Have you felt the crunch yet?  With oil over $115 a barrel, gas prices have increased 81 percent from 2003 to now, and according to the World Bank, global food prices have increased over 83 percent. I don't know if you've experienced high food prices where you are, but I have where I am. 

I am not a farmer's wife.  My husband is a pastor and we don't live on a farm.  We get our meat and groceries at the nearby grocery store.  Sometimes we make a run to Wal-mart.  I would like to go to Aldis more often, but there is not one nearby.  The nearest Wal-Mart is 30 minutes away, so I don't make the trip unless it's once a month to do a big monthly purchase of supplies.

I still have three teenage boys living at home and a husband with a healthy appetite.  (Not to mention my own!)  It is costing me $200.00 a week right now to feed them, and trust me, we ain't eatin' steak.

Now, unlike a lot of other families, my family eats all three meals each day from food from our house.  So I feel that I do a pretty good job of feeding us on that amount of money each week.  But it is beginning to get harder and harder to do.  Prices in rural Indiana are sky high. 

What do you pay for a gallon of milk?  Here a gallon of milk ranges from $3.25-$4.00 a gallon depending on which kind of milk you buy.  I can remember just one short year ago that I could get milk at $2.49/gallon and I thought THAT was high!

Cereal:  $5.00 a box.  So, we don't buy cereal unless it's on sale.  We usually eat oatmeal.  Not the flavored kind, the kind you measure out and make yourself.

I am learning a thousand different ways to make a potato and a thousand different ways to make an egg.  We will not starve.  I grew up hungry, and I know how to make a meal stretch.  Americans will probably not go hungry, but I worry about other people in the world. 

Did you know that the USA is importing WHEAT now!?  US!  The breadbasket of the WORLD!  And if we are importing wheat -- what are other people in the world going to eat?  Do I trust wheat grown elsewhere?  No, but I don't really trust any food grown anywhere to be honest, unless it's grown by a local organic farmer.  And even then -- there is no guarantee the food is safe.  (Which is why we pray for God to bless our food, right?)

Dan Glickman, the former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture says that "global wheat supplies are at their 30-year low, and U.S. wheat supplies are at their 60-year low.  Now, I don't think we're going to run out of food in this country, but I do think there are going to be severe shortages outside the United States." 

Hmmm.  Am I the only one who can hear the strains of "I Wish We'd All Been Ready" in the background? 

"A piece of bread can buy a bag of gold....I wish we'd all been ready..."

Jesus said in Matthew 24:5-8:  "Take heed that no man deceive you.  For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.  And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.  For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.  All these are the beginning of sorrows."

Doesn't all that sound familiar? 

I'm curious.  What are you doing to get ready for a food shortage?  Anything?  If you're like me, you might not have disposable income to store up anything at all. 

But I am not afraid.  I know that the Word is clear:  "I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread"  Psalm 37:5.

I really and truly believe, that if we put our TRUST IN THE LORD, He will not forsake us.  He will deliver us.  And who are the righteous?  Nobody.  That is, unless you have Jesus as your savior.  Then, when God looks at you -- He sees His son and not your sin.  Oh!  What blessed hope!

In the meantime, if we are compelled by the Holy Spirit to store up dried goods -- we would be disobedient not to.  Perhaps we as believers should pray about buying dried goods now before the prices go up even more so that we can share with those who don't have anything to eat later.  It's just a thought.

What have I done?  So far, I have one medium sized rubbermaid tote and in it I have some water, beans and rice.  I don't have anything else yet.  A pastor doesn't make a boatload.  But you know, my Father owns the cattle on a thousand hills.  And I have no doubt, He will take good care of me, no matter what my situation.  As long as I do my part, am a good steward, and obey Him when He tells me what to purchase -- we will be just fine.  And if I miss His voice?  I still believe that God will make a way when there is no way.  If He could provide mannah in the desert, then he will care for me, too.