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MALPacks!


Tom Strange
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I mentioned MALPacks on another thread and WG said that she'd never heard of them...

So I'm setting up this topic for folks to tell us what they know about "More Abundant Life Packs"...

What was the logic/theory behind them?

What did you have in yours?

Do you still have yours?

And anything else you care to share... thanks to all!

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Tom,

I had actually heard of MALpacks in context of the turn of the century from 1999-2000, when computer systems all over the world were supposed to crash, turning off all communications, electricity, causing ships to crash due to lack of satellite guidance systems etc. However, on the Norway murders thread, it sounds like there was a conspiracy theory in place in 1979-80 also. That is what confuses me. As I mentioned before, we were in Athens, Ohio at that time, when the Live PFAL class or Advanced Class or whatever was held there, and though I didn't attend all of the sessions, (we had a houseful of strangers to deal with) I certainly never heard of any such danger of invasion and destruction.

Since we left in 1996, we didn't get in on the universal panic that apparently prevailed in 1999, all for naught since none of this ever happened.

WG

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I never actually had a MALPack, Tom, unless you count a pack of 'Boros and plenty of Steve Miller.

Living in California, our current earthquake preparedness "MALPack" is developed to support our family for a week in the event services go south, literally. That's defined as a level of subsistence that's shy of a hot shower everyday, but definitely more than a plastic bag raincoat. I think we're looking good for 3-4 weeks depending on how the canned chicken and stuff holds out.

What I recall about the MALPacks was to have the ability to pick up and skin out quickly and be able to manage a level of survival in the event of some kind of catastrophe. I think there was some concern about Liberal Gay Democrats trying to take over, etc. etc. :biglaugh:

I didn't anticipate that kind of thing happening, practically speaking, so I never worried about it. In New Knoxville I was more worried about Townies stealing stuff out of my car than Commie takeovers.

Shoot, that kind of takeover mentality is probably more suitable for today's security conscious environment than it was then. More likely today than back in the 70's.

But the idea of being ready for the unexpected has stuck with me and been a valuable foundation for getting strategy and tactics in place to deal with my Dadly responsibilities.

Edited by socks
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That's defined as a level of subsistence that's shy of a hot shower everyday, but definitely more than a plastic bag raincoat. I think we're looking good for 3-4 weeks depending on how the canned chicken and stuff holds out.

Mr. Socks not to worry that shower thing is a breeze, you just need one of these toss the hose in the nearest water supply and you have hot showers. add a large tank and you can setup business for the neighborhood.

Here

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Those look pretty nifty Whitedove! Usable under many circumstances. Have you ever used one?

MALPack = "Maladjusted pack", since if it weighed over 60 pounds or so, you could plan on getting bent out of shape.

:rolleyes:

Exactly... since the prefix "mal" means BAD.

I never really bought into the notion that we'd need emergency supplies... and this, btw, is hardly unique to twi. My ex succumbed to the prosyletizing of the mormons while we were engaged in divorce litigation. She was taught to keep a year's worth of food and other stuff on hand in case of some unforeseen catastrophy. Until Katrina, I just thought that was nuts.

I don't think it's nuts any more... but I still don't have that kind of provision on hand.

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The mal pack "situation" was nothing more than a contrived training excercize. I was in residence when this happened...we were placed into survival groups and were told that an attack was imminent. They spent months on this thing...teaching us how kill and skin animals and survive in the wilderness...it was all bogus...they never believed it themselves...how do I know this?...because the corps grads on the field were never told a thing about it...at least the 6th corps grads who I talked to at the roa that year didn't know a thing about it.

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By the time I graduated from the 11th - the folks on the field had stored up dehydrated food by the truckload. It was rediculous! A family of 4 had a 5 gallon bucket of dried scrambled eggs. That's A LOT of scrambled eggs!

Why do I keep thinking that some muckety-muck MOG owned stock in some company that had hiking supplies on their inventory? <_<

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Those look pretty nifty Whitedove! Usable under many circumstances. Have you ever used one?

MALPack = "Maladjusted pack", since if it weighed over 60 pounds or so, you could plan on getting bent out of shape.

:rolleyes:

I have Socks, I have one that I use camping, add the popup shower stall and your ready to go......

For families I sugest this model

Here

And to keep the toes clean during the shower

Here

Oh yes and as long as your packing the MAL -trailer since the situation may look dismal I sugest one of these as well to improve your outlook on things. They work well........

