How do we witness in the 'new normal'.

[reddogs]

We called our friends and family in the cities, and they are still being told it is too dangerous to do any kind of truly social interaction, or close contact with others, or coming together especially in a church or religious context. So how do we witness.

Well, we know for sure we can witness through what God has prepared for us in the last days, we are doing it right now. The vast domain of the 'world wide web' is open to us and has allowed us to share the "everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people".

So how do we witness in the 'new normal'?

 

[( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)]

Places are opening up now. And to be quite honest..If the apostles were beaten and told not to keep preaching in Jesus' name and then went back to the same spots they were arrested at, what does Corona have that the face of death and persecution doesn't.

 

[Gary K]

I have found that people who I would have never expected to want to talk about God are pretty much eager to talk about Him just because of how insane our nation and world have become. Just in casual conversations when the subject of the state of the world comes up religion/God isn't far away. A lot of people are looking for sanity and security and God is either at the top of their list, or not far from it.

In my area people aren't afraid of standing around and talking, and social distancing is ignored by the vast majority of people. The cops have come out and said they are not going to enforce it. So it's no big deal to talk. But then I always strike up conversations with people and then let it go wherever they want to conversation to lead or will ask them questions as to what they think is going on in our world today.

I don't go pushing tracts on people. I just try to strike up acquaintances/friendships. Then the ability to witness comes naturally.

 

[Monksailor]

New "normal?" It is just plain ABNORMAL, INHUMAN, almost sociopathic. THANK YOU CHINA! I do not know if I will ever get used to it. I might as well stay home and get my worship service online or TV. Without the social contact fellowship for me it will be no different. Cold and distant.

I speak as one who has no opportunity for such close contact in any other context other than with my spouse except for one or two trips across the country per year. Many sr. citizens are in this situation or worse with a passed spouse. they, we, have depended heavily, even exclusively, upon our church family for our loving social contact.

 

[Gary K]

New "normal?" It is just plain ABNORMAL, INHUMAN, almost sociopathic. THANK YOU CHINA! I do not know if I will ever get used to it. I might as well stay home and get my worship service online or TV. Without the social contact fellowship for me it will be no different. Cold and distant.

I speak as one who has no opportunity for such close contact in any other context other than with my spouse except for one or two trips across the country per year. Many sr. citizens are in this situation or worse with a passed spouse. they, we, have depended heavily, even exclusively, upon our church family for our loving social contact.

Sorry to hear that. I'm pretty much in the same position except I take two walks a day so my little dog gets his exercise and gets a chance to do his "duty". I live in a small town so it's not far to walk to find people to talk to. My little dog is the start of many of them as he only weighs 5lbs and a lot of people think he's pretty interesting. From there the conversations go in all kinds of directions.

I'd say the impositions on our liberties, which a lot of the leading immunologists say are not necessary and instead even harmful and cause this epidemic to last much longer than it needs to, are sociopathic/authoritarian in nature. They are hurting a lot of people.

I've actually met more people in my town during this insanity than I had before as I've done more walking and found the places people hang out and talk. But that's probably because of the luxury of having sane county law enforcement and county officials. They've been sane and not gone off on the power trip of enforcing rules that actually harm us and destroy our immune systems.

So other than my walks my only other social contact is online. To take up my time I do a lot of reading. I download a lot of books from The Gutenberg Project, The Online Library of Liberty, and the Internet Archive site. These are all books that are out of copyright so they are all free. As I've been a big time reader all my life I am not affected by being alone so much as I'm occupied by whatever book I'm reading at the moment.

 

[Monksailor]

I had a surgeon promise to remove the pain in my big toe metatarsal joint when I walked (a type of arthritis) w/o fusion: glove implant integrating with tissue and acting as "joint cartilage." I could barely make in and around a Lowe's or Meijer w/o needing a wheel chair from the accumulative pain of walking. After all of the grinding, drilling, and sawing prep work and installation, the glove dissolved (resorbed) leaving it back to bone on bone and he had cut or seurchered a nerve leaving me in more pain from walking than before now. I have been up to 1800 mg of Gabapentin (Strong epilepsy med), depressants, and etc at bedtime tryig to lower the pain enough so I can just get a good night's sleep. As a sr. cit I am deprived of being able to walk or run for exercise. it has been over 5 yrs and I am still struggling trying to find something to enable me to sleep all night through the pain. I would LOVE to be able to get out and walk. I can but if I do more than just a few hundred feet in a day I am screwed for the night. For some reason nerve pain gets worse at night esp if you aggravated it during the day.

