Is staying faithful like a goal, like a path to success?

I wanted to share a note I found as I was again sorting through my many "piles" of papers.  It is on "grit," which is about the process of staying faithful to the end.

A couple definitions I copied from the FORBES video I watched, from Angela Duckworth (a psychologist), about who succeeds, are these ::

TALENT  x  EFFORT = SKILL

SKILL  x  EFFORT = ACHIEVEMENT

"Grit is the ability to persevere, to be resilient, passionate and hardworking."

Trying to imagine all the hardships we might face as the future becomes less godly and then the domain of the Antichrist is very hard.  I don't know how we are going to make it.  The prophecy that many will "fall away from the faith" seems like it is going to happen very easily... and is, really, happening now.  We listen to the news and are amazed at what some churches are doing.  How will we who have a strong faith be able to stand, especially if we are alone in our beliefs and alone in our lives.

I started the quest for saving as many Christians as possible when I discovered poverty, government assistance, homelessness, and more.  I knew others in the church would not know how to deal with it.  I could see there would be a lot of "shock" and chaos and fear and pain and hurt and loss.  There wouldn't be enough benevolence funding to really help anyone.  This was way back in the late 1970's and 1980's, and it continued through the 1990's and 2000's and 2010's and up to the present.  The problem has only gotten worse. 

There were things in the early years that I never would have considered.  There are even more unexpected changes now.

What would be the best path to our future as believers in GOD and Christ?

The answer to me is still the same, but the path has changed.  It has become more urgent.  We need the basics.  Food.  Shelter.  Work.  These can all be combined into making spaces for our protection.

Rural seems better, but there will be many in urban areas who will need these basic resources without the ability to farm and grow livestock.  They will need a different kind of organizing.  The main issue is preserving our resources and protecting our vulnerable.

Alternative energy options for power will be necessary, whether urban or rural.  No money means we have to have everything we need to survive.  I think we need to work on options for each dwelling.  Solar on our roofs and possibly our housing materials.  Water collection and power through our gutters.  Wind energy in small sizes, like old-time well fans or weathervanes, even the new small versions for roofs.  Wood for heat in small, tiny-house stoves or large cooking stoves.  Electric blankets that are low energy users.  Propane for cooking and heating.  

We see "Preppers" and think they are crazy, seeing disasters everywhere.  In truth, they are trying to find a way through what is ahead.

One of the best statements I heard from a prepper on YouTube was "It's better to be ten years early than one day late."  

The only way to live without money is to have these preparations already available.

We don't know what is ahead, or how it will affect us and those we love.  Our churches are not prepared to care for their own.  The government is not prepared to take care of anyone... it is living on a credit card (the debt) and will soon reach the stage of bankruptcy.  Then everyone who depends on the government for their money and their life will be left with nothing.  Who knows what will happen in our country or the world.

Martial law means we lose all our registered weapons.  Violence in our streets means we can't protect ourselves.  Our families are separated now, because of jobs and surviving life.  We will only have local resources to access.  Preserving what our people already have is just as important as creating food pantries and clothing closets.  There are so many things we could be doing right now but aren't.

Food.  Shelter.  Work.

We really need to make prepping our goal.  

Can we Save America?

I have been sorting through a lot of old papers.  I came across one set of notes about the political process and decided it would be good to share with you.

I didn't save the source information, or the date it was created, but I have a title :: Marginalize the Population.  It's labeled page 10 of my original note packet.  I think it might be a chapter title.

The quote I wrote first is quite difficult to deal with but I already know it is true.

70% of people have no way of influencing policy

This issue gets bigger and bigger every year.  Lobbyists influence what gets passed, contributions become the reason, and we only hear the lies that make it possible.  I write letters when I can.  Mostly I add a few comments to online posts.  I'm not one who makes phone calls because I don't feel I can create a record of my efforts.  Printed matter is my "voice of choice" because I can try to keep a record for my own purposes.

