Tag: God

Preparing For The Resistance – June 2022

In my post Prepare For The Resistance I outlined how I think patriots should be preparing for the dark days ahead. To reinforce those recommendations I am formatting these posts to match up with them.

Toughen Up

Spiritually:

As a Christian, studying The Word helps strengthen my faith. This month I continued my study of the Gospel of John.

Prayer is another way to strengthen ourselves spiritually. This month I continued my regular, daily prayers and continued to pray for my 50 closest neighbors.

Fellowship with other believers and fellowship with God is a critical component to maintaining spiritual strength. This month I continued teaching Sunday School and attending church.

Mentally:

 

Physically:

 

Be Smarter

Privacy, fighting, medical, coms, et.

 

Be More Resilient

Supplies:

 

Gear:

 

Finances:

We continued to add money into our retirement accounts and precious metals. I also moved some money out of savings and into precious metals before they topped out.

Energy:

I ran the generator for 15-20 minutes to help prevent carburetor issues and make sure it will be good to go if it is ever needed. This is a recurring monthly task.

***

That’s it for me. That’s what I prepped this month. How about you? What did you Prep this month?

Be alert, get prepared, fight the good fight!

God bless and God save the Republic.

 

Preparing For The Resistance – May 2022

In my post Prepare For The Resistance I outlined how I think patriots should be preparing for the dark days ahead. To reinforce those recommendations I am formatting these posts to match up with them.

Toughen Up

Spiritually:

As a Christian, studying The Word helps strengthen my faith. This month I continued my study of the Gospel of John.

Prayer is another way to strengthen ourselves spiritually. This month I continued my regular, daily prayers and continued to pray for my 50 closest neighbors.

Fellowship with other believers and fellowship with God is a critical component to maintaining spiritual strength. This month I continued teaching Sunday School and attending church.

Mentally:

I didn’t do anything specific this month to strengthen myself mentally.

Physically:

I had some mixed results this month but overall I am on track to getting stronger and healthier; hitting the gym and walking.

Be Smarter

I attended a one day medical training that covered casualty care procedures and bleeding control. I also attended half a day of a tactical rifle class.

Be More Resilient

Supplies:

We continued stocking up on food. I also rotated the emergency pantry into the regular pantry and re-inventoried and restocked.

I have met my goals for ammo supplies but concern over future availability has me continuing to add to our stocks:
5.56/.223 (80 rounds)
9mm (50 rounds)
.22 Long Rifle (250 rounds)

Gear:

I purchased two Holosun HG515 red dots and installed them on my rifle and Wonderful Wife’s rifle. These are tougher and better optics than we had installed before.  It also gives us consistency on three of our self-defense rifles. The other has a Low Power Variable Optic (LPVO) installed. I tool all four of our self-defense rifles and the M&P 15-22 I purchased as a trainer to the range and zeroed/confirmed zero on all of them. Then spent a little time on longer range work and transitioning between multiple targets.

5.11 had a closeout sale on a specific color of their TacTec plate carrier and I took advantage of that to upgrade mine. I also purchased several pairs of pants. They are sturdier and allow for a greater range of motion than the cargo pants I usually wear.

I updated the programming on all my radios to make sure they were all consistent with each other and the standards of our team. We also bought several more radios, both walkie talkie style radios (also programmable) and GMRS. With that complete I will need to schedule a short training session and they will be passed out to family members. I am also working on a “communications plan” to serve as a “how to” and a reference guide.

We purchased more medical gear including combat bandages and tourniquets. For the moment this is going into tubs. Ultimately, they will be made into trauma kits\IFAKs for the family.

I also purchased a pocket IFAK. It is like a bifold wallet to carry core essentials in a pocket instead of a pouch. Lots of times I am going placed and don’t have my backpack with me but I will be able to slip this in my pocket.

Finances:

We continued to add money into our retirement accounts and precious metals. I also moved some money out of savings and into precious metals.

Energy:

We purchased two additional 5 gallon fuel containers during (preparedness) tax free weekend and filled them with treated gasoline.

I ran the generator for 15-20 minutes to help prevent carburetor issues and make sure it will be good to go if it is ever needed. This is a recurring monthly task.

***

That’s it for me. That’s what I prepped this month. How about you? What did you Prep this month?

Be alert, get prepared, fight the good fight!

God bless and God save the Republic.

 

Sri Lanka, A Glimpse At The Future?

Increases in the cost of food, fuel and medicine kicked off protests that turned into riots and is now bordering on civil war. Over 200 people have been killed and hundreds more injured in fighting between opposing political factions. Government and private property, including busses, homes, shops, and buildings have been burned. The homes of politicians have also been torched. The police and military are trying to restore order and have been given orders to shoot rioters and protesters.

