2nd Day of Hanukkah

We pray for the many victims of the many recent tornadoes in the USA.  Our troubles are small in comparison to them.  We have had a few disasters, more than usual, so I wondered if our sanctuary's defenses had been breached by the enemy.

Seconds Away from Disaster &/or Death

My truck's tires were changed from summer to winter tires, but one tire wasn't done properly, or was subsequently tampered with.  On Wednesday  Dec. 8, strange vibrations in my truck were initially dismissed as frozen ice stuck to the wheel.  When I finally stopped to check, I found I was minutes away from having the wheel come flying off from loose wheel nuts, possibly throwing me into oncoming traffic or the ditch.  Wheel & 8 studs are destroyed, the truck is out of commission, parts ordered to repair, unknown ETA, suffering from loss of vehicle.

Rotting Beef

Our four beef steers were butchered and delivered back to us late Sunday night as 1,980 lbs of grass pastured, grass finished, no drugs, no antibiotics, no chemicals, no hormones, all natural beef; Yummy!  

When making all the arrangements with the abattoir and butcher, it was specified, verified, & clarified 4 times that all of the meat must be fully frozen before delivery.  Unfortunately, this didn't occur as planned.  Some of the meat was cold but not frozen at all, others cuts were only half frozen, and none of the meat was fully frozen.  Our large chest freezers for our farm store are well insulated, but have refrigeration compressors only powerful enough to overcome ambient heat transfer, not sufficient to freeze so much meat.  If we relied solely on this, the meat would be rotten before it froze.  I calculated a need for 300 lbs. of dry ice (-92 degree C) to quickly finish the freezing process.

On an emergency basis,  a local transport company wanted $1,017.00 to deliver the $300 bin of dry ice over the 300 km. trip from the dry ice supplier to our farm.  That would add $0.66/lb to the price of our beef to our customers.  Ouch!

Instead, I had to stop what I was doing, and shift to this emergency.  I quickly offloaded our goats who were in the process of moving from our summer pasture, back home to their winter pasture & barn at their home farm.  The sheep will have to wait for another day.  

Without my truck (see above), I was forced to hitch up my utility trailer to my little sub-compact  Toyota, and picked up the dry ice myself.  The Toyota is an old, spare vehicle, reserved for emergency use like today.  I found all 4 tires were flat, and the defrost blower was full of a mouse nest. 

The Toyota's license plate expired as of Aug. 2021, 4 months previous.  Funny how we had been nudged to get the license renewed last week for unexplained reasons, which only now makes sense.  I found the new license sticker on the dining room table, and stuck it to the car's plate.  On checking in the glovebox for a valid insurance certificate, I found none.  The pink slip for the insurance was found in the Feb. 2021 receipts, then placed in the glovebox. 

After getting the 4 car tires pumped up, the air compressor failed before I could check the trailer's tires.  I found the trailer lights not working, so I had to do some emergency wiring repairs.  

I started to sense too many obstacles in my path, sensing rising evil at work, and remembered Julie's prophetic posting of refraining from all events unless expressly directed by the Holy Spirit.  I started praying for reinforcement of our protective spiritual hedges, and wondered if this trip to get dry ice was a Satanic ambush in the making.  I prayed & prayed for guidance as I worked as quickly as I could.

By end of the day, the 300 lbs. of dry ice was spread among the 5 freezers of delicious beef, so the meat has been rescued in time, and is now quick frozen, saved from becoming rotting beef.

The Hitchhiker

On my way to pickup the dry ice, I spotted an elderly man, waiting beside the Swing Bridge.  I saw he had his thumb out for hitchhiking, and a COVID mask in his hand.  In spite of COVID in general, and a local outbreak under way, I pulled over to pick him up.

He was surprised that I stopped.  He immediately assured me that he was double vaxxed.  In the interest of full disclosure, I informed him that I was Vax-Free; which started an interesting conversation.  He started to laugh, saying that his sister was also un-vaccinated, and she was well versed in all the latest COVID conspiracy theories.

He explained that he had been arrested & spent last night in jail for being caught drinking a bottle of Irish Cream liquor in public. When he was released from jail this morning, he was told to leave Manitoulin Island, hence he was waiting for a ride at the Swing Bridge where I picked him up.

