I would like to share with you some very sage words from the Blackburn Ward Welfare Coordinator Carolyn Kwong.
‘It was pointed out that many of the pioneers had to suddenly move West with only a handcart for survival. Hopefully our storage, our garden edibles and our 72 hour emergency packs will never have to be modern day ‘handcarts’.’
In 1976 Spencer W Kimball said ‘The time to disregard this counsel is over ... We want you to be ready with your personal storehouses filled with at least a year’s supply. You don’t argue why it cannot be done; you just plan to organise and get it done.’
In 1988 President Gordon B Hinckley said ‘There is a portent of stormy weather ahead to which we had better give heed.’
Then most recently from the Church we have been counselled to keep a Three-Month Supply ‘Build a small supply of food that is part of your normal, daily diet. One way to do this is to purchase a few extra items each week to build a one-week supply of food. Then you can gradually increase your supply until it is sufficient for three months. These items should be rotated regularly to avoid spoilage.’ www.lds.org
It puts me to mind of the early days in the bible, Exodus 31-34. The Lord commanded Moses to cut two tablets of stone and bring them with him to the top of Mount Sinai where He, the Lord God, wrote on them with His finger the commandments which the people should follow. While Moses was away the people quickly forgot the Lord and looked for an idol, using the gold from their adornments they made a calf of gold to worship. The Lord was wrath with them and sought to destroy them because they had become a stiff necked people, yet Moses pleaded with the
Lord not to. After he came down from the mount with the tablets and saw for himself what the people had done Moses broke the tablets. The people could not live the law which he had received from the Lord. Later the Lord again bade him hew two stone tablets in which He would write the commandments upon. Moses then brought down these commandments, known to us as the ten commandments.
For close to, if not more than, seventy years now we have been counselled to prepare ourselves. First with a years supply and now a three month supply. How much longer will the Lord be lenient with us before He, as He was with the people led by Moses, is wrath with us.
President Hinckley said ‘Our safety lies in repentance. Our strength comes of obedience to the
commandments of God.’ The Times in Which We Live,” Ensign, Nov 2001, 72
The time for excuses is over, we need to do everything in our power to prepare ourselves and our families now.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Friday, August 1, 2008
Whole Egg Powder
Having organised a whole egg powder order for the ward and others, and picking up the bulk bags. I settled in to bag 75kilo's of egg powder into 1kilo bags.
Ever wondered what 60 kilo of egg powder looks like? check out the pics below and you'll see. First there is the beginning phases of getting it all, bagged up, then I had to go through and insert an oxygen tab into every bag, then seal them all.
I am grateful for of my 4 year old daughter, who helped by stepping on the pedal to close the sealer and for taking the sealed bags and stacking them up for me. She did a great job and only caught my fingers in the mechanism once.
It was a mammoth job and took most of the day.
But well worth it knowing we are getting ourselves prepared.
Ever wondered what 60 kilo of egg powder looks like? check out the pics below and you'll see. First there is the beginning phases of getting it all, bagged up, then I had to go through and insert an oxygen tab into every bag, then seal them all.
I am grateful for of my 4 year old daughter, who helped by stepping on the pedal to close the sealer and for taking the sealed bags and stacking them up for me. She did a great job and only caught my fingers in the mechanism once.
It was a mammoth job and took most of the day.
But well worth it knowing we are getting ourselves prepared.
I often speak about the choir to which I belong. I love that choir, I love the people I have met there, the friendships, the shared love of singing, the sense of unity as we sing. I love the way our voices blend, sometimes in heart stirring harmony that leaves you feeling uplifted and close to tears, others times unified by the ghastly sound as we struggle with a particularly hard arrangement and our ability to laugh and try again. These people are my family, some close brothers and sisters, some cousins you meet from time to time and others you know by name but not sight, but family all the same. We as members of this Church are also family, we are all different, bringing to the Gospel our unique voice, blending it together in our shared love of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are one in sustaining our Prophet, his counsellors, the church leaders and authorities globally and locally. We are one in bending to the will of the Lord, in striving to live His commandments, commandments that are the same for each of us. When we work together in all things we bring harmony and uplifting peace not only to ourselves but to all within our reach. We stand as one, we need to continue to stand as one in all things. Joseph Smith said we were a peculiar people. Not strange bunch of weirdo's peculiar but peculiar unto the Lord, we are His people and that sets us apart from the rest of the world. Through the gospel principles and commandments and through the many wonderful axillaries and programs the church has in operation we are able to further our ‘peculiar’ habits that set us apart from the rest of the world.
