Learning from the Gaza strip....

When an enemy is in the street with a gun...chances are you can't run to the store.

When a tank is rolling down your street...the truckers probably aren't going to be bringing groceries to be fill the shelves.

When attacks which are meant to destroy infrastructure are successful...you won't be turning on any lights or a TV, you may have no water to drink, or toilet to use.

When bombs are going off everywhere...the farmers aren't going to be in their fields farming.

When warships are on your coast...imports probably won't be coming in.

When the phone lines are cut...you probably won't be calling family to see how they are or to tell them you are alive.

There is no "life as usual" when a war is at your doorstep.

Ezra Taft Benson years ago spoke of some of the results of war...

"Brethren and sisters, I know that this welfare program is inspired of God. I have witnessed with my own eyes the ravages of hunger and destitution as, Under the direction of the president of the Church, I spent a year in war-torn Europe at the close of World War II, without my family, distributing food, clothing, and bedding to our needy members. I have looked into the sunken eyes of Saints, in almost the last stages of starvation. I have seen faithful mothers carrying their children, three and four years of age, who were unable to walk because of malnutrition. I have seen a hungry woman turn down food for a spool of thread. I have seen grown men weep as they ran their hands through the wheat and beans sent to them from Zion—America."

It is of note that these needy people he mentioned...were "members". Joseph Smith said that "it is a false idea that the Saints will escape all the judgments, whilst the wicked suffer". I would add...especially if we have not been obedient to the commandments to prepare.

To a people that have never seen a war on their own land...it may be a hard thing to believe that such a thing could happen in the US.

To that Ezra Taft Benson said in General Conference in 1980....

"Too often we bask in our comfortable complacency and rationalize that the ravages of war, economic disaster, famine, and earthquake ... cannot happen here.

Those who believe this are either not acquainted with the revelations of the Lord, or they do not believe them. Those who smugly think these calamities will not happen, that they will somehow be set aside because of the righteousness of the Saints, are deceived and will rue the day they harbored such a delusion."

Such a thing not only could happen to us...but prophecies from various prophets say that it WILL happen to us. It would be well for us to prepare for war in our own land. There is much we can learn from the people who live in the volatile Gaza strip....who right now are in great trouble. The AP's story titled "Fear, shortages for civilians caught in Gaza fight" outlines how war is affecting the Gaza's strips residents.

Here are the lines that really stood out to me...

"And in the central Gaza refugee camp of Nusseirat, Munir Najar said he only had another day's worth of flour to feed his family of seven, but ventured out to find streets deserted and shops closed. "There's not a loaf of bread to be found," said Najar, 43."

What an awful situation to be in! How desperate he must feel...having to provide for a family of seven! How much danger he must be putting himself in...venturing out into the streets for food! If only he had prepared by storing some food! It is no wonder that we have been told that the "best storehouse is the home storehouse"!

and...

Lubna Karam, of Gaza City, said airstrikes had shattered her home's living room windows days before, letting cold air pour in. She said she feels under threat at all times, and her family has taken to sleeping in the hallway for safety.

If your windows were all blown out...do you have plastic to cover them? Do you have the gear or knowledge to stay warm?

and...

"We keep hearing the sounds of airplanes and we don't know if we'll live until tomorrow or not," said Karam, 28.

Can you imagine the stress of this! Imagine having that stress compounded by having no food and sleeping in your hallway in the cold!

and...

Mansour, 21, of the Rafah refugee camp on the Gaza-Egypt border, described watching his neighbor pile a mattress and blankets on a donkey cart to
flee, but hadn't decided if he'd do the same. "Where can we go? It's all the same," Mansour said.

That is the question in such times! Is it safer to stay...or to try to make your way through a war zone with the hope of a safer place?!

and...

The latest fighting came at the end of an ever-tightening blockade of the seaside territory, imposed after the violent Hamas takeover of Gaza in June 2007. The borders were virtually sealed in the last two months, leading to shortages of cooking gas and basic foodstuffs.

So...for two months they have had shortages of fuel (which we've been told to store) and foodstuffs. I wonder if any of these people have been taught the principles of provident living...and stored what they would need?. Such people would consider someone encouraging them to get that stuff together prior to this event as a "savior on Mt. Zion".

and...

But the Israeli human rights group Gisha said Israeli airstrikes have left Gaza's water and sewage system on the verge of collapse. About one-third of the 1.4 million residents are cut off from the water supply and 75 percent of Gaza is currently without electricity, including the territory's largest hospital, Shifa, the report said. Shifa has backup generators.

That's a big 3 to lose! Failing sewer...no electricity...and no water. A grim situation to live in.

and...

The Palestinian telephone company Paltel warned that Gaza's communications network has been extensively damaged by the Israeli strikes and is on the verge of collapse. The company added that three of its technicians had been killed and many injured in the fighting while trying to repair the network.

So...how long would it take to get communications back up...if all of the people trying to fix it get killed! My guess is that AT&T is not battle ready....and doesn't pay their people well enough for them to risk their lives. I don't think that high on our militaries list would be fixing communications for the public...so it may be a long time until we would get it back in the US in such an event.

and...

"When there was a siege, we kept talking about a catastrophe," said Hatem Shurrab, 24, of Gaza City. "But then the airstrikes started, and now we don't even know what word to use. There's no word in the dictionary that can describe the situation we are in."

Let's pray for these...our brothers and sisters in peril...on both sides. Let's learn from their catastrophe...and prepare ourselves for such an event...and influence our community to do the same.