My hitchhiker explained that he had been on his way to visit family & friends when his trip was interrupted by the police.  I asked him about his kin, and his family was well known by me, living in my town.  Small world!

Hitchhiker explained that he fully believed the government & media about COVID.  He had personally lost friends in Vancouver BC by COVID, but had lost even more friends from drug overdoses.

I gave him my condolences  for the loss of his friends.  I asked him what he thought happened to us after we die.

"Worm food!", he shouted out in a dramatic manner, "Nothing but worm food"

I replied that I agreed, our bodies went to worm food, but I clarified and re-focused the discussion by asking what happens to our eternal soul?

"The soul?  Are you religious?" my Hitchhiker said, interrogating me.

I explained that I used to be religious, but not any more. I was brought up Anglican.  My wife was Lutheran, so we got married in a Lutheran church.  We moved, so we joined a Presbyterian church.  When we moved to Manitoulin Island in 2006, we joined the Providence Bay United Church.  Unfortunately, in 2017 they decided to close that church after 97 years in the community.  We and the rest of the congregation were thrown out into the snow.  We decided to stay home & read the Bible, rather than join another church.  We were soon shocked, as the Bible was significantly different than all that we had been taught and done over the last 60 years of our lives of sitting in the pews most Sundays.

One of the biggest shockers was learning that we couldn't go to Heaven unless we were Born Again.  I had heard the term before, but didn't know what it meant.  "Was Born Again referring to those Bible thumpers down South who played with poisonous snakes every Sunday in church?", I had asked at that time.  I was informed that Born Again is when you choose to let the old sinful self die, so that the new you, a child of God, could be born.  I next learned that we should have been fully immersed for Baptism, that being sprinkled with holy water as a baby in my mother's arms wasn't good enough.

In 2017, my wife and I both realized we could die in our sleep, or a car accident the next day, and be on our way to Hell.  We were at significant risk.  How do we get baptized & Born Again?  I proposed that I could get the axe out and chop a hole through the foot thick ice of Lake Huron, as it was February 2017.  For some unknown reason, my wife didn't like that idea.  Smart enough to not press my first idea any further, I next suggested hauling the horse watering trough to the front of the house, fill it up with warm water, then I could baptize my wife, and she could subsequently baptize me.

For some reason, my Hitchhiker was quite amused by this true story.  That's how we became Born Again Christians, got baptized, and left all of man's religions behind us in the dust.

The problem with man's corrupted religions was made crystal clear by what we learned shortly after our horse trough baptism in Feb 2017.  We learned that there is a United Church Minister in Toronto ON who decided that she no longer believes in God.  The church congregation decided that they still really like their Minister, even if she was now a card carrying Atheist.  That Minister still collects a pay cheque from the United Church every two week, while she is allowed to lead her congregation down some strange paths towards non-optimum destinations (possibly Hell ?).  What could be more telling than this blatant religious hypocrisy.  

I quickly switched the topic, stating that I've done my fair share of sinning in my earlier years.  I related to my new Hitchhiker friend that I had stolen money out of my Mom's purse when I was 8 years old, or thereabouts.  Hitchhike admitted the same sin, too.

I said I had lied again & again.

Hitchhiker said he now hates lying with a passion.  Hitchhiker explained that he had been a druggie for 26 years, and he became an excellent liar from continuous practice so as to promote & protect his drug habit.  He specialized in cocaine, but did just about every other drug that was available on the street, but never did heroin. Hitchhiker said he saw a lot of friends die of overdoses where he used to live in Vancouver, BC; the drug capital of Canada.

I agreed.  The number of fatal overdoses was rising exponentially, especially in Canada & USA, then COVID made it even worse.  Hitchhiker added that one druggie-friend of his was a millionaire, then lost all of it through his drug habit.  He got clean, became a millionaire again, then lost it all a second time due to drugs.  Finally, he had an overdose & died.

Very sad, said I.

I said that I had dis-respected my parents on a number of occasions.  Hitchhiker made a similar confession.

I said I had also watched porn in the past.  Hitchhiker snorted and laughed, and seemed to have admitted he still does.

