Being prepared is far more global than one might expect. Not only does wise preparedness cover such topics as financial preparedness, physical preparedness (i.e. dental exams, health exams), and food storage, but preparedness also addresses community preparedness.
Let’s say that your household is perfectly prepared for any eventuality that may come. Your spouse gets laid off. Fine, you’re prepared. You have several months savings in the bank, you have more than a year’s supply of food, so you rest a little easier than otherwise you might.
Let’s say that you find yourself in the hospital, leaving the older kids at home to care for the younger ones while your spouse is at work. Not a problem, because you’ve prepared them tidy house, and how to love each other even during times of stress.
But now let’s say there is a large disaster that has impacted your entire community. Food is not available for weeks on end; neither is water. Angry crowds start roaming, looking for anything and everything possible to feed themselves (and/or their families). What then?
Even if you have weapons and ammunition to protect your little family, just how long would you be able to hold out?
No, common sense says that not only is preparedness a family thing – it is a community thing. We are not to be hoarders; instead we are to be provident members of the church, helping our family to be prepared in addition to teaching those around us preparedness skills.
What does this translate into in reality? Why not get your neighbors together to talk about the California fires, to talk about the Katrina disaster a few years back, to talk about the drought currently hitting the southeastern part of the United States (where one community has NO MORE WATER!). Talk about what you as a neighborhood community can do to help each other in a similar bind. Why not address the fact that if you all work together, there will less chance of angry mobs terrorizing each other?
One of the best things a neighborhood can do is to form or join a C.E.R.T. group. These are groups which have been trained (for free, I might add) how to handle small fires, how to prepare neighborhood homes against disaster and how to help each other until the professionals arrive.
I’ve joined a C.E.R.T. team and have been amazed at the camaraderie that exists when a group of people decide to team up and help each other during a disaster. Sure beats fighting over a few buckets of wheat!