The parliament of the country has resigned and to make matters worse the country is bankrupt and unable to pay its international loans.

Medications are rapidly running out and since the country is in default on its debts they cannot be resupplied. Fuel is in critically short supply with only one full days worth of fuel left to generate electricity. To conserve fuel the island nation of 22 million people will only have electricity 9 hours per day until more fuel can be purchased. Again, they are bankrupt so no one will sell them fuel and they have no money to pay for it if they would.

To pay police, military and other government employees they are printing money. Which increases inflation, making food, fuel and medicines even more expensive.

No one can really say what the future holds for this country. Other countries that defaulted on their debts (or came close) like Greece, Cypress, and Argentina were able to get bail outs from International sources to restore a functioning economy. With the current state of the world economy and the focus on the Russo-Ukrainian war there doesn’t seem to be much help on the way…

With the current direction of the US economy as well as the other major world economies, could this be a glimpse into our own future? I pray it is not.

If you are not already, Pray up, Stock up, Train up, Team up. You’ll have a much better chance of surviving what’s on the way.

God bless.

Preparing For The Resistance – April 2022

In my post Prepare For The Resistance I outlined how I think patriots should be preparing for the dark days ahead. To reinforce those recommendations I am formatting these posts to match up with them.

Toughen Up

Spiritually:

As a Christian, studying The Word helps strengthen my faith. This month I continued my study of the Gospel of John.

Prayer is another way to strengthen ourselves spiritually. This month I continued my regular, daily prayers and continued to pray for my 50 closest neighbors.

Fellowship with other believers and fellowship with God is a critical component to maintaining spiritual strength. This month I continued teaching Sunday School and attending church.

Mentally:

The tactical training I do toughens me up in several ways. First, to keep pushing and focusing when exhausted develops a mental toughness. The scenarios we train, whether force on force, hand to hand or small unit tactics such as ambush, helps to create a mental readiness for when/if we encounter such situations in real life.

Physically:

I’ve done a pretty good job with working out and exercising this month. I am almost back to the level of fitness I had pre-COVID/injuries. Hopefully, I can stay healthy and continue to improve.

Be Smarter

I took a one day self-defense class. I spend a lot of time working with firearms and have even had some knife training but I know that hand to hand is an area of weakness. This class helped me improve in this area, a little. I was a somewhat limited on some of the techniques and had to be careful of my hip.

Be More Resilient

Supplies:

I purchased another case of MREs. I primarily use these when I am out in the field training and are not really a part of my long term food storage plan. Still, it is nice to have a few extra on hand, just in case.

Topped off the pantry from the emergency pantry, inventoried it and placed an order to top off what we have used and fill in a few gaps. At this point for most items we are in a good place and can afford to wait for sales and take advantage of them to continue stocking up. However, we are continuing to stock up on long term foods adding more mashed potatoes, rice, beans, flour, sugar and salt.

We are also stocking up on non-food items like cleaning supplies and personal hygiene items. This month we stocked up on deodorant and soap.

I have met my goals for ammo supplies but concern over future availability has me continuing to add to our stocks:
5.56/.223 (80 rounds)

Gear:

Wonderful Wife asked me about coms for the family in an an emergency and I explained that I told them what radios to buy but they had not bought them yet. We bought two more UV-5r radios and two extended life batteries. Once I get them programmed I will show the family how to use them and pass them out.

Purchased two heavy-duty tarps on the preparedness tax-free weekend. I also bought new smoke detectors for the house since they were tax-free as well and ours have all begun to fail.

Finances:

We continued to add money into our retirement accounts and precious metals. I also moved some money out of savings and into precious metals before they topped out and invested a stock dividend into precious metals.

Energy:

I ran the generator for 15-20 minutes to help prevent carburetor issues and make sure it will be good to go if it is ever needed. This is a recurring monthly task.

We took advantage of the tax-free preparedness weekend Texas has and added to our supply of batteries.

***

That’s it for me. That’s what I prepped this month. How about you? What did you Prep this month?

Be alert, get prepared, fight the good fight!

God bless and God save the Republic.

 

Struggle Versus Ease…

In our abundance and ease we struggle to find joy, yet they [the apostles] found it in their poverty and affliction.

-Exalting Jesus in John

If our eyes are fixed on Him, our goals are His and we have a relationship with Him then we can’t help but find joy regardless of our circumstances. No matter how scary or difficult our lives become we need to keep focused on what truly matters.