 

[Hank77]

To take up my time I do a lot of reading. I download a lot of books from The Gutenberg Project, The Online Library of Liberty, and the Internet Archive site. These are all books that are out of copyright so they are all free. As I've been a big time reader all my life I am not affected by being alone so much as I'm occupied by whatever book I'm reading at the moment.

In my state, we have an online library where you can download ebooks and audiobooks. All you need is a library card from your local library. I've used it a lot but it's also been good for homeschooled kids.

 

[reddogs]

Places are opening up now. And to be quite honest..If the apostles were beaten and told not to keep preaching in Jesus' name and then went back to the same spots they were arrested at, what does Corona have that the face of death and persecution doesn't.

My wifes sister took food to their mother (who is compromise, wont get into it) in another city where she was having difficult getting the ethnic food as it was gone before she could get to the store to say nothing of the dangers faced while shopping. Then the office where the sister works was closed because her best friend had gotten the coronavirus. As you can see, even a good deed can go bad.

 

[reddogs]

I had a surgeon promise to remove the pain in my big toe metatarsal joint when I walked (a type of arthritis) w/o fusion: glove implant integrating with tissue and acting as "joint cartilage." I could barely make in and around a Lowe's or Meijer w/o needing a wheel chair from the accumulative pain of walking. After all of the grinding, drilling, and sawing prep work and installation, the glove dissolved (resorbed) leaving it back to bone on bone and he had cut or seurchered a nerve leaving me in more pain from walking than before now. I have been up to 1800 mg of Gabapentin (Strong epilepsy med), depressants, and etc at bedtime tryig to lower the pain enough so I can just get a good night's sleep. As a sr. cit I am deprived of being able to walk or run for exercise. it has been over 5 yrs and I am still struggling trying to find something to enable me to sleep all night through the pain. I would LOVE to be able to get out and walk. I can but if I do more than just a few hundred feet in a day I am screwed for the night. For some reason nerve pain gets worse at night esp if you aggravated it during the day.

My wife is staying away from further treatment or surgery for that reason. Very hard to choose what to do, a change in diet seems to be helping her.

 

[Gary K]

I had a surgeon promise to remove the pain in my big toe metatarsal joint when I walked (a type of arthritis) w/o fusion: glove implant integrating with tissue and acting as "joint cartilage." I could barely make in and around a Lowe's or Meijer w/o needing a wheel chair from the accumulative pain of walking. After all of the grinding, drilling, and sawing prep work and installation, the glove dissolved (resorbed) leaving it back to bone on bone and he had cut or seurchered a nerve leaving me in more pain from walking than before now. I have been up to 1800 mg of Gabapentin (Strong epilepsy med), depressants, and etc at bedtime tryig to lower the pain enough so I can just get a good night's sleep. As a sr. cit I am deprived of being able to walk or run for exercise. it has been over 5 yrs and I am still struggling trying to find something to enable me to sleep all night through the pain. I would LOVE to be able to get out and walk. I can but if I do more than just a few hundred feet in a day I am screwed for the night. For some reason nerve pain gets worse at night esp if you aggravated it during the day.

I am sorry to hear your story. Mine is similar but not the same.

I hurt my back in 1999 and until last year could not walk any more than you can. My pain levels would just keep on going up the longer I walked so I understand what you're going through. You have my sympathy.

I was finally able to walk again after 18 years. But during part of that time I was fed Gabapentin by a doctor for inflammation in my spine. Worst prescription I've ever taken. I stopped taking it because of how it was making me feel, and the doctor told me to just stop taking it. I did and the side effects of stopping it after a couple of years of using it without an extensive withdrawal from it was really, really bad.

