I’ve gotten some inquiries about where I have been the last few months. As you might have noticed, I haven’t made any new blog posts. The following is an account, and might be more info than you care to know. I’m sharing it; not for anyone to feel sorry for me, but to show that the stuff hits the fan in many different ways, not all of which involve the economy, EMP’s or government. I’m also sharing it to ask for prayer; for myself and, mostly, for my parents.

It started in early spring of 2015 with some of my own health issues; a few types of chronic pain, some degenerative discs, issues from old injuries, and, on top of all of that, fibromyalgia. We also moved my parents from the second level apartment building into my in-laws’ ground floor handicap accessible lower level. This was a huge blessing to my parents, one they are so grateful for.

A few months after moving in, sometime in August, my mom fell and broke her ankle. Mom, who has Huntington’s disease with mild dementia was transferred to a transitional care unit. The night she was admitted, she says a male nurse took some of her pain meds, shook her and threatened her to keep quiet. I made the decision to pull her out. Whether or not it actually happened is irrelevant. She believes it happened and would not rest or heal there.

Two days after bringing her home, she called me at 3:00am to tell me my dad was falling while trying to get to the bathroom. I told her to call 911, that I was on my way, and would get her situated, and head to the ER. Dad is a diabetic, so I was thinking “low blood sugar”. He was admitted, in septic shock caused by diverticulitis; and we were told anyone admitted with sepsis has a 40% chance of not leaving. He was in ICU for a week. Praise God! He recovered; at least from the sepsis.

Over the next few months he had bowel movements 10-20 times a day. At first it was believed it was from the diverticulitis, and a colonoscopy was done to determine the best course of action. The doctor found two tumors and said that he had seen enough tumors in his career to know they were cancerous. This was on a Thursday, so we had to wait until Tuesday for the biopsy results, only to find out that it was not cancer. (Praise God, AGAIN!) Needless to say, dad got a new doctor at a totally new hospital.

It was discovered that the cause of the multiple bowel movements is Clostridium difficile, a very resilient colon infection. He has taken antibiotics to treat it, and was recently told by the infectious disease specialist, that while he has recently still tested positive, they believe he is getting rid of it.

Fast forward a few weeks; and he had another colonoscopy, by a specialist this time. The tumor the first doctor had seen had grown so much, they could not do the scope. They took several biopsies and again, praise God, they came back non-cancerous. He had to be admitted for a colon obstruction and was given a colostomy bag. He was in the hospital for a week and was in transitional care for a week. Oh, I forgot to mention that during the stint in the hospital the first time, he had several small strokes, as a result of going into Atrial Fibrillation (which he came out of in a couple of days). These have impaired his short-term memory greatly, have left him weakened and with very shaky hands.

While in TCU he developed several abscesses at the surgical site, which landed him in the hospital for another week, and a month in transitional care.

Trudee and I have had to take over their entire household; paying bills, shopping, you name it. In their current states, I don’t feel comfortable letting either of them drive, so I have become their chauffeur as well.

For the sake of brevity and dignity, I’ve left several things out. So, the reason for the lack of posts is that when I do have free time, I just don’t feel very creative, and mostly want to check out mentally for a while. It’s also hard to think about prepping for the future while paddling up the crick, if you catch my drift.

I’m not complaining! What I’m going through is nothing compared to what my dad is going through or what my mom is currently battling and will be battling with Huntington’s; a cruel hereditary disease.

It is my pleasure as their son to help take care of them, but I would be lying if I said it was easy. At times I get so dang crabby I can’t stand myself! I’ve failed at times to honor them, but I apologize and ask forgiveness.

In this time, we’ve also had several car repairs needed, totaling in the thousands, job issues, family issues and, most recently, we found out that one of our dogs, Tanner, has cancer. Tanner is more than just a dog, he is part of our family and a huge source of joy.

I am blessed with a Godly wife, who helps as much as she can and, above all, is understanding.

I learned something from Job; he complained and asked God, “why me?”. I learned that God has His reasons for doing things. It is not my place to question His motives. I may not understand or like what He has put before me. My task is to keep putting one foot in front of the other as I march forward, toward the cross. Sometimes the path is on steady ground, others up hill on loose footing, and sometimes it is a downright slog.

The site going forward

This site is still seeing traffic from new people daily and new subscribers. This tells me that it is still a resource for some. Because of that I’ll never sell it or shut it down. However, it costs $70 a month for the service to send out emails to let people know there is a new post. I can’t justify paying this when I’m not posting. I don’t know if or when I will post regularly unless Father inspires me.

