Fixing fences

There is a sequence of scenes in the movie Facing the Giants where a man walks into the high school football coach's office unannounced and quotes a bit of scripture at him. The man who walked into the office works at the (Christian) high school and prayed over each student's locker, asking for God's intercession. We will call him The Chaplain even though the movie never really defines his role.

The coach thinks for a few seconds and then pursues The Chaplain and asks for clarification. Not only is the coach's team struggling, he is facing problems in his marriage.

The last 45 seconds of the clip, starting at 1:15, The Chaplain explains why praying isn't enough.

"There two farmers who desperately needed rain for their crops to grow. Although both farmers prayed for rain, only one of them went out and prepared his fields to receive it.  

The Chaplain asked, "Which one trusted God to send the rain?" 

The Coach responded, "The one who prepared," 

"God will send the rain when He's ready. You need to prepare your fields to receive it," says Mr. Bridges.

Fixing fences

In my case, preparing the fields means getting the fence ready to receive calves.

As an example of high-speed karma, the trailer I repaired is sometimes borrowed by a local cattle farmer to transport calves to market.  Obviously, with a hole in the floor it was not going to be much use to him.

He received word that A.) The trailer was fixed, B.) I was the guy who did it, C.) I was in the market for two calves. 

Information also flowed in the opposite direction. I was given his phone number and informed that he might have a (one) calf to sell me.

I was walking in my pasture with tools in hand when I got a text from him that started "I'm fixing to get busy so now would be the best time to call me"

We talked for a bit. Yes, he does have one calf that is not spoken for. He told me the breeding (mostly Angus), the weight and the price. I verbally committed to buy it.

The dominoes are falling in a very good way.

"El-Sayed will Protect Healthcare"

I picked up the anvil on Wednesday. That involved driving from Eaton Rapids to Mount Pleasant, Michigan. That is a drive of about 90 miles.

Interstate 27 had been carpet-bombed with el-Sayed billboards.

Because they were on a rotation of three, basic signs, I had time to read the small print as I passed each one, a few words at a time.

"El-Sayed will Protect Healthcare"

The fine print elaborated that he will, specifically, protect Medicaid.

Upon returning home, I learned that Medicaid eligibility will have some strings attached staring in 2027. The able-bodied slacker living in his mother's basement will have to work at a job (a requirement that will not impact the working-poor) -or- show up for 80 hours of volunteer work a month or be a full time student of training.

These requirements do not apply to parents of young children or a few other, narrow carve-outs.

So the implication is that he will support the people who think that they are too good or too delicate to work (or too proud to volunteer) at the expense of the guy/gal who is working his ass off, paying taxes and paying rent or making a house payment.

Implications 

The practical implication of the new Medicaid requirements for many of my readers is that starting January 1, 2027 there will be a vast increase in the number of people who will be motivated to volunteer. 

Many of you are affiliated with a church, a food-pantry or a school. Rather than be caught flat-footed when people start asking to volunteer, you can put some thought into the "problem" ahead of time and skim the cream-of-the-crop as they show up by already having your volunteer-work configured to match up to the applicants' requirements.

By my reckoning, the first people to show up will be the choicest workers. The organizations that are not prepared to use them in January will lose them to organizations that had more foresight.

Consequently, you might want to spend the next couple of months thinking about how you can productively engage a volunteer(s) for 20 hours a week*. Perhaps they can be "Reading Buddies" for young students. Perhaps they can do basic lawn-mowing and grounds maintenance. Perhaps they can team-up with an elderly driver and make food deliveries.

A couple of the details of the requirements come into play. 

One is that hours from several different organizations can be blended to hit the 80 hours-a-month requirement so several churches (for instance) can pool their needs to provide the required number of hours. 

Another consideration for the "Reading Buddies" is that the position becomes more attractive if it is year-round gig rather than just during the school year, otherwise, the volunteer must scramble to find another gig through the summer.

* Volunteers who are not engaged in productive work become behavior issues. Better to engage them for ten hours a week of always-have-something-to-do than to engage them for twenty hours with ten hours of stand-around time.