Here

Edited by WhiteDove
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The mal pack "situation" was nothing more than a contrived training excercize. I was in residence when this happened...we were placed into survival groups and were told that an attack was imminent. They spent months on this thing...teaching us how kill and skin animals and survive in the wilderness...it was all bogus...they never believed it themselves...how do I know this?...because the corps grads on the field were never told a thing about it...at least the 6th corps grads who I talked to at the roa that year didn't know a thing about it.

I was there too Groucho, and we were not told that "an attack was imminent". We were told that if the economy collapsed (this was '79 remember, when interest rates were in the double digits under Carter), there would be anarchy all across the country, people would be hungry and riot in the streets, and that The Government would have to round up all the guns and put everyone in FEMA type camps in order to restore order until the economy was cleaned up. But of course we in The Way Corps had prior knowledge of this looming disaster, and if we were prepared to "abound in the wilderness" (remember that class?) with our MAL Packs, They (the Gubmint) would not be able to stop the movement of the Word and enslave those in this world ( we-The Way Corps) who were the sole owners of the accurate knowledge of God's Word.

And also, if we did PREPARE for the coming disaster, then the Devil most likely wouldn't pull off the Economic Collapse after all, for, "Why bother? The most important people who are the Wisest of all, the ones I (the Devil) am trying to wipe out, will already be safe and in hiding". And so, since it didn't happen after all, that's how The Way Corps saved the World. But, it wasn't from "an attack", but rather from the Economic Collapse that would cause the Gubmint to force us to give up our liberties and our guns "just for a little while". I guess you could call it a "spiritual attack" Groucho. My group and I were going to go and survive in some silver mines near Creed, Colorado. And hey, it was fun being a Mal Pack Leader. I had a whole bunch of good lookin' gals in my Mal Group. Maybe if, like, the whole population of the World got wiped out, I might of like had to make sure that there were enough "believer babies" by doin' a little extra curricular pro-creatin ........(evil grin)

Edited by Jonny Lingo
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I was there too Groucho, and we were not told that "an attack was imminent". We were told that if the economy collapsed (this was '79 remember, when interest rates were in the double digits under Carter), there would be anarchy all across the country, people would be hungry and riot in the streets, and that The Government would have to round up all the guns and put everyone in FEMA type camps in order to restore order until the economy was cleaned up. But of course we in The Way Corps had prior knowledge of this looming disaster, and if we were prepared to "abound in the wilderness" (remember that class?) with our MAL Packs, They (the Gubmint) would not be able to stop the movement of the word and enslave those in this world ( we-The Way Corps) who were the sole owners of the accurate knowledge of God's Word.

And also, if we did PREPARE for the coming disaster, then the Devil most likely wouldn't pull of the Economic Collapse after all, for, "Why bother? The most important people who are the Wisest of all, the ones I (the Devil) am trying to wipe out, will already be safe and in hiding". And so, since it didn't happen after all, that's how The Way Corps saved the World. But, it wasn't from "an attack", but rather from the Economic Collapse that would cause the Gubmint to force us to give up our liberties and our guns "just for a little while". We were going to go and survive in some silver mines near Creed, Colorado. And hey, it was fun being a Mal Pack Leader. I had a whole bunch of good lookin' gals in my Mal Group. Maybe if, like, the whole population of the World got wiped out, I might of had to make sure that there were enough "believer babies" by doin' a little extra curricular pro-creatin ........(evil grin)

How come they didn't save us from Bush/Cheney...er, SADAAM and Al Qaida? ...oops, sorry, strike that last... don't want this to have to be transferred to the politics forum! :biglaugh::confused::biglaugh:

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I had never heard of MAL packs until I started posting here.

There was, however, a lot of conspiracy, takeover, catastrophe talk in the mid-1970s, right around the time of the Bicentennial.

In Fellow Laborers we grew most of the vegetables we consumed in a very large garden that was "worked" by approximately 40- 45 people.

Watered Garden's hubby did an outstanding job of coordinating that effort during his tenure.

We had a food co-op and made our own familia(in garbage cans) and mayo and sprouts and so on.

I can recall two incidents that resembled the MAL pack mentality.

Episode #1(approx. 1975-76) involved a special work detail which was assembled with a great sense of urgency and gravity, which was entrusted with the task of destroying the mimeograph plates used to print labels for the statewide newsletter. We wouldn't want the names of "believers" to fall into the hands of some "unscrupulous government branch or invading force", now would we? :rolleyes:

Episode #2 involved the excavation of a root cellar in the side of a hill to store the bounty of our garden over long periods of time.

The walls were never shored up.

The first big soaking rain we had resulted in the total collapse of the "hole".

That, in and of itself, had the potential for turning into a GENUINE disaster.

Happily, no one was injured in the accident.