It has been my pleasure to write for this ministry over the last five years. I have been humbled by the mount of people who’ve stopped by to read, share and converse with me.

If you have room on your prayer list, please include my mom and dad, Trudee and myself.

Because I have taken down the registration for emails, which is how I distributed the eBook. here is a link to the download page for the free eBook I wrote called Why Should I Prepare and Is It Biblical

May the Lord bless and keep you all.

Chris

I normally wouldn’t post something like this, but Mary had been such a blessing to me and this ministry by providing all of the graphics for the site, facebook and twitter for free; it is the least I can do.

On May 6th, during the heavy rainfall in Oklahoma, the bridge leading to their new, under construction home, collapsed. The problem has since gotten worse, as the rains have continued and eroded the area where the bridge was.

They have set up a Go Fund Me Page where I have made a donation. If you feel led, I hope you will donate as well. Please keep the Adkins family in your prayers.

If you need any graphics work done, I can’t recommend Mary highly enough! Her site is the Graphix Station.

Can you help out not only a Christian family, but a Prepared Christian family?

Please keep the Adkins family in your prayers.

Chris

Today I don’t have a regular preparedness article. Instead, I’m hoping you won’t mind helping me out on something! God gave me a dream some years ago and I assumed it was just that, a dream. The details are still being worked out, but there is a chance to see something like I dreamed come to fruition. I would love it if you would please give me as much feedback on some of the questions I will ask below, either in the comments section or via email at Chris (at) preparedchristian (dot) net

Would you and/or your family be interested in a three to five day preparedness retreat? Let me explain what I have in mind.

I’ve dreamed about a Bible camp that offered its facilities for the purpose of hosting 50-100 people for a variety of preparedness, survival, primitive skills, self-defense, hunting, cooking, permaculture and gardening classes, as well as many more. In fact, if you were interested in a topic it could even be possible to design a class for you before you arrive! The classes would be very hands-on and interactive with very knowledgeable (myself included perhaps) instructors, who would be available to answer questions during class and in fellowship gatherings in the evenings. There would be age appropriate classes for most ages, so that young ones would have cool things to learn while mom and dad took classes they really wanted to take. Food and lodging would be included.

As I stated, the camp is a Bible camp. You wouldn’t have to be a Christian to attend, but prayers would be said and any scripture that related to the topic would be given. Faith building would be a cornerstone of these programs.

When I was starting out, I did a silly amount of research online. The problem, however, is that isn’t how I learn. I learn best from interaction, hand on and asking questions. I could have learned so much more, so much faster if I had someone knowledgeable willing to spend a few hours explaining various things to me and answering my questions.

The classes could range from the very basics like principles of food storage, to more advanced things like aquaponics. These would not be just lecture classes. There would be demonstrations and as hands on as much as possible. For example, when learning how to store food in Mylar, you could actually fill a bag with maybe an iron and an impact sealer, so you could see how they work and which one suits your needs best.

There would also be classes on practical things like changing a tire and the oil on vehicles, situational awareness and firearm safety among others.

If you lived within 100 miles, would you be willing to drive and spend 3-5 days learning about topics of interest to you?

Would you be willing to fly to another state?

What do you think a fair price per person would be?

If it sounds interesting, but you wouldn’t be willing to come, what would hold you back? What would entice you?

*****Additional Details*****

There is an existing Bible camp in Wisconsin a little over an hour away from me that is interested in offering preparedness/life skill classes. The camp is fully staffed, and will bring in instructors willing to teach.

The camp has several cabins, as well as room for RV and tent camping. The cabins haven’t been updated in years, but are still in excellent shape.

We’re still trying to figure out how long retreats would be. Right now the thinking is three days; this would make it so people only had to take one day of vacation. However people wanting to fly in, might want to spend more time with instructors to get their money’s worth.

I looked at other types of retreats, and they were several hundred dollars more than this would be, and some did not include food, as this camp/retreat would.

Over the last few years I have had people complain to Internet filtering companies and search engines. I believe it is the “Christian” in Prepared Christian they take offense with. The claim is that I engage in hate speech or some other ridiculous thing.

Normally, all it takes to clear things up is jumping through a few hoops and an email and PreparedChristian.net is removed from the banned or blocked list. Most recently, Yahoo has blocked email both coming and/or going to PreparedChristian.net. I have jumped though their hoops but I can’t get a response from them explaining why this has happened or what else needs to be done to correct it.