There's really no way to know if my letters actually reach anyone who needs to hear what I want to say.

A note added under my quote above says the lack of being able to influence our political processes "equals a public that is angry, frustrated, and hates institutions."  I see why we have all the unrest in our nation.

More notes about this state that activism moves in very self-destructive directions, like

• unfocused anger
• attacks on one another
• attacks on vulnerable targets
• corrosive of human relations

"And that's the point -- to make people hate and fear each other, and look out only for themselves, and don't do anything for anyone else."

It's hard to know what all my notes mean after a long period of time, but the things I saved from whatever I was taking notes on, and only the few pages I have left, are meaningful.  

I was not and still am not great about history details.  One note I have is referenced to ADAM SMITH.  I don't remember why he is important to us, or this record.  What I have written about him in my notes is his opinion of our future, that we will become "a society in which normal human instincts and emotions of sympathy, solidarity, and mutual support are driven out."

These are serious in any society.  They make us people who care.  The Bible tells us the love of many will grow cold in the end days.  It says people will become lovers of themselves.  It says cruelty will grow towards family members.  And more.  The things that make a society great will no longer exist.

We never think about how our world is becoming what GOD has warned us it will become.  I know I have had a very hard time seeing it, not wanting it to happen, and wondering how we will live through it until the Antichist fulfills what he is going to do.

I don't know how much we can do to stop the downfall of our world, but everything in history and life is done, for good or evil, when "people organize, struggle for their rights, and win."  Satan has goals, too.

At the end of my notes is a quote by Howard Zin about our ability to create what becomes history.  I hope we all remember it and do our best to make life better.

"What matters is the countless small deeds of unknown people who lay the basis for the significant events that enter history."

I am a fan of James Clear's ATOMIC HABITS.  The idea is that small changes add up.  We can change ourselves in small ways to become the person we want to be over time.  This is how good and evil work... small steps that lead to the future.

We have become less godly in small steps over time... all leading to what GOD has already told us would happen.  

We create our lives by our choices, small and great.

When all of our lives are added together, we create our world.

It was my hope to gather all the Christians together so we could become that power for good our world needs, and what we will need to help each other.  I still hope we have time to make that difference.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

https://work2gather.us

Think about your food supplies!

I recently signed up (again) for emails from Jeffery Smith's group, IRT, Institute for Responsible Technology.  You can sign up for them at the main webpage, under SUBSCRIBE.  They come into your email titled, Live Well Be Healthy (.com) but I didn't find the website when I tried to.

He also created the documentary "Genetic Roulette" -- which was an earlier documentary about Monsanto and GMO's (Genetically Modified Organisms).  It was one of the first DVDs I purchased on food issues.  

I found my way to a list of foods we don't realize have GMO ingredients.  On the main page, look under "LEARN" to find "SHOP HEALTHY."

I was surprised by a video I found at the main page for "Shop Healthy."  There is more than one video available so I don't know if it shows up first every time you reach the page.  It's on their YouTube channel as well.  It's called HOW TO SHOP HEALTHY.  It startled me to hear that organic farmers spray their fields with Round-Up right before harvesting, and wine growers spray between their rows, and both of these actions put the main chemical in Round-Up in these foods.  We don't know about it because no testing is done to show what is happening to our food supplies.  

Another page I found that is important for you to see is under the SECRET INGREDIENTS square on the Shop Healthy page.

Secret Ingredients - Institute for Responsible Technology

SECRET INGREDIENTS is also the name of one of his books, but the page has a list of foods to think about when you are shopping.  Many are ingredients in foods we buy and make and eat, but we wouldn't notice them as GMO foods.  Some are ::  cornstarch, baking powder, tofu, soy flour, milk powder.  There are many more.  

I have already realized any food with corn could be suspect.  It looks like all the sugar made from sugar beets is included.  I was under the impression that wheat, soy, and more grains we use are already GMO, but I haven't found a good list to share yet.

