Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment of truth where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. Today, are you a prepper? Are you a prepper? And if not, why not a prepper?

What is a prepper anyway? Well, one of my favorite blogs, the SHTF blog, which stands for when the shiitake mushroom hits the fan, right? A disaster of some kind. When the shiitake mushroom hits the fan, and I'm using a euphemism for the shiitake mushroom, right? Well, this blog puts it succinctly.

It says a prepper is someone preparing for societal collapse, natural disasters, or any other type of large-scale event that would disrupt life as we know it, unquote. Now, to someone who naively thinks that grocery stores will always be full, things will always go on the way they are today, and even if some disaster does happen, well, then the government will take care of me. To those kind of naive people, normies, I call them, a prepper is some kind of weird conspiracy theorist. But indeed, if I'm a conspiracy theorist, then they are naive, brainwashed Pollyannas. Just one example will suffice.

I have a relative in the Tampa region of Florida who definitely is a prepper. In the event of a hurricane, he had a relative to flee to in another state and what is known as a bug-out bag. That is, a small set of supplies that he could rely on for a few days. Water, food, layers of clothing, elements for a fire, even rudimentary shelter. And all of it fit into his vehicle.

His neighbor, however, with whom he is otherwise good friends, always thought my cousin was a bit of a kook for this and many other preparations he had made for other situations. A conspiracy theorist, a paranoid nutcase. But when Hurricane Ian struck recently, my cousin very early alerted his relative in central Georgia that he was coming, packed up his family with their bug-out bag and left before the mandatory evacuation order came. His neighbor, on the other hand, waited until the last minute to leave, and that neighbor found himself stuck in parking lot-level traffic trying to evacuate.

He had nowhere to flee as a safe destination, and every hotel and motel along the way was full already. As night fell, so did the spirits of he and his family. They had no food, water, shelter, or even toilet paper. They were unprepared. They were unpreppies.

Ah, do not be a naive, brainwashed Pollyanna, dear listener. A non-preppy. A prepper is merely someone who is prepared, to some extent, lesser or greater, for a particular extraordinary situation. And extraordinary means just what the compound words indicate. Extra, that is outside of, above, beyond, outside of the ordinary, that is the usual, the day-to-day pattern.

Extraordinary. Ordinary life is disrupted, and all of what you expect, your Big Mac in the drive-thru, a full tank of gas, light when you flip the switch coming home, and perpetual cell phone service, all that irritatingly stops altogether. It could be a hurricane. It could be a nuclear explosion, a power artage, a war, a famine, or some of us who see what is coming, a deliberate collapse of civilization altogether. If one has any historical awareness whatsoever, then he realizes that the intrusion of the extraordinary is indeed the ordinary pattern.

Until we reach the pinnacle of paradise and orderliness, this will be the case. There will always be life-threatening disasters, things like war and famine and pestilence, and many Americans have never experienced this historical norm. We've been the most prosperous, stable, well-fed people in history. Our Christian Constitutional Republic has given us productive farms that supply the world with food, the American ingenuity to build an industrial base that once supplied us with labor-saving tools and devices, and, as well, a level of prosperity for the average family that the world has never known before.

But all of this is going away, and I have documented the reasons why and the insidious process by which the traitors in our own system have undermined our constitutional republic. I've done this in many other broadcasts, and you can access those at americastruths.org. That's one word, americastruths.org. But the engineered shortages and supply chain bottlenecks and soaring price inflation and the descent of our culture into chaotic barbarism, these are all indices of civilizational collapse. Are you preparing for what is coming, dear listener?

Do you have the basic rudiments for survival when the power grid goes down? Will you be able to eat when grocery shelves are empty? Can you defend yourself and your family when the breakdown of law and order that plagues blue cities like New York and Chicago and Portland when it finally comes to your community? Oh, I must confess that I am preparing this broadcast primarily for our congregation.

My session, which is the Orthodox Presbyterian Church's ruling body of elders, my ruling body of elders tasked me with advising the church on how to prepare for themselves and their families and be able as well to care for others in the congregation with their preparations. And so consequently, I want to share my conclusions with you. That is our radio congregation, if I may call you that. And I will only cover the basics of preparation. Some of you may find what I'm sharing a bit tedious, maybe because you are a mega prepper who's set to survive the sun going supernova.

But are you also prepared to help others? I am a Christian pastor who follows the advice of the Apostle Paul. Do not neglect to do good and share what you have for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. He also says things like to the thief, do honest work with your own hands so that you may have something to share with anyone in need. Additionally, prepping is biblical, dear listener.