I said God is angry every day with sinners.  When somebody is actively sinning, God cannot hear their prayers.

Hitchhiker was surprised at this statement.  I clarified that it was in the Bible, Book of John, but I wasn't sure of the verse.  Instead of an ongoing conversation, often talking over me most of the time, Hitchhiker suddenly became quiet. It appears that Hitchhiker finally knew the reason that God had not answered his prayers.

I let it sink in for a few seconds, then continued.

The Bible says that fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.  However, we have to do a lot more than that.  We have to know God, and truly love God.  He have to love our neighbours, and forgive everybody who had ever done anything mean to us.  We must confess our sins, repent, and ask for forgiveness.  God will then cleanse us from our past sins.  We also must move forward by being obedient to God's commandments.

Because we don't do religion any more, we started our own home based church, where we follow God's Bible, nothing more.  We call it King James Bible Church-Manitoulin.  We meet every Saturday Sabbath at 10 AM, I said.  You're welcome to join us.  I handed him one of my KJBC cards that I always keep handy in my pocket.

Hitchhiker seemed to be impressed, but also confused.

Saturday?  Not Sunday?  Whaaaaat?.......

I explained that the Roman Catholic Church had the temerity to change the Bible, and try to change Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday.  Our home based church, I reminded him, goes exactly according to the Bible.  After all, God set the 7th day as special way back when He created the universe.  Nobody is authorized to muck with that.

It was somewhere about this time that Hitchhiker blurted out that he had a warm feeling in his chest.  Holy Spirit at work inside him?

Hitchhiker became very animated, saying he could come back with me to help get the meat into the freezer, and get the dry ice....

I thanked him for his offer,  and said that the meat is already in the freezers.  Once I get home, I need to pour the dry ice cubes over top of the meat so that it freezes immediately.

We arrived at the dry ice supplier, got it loaded, and we were on our way.  I asked where Hitchhiker wanted me to drop him in Sudbury.  Hitchhiker asked to be let off about 3 kms beyond my path home, so I agreed to go the extra distance.

Hitchhiker said he wanted to go see his buddy, but after that, he wanted to return to Manitoulin Island so he could come to our Saturday Sabbath Service.  I told him we have a free lunch after the service is over.  He liked that idea.

I asked Hitchhiker his name.  Did he have a cell #?  Hitchhiker provided both of these pieces of info.  He confirmed that he had my card with my contact info.  I asked Hitchhiker is he was looking for work.  There was an enthusiastic, immediate response, and he proceeded to list the various jobs and occupations he has done over the years in a rapid, machine gun style.

We reached Hitchkiker's requested drop-off point.  As he was getting out of the car, I asked him if we could pray together.  Hitchhiker reached back into the car with a big, manly mitt.  We fumbled at first, but he got a lock onto my right hand, and squeezed tightly as we prayed together.  At a number of key words of the prayer, Hitchhiker squeezed my hand even harder.

When we were done our prayer, Hitchhiker told me that nobody had ever prayed for him before.

I was touched.  I don't know where that prayer request had come from, for me to suggest that, but I was glad it had occurred. We said our good-byes, Hitchhiker thumped the car a couple of times to signal OK to me.  He shouldered his backpack, and was gone.

About half an hour later, I spotted Hitchhiker's warm winter mittens left behind in my car.  I texted him, telling him I found his mittens in my car, and this was even more reasons to come to Saturday Sabbath so he could get his mittens back.

I look forward to our next meeting.

The Flower Shop

A bouquet of beautiful flowers for my
beautiful, loving wife, and a small reward
of business to the flower shop which chose
to be welcoming to all, even to Vax-free
people like me & my wife.

No lunch, no supper, makes for a hungry driver.  I pulled into a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant to order some food.  Due to COVID, the customers had to place their order, pay, they wait outside for their food to be prepared.  Standing outside, awaiting my number to appear on the large screen, I quipped that the chickens were kept warm under heating lamps, but us customers had to stand outside in the cold.  I got a few turns of the head from the outdoor KFC crowd, and maybe a slight nod of agreement by one man.

