially Mom.
Mom had been having some interesting feelings. I heard her expressing them to Dad. She had feelings like there was a life-changing event coming. She couldn’t explain it. She did not know what it would be and she said it wasn’t ominous. She did not think it was going to be anything bad but for months she just had a funny feeling that things were going to change in our lives.
Dad had a little different dilemma. He was still on his economic disaster kick and doing little things to prepare for it. He described his dilemma thusly: even as faith-filled as he was, he wasn’t always certain if the
messages he was receiving and the insight that he had was coming from God through the Holy Spirit or whether it was coming from Satan and trying to mess us up. He prayed a lot about that. Prayed for that gift of discernment. Our minister used to tell him that you can make the judgment if it’s from Satan or from God by whether or not the action or the ideas are good or bad. That wasn’t always crystal clear.
But to further confuse him was the thought that if Jesus was revealing things and Dad chose to ignore them then he was refusing to accept a mission given to him by Christ. That he’d be demonstrating an unwillingness to serve as he was called to do. It certainly wasn’t easy to figure out but Dad just kept plugging along.
He didn’t always have to initiate the conversations either. One night we attended my cousin’s basketball game and I overheard him talking with my Uncle Bruce.
Bruce said, “I just got my oil tank filled, largest bill I ever had, over $1200.”
“Yeah,” Dad said, “oil is up again; sure glad I filled my tank in summer. Really glad I have that coal stove. Coal isn’t cheap either, but I can burn wood if I have to. How has it been affecting your business?”
Bruce worked at a local branch of a national bank. “Not real well,” he answered. “The feds upped interest again. We have to adjust peoples’ mortgages and loan payments. People just can’t afford it. Some are going to lose their homes. Others are cashing in their savings bonds. Doesn’t pay to keep them. People need the money. My colleagues say it’s a national trend. People are scared. No one likes what’s happening to the dollar.”
“Saving bonds are kind of interesting,” Dad said. “The government has this big debt, nine trillion plus dollars, and some of it’s to us. Everybody that buys a savings bond is contributing to the national debt.”
“Also helping the government pay their bills which they sure don’t have any problem running up,” Bruce said. “A lot of people have lost in the stock market, too.”
“But don’t they say there’s a winner for every loser?” Dad asked.
“Ha!” said Bruce, “might be true, but I’m not hearing about many winners. I’m starting to believe bad times are ahead.”
“So,” asked Dad, “how many people are taking the attitude that the government will keep us and save us and take care of any problems that develop, just like they did in the 1930s?”
“Maybe too many,” Bruce answered.
“Dad replied, “So some people are not putting their faith in Washington?”
Bruce said, “Perhaps the smart ones aren’t. Name something that Washington did right in the last fifty years.”
Dad thought a little bit and then answered, “Well, it’s actually easier to name the things they did wrong, running up the debt, Waco, taking prayer out of schools, legalizing abortion, Vietnam. The only good thing I can think of at the moment would be the civil rights legislation that brought some semblance of equality to black Americans. I guess there are some others, but right now they allude me.”
“Well,” Bruce said,” at least our men and women soldiers are finally coming home from Iraq.”
“Oh, that’s true,” Dad said.
“And you know what?” Bruce said. “You had once said that as soon as Saddam Hussein was executed, the boys would start coming home and you were right. Since he was executed last month, the plans have been put in place for us to end our involvement.”
“Yeah,” Dad said, “I was pretty sure that despite President Bush’s shortcomings, he wasn’t going to leave Iraq before that job was finished. I always wondered what the real military objective was in Iraq, but I was almost sure he would not make the mistake his dad made and come home leaving Saddam there as a threat.”
“So, I guess,” Bruce said, “the government can do good things sometimes. But back to what I asked you before, how can anyone be prepared for what’s coming up?”
“Well,” Dad said, “not completely prepared, but little things can be done.”
“Like what?” Bruce asked.
“Well, you tell me,” Dad responded. “If the dollar fails, are the banks still in business?”
“No,” Bruce said.
“How about the stock market?”
“Complete collapse,” Bruce said.
“Insurance companies?”
Bruce answered, “No money to pay out, none coming in.”
“How about the government?”
“Barring a miracle or a foreign government taking over --- powerless,” Bruce answered.
“So then,” Dad said, “what happens to the money in your checking account?”
“Gone,” Bruce said.
“How about your stocks?”
“Gone,” Bruce said.
“Your retirement fund?”
“Disappears, Bruce said.
“Your insurance policy?”
“Worthless.”
“Your municipal bonds?”
“No one there to pay them.”
Dad continued,” How about silver dollars and gold pieces?”
“Oh,” Bruce said, “they’ll still have their value.”
Dad answered, ”That is if you physically have them. How about if they’re on paper?”
Bruce said, “Then they’re gone too.”
“So,” Dad went on, “I guess that means that you can’t depend on those items for your existence and for your well-being, so what can we depend on. What can we put our faith in? Who can we put our faith in?”
“Oh, no, you’re not pushing Jesus on me again, are you?” Bruce asked. Now Dad did not push Jesus on anyone. He even considered it one of his shortcomings. He would have liked to spread the Gospel more and when he did, it was subtle.
“Not exactly,” Dad answered, “can you answer a couple more questions?”
“Sure, go ahead,” Bruce said.
“Who did the Romans put their faith in?” Dad asked.
“The emperor,” Bruce answered.
“And what happened to them?”
“They’re history.”
“How about the European kingdoms in the Middle Ages? Who did they put their faith in?”
“The king.”
“Where are they now?” Dad asked.
“Other than England and a few other figureheads, they’re a thing of the past.”
“And the Nazis in Germany. They’re faith was in whom?”
Bruce answered, “The Fuehrer.”
“And where are they now?”
“Defeated,” Bruce said.
“How about Communist Russia?”
“Ah, their faith was in an ideal.”
“Was it a lasting ideal?” Dad asked.
“No, they’re finished also,” Bruce said.
Dad responded, “Well, that remains to be seen. Who do the Jews put their faith in?”
“Okay,” says Bruce, “you’ve gotten there now. God, of course, and they’re still around.”
“At this point,” Dad said, “but even they seemed deserted by God for almost twenty centuries. Our country has put its faith in God over the last 200 years but maybe more so like Russia in an ideal, democracy. But faith in both God and democracy has declined and has been replaced by faith in the dollar and its parent government.”
“Too much faith,” said Bruce. “We need to put our faith in something more substantial and someone more everlasting.”
“Now, who’s evangelizing?” Dad responded.
“Got me,” said Bruce.
Dad continued, “So you see, Christ is the answer. However, even though he will always be there for us, he did tell us that until he comes again, we would have to live in this world. He keeps our soul and spirit safe but to answer your original question about preparing, here are a few things we can do to preserve our bodies and to provide us with the things we need to survive.”

To be continued… Tune back in next week