I can't afford to buy all organic and non-GMO foods.  I do the best I can with my shopping budget each week/month.  It is easier as a single person, but if I still had my family and was on a government budget, I would not be able to buy what I already stretch my budget to get in organic foods at the store or local farm foods at a Farmer's Market.

The primary motivation for all these issues is money, at some level - whether business, government (legislation or taxes), or other financial issues.  

We, those who buy these foods, thinking they are safe for us and those we love, are the ones who suffer most.

I don't know where all this will lead, or how long it will take to become public, but this is how it seems to go in all of history.  It's different now because of the End Times and the Antichrist and the move to create digital currency the government can control.  Those who are poor or vulnerable always suffer most.  What GMOs will create in our bodies and lives is still not known or connected.

I hope we can find our way to providing the food we need for ourselves.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

https://work2gather.us

Politics in America has changed too much!

I am sharing a speech I found on YouTube awhile back.  

It is one of Bobby Kennedy's speeches, but I don't know if he wrote his own speeches.  Whoever wrote this speech was an amazing person.  I keep listening to it and wonder what happened to our country.  When I am really in need of remembering what kind of world we need, I put it on repeat and listen to it until I need to go on to something else.  I think I had it on repeat for a couple days once.  It is so great to hear.

This is the channel and the speech I found.  I have seen others but I don't know if they are the same speech.  This is the one I have kept in my Liked videos as a back-up and have downloaded to my phone for listening to.

https://youtu.be/BeqY2oMiwx8

I hope you find it and listen to it more than once.

Our nation, and the world, is in trouble.  We don't have a lot of people who reflect this kind of world.  The Democrats are not like this anymore.  

We will never become this kind of nation again.

No matter what anyone tells us, Bible prophecy tells us different.  

I so wish we could be this kind of nation again.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

https://work2gather.us

Can America really survive a big disaster?

I have been saving some of the better statements I hear along the way.  I am trying to be able to provide quotes and their sources when I post, here or elsewhere.  I also want to share I am not the only one worried about our global economy - and that includes America.

I tend to focus on financial topics when I can, or survival needs without money.  One quote, which I might have already share somewhere, is about our faith in the stock markets.  Many are counting on their income from stocks and bonds to support them in their retirement years.  Charities have annuity relationships with their supporters.  These are very vulnerable funds, and you can't count on them.  They could disappear in a moment.

The quote I found worthy of saving is from a prepping channel on YouTube called City Prepping.  I believe it was posted on 25 April 2023 and was titled "The Fuse Has Now Been Lit."  My notes say the post was about the real estate bubble bursting, but this line was somewhere in the video.

"Markets take the stairs up

and the elevator down."

I interpret this to mean stocks go up in value slowly but they drop fast.  If you think it means something else, let me know in the comments.

I am not against owning stocks.  Stocks are a way businesses fund their life, growth, and future.  We need healthy businesses in our nation, in our investment options, in our income opportunities.  My issue is whether they are secure.  Can you PLAN on them for retirement?  No.  They are extra money, not your economic foundation.

The DEBT we are building as a nation puts us at risk of bankruptcy, individually and nationally.  That will create a very terrible domino fall in so many areas of our lives.  Adding to the national debt means inflation rises.  That means our money has less value to buy what we need.  Extras go away.  Affording our daily survival needs gets harder.  Inflation means all the money we worked so hard to save won't buy what we thought it would.  Everyone in the world begins to suffer at the same time.  There's no one who can help get us out of this struggle.

The government is like a big family with a LOT of kids.  Taxpayers provide its income, and then the government spends it.  The government also has a credit card, which we call the National Debt.  I can't share where I read this, but somewhere on my research paths I thought it said our taxes are eaten up by the INTEREST payments on the National Debt already.  If not all, most of the government's income is spent before it is even collected.

