I began a woman's group at my church. I hoped that by doing so I could make sure that all the valuable skills I felt they needed would be easier to share. I believed that if I could teach the skills that I felt were important to these women that they would in turn go on to teach others. I included prayers and scriptures in the lessons. The group was obviously open to all women in the church as well as guests they wanted to invite. At first there was great interest and turnout for the meetings. As with all things some topics were more interesting to people then others. I found that most of them were more drawn to "crafts" then skills. They began drifting away and attendance was low for more serious classes or things that they didn't feel were fun or useful. Some of the ladies used the group as a place to socialize and gossip rather than learn. They also balked at some things that required money or that were too time consuming. They were living in a time of convenience and the thought of growing then processing their own food was something they just didn't want to learn when it was much cheaper to BUY it already done. Classes like identifying weeds and eating them just wasn't what they wanted to learn so attendance would be low on those days.
They also didn't like the idea of "homework". Since only an hour or two was allotted each month at the church for the group to meet that meant that they had to do some of their projects at home between meetings. For instance, when they were asked to complete quilt squares at home then bring them back to be combined with everyone else's to make a quilt they didn't do it.
I struggled for two years with the Woman's group and by some standards it ended up being a huge success. I eventually allowed the women to guide the topics and I also encouraged others to teach some of the topics. The fellowship, prayer and scripture time was a wonderful time for some of the ladies and surely it was a blessing. It wasn't what I had originally intended though. Since I had never presented it as "survival training" nobody except me was ever disappointed in how the group progressed. Eventually, I stepped down and eased away from the group. It continued on but never in the manner that I originally envisioned. There were some ladies here and there that DID benefit as I had desired. Some of them kept in touch and actually did turn out to be "Preppers" as I had hoped.
Its difficult to believe but learning and preparing had taken up almost twenty years of my life at that point. My homestead in the city was producing meat, fruit and vegetables. My place had been transformed into a mini farm and I was happy with how far we had come. Even my husband who still didn't know about the "vision" knew that we were homesteaders. He worked with me as we tried to become self sufficient. He understood and agreed about the importance of food security and living debt free. It was about that time that politics were also a big part of our awareness too. We saw things in the news that were new and upsetting o watch. We knew that we couldn't continue to plan to move to the farm. We knew we were stretched thin and it was time to make life changes. We decided to sell the homestead and take the money to build on the land at the farm. It was a great time to sell because our house was almost paid for and the housing market was booming.
We began to pack up some of our things and move them along with our shed to the farm. We stored them for when we would need them and we sold what we wouldn't need. Then we called an agency and told them to sell our house. The plan was to buy a travel trailer to place on the land until we sold the old house and built the new house. Surprisingly, our house sold in just two weeks! That two weeks included the time we had left to move because the buyers wanted to move in as fast as possible. We scrambled and ramped up our packing and moved our last truckload at midnight on the day of closing.
We had not had time to prepare the farm. We had no water, no power and no travel trailer. We had a certified check from the sale but we were homeless in the middle of an almost empty field after 20 years of marriage! Ready or not we were going to have to make the best of it. Unfortunately, as the way things always happen, things just didn't fall into place as easily as we planned and the farm didn't welcome us with open arms. That move began some of the worst struggles of our journey and began to test our determination and our skills. It was also the first time since the vision came that we would actually be living full time with the people in the camp.
They also didn't like the idea of "homework". Since only an hour or two was allotted each month at the church for the group to meet that meant that they had to do some of their projects at home between meetings. For instance, when they were asked to complete quilt squares at home then bring them back to be combined with everyone else's to make a quilt they didn't do it.
I struggled for two years with the Woman's group and by some standards it ended up being a huge success. I eventually allowed the women to guide the topics and I also encouraged others to teach some of the topics. The fellowship, prayer and scripture time was a wonderful time for some of the ladies and surely it was a blessing. It wasn't what I had originally intended though. Since I had never presented it as "survival training" nobody except me was ever disappointed in how the group progressed. Eventually, I stepped down and eased away from the group. It continued on but never in the manner that I originally envisioned. There were some ladies here and there that DID benefit as I had desired. Some of them kept in touch and actually did turn out to be "Preppers" as I had hoped.
Its difficult to believe but learning and preparing had taken up almost twenty years of my life at that point. My homestead in the city was producing meat, fruit and vegetables. My place had been transformed into a mini farm and I was happy with how far we had come. Even my husband who still didn't know about the "vision" knew that we were homesteaders. He worked with me as we tried to become self sufficient. He understood and agreed about the importance of food security and living debt free. It was about that time that politics were also a big part of our awareness too. We saw things in the news that were new and upsetting o watch. We knew that we couldn't continue to plan to move to the farm. We knew we were stretched thin and it was time to make life changes. We decided to sell the homestead and take the money to build on the land at the farm. It was a great time to sell because our house was almost paid for and the housing market was booming.
We began to pack up some of our things and move them along with our shed to the farm. We stored them for when we would need them and we sold what we wouldn't need. Then we called an agency and told them to sell our house. The plan was to buy a travel trailer to place on the land until we sold the old house and built the new house. Surprisingly, our house sold in just two weeks! That two weeks included the time we had left to move because the buyers wanted to move in as fast as possible. We scrambled and ramped up our packing and moved our last truckload at midnight on the day of closing.
We had not had time to prepare the farm. We had no water, no power and no travel trailer. We had a certified check from the sale but we were homeless in the middle of an almost empty field after 20 years of marriage! Ready or not we were going to have to make the best of it. Unfortunately, as the way things always happen, things just didn't fall into place as easily as we planned and the farm didn't welcome us with open arms. That move began some of the worst struggles of our journey and began to test our determination and our skills. It was also the first time since the vision came that we would actually be living full time with the people in the camp.