If you have a have a Yahoo email account and need to contact me, as of now, it will not be delivered. Because of this, I have created the following account and will check it daily going forward. chris.ray72 (at) outlook (dot) com

Camping Survival Giveaway

I wanted to remind you all that Camping Survival is giving away one Bible and ten pocket Constitution (Declaration of Independence and Constitution). With last week being the Fourth of July, traffic to the site was pretty low, so the odds of winning are really good for those who enter. To enter just send an email to contest (at) PreparedChristian.net. The final day is 7-11-2014. I will email the winners to get their shipping addresses.

Some of you may have noticed that you can’t get to the forum. My hosting company made some changes that negatively impacted the forum software, causing it to spike the CPU usage of the server. They then sent me a warning to fix the CPU usage problem or they would be forced to take the site down.

Long story short, I had to take the forum down. I don’t know yet if this is temporary or not, but wanted to let those of you who frequented the forum know why you could not get to it.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Chris

Today I’m taking a step back from preparedness to say thank you to our Veterans. Whether you are currently serving or served forty or more years ago, the key word is “served” and for that I am grateful. Thank you for giving up years of your life. Some of you gave limbs, or had friends or loved ones that gave more than that. “Thank you” doesn’t seem enough. You have my utmost respect and my humble gratitude.

I also want to say “thank you” to the spouses and families of those who served. Being married to someone who is on active duty is not easy. Raising a family when your spouse is deployed for months at a time is also a sacrifice. Loving and caring for someone who comes home and is either physically or mentally hurting takes a special kind of person.

May God bless you all. Know that you have my deepest gratitude. Thank you to all who wore a uniform in service to America in the Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, National Guard, Navy and the Marines.

Hey folks, I just want to remind you all one more time about the Ultimate Survival Bundle, today is the last day. I’ve been looking through some of the eBooks, and am really impressed. From using solar energy, gardening, homesteading and some security topics. There is also a video series on growing your own foods.

I keep bringing the Ultimate Survival Bundle up because I think it is such a great value. If you haven’t purchased it yet, you have until midnight tonight Monday September 23rd.

Oh yes, don’t forget about the free 11 in 1 survival tool!

Its been one of those days…I mistakenly deleted this post the first time I put it up, I apologize if you got more than one notice.

Let me first say that I am not complaining, but simply letting you all know where things stand.  I have been putting in a lot of hours on website related things, getting ready for The Preparedness Club.  Due to this, I haven’t had much of a chance for writing.  I had planned on working through the weekend to try and get some of the software hiccups resolved and to write for next week.

Unfortunately, my oldest son rolled one of our cars last night.  Praise God he is fine, but the car is totaled.  With all of the added stress and unexpected new tasks, I will have less time today and tomorrow to get things accomplished. I have decided to take all weekend off to try and decompress a bit.

I have a guest post ready to post tomorrow and I will try to get an article or two written for next week, though they may be a bit shorter than the articles I write normally.

I am hoping to still launch the Preparedness Club next week.  Pending any software snags, it might be the week of 4-22.

You may see some changes that might look unfinished while I make the changes for the Preparedness Club.

Thank you for your patience.  God bless!

This is just another reminder that AlertsUSA has generously donated 5 of the radiation safety packages for Prepared Christians who sign up for the free Threat Journal weekly newsletter.

Recently AlertsUSA did a great job answering some questions in an article called “Current Threats to America with AlertsUSA” . Following that, I posed the question “What would you do, North Korea Attacks”.

As I said in “Nuclear Preparedness: Shelter”

“While I do believe that there is a small chance of North Korea (or anyone else) dropping nukes on the United States, it is still a possibility. If I had a crazy neighbor who hated me, who had a shotgun and said he was going to use it to kill me, I would be foolish to just dismiss his threat. That doesn’t mean we should live in fear. We should just be aware of the threat and have a plan for how to respond when or if the small chance becomes a reality.”

Since there is a chance that North Korea (or a terrorist group) may launch some type of nuclear attack, having a radiation safety package could come in very handy. For those unfamiliar with NukAlert, it is a small, lightweight device that will beep when it detects radiation. It will beep from one to ten times, depending on the level of radiation.

Getting the weekly publication, Threat Journal , is a culmination of many of the alerts through the prior week. I’ve had it for the last two years and they always have a story or two I missed.

AlertsUSA has been kind enough to offer special pricing. Normally, the service is $99 a year. They are now offering their service for $75 a year for Prepared Christian readers.

This is a great opportunity to get a very nice prize. Please share it with anyone you think could be blessed by either the newsletter or a chance to win the radiation safety package.