You may remember the story of Joseph in the Old Testament. As a lowly prisoner in Pharaoh's dungeon, he interpreted the great Pharaoh's dreams such that God was revealing to him to set aside in reserve large quantities of grain during the next seven years of abundant prosperity because the following seven years would be a time of famine and want. And so impressed is Pharaoh with Joseph's interpretation of making a reserve of grain that he placed him in charge of the whole preparation operation to being the second in command to Pharaoh himself.

And so masterful were those preparations that Egypt fed not only her own people during the seven years of famine, but the whole world, including Joseph's own family. That story is in the book of Genesis in the Bible. Joseph was a prepper. So should you. What does prepping look like?

Well, let me cover 12 different areas of preparation that you need to make, dear listener. First of all, clean air. Here I follow the laws of threes, the law of threes. That is, you can live three minutes without air or oxygen. You can live three days without water, or you can live three weeks without food.

Now, unless you're a marathon runner, you might be able to live a little longer than three minutes. You know what I mean, though? In general, the law of threes applies. Three minutes without air or oxygen, three days without water, three weeks without food. So depending upon the disaster, the air you breathe may or may not be breathable.

Fires, sudden overwhelming pollution, maybe poisonous gases, or God forbid, a nuclear explosion. Now, home air filters are available, which effectively filter out most pollutants, and they can be installed ahead of time. There are also a variety of battery operated air filters for when the power is out. They can give you clean air in one or two rooms of your house. Military-grade gas masks, too.

Do not neglect these. Military-grade gas masks for every member of the family are also highly recommended. Do not bother with anything less, either. You can find specs for military-grade gas masks at various websites. One of my favorite websites is prepperspeak.com.

Preppers Peak, that's one word. Prepperspeak.com. Do your homework on these masks, dear listener. They are worth their weight and gold in a crisis situation. This is an oft-overlooked preparation because we take our next breath for granted, don't we?

Oh, clean air. Also, clean water. Hiking and camping in remote areas has given me an appreciation for clean, cold water and the tools I need to make it such. You need clean water, not only for drinking, but for cooking. When the shiitake mushroom hits the fan, you may turn on your water faucet and hear nothing but hollow gurgling of empty pipes.

You may turn on your shower and feel only a few drops of cold water falling on your shoulders. You may flush your toilet and suddenly wish you had dug a pit or an outhouse in the backyard years ago. Oh, after clean air, clean water is the highest priority. The enduring question you must answer regarding clean water is source. A source for clean water.

For example, you can stack bottled water to the ceiling for emergencies and that is good policy. We have not only bottled water, but we have 50-gallon drums of water that we regularly recycle for us and for our animals, but that only goes so far. In a few days or weeks, that will be gone. We need a consistent renewable source of clean water. We have our own well.

We do not depend upon the city for water and that's a great relief for us, but what do we do when we need electrical power to run our pump and it goes away? Otherwise, that water just sits hundreds of feet below ground, useless to us. If you have your own well, there are generators that can be installed that will kick in when the power goes down in your region and they should be tested on a regular basis too and requires careful but expensive preparation, but it's worth it when things go down. Give a great deal of thought to the problem of water and a consistent reliable source.

Otherwise, you'll find yourself in a government line somewhere hoping to get scraps of government cheese and a bottle or two of water in a FEMA camp or food stamp program. Another item you will need is a stainless steel gravity water filter. These are so valuable. We are a water-drenched planet, aren't we? Unique in the universe, but not all of that water is potable.

Unfiltered water will make you very sick or kill you fast. A high-quality water filter will screen out almost all bacteria and chemical poisons and most viruses. Once again, you need to do your homework on specs for these. This item, a three to five-gallon stainless steel gravity-fed water filter, is literally a lifesaver. Get one and put it at the top of your wish list.

Well, not only do we need clean air and clean water, but we need clean food. Number three, clean food. When it comes to prepping, most people go right to food. That's because food so often seems the most vulnerable to us in disasters. In history, we hear about famines, that is, a shortage of food, not unbreathable air or undriggable water.

David tells us in Psalm 104 that God abundantly gives wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread to strengthen man's heart, unquote. These are all food products, and they're an index of God's goodness to us, aren't they? But the thing I would recommend right from the beginning is produce as much fresh food as you can yourself. Begin now, learning how and doing this. Produce as much fresh food as you can for yourself.

