Preparing for Hard Times: Forging Relationships and Skills to Survive

The world is littered with abandoned cities. Not little towns either, but giant, monumental cities that housed large populations and sat at the centers of impressive civilizations. Cities built by some of the most skilled craftsmen to ever live. Cities that took generations and vast riches to build. Then, they were simply left to rot. The jungle, the forest, the desert allowed to come and swallow them up till they were completely forgotten, even by those whose ancestors used to live in them.

In some cases, a military defeat emptied the city. In others, the climate changed making the cities no longer habitable as the sea retreated, fresh water dried up, or deserts advanced. A volcano, earthquake or other catastrophe overtook the city and repairs were impossible. Natural resources could be exhausted, leaving the city with nothing to offer in trade. In some cases, the entire complex system of trade and taxation on which cities depend would collapse or be destroyed by enemies.

Cities are complex and hard to maintain. Their existence is often dependent on the connections between civilizations. Historians have written about several known instances, around the Mediterranean basin, when multiple, interconnected cities and their civilizations all collapsed in sequence like a line of falling Dominos. The collapse of one deprived another of needed trade goods, which then caused it to collapse which then deprived another of needed goods and on and on it went. High civilization is a very fragile thing.

Whenever the cities became unlivable, the people fled them and went back to farming in small villages. The ones who didn’t die, of course. Because any time a civilization collapsed, the deaths of many was the inevitable result. Not everyone has the health, the skills, the tenacity or the luck to go from being a maid or a bureaucrat or a stone cutter to being a dirt farmer in a hut. Many would rather die. So they did. And so they will.

A good, working definition of modern hubris – believing that we are so advanced that calamities which have befallen generations of our ancestors could never happen to us. You would be shocked how easily our own cities could empty out as starving people go in search of food and fuel. Two things which the Climate Change policies of our current ruling elite threaten to make very scarce.

Is this the end? It can easily be an end, even if Jesus Himself does not come back and the Antichrist is not yet ready to appear. It might be better for all of us if it were, but there are no guarantees. We may have decades of struggle ahead of us. With that in mind, we offer John Lee’s recommendations below as food for thought. Now is a good time to learn a skill. To make friends with other people who have skills and resources that complement your own. To get your soul right with God, from Whom all blessings flow.

Our world is more fragile than you think. There are millions of Ukrainians shivering in the dark, their power having been cut by Russian air attacks, who are putting many of these recommendations into practice as you read this. They are not the only ones in the world doing so. War, famine, disease, political violence, and economic collapse are stalking many lands right now.

John Lee may very well be wrong about some of his concerns involving technology. It probably doesn’t matter, since in a serious societal collapse the communications infrastructure will not survive. In any case, we have been so lied to by our elite ruling class, that it should surprise no one if they deployed unproven, potentially dangerous technology to increase their profits and their control.

All food for thought. John Lee’s article begins below the line.

—OR Staff


Discerning friends, voices, leadership, who can you trust?  

Evaluate the people around you, for putting your lives in the hands of the wrong people in a crisis can be deadly.

  1. Purity of heart. Some who seem well meaning are really wolves in sheep’s clothing. They are untrustworthy, because when it comes right down to it, they will abandon you or stab you in the back. They have conflicts of interest. This is a heart issue. Under close observation, the little things are very telling. The wolf cannot hide everything. 80% of the time two things tell you what you need to know: how he spends his money and what his children are like. There is no guarantee he will reveal himself clearly. However, usually multiple “red flags” will appear if you know what to look for. Pay attention.
  2. Competence in a field. If one is honest, it does not mean he knows what he is talking about. Is he in his “wheel house”? Can he take whatever he talks about, spin it around and articulate it from every direction? An honest man is not always a competent man and the competent man is not always trustworthy. If you have to choose between the two, take the honest man. The honest man will usually know and admit to his limits. The honest man stops, goes back to repair his mistakes. The dishonest man just keeps going.
  3. Of what relevance is he/she to you? God puts the Church together as He sees fit. Life flow or supply comes from the joints (St Paul), where bones are joined bone to His bone. Correct relationships are edifying, fulfilling, and trustworthy. Knowing where, and with whom, you belong goes a long way.