I understand about pushing things too far. If I stayed on my feet too long my pain levels would get really high. I would be reading or using my computer and I'd find myself getting really light headed and dizzy. I'd find I had stopped breathing to brace myself against the pain in my back. Those types of experiences are not fun.

What you might begin trying are the natural anti-inflammatories like curcumin, bromelain, and ginger. Your getting a lot of inflammation from the bone on bone action in your toe, and the natural anti-inflammatories are really good at getting rid of inflammation without all the side effects of drugs like Gabapentin. When I first started walking a few blocks at a time again I got a case of plantar fasciitis in my right foot. It was so painful I could not put any weight on that foot at all. I started taking bromelain first and it helped some. I added ginger to that and it helped a little more. Then, and I hadn't heard of it before, I started using curcumin along with the other supplements and within less than a month the plantar fasciitis was gone and it's never come back.

I don't know if there are any interactions between Gabapentin and the supplements, but you might consider talking to your doctor about adding them to your treatment regimen as the long term effects of Gabapentin are not pretty and I think you would get a fair amount of pain relief through the natural anti-inflammatories. I certainly did. Plantar fasciitis is inflammation and it can last for a long time using prescription anti-inflammatories. One thing about them though is that, as with any herbal product, you don't get immediate relief. It takes a week or so before you begin to experience the effects you're looking for.

One other thought. Have you looked into some of the motorized scooters? I see quite a few people using them and if your insurance will cover them it might be a good way to give yourself some mobility so you can get outside and move around without pain. That would do wonders for your cabin fever.

 

[Refirened]

 

[Gary K]

My wife is staying away from further treatment or surgery for that reason. Very hard to choose what to do, a change in diet seems to be helping her.

I have moved away from the medical establishment in every way I can. I am using brewers yeast and intermittent fasting to control my blood sugar. It works as good as insulin for me without the major side effects. This wouldn't help a type 1 diabetic, but helps type 2 diabetics a lot. My blood sugar went down, from 400+ to averaging in the 140's within 2 months of starting to use it. No water retention requiring heavy use of diuretics, and best of all a lot of weight loss. I was taking 40 mg of furosimide twice a day, and now I might take one every two weeks if my legs happen to show swelling after I take my socks off at night. I use it very infrequently.

One note on the brewer's yeast. It's the chromium in the brewer's yeast that reduces insulin resistance. For some reason the chromium in brewer's yeast is far more bioavailable in it than in all other forms of supplementation, and by a very large margin. However not all brewer's yeast is the same any more. Debittered brewer's yeast has had the chromium taken out of it. And it seems also that companies are also growing their own so the yeast they produce doesn't have the chromium content of that produced by the grain and hops used in beer production. The one source I've found left, and I'm not saying there aren't others, is a company called Anthony's that sells quite a few supplements.

 

[Gary K]

In my state, we have an online library where you can download ebooks and audiobooks. All you need is a library card from your local library. I've used it a lot but it's also been good for homeschooled kids.

Our county library is like that too. However, the books I find at the sources I use I find fit my needs much better than any public library. At ours there is a whole lot of new age, witchcraft, and the like, books. What I find at the sources I use are a whole lot more wholesome. They are also mine, permanently. I don't have to return them as they are all ebooks.

I have downloaded books by the Protestant reformers such as Zwingli, Martin Luther, John Huss, John Knox, John Calvin, and a few others I don't remember off the top of my head. I've also gotten most of the writings of our founding fathers, and of Abraham Lincoln. All told I have more than 3100 books I've downloaded by 800+ authors.

The culture changes that all these out-of-print authors demonstrate when compared with today's writers is pretty amazing. Even in the area of fiction the writers around turn of the 20th century exhibited a lot of references to morality, a relationship with God, dependence on God and trust in Him. And these were the popular writers of those days. They wrote for the general public.