All the people who depend on the government for their jobs, their survival, their retirement benefits, will be left with nothing unless the government continues to support them.  It is my understanding that all Social Security payments are already a credit transaction, and other government benefits/jobs/military payments also end when the economy falters.

We look to the government for disaster recovery too.   Natural disasters, terrorism, civil unrest, and any other kind of disaster.  We think the government will always be there to pay the costs of recovery.  We are at a point now that the government doesn't really have the ability to pay for anything.

In any economic disaster, there are paths we pass through...

• People lose jobs.
• People use up whatever they have saved.
• They sell their investments, probably at a loss.
• People lose housing.
• People lose whatever they have bought on credit.
• People have to declare bankruptcy.

It's not a pretty thing to even think about.

So, how can all this be prevented?  I don't know if it can.  We have dug a hole so big we can't see the top of the pit or any way to get out of it.

The only thing I could think of was to get the DEBT down to zero.  We would be able to weather the storms of the future if we do.  It is our safety net as a nation.  

The only way I thought this might happen is to create a collectible coin and sell it to pay down the debt... and ONLY THE DEBT, which includes the financial needs of Social Security Retirement Funds.

Awhile back, I heard/read about the plan to make a Platnium coin.  It seemed like the ideal solution to our debt issues.  I figured we would need to make ONE TRILLION collectible coins and sell them for at least $50.00 each - so ordinary people could afford to purchase them.

I suggested packaging them as collectibles and giving each one a number so that there is a priority value for those who care about that.  It would also be a recordkeeping option.

Since it would not have a monetary value (as currency), it would not add to the debt.  And now that the government is heading toward digital currency for the future, it might be the last coin created by our government. 

If we can sell all one trillion of them, it would provide enough money to eliminate the debt, provide for Social Security, and allow a small amount for a RESERVE account for the future.

I expect the government will want to take all the money and use it for anything they want to use it for, but this would need to be stipulated as funds for the National Debt only.  I have no idea how that can be achieved at this time in our history.

Maybe you do.

We have to do something!!!  

Let me know how you would try to get this done...

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

Founder, Owner, Volunteer

Working Together Inc

https://work2gather.us

Persecution - what does it look like?

I discovered an old movie at YouTube yesterday.  It was about the Nazis taking over Denmark... when they thought they were safe.

It was a reminder how fast violence happens.

The Nazis had lists of where to find the Jews.  They prepared to invade on one day, a Jewish holiday, when they expected all the Jews to be home.  Rumors of the Nazis coming for the Jews had been a daily event so their invasion was not believed or expected by many... until it was clear they were moving into action.

It was a reminder that money is always a problem in oppression, and how sudden events mean you can lose everything, sometimes your life.

This 1970 movie was called THE ONLY WAY.  I watched it on a channel called "Goose."  

I keep wondering how modern technology will change the options for survival we will have when everything changes for us.

Years ago I discovered that all new cars were equipped with some kind of tracking device and that all new freeways (maybe more than freeways, I don't know) we built with the ability to track all those vehicles.  Now we have more advanced tracking devices, and the microchip in our bodies will be the ultimate government tracking option.  We may have BETA tracking in our cards with microchips... who knows!?!  

I have wondered if our evolving chip-based credit/banking system, and RFID technology, is the testing ground for what lies ahead.  It didn't seem like a problem as long as the chip was in the card, but who knows what else is attached to it.  If thieves can capture your card information through the air, who else is collecting it?

It seems smartphones are the next step in collecting information and tracking everything we do - say - record - and more.  I saw something about phones being programmed as a single financial option... starting in countries like Africa and India, if I remember that right.

I don't always take notes when I am listening to things, and a lot of my historical details have been lost in my own life struggles.  

I just don't know why GOD hasn't provided for Working Together.  We need so much to prepare to last as long as we can.  The movie I watched was about one small city in a very small country.  What will we do in our time?  

Maybe it will all be over in a very short time.

We may not need anything.