Knowing Your True Friends

During your life you will have three kinds of friends—the 3 C’s:

  1. Constituents. These are those that generally hold the same values as you; they stick with you as long as in some way they profit from the relationship. Whenever they—for whatever reason—no longer need you, they will leave and go elsewhere. As long as you provide some form of comfort, service, or affirmation to them, they will be there. Without that they go away.
  2. Comrades. These are stronger than the first group because they are motivated by anger or fear. It is those with whom you share a common enemy. As long as you are fighting the same battle, being mad at the same people or events, they are with you. As soon as you leave that fight or find another enemy, they will abandon you.
  3. Confidants. These are those that will be there with you. no matter what. If you end up in the gutter, they will be the ones who will come and get you out – no matter what it costs them. These are those who live by covenant. Those that God has placed near you. You may only have one or two in your entire lifetime. These are those with whom you can share your deepest secrets.

Never share the deep things of your heart with the first two. Guide all things by the axiom, “appropriate for”. By that I mean, whatever commitment you have toward somebody it must be measured according to what is appropriate for that relationship and in balance with reciprocity—what their level of commitment is toward you.

In the last days of the last days, hard choices will have to be made. Gather up the fragments of your soul—attachments to anything or anyone not God—and go all out seeking God. Maximize your prayer life in and out of the temple. Nothing less will bring safe journey.

Hard Times Coming: Prepare Now

Let us start with some basic operative presuppositions and suggestions.

  1. What you don’t know can and will kill you and your children. “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge”. Strive to understand what you need to know; don’t be trapped in a rabbit hole that has no impact on your life; don’t be distracted from the essentials. Don’t expect to understand everything that is happening. As conspiracies in conspiracies, within conspiracies continuously unravel, our understanding of the world changes every day.
  2. A new—really very old—evil is afoot. Face it: malevolent forces are now in control, and they have a goal in mind: universal dominion and destruction of mankind. Many things have changed since 2019. If you live as you have for decades, it will probably be fatal. Everything, of this world, will let you down. Trust only God for health, healing, and supply. Only use doctors for repairable injuries (e.g. broken bones). Get out of debt, get off all meds (sensibly), but do it with God’s guidance. Learn what you need to know to self-treat conditions. Start with detox: detox is to the body what repentance is to the soul.
  3. Know God is in control. All that is happening—while full throttle evil—is God’s preparation for the Kingdom and eternity. Seeking first the Kingdom will bring everything you need to know to escape, even thrive, in hard times.
  4. Be flexible. The proud man is inflexible. He cannot accommodate changes in his environment. He thinks he has it all figured out. An old saying: “as long as you are green you will grow, but once you are ripe you will rot”. Live life as a student, learning new things every day, which means we adapt to change very quickly. There are three kinds of people. One group prefers to ignore what is going on in the world, living as if nothing has changed. This is terminal. The second group is so tuned into the evil, he/she offers no solutions, optimism, or faith in God to answer our prayers. They only expound upon the bad things happening and are of no aid to others. In the third group—those who will go through fine—they can see the world clearly and adapt as necessary. If you are stuck in a rut—a grave with both ends kicked out—make changes and do things differently. With one eye tracking evil’s every new move, our main focus is on Christ. If you trust any man—including your priest (as good as he is)—to get you through, you’ll be disappointed. Take responsibility for your own salvation.
  5. Learn a valued skill for dystopian survival. If all you can do is computer engineering, you will be totally worthless in the situations to come. But if you can sew, cook, can and store food, frame a house, grow crops, wire a socket, others will need you. Time to go “old school.”

Somewhere in each Christian is a hidden skill yet to be developed that will be a component for survival in the evil days to come. As God prepared everything for Adam before Adam was made, so also God has placed everything we need to survive the coming difficult days. It’s all there, just look for it, grasp it before it goes away. In nearly every problem, the solution is nearby—easily within reach— if we can only see it. All wilderness skills will be needed: hunting, fishing, farming, ranching, butchering, all kinds of repairs.