Dear Lord, if it is your will take this cup from us. If not, then give us strength to stand for what is right and just, to stand in Your Holy light and against the darkness.

Amen…

 

 

Do Not Fear

Watch what is going on in the world so you can plan and act to protect those God has entrusted us with. That is why he gave us the capability to understand and plan, however, DO NOT FEAR.

He is in control, what is happening is in accordance with His plan and no matter what we will have eternal life in His house and with Him.

Be alert, get prepared, fight the good fight!

God bless and God save the Republic.

Preparing For The Resistance – March 2022

In my post Prepare For The Resistance I outlined how I think patriots should be preparing for the dark days ahead. To reinforce those recommendations I am formatting these posts to match up with them. We’ll run that way for a few months and see how it goes.

Toughen Up

I attended a weekend-long Warrior Skills Training class this month and that helped toughen me up in every way; spiritually, mentally and physically. Forty eight hours of drills, training, simulated operations, and education combined with living on only what you can carry was truly a challenge. Add the lack of sleep due to long training days and nights sleeping on the cold ground and this was an experience that toughened me up in every way.

Spiritually:

As a Christian, studying The Word helps strengthen my faith. This month I continued my study of the Gospel of John.

Prayer is another way to strengthen ourselves spiritually. This month I continued my regular, daily prayers and continued to pray for my 50 closest neighbors.

Fellowship with other believers and fellowship with God is a critical component to maintaining spiritual strength. This month I continued teaching Sunday School and attending church.

Mentally:

See comments above on the Warrior Skills Training but one more addition here. We were using blanks during many of the operations. Which meant that we were aiming our rifles at other human beings, pulling the trigger and producing the same (similar) response as the rifle would make in a real fight (gun goes bang). The same goes for stabbing the torso of a human-like training dummy. All the classroom discussions from all the self-defense classes I have taken over the years about mindset and being “in the fight” took on a whole new level of reality. I hope and pray I never have to use any of this training but the reality check from this weekend will, hopefully, reduce any hesitation I might have when the time comes and help ensure that I have the right mindset at the time.

Physically:

See comments on the Warrior Skills Training I have also been doing OK when it comes to gym time. There is still room for improvement there. My hip seems to be healing and I have more mobility and flexibility than I have in weeks.

Be Smarter

Attended a small unit tactical training class on patrolling, breaking and reacting to contact as well a carbine class focused on weapons manipulation drills.

To top it all off the I was able to attend a weekend long warrior skills training class. We humped all our gear and made camp in the woods. We used that for a base of operations to train for the next 48 hours. Topics trained included night movements and operations, patrols, ambushes, CQB practice sessions, weapons manipulation, camouflage, communications, tripwires for early warning as well as base security operations.

Be More Resilient

Supplies:

Made a bulk purchase of the needles I use to administer one of my medications. I am now set on these for the next several years.

I have met my goals for ammo supplies but concern over future availability has me continuing to add to our stocks:
5.56/.223 (400 rounds)

We have slowed a bit over the last month on adding to our food supply inventory. We have continued stocking up, just at a slower pace. I think it is time to kick that back into high gear.

Purchased a bottle of Permethrin. I plan to use it to treat my outdoor gear to repel critters as the weather warms up.

Gear:

In preparation for the weekend training I purchased several pieces of gear including a headlamp with a red light, a red light penlight, a single person tent, and a large backpack/rucksack.

I am still trying to find a radio headset that works for me in tactical situations. I have tried several in ear head sets but I haven’t found one that is durable and stays in place. A buddy runs a set of Peltor headphones and seems to like the setup so I looked at picking up a set…yeah, not gonna happen anytime soon. I did find a (relatively) cheap set of Chinese knockoffs and purchased them. They probably won’t last but I will be able to see if I can stand wearing a full headset in the south Texas heat and humidity. If so, I can start watching for deals on the good ones.

I picked up 5 additional AR magazines. To complete the load out I plan on carrying I needed a couple more. I could have pulled them from stock but there was a sale on them when buying five or more. So…

I purchased a new phone. With the ongoing supply chain issues and ever increasing prices I decided to go ahead and get one now while they are available rather than wait for my current phone to need replacement and potentially not be able to get one or have to pay a much higher price.

Finances:

We continued to add money into our retirement accounts and precious metals. I also moved some money out of savings and into precious metals just before before they topped out.

Energy:

I ran the generator for 15-20 minutes to help prevent carburetor issues and make sure it will be good to go if it is ever needed. This is a recurring monthly task.

Purchased two additional 5 gallon gas cans, filled them and added stabilizer. I also topped off the generator after running it and now I have another small can to fill.