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I dunno Jonny. I was there as well and I don't remember it exactly as you did. I do remember a real sense of urgency. We watched "Red Dawn" for inspiration. (Go Wolverines! <_< )

There was an undercurrent of impending danger. We were told how "disaster was avoided" in 1976 - but then again, given that vp made a big deal in pfal of how a prophet would predict how to avoid a disaster, it does seem like the smarter way to have gone. After all, it does look better to "take action" to avoid impending doom that it does to wear running shoes and sweats before drinking Kool-aid to join the mothership just before the (cough) end of the world. ;)

When the "doom" didn't come - we all got to say it was because of us. When the mothership didn't come to rescue her followers from the end of the world - well we would have pointed and laughed at their funny outfits, but they wouldn't have noticed.

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I was there too Groucho, and we were not told that "an attack was imminent".

Whatever...it was some kind of contrived bullsh *t story...I won't argue the details of what catastrophy awaited us...but it was enough to scare the bejezus out of a lot of people. I know that Wierwille's connections to the John Birchers played a role in it...

...and leave it to Jonny to squeeze his infamous "sexual prowess" into this thread...no matter what the subject, Jonny always finds a way to work his sexual proclivities into the context...I'm not sure why a married man is so preoccupied with discussing his sexual fantasies every chance he gets, but it really does start to wear thin for me...talk to Honalee lately?

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Oh man, I remember that root cellar. The story I heard was that JM forgot to get building permits, and since a root cellar is in fact a building of sorts, the closest next door neighbor reported it and he got told to shut it down. (Didn't anyone tell you the neighbor was born of the serpent's seed?)

I also remember JM having a shyt fit about someone stealing his address book or something (probably his then wife) and how the devil could use it to harm believers.

Now.....

Thanks to Jonny Lingo for the info re the reason for the 1979 or so crap. I strongly suspected when I read a reference to it on the "Norway" thread that we mere humble peons were to be the sacrificial lambs, left for slaughter while God's holiest headed for the hills to preserve the ministry. Thanks a lot, y'all. I could have died in a concentration camp, happy and secure in the knowledge that my suffering and death had delayed the heathen hoards of the US Government from rounding up y'all and snuffing out the shining light of PFAL.

And you wonder why I don't trust leadership types.

WG

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I thought the whole ministry knew. I know my relatives and friends on the field - non corps, were all "stocking up." Believers sold their homes, bought huge supplies of grain, etc. I think in some parts of the country everyone knew.

Maybe it depended what state you were in and what the leadership in that state decided people should or shouldn't know.

I remember everyone, not just corps, was talking about it and preparing.

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Absolutely ! All of the fellowship coordinators here met and had alternative plans of action. We had mapped out routs both on main and off-road routs for different time frame scenarios a few hours to a day. Each coordinator took an area of expertise to study, shelters, food storage, defense, survival skills ,first aid, and so forth. The information was compiled and distributed to each a copy.

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I think that the rechargable blender would go good with my stock of home brewed rum.

A little rum, some fresh coconut milk, a lot of ice and a nice "chilled" extra tall glass to put it in...........................OOOOOOPPPPPPPPPSSS!

Sorry about that :redface2: , Guess i got a little carried away.

BAD danteh1 BAD BAD :evildenk:

Edited by danteh1
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Well if I have limited electricity, I'm gonna use it for music I think. Those blenders are power hungry, and I can mix drinks without a blender ... just sayin' :beer:

But most important, how do I get my internet fix ... will they have Wi-Fi in the woods? And don't tell me I'll have to play card games with a real deck of cards ... :o

I was in New Orleans with power out for a couple of days, and most of the city had vacated ... it was kinda cool since the storm missed us, though we had nice big waves and 55 mph winds. Still before it turned, I had a very real feeling that I might need my gun with services down and people vacating. Not for hunting but for protection.

But during Katrina, which I missed, cops were taking guns away from citizens ... not sure what happened with that legal challenge.

Now in rural Illinois, I still need a generator and supply of gas ... but we didn't lose power the last few ice storms, though many did. But I have wood and food, and I guess if things got real tough, hunting these cows would not be that hard. :biglaugh: And there are 3000 bushels of milo in the bin. And 50 gallons of wine in the basement ...

well, now don't all show up at my house in an emergency ... I don't take American Express ... :evildenk:

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Well if I have limited electricity, I'm gonna use it for music I think. Those blenders are power hungry, and I can mix drinks without a blender ... just sayin'

Agreed if thy were plugged into the power grid. but the blenders have a battery pack so once it is precharged it will take no power to use that which is already in the pack Which was the purpose for having a portable blender. Besides I can't whirl that ice as fast as it. :wink2:

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