I waited a few minutes.  Next I announced, "So what do you think about the Australian Army collecting up the un-vaccinated people, and transporting them to a concentration camp?"  One man turned to face me, saying "I never heard that.".  I responded with "Yea, you can look it up, it's on the Internet."  He turned back to the KFC window, waiting for his number.  Silence.

I wandered out of the KFC crowd, and noticed a flower shop next door.  A lady was busy at work inside, making floral arrangements.  Next to the door was a sign that invited everybody to come into the store without any discrimination, including those who were not vaccinated.

I was impressed.  I grabbed the door handle, opened the door, and told the lady that I liked her sign about no discrimination, especially because both my wife and I were vaccine-free.  She said thanks.

I wanted to go one better.  I told her I was waiting for my chicken next door, but would she be able to make a nice bouquet of cut flowers for my wife while I waited?  Sure she said, and immediately started grabbing flowers and greenery.  Everybody wins from her sign.

I came into the flower shop, and we talked while she worked.  She shared her viewpoints, I added a few choice statistics and anecdotes.  After another 5 minutes of whirlwind conversation, she blurted out that she just doesn't get it, what the government is up to, why is all this happening.

I agreed that it's quite a mystery, but I might be able to help her on that very point.  I asked her if she would be willing to do a 3 question survey.  She said "Sure." 

Q1:  Based on your life experience, when your think about Planet Earth, everything included, is it getting better & better, or crazier & crazier?

Crazier & crazier, she quickly said.

I quipped that I've been doing this survey for 6 years, and it wasn't always so easy to answer that first question.  Overall, about 85% answer as she did.  Today, its over 95% who agree:   crazier & crazier.

Q2:  Based upon the rate the world is getting crazier & crazier, how much longer can it keep going the way it is before the wheel's come off?

For this question, she wasn't so quick with the answer.  "That's hard to say", she said, stalling for time.  "Give it your best guess", I encouraged her.

Maybe 10 years, or less.

OK, I said

Q3:  There is a large flightless bird in Africa called an ostrich, which unfairly, but usually, is associated with stick its head in the sand, don't want to know, don't tell me any facts, for I enjoy my life just the way it is.  There is another bird called an owl, which is usually associated with wise and aware.  In your life, do you prefer to be the ostrich, or the owl?

She said she used to be the ostrich, but not any more.  Now she is an owl.

I said, "Good for you.  I am an owl too", I said.  From one owl (pointing at me), to another (pointing at her), I have some info that I am willing to freely share with you that will likely help you and protect you and your family.  Would you be interested in receiving this info?

She agreed that she would.

I was out of the cards I usually give out.  Hitchhiker got my last one.  Instead, she gave me one of her cards, and I promised to email the info to her.

I paid for the flowers, and told her about Hanukkah 2021 (see https://et-manitoulin.blogspot.com/2021/12/urgent-it-is-time.html ) and the prophecies of some major move occurring, likely Dec 12 to 20th.  

I told her that 6 years ago, I thought it was 1 in 10 Billion odds, but as the last 6 years unfolded and more events occurred, I slowly changed from 1 in 10 Billion odds, to 1 in a million, to 1%, to 30%, to 60%, to 80%, and today I'm 99.9% sure that the 2nd Coming of Jesus Christ is coming in the next 7 years.

"That long, eh, 7 years?

Yes, but we're expecting the rise of the Anti-Christ (likely Barak Obama, I suggested) very soon.  Obama went very quiet when Trump took office, but recently he is showing up in the news more & more.  He was just at the COP 26 meeting in Scotland, representing the USA. We'll soon see.

I was carrying my wife's beautiful bouquet when I went in to pick up my KFC chicken.  The girls behind the counter, plus the young woman customer, were all hopeful of receiving the bouquet. "Sorry girls, it's for my wife."  They chuckled.

When I got home, I presented the bouquet to my wife and she loved it.  Kisses and hugs I receive did.

We lit the two Hanukkah candles on the 2nd day of Hanukkah, and shared our stories and blessings for the day.

Dinner was already ready and waiting for me, so we put the KFC chicken in the fridge for the next night.

After supper, I went out to spread the 300 lbs of dry ice across the 5 freezers of beef.  The beef was now safe, and will be flash frozen within the next 3 hours.  All in a days work on the 2nd day of Hanukkah..