Chapter Two

Wilderness Survival
The very first rule of survival is that you must make peace with your environment
as quickly as possible. There is a prayer from Reinhold Niebuhr that sums this idea very
well. It goes something like this, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot
change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.”
In every realm of life, you will be faced with circumstances that cannot be
changed, and just like the proverbial “brick wall”, banging your head against these things
is not only a waste of time, but this could be fatal as well.
At night time, you have come to realize that it gets dark. Becoming frustrated and
upset with the darkness is foolish. This is why you think ahead and bring a flashlight, or
a candle, so that you can be prepared for what you cannot change. Suddenly you realize
that by making peace with darkness, you have discovered the way to defeat it.
Frustration and anger are only useful when you require a super human effort to
pull yourself out of a very dangerous situation. Even in this case, you will expend
enormous effort and energy which will have to be replenished as soon as you have
reached relative safety. The other danger to frustration and anger is that you can easily
make wrong choices by blundering ahead from the “frying pan into the fire”.
Calm down, take a few breaths and look around. Now you can assess your
situation and decide what is changeable, and what is not.

In a wilderness situation, you have four "needs" that must be met before all others.

Water is your first physical priority. You can live without food for a while, but
not water. Get water from springs where the water is bubbling out of the ground. If in
doubt of the safety of your water, boil it for 10 minutes. Since this will make the water
taste "flat", pour it back and forth a few times. In our society today, boiling may or may
not make it safe, so make sure you pray over it before you drink it.
Rainwater is usually safe, unless you are in an area of high pollution. If possible,
you can construct a "still", to get liquid from the ground or plant matter. (See Appendix A
for instructions on making a survival still.)
Drink plenty of water whenever possible. Some people say you should drink a
gallon a day, when you are active. In cold weather, when you don't feel thirsty, you
should drink anyway. Be careful drinking very cold water when it is cold weather though,
this can cause you to become chilled. Drink warm water if possible.
If you have snow, just add a little to top off your water bottle, it will melt between
drinks.
Snow is a very good insulator. You can bury your water bottles in the snow, about
a foot deep, and it will keep your water from freezing.

Shelter. You must find something to protect you from the weather. Whether it's a
tarp, or a cave, or whatever, you must find protection. You absolutely have to have a
warm, dry place to sleep. If you don't have this, you don't have anything. Without rest,
your body will deteriorate very quickly, and without warmth, you will get Hypothermia.
Between the two, you won't survive very long. Hypothermia is a condition when the
temperature inside your body becomes so cold that it will not function properly. Your
body reaches a point where it ceases to warm itself, and in a very short while you will be
dead.
One time, while hunting I became tired and decided to take a nap. It seemed
fairly warm, and I had been walking so I was sweaty. I laid down on the ground and slept
for a while. When I woke up I was freezing cold. Even though the temperature outside
wasn’t excessive, the ground had soaked up all of my warmth. I was very much in
danger of hypothermia. My muscles did not want to work, and it took a great deal of
effort to walk the mile or so back to my car. I got in, turned on the heater and thawed out.
That was really a close call for me.
The first thing you must do is get out of the wind. The wind increases the effects
of the cold dramatically. In addition, it will suck the moisture out of you. If you are
unable to find a cave or an existing shelter, or building, you will have to construct
something. The most common and simplest shelter is called a lean-to. This is a roof built
out of poles, or anything, leaned against something else. You can put a rail between two
posts, or lean your poles against a rock wall. It provides relative protection from the
elements, but only from one direction. You will have to embellish your lean-to if you
need protection from the sides. If you have a tarp, you can use it for covering your
shelter. You can also use the tarp to make a tent by using a stick for a door pole, and tying
down the sides.
If you don't have a sleeping bag, bury yourself in leaves, or pine needles that are
dry. If you are in the snow, burrow a hole just slightly larger than your body. If the sides
are too tight, the cold snow touching you will make you cold. Always try to keep your
body away from the bare ground, if at all possible. If you have a little air between you
and the snow, your body heat will reflect back and insulate you. The ground, and the
walls of your snow cave, has an unlimited supply of cold. You have only a limited supply
of warmth. In a head-to-head confrontation, you will lose.