 

[Monksailor]

Gary K,
I stopped Gabepentin. It was screwing my head up so bad! For the last year or better I have been using the Capzacin creme, with sominex, with 2 Atrthritis Tylenol (1300 mg.) But it only works for a full night sleep about 25% of the time. I m very careful not to overdose on the Tylenol and sominex (use as perscribed) but rub in dab after dab after dab of the creme till the skin just won't take any more. This past week I have tried Voltaren Gel but it has only worked the first night and since for only 3-4 hrs ea night. The cremes demand MUCH care, focus, and attention for application and clean up. Or you could wake up with your eye burning out of its socket or worse in your groin as your contaminated hand moves around in your sleep. I cut the fingers off medical gloves, latex unavail now, to apply creme- one pair=10 nites. I do take other serious medicines which have unpredictable serious interactions with herbs and natural meds not worth the risk just to find out. Oh, about two months ago I had Lidocaine 5% pathes prescribed; did not help. Still looking. But I am still hopeful. At least I CAN do something after 3-4 hrs of interrupted sleep and get back to sleep; other folks are not so lucky.

I am glad that all of the home remedies are working for folks here as shared.

OH!, I am NOT immobile. I just cannot take a leisurely stroll and make friends along the way or spend time walking back from one side of the store to the other in Lowes or Meijer more than once which is hard with my case of CRS. I ride bike (for exercise; not slow and leisurely) and have swum but not recently. Once or twice a yr I might endure the consequences to play some tennis. I certainly get and walk my property but in the context of mission accomplishment for all of the work required around the place, not for pleasure. I will be eventually having the toe bones fused but that will not help the nerve damage and could aggravate it as sometimes when nerves are cut or damaged they regrow into a massive network which another surgeon may now have to cut through causing more of the same. I never needed a rolling chair but got close. I think that at night in sleep your pain tolerance goes to sleep, too, as your body relaxes and rejuvenates.

I am glad that you have found relief in those herbs and such. That is what Capzacin is: Cayanne Pepper extract prescribed by a doctor.

 

[Monksailor]

plantar fasciitis

Gary, I had that last year but not as bad as you. It only was after I woke up and first started walking. My doctor had me put a tennis ball under my foot and roll it around to loosen things up. It worked. Eventually the problem went away and has never come back. I do not know if it was the tennis ball or something else.

 

[Gary K]

Gary K,
I stopped Gabepentin. It was screwing my head up so bad! For the last year or better I have been using the Capzacin creme, with sominex, with 2 Atrthritis Tylenol (1300 mg.) But it only works for a full night sleep about 25% of the time. I m very careful not to overdose on the Tylenol and sominex (use as perscribed) but rub in dab after dab after dab of the creme till the skin just won't take any more. This past week I have tried Voltaren Gel but it has only worked the first night and since for only 3-4 hrs ea night. The cremes demand MUCH care, focus, and attention for application and clean up. Or you could wake up with your eye burning out of its socket or worse in your groin as your contaminated hand moves around in your sleep. I cut the fingers off medical gloves, latex unavail now, to apply creme- one pair=10 nites. I do take other serious medicines which have unpredictable serious interactions with herbs and natural meds not worth the risk just to find out. Oh, about two months ago I had Lidocaine 5% pathes prescribed; did not help. Still looking. But I am still hopeful. At least I CAN do something after 3-4 hrs of interrupted sleep and get back to sleep; other folks are not so lucky.

I am glad that all of the home remedies are working for folks here as shared.

OH!, I am NOT immobile. I just cannot take a leisurely stroll and make friends along the way or spend time walking back from one side of the store to the other in Lowes or Meijer more than once which is hard with my case of CRS. I ride bike (for exercise; not slow and leisurely) and have swum but not recently. Once or twice a yr I might endure the consequences to play some tennis. I certainly get and walk my property but in the context of mission accomplishment for all of the work required around the place, not for pleasure. I will be eventually having the toe bones fused but that will not help the nerve damage and could aggravate it as sometimes when nerves are cut or damaged they regrow into a massive network which another surgeon may now have to cut through causing more of the same. I never needed a rolling chair but got close. I think that at night in sleep your pain tolerance goes to sleep, too, as your body relaxes and rejuvenates.

I am glad that you have found relief in those herbs and such. That is what Capzacin is: Cayanne Pepper extract prescribed by a doctor.

