by Danielle Ellis

“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 somehow will be set aside because of the righteousness of the Saints, are deceived and will rue the day they harbored such a delusion.
“The Lord has warned and forewarned us against a day of great tribulation and given us counsel, through His servants, on how we can be prepared for these difficult times. Have we heeded His counsel?” (Ezra Taft Benson, “Prepare for the Days of Tribulation,” Ensign, Nov. 1980, 34) emphasis added.

Last month, the Church added a significant amount to its website for temporal affairs, www.ProvidentLiving.org. The counsel we find on this site in intended as the counsel referred to by President Benson in the quote above. We sustain the leaders of our church as prophets, seers and revelators. We know that tithing funds of the church are sacred and carefully used. So when the Church makes a significant investment in resources to bring information to the membership of the church, I believe it is precisely because they are prophets, seers and revelators. They know what is coming and what we must do to prepare.

A new section was added to the Provident Living site, “Emergency Preparedness and Response.” The subsections of this are Family Home Storage; Family Finances; Family Emergency Planning; Ward and Stake Emergency Plans; Emergency Communications; Disaster Cleanup and Church Volunteer Safety; Meetinghouses as Emergency Shelters; and Emergency Preparedness Resources.

Family Home Storage…

…should be familiar to members as it has been stressed a great deal over the last year. This involves storage of drinking water; a three-month supply of foods you normally eat; a longer-term supply of survival foods, such as wheat, white rice and beans; and establishing a financial reserve.

Family Emergency Planning…

…includes the items from the Family Home Storage section, and advises families to make “a simple emergency plan” which may include medication and first aid, clothing and bedding, important documents and ways to communicate with family following a disaster.

Ward & Stake Emergency Plans…

…are downloadable PDF files. Ward and Stake welfare committees are to work under the direction of bishops and stake presidents to establish these plans. The other protocols are also downloadable PDF files to be implemented by local church leaders. This includes use of church buildings as emergency shelters and emergency communication.

Emergency Preparedness Resources…

…is a large subsection dealing entirely with Pandemic Preparedness Planning. This information is all in downloadable PDF files as well and should be reviewed by every family. There is also a seven minute video by BYU-Idaho which explains pandemic safety.

The salient point of this information is that should a pandemic hit, and church leaders acknowledge it is not a case of ‘if’, but ‘when,’ you must be prepared to go home and lock your door for ninety days. I find it interesting that the guideline to have a three-month reserve of food was given to us in July of last year. So all those who dutifully built their supplies at a slow and steady pace of one extra week of food supplies per month, now have their three-month supply. And now the meaning of the counsel becomes more clear in light of the safety guidelines for a pandemic.

This “social distancing” has a precedent in church history. During the 1918 flu pandemic, church meetings were suspended, the April 1919 general conference was delayed until June, President Joseph F. Smith’s funeral was not public, and special fasts were held to ease the pandemic.

This section also covers topics such as hygiene, sick rooms, infectious disease clean-up, caring for missionaries, and workplace protocol. OSHA regulations require employers to provide a “safe and healthy” environment for employees. They cannot guarantee this in the event of a pandemic.

This information is of utmost importance to your family’s safety. Again, I reiterate, the church does not ask us to do things unless they are important. Please download and study these guides at www.ProvidentLiving.org, and prayerfully determine what your family needs to do to become prepared. The Lord will bless you as you follow counsel.

Just as each individual is accountable for his choices and actions in spiritual matters, so also is he accountable in temporal matters. It is through our own efforts and decisions that we earn our way in this life. While the Lord will magnify us in both subtle and dramatic ways, he can only guide our footsteps when we move our feet. Ultimately, our own actions determine our blessings or lack of them. It is a direct consequence of both agency and accountability” (Marion G. Romney, “The Basic Principles of Church Welfare,” Ensign, May 1981, 91).