If you have a suitable portion of your yard, plant a garden. The shelves of your local library or bookstore are bursting with self-help gardening resources. Seek out a neighbor with a green thumb. Tap his knowledge and experience. Learn the ancient art of canning, right?

A lost art these days. Or the more modern skill of freeze drying. Or maybe just freeze as much food as you can, although you are up the proverbial polluted stream without the conventional means of conveyance. If the power grid goes down and you have all your food in the freezer, then you'll have nothing but a mass of expensive, rotting goo to deal with. So, can or freeze dry.

If you live in an apartment, you'll be surprised at how much food you can grow in garden boxes. Even if you have acreage, garden boxes are still a very efficient means of growing fresh food. This year, for example, my wife and I grew potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, and lettuce in boxes on our deck. There are hydroponic boxes as well. These are fascinating.

Check into these. There are hydroponic boxes which require no electricity, but in which you can grow several green crops. That is, varieties of lettuce, for instance, all year round. Even in your windowsill, you can grow a whole range of fresh herbs, which in themselves have healing and medicinal properties besides spicing up your food. Well, try the old art of animal husbandry, too.

The ancient art of animal husbandry. If you want fresh meat, chickens and rabbits are popular alternatives. And with chickens, you also get fresh eggs. But always consult your local regulations and ordinances for city and county. We have friends, for example, who raise chickens within city limits, and they have a neighbor who hates them for it.

And that neighbor constantly sends a stream of city bureaucrats to their house, monitoring every cluck, feather, and carcass in their yard. Chickens and rabbits are also rather straightforward when it comes to butchering day. Once again, there are several books and websites and any number of friends or neighbors who can get you started on when and how to properly butcher, store, and prepare your animals. If you're feeling really brave, you might graduate to husbanding goats. Oh, goats.

With this animal, you have the potential for fresh meat and milk. And it doesn't have to be stinky meat and milk either. That's an old wives' tale. Not all goats' meat and goats' milk has to be stinky. No, you can raise them so that they're fresh and sweet.

Goat is the most widely raised and consumed domesticated animal in the world. Every continent and every culture knows them. Every continent and every culture has come to appreciate the goats' relative ease of raising and maintenance and return on investment. They're small enough to keep on a few acres, but productive such that you can get milk daily and butcher them for meat on a set schedule. But once more, consult your city and county regulations and ordinances because some regions are more farm-friendly than others.

There are minuses with goats, too, that you must keep in mind. They can smell awful. Ooh, especially the males. And they're noisy, too. Their braying is obnoxious.

Your neighbors may not appreciate them either, especially if they're aspiring to turn the neighborhood into Malibu, Aspen, or Martha's Vineyard. And always remember, dear listener, fresh is best. Fresh is best. Grow as much fresh food as you are capable. But for most people, it's just not practical to rely heavily or much less solely on raising all of one's food.

Consequently, some version of storable food is a better option for many people. Here again, there are landmines to avoid and good options that are better than others. For example, buy and store properly dry foods like beans, rice, oats, and lentils. I happen to love these things, and I know how to cook them, too. Many people find them bland and uninteresting, usually because they're on the dietary treadmill of SAD.

SAD is an acronym that stands for the Standard American Diet. The Standard American Diet, SAD, consists of fast food, low nutrition, and high calories, which are attractively processed and packaged. They're high in salt, generally in processed sugars, artificial flavorings, and colorings, but they're low in nutritional value. SAD, that is the Standard American Diet, is the primary reasons why Americans have become increasingly fat, sick, and stupid. Wake up, America.

Eat fresh, and you'll not only feel fresh and healthy, but you'll actually rediscover your palate and taste real food again. So, buy and store properly dry foods like beans, rice, oats, and lentils. Then, also, well, buying canned goods off the shelf for storage has its strengths, and it has its weaknesses. They're relatively inexpensive and available canned goods, so far, that is, but that's changing as our supply chain and delivery systems break down, and the malevolent subtle effects of inflation. Eat away, so to speak, at the value of our dollar when buying groceries.

Some of those canned goods retain their nutritional value, but many do not, and they're just empty calories. So, buy wisely. Read labels. Don't buy anything with ingredients you can't pronounce. Avoid the toxic gruel that passes for food that Big Ag pushes on us.

Canned goods off the grocery shelf also have a relatively short lifespan in comparison, in comparison, excuse me, to the aforementioned dry foods. You may invest heavily in canned goods and find that just when you need a can of tomato paste from your shelf, it's bloated like a beached whale and explodes in a stinky mess when you punch it with a can opener. So, be careful. Finally, there is the emergency survival food option. The emergency survival food option.