Glad to hear you've gotten off of Gabapentin. It's one nasty drug.

I got in a wreck in 1976 in which I got a bad case of whiplash. Starting the next year I started suffering from migranes, and no doctor could help. They'd just look at me and shrug when I told them that codeine was worthless. What I found after a few years was capsaicin. I used to apply it to my forehead, temples, and the back of my neck, and it helped, but didn't stop the headache. Just made it close to bearable. I found out by experimentation that eating cayenne cooked into my food worked much better. I eventually turned to habenero peppers and eating a meal with quite a bit of habenero in it would completely get rid of my headaches. Worked like a dream, but I had to spice my food to the level that I would sweat while eating and produce quite a bit of burning in my mouth. But, milk does wonders for that. I ate like that for several years every time I got a migraine and eventually my migraines stopped. But those headaches were so bad that they scared me. Fortunately I haven't had a migraine now for going on close to 10 years.

As a side note the only way my fingers ever burned from applying capsaicin was when I didn't get it washed off thoroughly enough and I rubbed my eyes. That is not a good thing. Also, sweating with capsaicin on your forehead is not a good thing.

 

[Gary K]

Gary, I had that last year but not as bad as you. It only was after I woke up and first started walking. My doctor had me put a tennis ball under my foot and roll it around to loosen things up. It worked. Eventually the problem went away and has never come back. I do not know if it was the tennis ball or something else.

Yeah, there are a lot of different levels in which plantar fasciitis can affect a person. It can be very mild with just a little discomfort up to extreme pain and can last for a month to years if it is treated ineffectively. I've read where people have had it for years.

 

[Monksailor]

I had a nut fly through a stop sign once about '04 and t-bone me right behind me at the door jam. I was in a Geo metro and he had a big buick. His car flew me around at least a 360 and threw in someone's front yard but I never saw it. The impact whiplashed me and knocked me out. I was getting threropy and wore one of those electric shock boxes for a week or two but in order to work driving truck I had to sign off all treatments and say that I was OK. I did but I have had very tight and sore neck and shoulder area since which flares up periodically and I used to be able to crack my neck 3-5 cracks in both directions b4 the accident and now in only one.

About 35 yrs ago I used to get migranes so bad for a decade or so (sinus press, I think, but never medically dx'd) which would thow me into vomiting heaves. I could not tolerate the slightest sound or light and even then retrieved in dark room in bed I would have to have my wife rushing me to emergency. They would always end up giving me morphine. It always worked, too.

Eventually, I was prescribed Cafergut suppository, as I couldnt hold anything down orally. It would work if I administered in time. I think that they used it for pregnant women when they had problems w/pregnancy. I think it dialated arteries and veins.

 

[reddogs]

I have moved away from the medical establishment in every way I can. I am using brewers yeast and intermittent fasting to control my blood sugar. It works as good as insulin for me without the major side effects. This wouldn't help a type 1 diabetic, but helps type 2 diabetics a lot. My blood sugar went down, from 400+ to averaging in the 140's within 2 months of starting to use it. No water retention requiring heavy use of diuretics, and best of all a lot of weight loss. I was taking 40 mg of furosimide twice a day, and now I might take one every two weeks if my legs happen to show swelling after I take my socks off at night. I use it very infrequently.

One note on the brewer's yeast. It's the chromium in the brewer's yeast that reduces insulin resistance. For some reason the chromium in brewer's yeast is far more bioavailable in it than in all other forms of supplementation, and by a very large margin. However not all brewer's yeast is the same any more. Debittered brewer's yeast has had the chromium taken out of it. And it seems also that companies are also growing their own so the yeast they produce doesn't have the chromium content of that produced by the grain and hops used in beer production. The one source I've found left, and I'm not saying there aren't others, is a company called Anthony's that sells quite a few supplements.

I tried to move away and went almost to vegan, but the damage is too great, I am as they say a 'dead man walking'.

 

[Gary K]

I tried to move away and went almost to vegan, but the damage is too great, I am as they say a 'dead man walking'.

I am truly sorry to hear that. I will be praying for you. Nothing is too great for God to do.