Fire. Once you have found relief from the weather, you will need to keep the
temperature of your body at a constant rate. Fires are important. If you can, get a fire
going as soon as possible. The fire will provide heat, light, and emotional comfort.
The problem with fires is that without matches, or a lighter, you are subject to
your endurance and persistence. You have heard I am sure, that you can make fire with
two sticks, or by striking flint. In theory, this is true. This is a time consuming and
difficult task even with the proper tools and practice. To make fire from friction, you
simply have to get something smoldering, and then fan it into a full fledged flame. This is
much easier to say than do. If you have access to the video companion to this book, I
have demonstrated different ways to build a fire. There are many ways to get a fire going,
but they are all difficult if you have never seen them done, or practiced it yourself. Before
you get into a situation where you need this technology, practice and prepare. Just as in
many spiritual areas, if you wait until you need it, it may be too late.
If you build a short wall of rocks on one side of the fire, the smoke will go up on
that side, like a chimney, and leave you alone, in Theory. Everything works on paper, real
life is sometimes different.
 Hard woods such as oak, or cherry burn slower, and make less smoke. Pine and
other softwoods burn much faster, and smoke more. Dead wood that is still standing is
much better to use than wood that has been lying on the ground. The ground causes
moisture to soak into the wood and makes it more difficult to burn, because it is usually
damp.
Food. Once you have established a home base, with shelter and water, you can
turn your attention to finding food. You should have nourishing and good tasting food.
Oh sure, you could survive on bean sprouts and water, but how much fun would that be?
Years ago, I remember hearing about some people being trapped in a cabin in the
mountains, with no other food than bean sprouts and snow. They survived, but I
remember the papers saying they suffered from "appetite monotony " or something like
that.

Peace

"Peace" normally is understood as Peace of Mind. Years ago a man named Rabbi
Liebman wrote a book with the title of Peace of Mind. The Rabbi identified Peace as
being the most precious and valuable thing one could attain. He concluded that through
Psychology, Philosophy and other methods that this state could be achieved. However,
after his book was published " he was swamped with people seeking that peace... He tried
to help every person and he died in three years, at forty one."*
* All Things Are Possible Through Prayer by Charles L. Allen
To be happy, most people think that they must do something, or be somewhere, or
that the people around them will "make them happy". Happiness is something that must
not be allowed to come from external circumstances. You cannot allow yourself this kind
of thinking. If your happiness comes from the outside, then just as soon as you think you
are happy, the devil will send along some kind of problem, and poof, there goes your
happiness. This is a chink in your armor, and to defeat the enemy in this situation, you
must learn to draw your joy and happiness from your relationship with God.
Paul, the Apostle, in the book of Philippians, spoke about this subject. In
Philippians 4.11 he says, "I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be
content." In order to be content, you must be certain that whatever is going on will come
out for your benefit. The only other way to be content is to just not care at all. If you
reach this place of numbness, you are in real emotional danger. This is the type of thing
that happens to soldiers who have been in combat too long. They get to a place of
emotional numbness, and they think that they don’t care. What happens though is that
later they usually suffer from "delayed stress syndrome", or "Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder". When all the danger is gone, and they are trying to be normal, their emotions
are still in a "combat mode". This is a very dangerous and difficult situation. It is so much
better to lean on God, and to find Peace, instead of "checking out".
You must make yourself at home in your environment. As long as you are
struggling against it, you will have trouble. This is very important, you must force
yourself to slow down. Sit down, mentally, or physically if you have to, and purposely
make peace with the environment you are in. If you try to make the environment conform
to you, then you will fail. Realize that there are rules that exist in this environment, and
you must learn them before they kill you.
 One time I had some kids with me camping. I told them to build their shelters for
the night, and to tie them down well, because it was going to rain. Some of the kids didn’t
want to work on their tents and so when the rain came they got wet. You can bet that the
next night they made sure their tents were secure before they went to bed the next night.
For myself, there have been times when I have really been struggling, thinking
that I should be doing something, or trying to find the answers to why things aren’t
working out the way I thought they would. In those situations, God always reminds me of
the 23rd Psalm. "The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want." He reminds me that I
am a sheep, and sheep don’t have to figure everything out. The Shepherd has the
responsibility for feeding and caring for the sheep.
Have you noticed that 99% of our problems come from things that we either have
no control over, or from things that we are not supposed to have control over?
For example, if a woman feels like her husband is not accepting his role as the
father and husband, she feels like she has a problem. If the Boss is cranky and hard to get
along with, we think we have a problem. If we have done things in the past that we feel
guilt and condemnation over, we also might think we have a problem.
The truth here is that these things really are things we have no control over. I can’t
change my Boss, that’s not my job. I can’t change the past, all I can do is ask for
forgiveness. I certainly cannot change my Spouse, that is God’s job.
If I could change the situation, or fix the problem, I would have already done that.
So at this point you have to say to yourself, " I have done all I can do, now I humble
myself under the mighty hand of God and I just stand, waiting for the victory."
In all these things, my responsibility is to love others, and do to them as I would
have them do to me. The rest is completely up to God. The Holy Spirit is the Teacher of
the Church, not me.
Do you remember what Freddy Prinz used to say, on the TV show Chico and the
Man? He always used to say, "Ees not my job, man." Well, since ees not my job, man, eet
ees God’s job, so I need to back off and let Him do it. "Casting all your care upon Him;
for He cares for you." (1 Peter 5.7)