This has become a vast subject with many bunny trails we could pursue in multiple broadcasts. There are numberless books and websites and local preparedness stores, too, to which you may go to learn of viable options for you and your family. Just know that when it comes to emergency survival food, there are a few factors to consider. First of all, A, nutrition. Freeze-drying not only preserves food from spoiling, but also preserves much of a food's nutritional value.

This is good. The question then becomes, how nutrient-dense is the food being freeze-dried? Are you getting a variety of meats and fruits and vegetables in your meals, or just variations of pasta and powdered cheese and milk? Nutrition. Variety.

B is variety. Once more, are the meals bland variations on a theme of pasta and oats, or do you have substantive variety in your meals? A real situation that affects poor cultures as well as mere survival conditions is food boredom. That is a monotonous routine of the same food day after day. Food boredom.

One may be eating and surviving, but at the expense of enjoyment and taste. Food boredom can actually erode the will to survive and thrive. Make sure that your emergency stored foods package, make sure that package has genuine variety in its tubs. Then there is C, also expense to consider. Expense.

Emergency storable food can be pricey. It may be because that food has genuine variety and care has been taken to provide the best ingredients. Then it's worth a price. Other companies do the bare minimum in terms of variety and quality and charge less, or maybe insidiously charge more even though they have compromised their quality. Do your research carefully.

Do your research carefully before you dive in tapping the kids' college fund to buy your emergency storable food. Buy several single meal packages, for example, to see if you like the food even. Read the labels. Ask questions. Consult an expert that you trust.

Now, much more could be said. Perhaps you see some glaring emissions or egregious errors. Go ahead and contact me if so, and I'll see if I can make some adjustments in subsequent broadcasts. But this area of preparation, ensuring an adequate supply of nutritious, good-tasting food is crucial. Oh, well, dear listener, think about these things.

We will consider the remaining shiitake mushroom, hit the fan items. We'll consider the rest of those next week. But in closing, I want to emphasize with you again that when it comes to surviving and thriving in a disaster event or a civilizational collapse, the old principle that no man is an island obtains. You will not survive alone. Whatever you have, whatever preparations you've made, howsoever clever you think you may be, you will not survive alone.

No man is an island in a disaster situation. We need one another, especially we Christians. We Christians should be the most prepared and the most willing to share of any people. Paul commands that we Christians love one another, for example. In many places, he says things like, well, then the members, that is of the Christ body, work together so that they may have the same care for one another.

We are expected to have the same care for one another. And Paul also says through love, serve one another. Paul says to bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Paul then also says in another place, always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. So you see, these things are expected of Christians during natural disasters or other times of extreme stress.

There is no more appropriate time to fulfill the law of Christ by loving one another than in crisis situations. And dear listener, we all have needs too. No one prepares 100% in all areas. You will find weaknesses in your preparations. Believe me, when a disaster does strike, you might even experiment a little bit by going off grid for a few days and seeing how your preparations hold up.

You may be surprised at some of your weaknesses and the things that you need to improve. But the bottom line is no one prepares 100% in 100% of all areas. In fact, we all have our own respective skills and knowledge and training. We all have our own areas of expertise. Be ready to help one another, dear listener.

Have extra food that you can share. My wife, she is a very skilled crafter and she knits wool socks, for example. And she has some to spare in a grid down scenario. And perhaps you can think ahead and maybe buy a case of Strike Anywhere matches. Think about this.

Strike Anywhere matches, how valuable they will be in a grid down situation. And they are increasingly rare in our culture and they will be valuable in a grid down situation. And then have those Strike Anywhere matches, have them ready to share or as an item with which to barter. We'll talk about bartering as well. So learn the basics, for example.

I'm trying to do this myself. Learn the basics of first aid or take an EMT course and know how to suture a wound or treat an infection or splint a broken arm. All of these skills will be valuable in a grid down situation and you will be able to show genuine Christian love to your neighbors by doing so. The point is, learn to love one another, seek to do good to one another and to everyone. No time is better than when indeed the shiitake mushroom hits the fan.

There will be times like this and there will be harder times coming in the future. So be prepared. Indeed, have a Joseph reserve on hand. Joseph was a prepper. You should be too.

This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. We meet for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. Come and pay us a visit. Cross our threshold. Find out who we are.

You'll find some preppers there. You can get some good advice on prepping from many of our people. And we invite you to come and join us and see who we are. New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. We meet for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard.

And you can call us for more information at area code 208-523-0196. 208-523-0196. Peace.