I find that so hard to deal with.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

https://work2gather.us 

This is from last year, but the details are the same.  I hope your community is preparing for what is ahead, not just for those who are dedicated to GOD and saved by CHRIST, but for our loved ones.

Continuing to think about our future as Christians

I watched an old movie on YouTube last night.  It was about a Jewish family separated by the Nazis and the war.  Half in America, half in Poland.  It was about the damage the war caused to them, individually and as a family.  The theme was how to heal from all that pain, from changing traditions, from memories that kept haunting them.

This movie didn't have all the blood and violence of war and detention camps.  It was sharing the pain of recovering, and the hurt that our pain causes others - especially within families.  This was many years of their lives coming to a single turning point. 

Finding lost loved ones, not knowing if those left behind before the war were alive or dead, dealing with the "what-ifs" about their past - what might have changed if they acted differently, these were the difficulties of recovery for this one Jewish family. 

It was another movie about how persecution affects the rest of our lives.  It made me thing again about what those who hate GOD will do to our lives... including death.

The name of the 1992 movie was "Miss Rose White," if you want to watch it yourselves.  The main star was Kyra Sedgwick, who played the part of Rose.

Hollywood always has a purpose in making movies.  I never thought about the subtleties under a movie's contents before I grew up and then realized the messages hidden in them.  Mostly about cultural change.  I wouldn't say the goals of Hollywood were good.  It seems to be Satan appearing as an angel of light most of the time... making evil look good, harmless, fun.  

In this movie, the cultural change was Miss Rose White.  She had changed her Jewish name to the title name in order to fit into the" modern" culture where she existed.  She was determined to have a career, not wed or have children.  To her family (father) she seemed to be fully Jewish.  Hiding the differences was the way she lived.

Bringing lost family into her private world created the battles of the movie, and also became the path to healing.

I suppose this is the formula for a movie, but the details are where Hollywood lives.  What the characters say.  What is seen on the walls behind the main characters.  The way they live.

I see all of this changing as each generation reaches moviedom.  Look at the internet today.  What does "the entertainment industry" decide is worth spending money on to get your attention?  

I don't want to continue with this.  It's depressing me.  I long for a more protected world.  I don't want to fight these battles every time I try to watch or read or listen to something.  How can we live in this world and not be entangled by it?  I don't know.  I keep trying to find my own answer.

When I get so caught up in the troubles we face, I begin to pray for GOD's help - for me, for my sons, for my extended family, for my fellow Christians and Jews.  I seek GOD so often it seems there will never be an answer.

People of Faith have always faced these moral issues.  We battle the best we can.  Our generation is at an unusual turning point in spiritual history.  How will we stand in faith against the powers that lead up to the Antichrist?  How will we stand in our faith when death is the only path?

I hope you are thinking about this, too.  That kind of faith doesn't just happen in a moment, we have to have it before the crisis hits.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

https://work2gather.us

Digital Currency and the Mark of the Beast

 This morning I found a couple emails about digital currency and our future.  One was from a survival group, the other was from a news source.  The message was the same -- digital currency means government control of our money.

It's frightening to even think this is happening.

Why does our government feel it has the right to decide what we can buy?!

I suppose the healthcare mandates gave it a new sense of power, or maybe desperation.  The end goal is to lower the costs of what the government pays for.  Total control means a lot of force on the free-market system.  

There isn't enough tax money to pay for everything some in the government want to establish.  We can only pay so much in taxes if we want to survive ourselves, and taxes are already too high for everyone.  I created this graphic awhile ago, but I hope to post it on social media a lot as this election cycle continues.

I have the idea we need to reform the government down to just ONE tax... a sales tax of 10% that is divided between the three government entities of federal, state, and county, plus 1% for our international obligations. 

I added that graphic to this post but it seems to only work in the position below the first one.  Someday I will learn how to make my posts look the way I want them to look.

