Seven years ago, Jose's home nation of Venezuela, a wealthy and developed nation, fell apart suddenly. It failed economically, politically, militarily, agriculturally, socially and culturally. Jose had to move into the mountains just outside the border to survive.
He's writing about the experience because most of us in functioning societies don't know how quickly it can happen, and what a collapse is like.
He says: "Today, where the only law is the fear imposed by AK-toting guys, in unidentified vehicles, crime has increased in the countryside and in the cities. Restrictions on importation were lifted and those using foreign currency made huge fortunes importing from abroad."
"It saddened and alarmed me to learn from a farmer in the Los Andes Mountains that people would come from the town, walking kilometers uphill during the night, even when raining, to steal potatoes. Crops that have not yet matured are being dug out of the ground. Farmers have to sleep in their potato fields to avoid being stolen from. Unarmed, roving bands of four or more thieves have caused the farmers to arm themselves with machetes and pikes."
"The one thing Antifa absolutely cannot allow is reasoned debate and polite but firm disagreement. They categorically reject the idea that a Charlie Kirk might engage with the political process, convince and persuade, mobilize potential voters, win elections, and have his policy preferences implemented in a republic of ordered liberty.
"Instead, they use violence in hopes of forcing their opponents to join them in the political gutter. If you hire security to protect yourself, they’ll claim you’re a fascist using armed guards to intimidate your opponents. If you defend yourself when they attack you, they’ll claim you’re a white supremacist and seek to have you thrown in jail. If they murder you in cold blood, they’ll say it was an act of self-defense because your words are violence."
Kyle Shideler
"The resurrection is the pinpoint of my belief that Jesus did rise from the grave so that we may live."
"I worship a God that defeats evil... And we worship a God that wins in the end."
"Faith, quite honestly, is the true mark of a Christian life."
"The Bible is not up to date. It’s ahead of time."
“A man may be as poor as Lazarus, as hated as Mordecai, as sick as Hezekiah, as lonely as Elijah, but while his hand of faith can keep its hold on God, none of his outward afflictions can prevent his being numbered among the blessed.”
Charles Spurgeon