***

That’s it for me. That’s what I prepped this month. How about you? What did you Prep this month?

Be alert, get prepared, fight the good fight!

God bless and God save the Republic.

 

Preparing For The Resistance – February 2022

I am changing up the format of this series just a little bit. In my post Prepare For The Resistance I outlined how I think patriots should be preparing for the dark days ahead. To reinforce those recommendations I am formatting these posts to match up with them. We’ll run that way for a few months and see how it goes.

Toughen Up

Spiritually:

As a Christian, studying The Word helps strengthen my faith. This month I continued my study of the Gospel of John.

Prayer is another way to strengthen ourselves spiritually. This month I continued my regular, daily prayers and continued to pray for my 50 closest neighbors.

Fellowship with other believers and fellowship with God is a critical component to maintaining spiritual strength. This month I continued teaching Sunday School and attending church.

Mentally:

Still looking for ways to toughen up mentally.

Physically:

Total failure in this area. I am doing physical therapy for my shoulder and that’s about it due to work and travel schedules.

Be Smarter

Started checking out MMA/self-defense gyms and sat in on a class. I won’t make a decision or join until my travel schedule slows down.

Did some live fire and move to contact drills.

Be More Resilient

Supplies:

We finally completed the reorganization of our emergency pantry to accommodate the increased storage capacity. Based on that we placed orders to begin filling the space. Stocking up on as much food as practical. As part of this we vacuum sealed a number of containers of pasta and put into bins for easier storage over a longer period of time.

We stocked up on some medical supplies including rolled gauze, generic Dramamine and two more CAT Gen 7 tourniquets.

Of course, we stocked up on ammo as well:
5.56/.223 (40 rounds)
9mm (200 rounds)
.22 Long Rifle (300 Rounds)

Gear:

I purchased a tough, low tech watch. I normally wear an Apple watch but there may be times, especially in a collapse, where I may not want to wear (trackable) smart technology on my person. In some cases when hiking or doing other things I would like a tougher watch on my wrist instead of the (far more) expensive and breakable apple offering. This little Timex is pretty tough and was pretty inexpensive.

We bought a hand operated pump (safe for fuel use) and a drill operated pump (not safe for fuel use). We also started topping up gear and supplies for our emergency kits (sill-cock keys, water filters, collapsible water containers, storm proof matches, etc).

Finances:

We continued to add money into our retirement and investment accounts. We have decided to stop purchasing Crypto at this time. Instead, we will put the money (plus a little more) into precious metals instead. Overall, this slightly reduces the amount we are putting into our investment accounts and increases the percentage in precious metals. A good return from the investments is critical if we want to retire and live in the manner we would like. Precious metals is for wealth preservation and does not provide that return however it should be the safer choice and will preserve wealth even if inflation continues to be a problem and it is a hedge against a market collapse.

I took the dividends from one of our stock accounts and invested that into precious metals as well.

Energy:

Nothing this month.

***

That’s it for me. That’s what I prepped this month. How about you? What did you Prep this month?

Be alert, get prepared, fight the good fight!

God bless and God save the Republic.

 

Ukraine – Pray, Pray Now, Pray Hard….

I have tried not to be a fear monger on the Ukraine crisis but…

The situation in Ukraine looks to be escalating even closer to war. We have sent 8000 troops and F-15s to Eastern Europe and 8 B-52 bombers (we only announced 4) to Western Europe. Israel is evacuating their embassy staff and has issued a travel warning. Ukraine has given Russia 48 hour deadline to explain troop movements in the Eastern regions already occupied by Russia. Putin pulled his personal yacht (unfinished) out of a German shipyard and he and “Sleepy Joe” have scheduled an emergency phone call for tomorrow. There’s more but those are the high points.

Most analysts expect any action to begin between the 14th and the 20th but it could be anytime. If we can make it through February without WWIII starting it will be a miracle (so, get to praying if you are not already).

The immediate impact on us would be massive increases in gas prices (oil proces are already going up in anticipation of an attack), cyber-attacks could cause banking and\or credit card systems to fail. Logistics and supply chain attacks have already started so we might see even worse problems with availability of critical goods and supplies (like food). The power grid could be knocked out for a while (at least regionally) as well.

If you haven’t already started (why not?) I suggest that you get busy preparing like you would for a a natural disaster; food, water, fuel and cash. If supplies are limited for more than a short time we could see civil unrest and violence.

If you are already prepping it might be a good time to get finalize what you can and top off your preps.

Keep a close eye on world events so nothing takes you unprepared and please pray that the idiots in charge get smart and this does not happen. We may well need a miracle at this point.

Take care and God bless.