Emergency Preparedness

A few weeks ago Jeff spoke in church about Food Storage and being spiritually prepared. Kind of an odd topic for my husband but let me tell you, he did AMAZING. I left church feeling so proud of him and so greatful that he is my husband who holds and honors his priesthood calling and responsibilities. I wish I could share with you his talk but he didn't even write it down, he had key points in front of him and just went by the spirit.
So, at first I laughed when I heard his topic was on Food storage and emergency/spiritual preparedness. We are very poor examples of this. A few months ago when Jeff got called as the 1st counselor in the Elders Quorum, he was put in charge of the ward's emergency preparedness plan... he spent quite a bit of time preparing this all the way down to who has trucks, trailers, tents, grills, chain saws, extra rooms in their house, medical background (he named me as nurse for the ward), generators, extra food storage, etc. Well as I sat and watched him prepare this plan and then prepare his talk, I got to thinking that maybe we should change things in our home. In Jeff's talk, he mentioned that probably less than 20% of the people in the congregation had proper food storage and emergency preparedness stuff... I hated to admit that we didn't fall in that category. So that following Monday, Jeff and I did our monthly Costco run (back at the first of the year we started a budget which consisted of going to Costco once a month for a months worth of food and meal planning, it has been amazing) Well since February was a shorter month we really didn't need too much this trip, so instead we spent the $200-300 on food storage... so yes, I can now say that Jeff and I have food storage for the 2 of us for at least a few weeks and it feels so good. Everytime I walk past our hall closet I feel a little bit of peace knowing we have started the preparedness process and I know longer fall under the 80% of people in our ward not prepared.
So today will be known as the day in history that Japan got slammed with a 8.9 magnitude earthquake followed by a devasting Tsunami. Our hearts got beating when both our phones started ringing off the hook at 6 am from our mom's trying to warn us that Alaska was possibly in harms way of Tsunami waves. So Jeff and I jumped out of bed to the TV and internet. All is well here but Alaska, Canada, Washington, Oregon and California coastlines were on alert. Hawaii was evacuated to higher grounds and flights were re-routed to Anchorage airport until this potential Tsunami threat had pasted. I sat and watched the news all morning and kept up on the internet and I really got to thinking that if we were to be evacutated to higher ground, would we be prepared? I surely wouldn't want to pack up all our food storage in the truck and grab clothes, blankets, food, dogs, etc and THEN head out... I want the process to be quick and easy and as stress free as possible. So I started looking at 72 hour kits on-line and researched for about 2 hours on the best kind of kits. Now the day is almost over and here I am, sitting on the couch stressing if we are prepared. So I got on the church website and ordered Jeff and I our 72 hours kits, stuffed with a tent, AM/FM radio, MRE meals, flashlights, blankets, sleeping bags, adn much much more and feel at peace that once again, we are getting there slowly but surely, Jeff and I WILL be prepared when that time comes.
Bare with me here, my heart is kinda full... I'm so greatful for the church and the principles it sets. When I typed in google search for 72 hour kits the first thing that popped up was the lds website... what great comfort it is to belong to a church who has recieved revelation for YEARS to be physically and spiritually ready in the last days. I don't want to be stuck, knowing I should've been prepared. I wanna be there to share what we have with others and be the ones to look back and say, I'm so glad we listened. My heart goes out to those in Japan who have lost everything, including family members. They have a long road ahead of them to recover what was damaged and lost, who knows when they will get power again and when they will have clean water. I'm thankful for our mom's who were worried for us and called to wake us up in time to leave our home if needed. I'm thankful especially to my husband who gave such a great talk that it has stuck with me for 2 weeks now and has made me get with it and prepare our home. We are getting there, bit by bit. I look forward to our shopping spree in April to buy more storage and keep stalking what our budget will allow. For now this is what we have, and I'm proud to say that for 72 hours we are prepared...