  1. For what you don’t know, find those that do; know how to network with the RIGHT people. Illustration: three men are riding in a car. One is a bishop, one is a priest, and one is a paramedic. Who is the most important? Who has the most authority? If you had to leave one or two behind, which would you choose? Think about it. Coming upon an accident, several people are laid out on the highway bleeding to death. In this situation: who has the most authority? The bishop? The priest? OBVIOUSLY, the paramedic does not need the bishop’s permission to treat those bleeding to death, nor should he take the time to go to confession to be sure his soul is clear on all channels, or get a “blessing” to act. He/she must spring into action; the bishop and the priest must yield—defer —to the right man for the job. Every skill carries an authority according to the dominion mandate of creation.
  2. Know the hazards of RF. Get the damn cell phone away from your head, stop microwaving your brain, hard wire all computers—shut off WiFi. Toss away the microwave oven, it disables nutrition. The frankenshots are activated by cell phone technology; cancers, spontaneous death—especially in the athletic young—, and every conceivable malady are inflicted by electromagnetic radiation. Don’t take my word for it, check it out for yourself.
  3. Create sacred space. For some centuries now, the world has been free of extreme evils—giants, Nephilim, Egyptian type sorcerers, and demonic lying wonders. But, that is changing, and much of that will be returning as the gates of hell are more and more being opened. That which prevails against these gates of hell, is defined as the true Church—the Church that Christ builds. Those that succumb, are faux-church. The home is to be a church within a church, within the Church. Set up home devotions every day. If your children go out for school, lay your hands on them and pray over them building a “prayer shield” against the evil you are sending them into. Even some of our own bishops have a propensity to shut down churches; your Faith must survive and thrive even when priests, bishops, and temples are unavailable. Dads, be the high priest of your home, do it now. Sanctify yourselves from every habitual sin. If Satan has any hook in you, at some point he will reel you in; you and all around you will suffer damage.

For several years now, the Holy Spirit has been prompting me—over and over again— to prepare for hard times in the ways natural to my skills set. I know I don’t have the full picture, but others can fill in the gaps. Interestingly, my neighbor has an underground greenhouse and grows veggies year round. What are your neighbors doing?

In my next installment—Lord willing, the Creeks don’t rise, and the charity of the editor—, I’ll bring some concepts I am employing to prepare for food shortages, energy shortages, and a toxic environment. BTW: Alex Jones is a Mormon. The Mormons are the world’s foremost experts in long term food storage because of their eschatology. Every devout Mormon family has a room—not just a closet—of stored foods. Alex Jones sells food supplies and other products for those preparing for hard times, but buying from him means supporting the Mormon eschatology of Mormonism eventually ruling the world. Be careful when buying, and be sure to know whom your money is supporting.

Also be careful how much advice you take from someone like Alex Jones. Like Donald Trump, Jones is another conspiracy within a conspiracy – some good things wrapped around an ulterior motive. You can go with them so far, but you have to know where and when to get off that bus. Mormonism, New Age, Luciferianism, Free Masonry, it’s all the same traps of the New World Order in different wrappers; a few elites sitting atop a bunch of ignorant peons doing their dirty work.

Seeing the signs of the times, preparing for the future is less about filling a 401k, than getting your hands on hardware, tangibles needed for survival. In the future, currency will be those things needed for daily life and the skills you have that others need. My garage is full of tools. My craftsmanship can be traded for food. So can yours.

Becoming the Church—that prevails over the gates of hell—, means having to learn interdependence for the things we need. God often humbles us by giving His gifts to us through somebody else—that way we learn to rightly discern and appreciate the body of Christ, beyond what we see in the clergy.

It would not be a bad idea to create a network of advisors, especially within your parish, in specific things for assistance in time of need. Do you know a valued survival skill? Can you skin a rabbit? Can you raise chickens? Can you garden? Can you gun-smith? Can you fix cars? Do you know how to block 5g? (I do).

John Lee – an Orthodox Christian

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