Education is one of the ways we must stand together. We have been counselled to get an education.
‘And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith’. D&C 88:118
It is not by coincidence that the next verse is:
‘Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God;’ D&C 88:119
Getting an education for our own progression and for our future ability to support ourselves and our families is vital to our spiritual progression. ‘It is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance.’ D&C 131:6
‘This is our labor, our business, and our calling—to grow in grace and in knowledge from day to day and from year to year’ Discourses of Brigham Young pg 248.
‘But to be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God.’ 2 Nephi 9:29
We can see very clearly in the world around us the decline in social standards and expectations, ‘No amount of success can compensate for failure in the home’. Is a much used and loved quote from David. O. McKay. It speaks not only to the failing of family connections but the growing disrespect people have for themselves and for others, further reducing the social standards and expectations. Today’s society is becoming reduced to the lowest levels of education and tolerance. We see parents who allow their children to drink and smoke and use foul language as part of their daily lives, they are not teaching their children the value of work and common courtesy, they allow them to drop out of school and be unfit for any employment. These children in turn become parents of even lower educated and socially responsible children and the cycle continues in a downward spiral. My heart breaks for these children who have no clue of their divine worth nor of their temporal capability and worth. By getting an education we are lifting ourselves out of the current social expectations and allowing / encouraging our children to grow up and be educated knowing the value of improving ourselves. Giving our children chores and responsibilities and setting the social expectations based on Gospel principals cannot help but raise children who will have a solid work ethic, make righteous choices and raise their social and economic prospects. “Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6
President Hinckley encouraged women to also get an education and continue to learn, whether we chose to become stay at home mothers or not. Enrolling in short courses and learning not only increases our emotional state but our family life as well. A happy Mum is a happy home. Children learn by example, we can teach them the value of learning and to appreciate the gift of intelligence that our Father in Heaven bestowed upon us.
Spiritually speaking we need to continue to learn and study the scriptures.
‘We, of course, seek after knowledge, light, and intelligence and to inform ourselves upon all matters of importance. The glory of God, we have been told by the Prophet Joseph, is intelligence; and we desire to gain knowledge and to become as intelligent as we possibly can. But above and beyond all other things the fathers and the mothers in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints desire that their sons and daughters shall secure an abiding testimony, an absolute and a perfect knowledge regarding the divinity of the work in which we are engaged. That is of more value than anything else in this world, provided, of course, that those of us who receive that testimony, who obtain the knowledge that we are engaged in God's great work, abide therein and continue in the faith’ Heber J. Grant, Gospel Standards, p.160
We need to continue to learn and to grow, spiritually and temporally. We need to beactively engaged in living the 13th Article of faith, ‘We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.’
Until next week remember it is good to be an education seeking, spiritually growing, temporally preparing, scripture studying, knowledge gaining, family strengthening Latter Day Saint.
Yours in preparedness
Georgia
Education is one of the ways we must stand together. We have been counselled to get an education.
‘And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith’. D&C 88:118
It is not by coincidence that the next verse is:
‘Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God;’ D&C 88:119
Getting an education for our own progression and for our future ability to support ourselves and our families is vital to our spiritual progression. ‘It is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance.’ D&C 131:6
‘This is our labor, our business, and our calling—to grow in grace and in knowledge from day to day and from year to year’ Discourses of Brigham Young pg 248.