Shalom
The true meaning of Peace is contained within the Hebrew translation of this
word. The word "Peace" actually originates in the Hebrew language. This is the word
"Shalom". Shalom literally means "that condition of life when there is nothing broken, or
missing". When you have no real "needs", because everything has been provided, then
you have peace. The word "shalem", which is the "root" word for shalom is translated as
"whole". When you are "whole", with all your separate pieces together, then you have
"peace".
If you are a normal person, you realize that this condition does not actually exist
in the "Normal" world that we live in. There are only varying degrees of this condition,
and it is a very temporary situation.

the Covenant
. However, there is one exemption to this rule. This is when a Covenant Agreement
is made with a King. In return for your Obedience, the King agrees to provide all your
needs. There is a story about something like this in the Bible.
Once upon a time, King David had a Blood Brother named Jonathon, but some
bad guys killed Jon. One day David said, " Is there anybody from Jon's family still alive?
I want to do something good in Jon's memory." So, they went down to Lodebar and drug
Jon’s only surviving son up to the Palace. When they brought him into the throne room
he fell on his face, (he was crippled and couldn't walk) and he said, "What are you going
to do to me? I'm just a poor dog, don't hurt me!" Well David just ignored what he said and
announced something like "Are you Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathon? Okay, everyone
listen up, from now on this kid is going to eat at my table and wear my clothes, and you
had better treat him like a Prince, or else!" And so from that day on, the little crippled boy
never had to worry about food or clothes or nothin' ever again. And they all lived happily
ever after. You can read the story yourself in II Samuel chapter 9.

YHVH (Pronounced Yahweh, or Jehovah), who is the Supreme Ruler of the

Universe, has made available an Agreement whereby you and I can have our needs met,
just like Mephibosheth. . Whenever God says anything, it is a promise, because God
cannot lie. This Agreement is simply stated in the person of Y'shuah of Nazareth,
commonly known as Jesus. Instead of having to suffer through life trying to figure out
how to survive, the God who made all things, will show you everything you need to
know, and then show you how to get everything you need.

If you are wondering how He can do that then just hold on to your hat and keep reading.