I discovered, after creating my graphic, that we have an amendment about taxes.  A Paul Harvey video called FREEDOM TO CHAINS shares that there is no limit to the amount of taxes the government can claim... all the way to 100% is legally possible.  Did anyone know that when they created this amendment?  I suppose we just assumed the government would never do that.

Our societies have become less godly in the years since many of our laws were created.  It makes a difference.  

The focus on digital currency is just one step away from the MARK of the Beast.  Once digital currency is the law of the land, requiring the financial microchip into every body will create the biblical MARK and the eventual end to all Christians, who will oppose it.

I said long ago that most of these changes we object to come into power under the banner of "safety."  It's the threat of harm that becomes the political hammer and we (the people) have to submit to what our elected representatives choose for us.

Democracy has become a weapon against those who believe in America, in GOD, in the good that freedom creates, in moral foundations, in biblical values of Truth, Justice, Charity, Love, Faith, and Human Worth.  We are now more swiftly becoming an oppressed people.

It is hard to see this happening.

Prophecy is something that cannot be changed.  We just don't know how it will become reality.  How much longer do you think we have?

Working on the process...

 I have been working on how to catch up and keep goiong with my blogs and selling sites.  It is a big task for my life right now.  I am asking GOD to provide, again, and trying to find ways to help that prayer get answered.

Today I updated a bunch of tracking pages for my efforts.  I hope to get better results for what I continue to try to do: increase my income so I can build Working Together.

I suppose these aren't the things executives share with the world, but I always hoped to keep everything as transparent as I could so there wouldn't be any impressions Working Together was wasting the money GOD provides through various sources.

It's been a strange path to here.  I never thought my life would go in these directions.  BUT, I am committed to keep trying. 

With the Antichrist (the Mark of the Beast I mean) possibly getting here before I die, these days I have are more important than I knew.  I expected to be dead before anything really got here.  I can't guarantee the process of these real life changes we are going through... how they unfold is still a mystery for all of us.  I just see that digital currency becoming a global effort and the microchip already in human bodies seems really like the prophecies about buying and selling.  If we accept that microchip we forfeit heaven.  That's pretty big.

I am wondering how many Christians are aware of this.

I am sure I would have become more like all the other ministry leaders if I had the funds to build Working Together long ago.  I don't know what GOD's Plan is, I am just trying to find the way to what He put in my heart to do... because of the life I experienced.

Faith is sure hard when GOD doesn't do what you think He will.

Well, I just wanted to check in with this blog as I try to post more.

I hope some Christians are able to create resources for their families and communities.  If inflation hits hard, the price of everything will go very high.  I know I don't have the funds to survive it.  I am praying those who do will provide for the rest of us.  We can't take anything with us when we die, or when the Antichrist gets here.

Pray for all of us.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

work2gather.us

PS : I am still working to update the website for Working Together.

Just sharing some thoughts. Not sure if the photo will work after posting, but I hope so.  The one with the wave is one of my favorites.  No copies of this one yet... It was impossible to do again, and I don't know how to get it turned into prints YET!  :-)

Starting Again. What will GOD do with our needs?

It has been a long time since posting here.  I have been busy with seeking GOD for what to do.

I recently discovered that global governments are heading into digital currency to replace the money we currently use.  I suppose the costs and the problems we have with our debts are part of the issues, but it has occurred to me that once digital currency is attached to the microchip that has already been developed we will have something that looks like the MARK of the BEAST.  It has really hit me how little time we have left until the Antichrist rises to take over.

I'm not sure what will happen, but I will try to start posting what I discover and share my thoughts about it.

I wish I could have done more.

That was my intention in creating Working Together.

I discovered how hard poverty and homelessness will be.  I just wanted to help us survive better, longer, together.

GOD must have His own plan.

For now, this is all I can think to do.

Until next time,

Deborah Martin

https://work2gather.us

I am trying to update the website and have created a new PayPal link to replace the old one.  I have had lots of problems trying to get into my account.  The hosting company has changed several times and I also have computer problems.

I will get it updated as soon as I can.