‘But to be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God.’ 2 Nephi 9:29
We can see very clearly in the world around us the decline in social standards and expectations, ‘No amount of success can compensate for failure in the home’. Is a much used and loved quote from David. O. McKay. It speaks not only to the failing of family connections but the growing disrespect people have for themselves and for others, further reducing the social standards and expectations. Today’s society is becoming reduced to the lowest levels of education and tolerance. We see parents who allow their children to drink and smoke and use foul language as part of their daily lives, they are not teaching their children the value of work and common courtesy, they allow them to drop out of school and be unfit for any employment. These children in turn become parents of even lower educated and socially responsible children and the cycle continues in a downward spiral. My heart breaks for these children who have no clue of their divine worth nor of their temporal capability and worth. By getting an education we are lifting ourselves out of the current social expectations and allowing / encouraging our children to grow up and be educated knowing the value of improving ourselves. Giving our children chores and responsibilities and setting the social expectations based on Gospel principals cannot help but raise children who will have a solid work ethic, make righteous choices and raise their social and economic prospects. “Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6
President Hinckley encouraged women to also get an education and continue to learn, whether we chose to become stay at home mothers or not. Enrolling in short courses and learning not only increases our emotional state but our family life as well. A happy Mum is a happy home. Children learn by example, we can teach them the value of learning and to appreciate the gift of intelligence that our Father in Heaven bestowed upon us.
Spiritually speaking we need to continue to learn and study the scriptures.
‘We, of course, seek after knowledge, light, and intelligence and to inform ourselves upon all matters of importance. The glory of God, we have been told by the Prophet Joseph, is intelligence; and we desire to gain knowledge and to become as intelligent as we possibly can. But above and beyond all other things the fathers and the mothers in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints desire that their sons and daughters shall secure an abiding testimony, an absolute and a perfect knowledge regarding the divinity of the work in which we are engaged. That is of more value than anything else in this world, provided, of course, that those of us who receive that testimony, who obtain the knowledge that we are engaged in God's great work, abide therein and continue in the faith’ Heber J. Grant, Gospel Standards, p.160
We need to continue to learn and to grow, spiritually and temporally. We need to beactively engaged in living the 13th Article of faith, ‘We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.’
Until next week remember it is good to be an education seeking, spiritually growing, temporally preparing, scripture studying, knowledge gaining, family strengthening Latter Day Saint.
Yours in preparedness
Georgia
Waverley Welfare week ending 27th July.
Self Reliant Tip
Sprouts and wheat grass.
To sprout wheat, broccoli, alfalfa and other seeds and grains soak the
seeds in a clean glass jar of warm water for about an hour. Place a piece
of cheesecloth or stocking or other loose weave material over the jar
opening and secure it with a rubber band. Turn the jar upside down to
drain off the water and sit the jar on an angle so the excess water can
drain out and sit on the window sill. Each morning half fill the jar with
water and swirl around the seeds, tip out the water and return to the
window sill. After three to five days you should have sprouts ready to
eat. Give them a final rinse and place in a container in the fridge to
prolong their life.
Wheat grass is made by layering cotton balls on a tray (with holes in it
to drain) sprinkle a single layer of wheat over the cotton balls and
wetting the whole lot, carefully drain off excess water and sit on the
window sill. Each day carefully water the wheat and once it is
approximately 10 cm high it is ready to be harvested for juicing and
salads etc. Cut at the point where the green begins with a pair of
scissors. A 20ml serve of wheat grass juice is equivalent to eating 1kg
of green vegetables.
Sprouts and wheat grass.
To sprout wheat, broccoli, alfalfa and other seeds and grains soak the
seeds in a clean glass jar of warm water for about an hour. Place a piece
of cheesecloth or stocking or other loose weave material over the jar
opening and secure it with a rubber band. Turn the jar upside down to
drain off the water and sit the jar on an angle so the excess water can
drain out and sit on the window sill. Each morning half fill the jar with
water and swirl around the seeds, tip out the water and return to the
window sill. After three to five days you should have sprouts ready to
eat. Give them a final rinse and place in a container in the fridge to
prolong their life.
Wheat grass is made by layering cotton balls on a tray (with holes in it
to drain) sprinkle a single layer of wheat over the cotton balls and
wetting the whole lot, carefully drain off excess water and sit on the
window sill. Each day carefully water the wheat and once it is
approximately 10 cm high it is ready to be harvested for juicing and
salads etc. Cut at the point where the green begins with a pair of
scissors. A 20ml serve of wheat grass juice is equivalent to eating 1kg
of green vegetables.
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