GOP HOPEFULS IN IOWA'S 8-WAY DEBATE -- for Just A Minute Radio on Friday 110812

Oh, boy how wonderful to have you checked in.

Just today I had correspondence via-e-mail with some Christian Friends in Wales where they are in the middle of their summer camping season – or more accurately will be coming to the end of it at the close of August.

It’s such a joy to know there are effective Christian witnesses working with camps and other church groups to shepherd young people into the protective fold of God – and especially to get instruction and help with understanding and committing these young folks into following God’s way for Godly living. May their tribe increase! They specifically ask that we recruit others who will pray for spiritual successes in this current world which needs the ministry of the Lord so urgently. I’m blessed just by being able to pray with them. And I know you will be too. (The U.K. at the moment seems to be under a crisis – perhaps ordered up by demonic forces. Resulting in destruction and damages to the innercities like London and Birmingham and others. – Pray for believers safety and ministry at this time please!)

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It’s been another very hot week with temps in the high 90’s on the Fahrenheit scale – the heat index (which is a combination of temperature and humidity moisture content) that adds another 5 or 6 numbers on the scale…makes it seem even worse. What’s nice is to get a nice cooling shower about mid-afternoon… which cools things down appreciably but does make it feel a bit like a steam bath. (J)

The other source of heat here in the US is the primary race that officially begins this week in Ames Iowa. It’s merely a ‘straw’ poll – but it’s a big one at the Iowa State fair grounds. Hundreds – or more accurately – thousands of people come. Saturday is the big day… and whoever wins the Iowa Straw Poll has (it is rumored) a leg-up toward winning the race to get the nomination.

I won’t go through all the steps and whatever else must happen. We are nearly 15 months away from the actual election… but one would think it was next week to watch the TV news. Election day for the current President and Congress is November 6^th 2012. The primary votes must be held in the various states yet… and even prior to that must come local elections to the organizational meetings at the County level… then the State level and *then* the national level… which I believe will come in July or August of next year… THEN the actual election. The Republican Party convention will be held just up the road in Charlotte, NC … which is the largest metropolitan area in the two Carolinas.

Well… no need to go into all that. I’ve said it before and will repeat. I wish we had a *much* shorter electoral process… but in this case I guess we really need the time to get organized so we can elect *someone* -- *anyone* (no – that’s not true) to be the next President. But this one has put us virtually under the jail of debt that will be dogging the steps of our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. So unless the Lord returns soon – our children and our children’s children will be living under this terrible load of debt irresponsible government leaders and politicians have set up to “help us.” Oh LORD – please help and protect us from such a fate.

Well… It’s between 1 and 2 AM because I stayed up so late to watch the debates from Iowa. It was interesting and I think we CAN make it out of this crisis as the Lord wills – or if HE chooses to return to earth and rule. But I need to turn in now.

Thanks for sharing with me this concern and for your prayers.

Cordially, IN HIM

Barbara & Jack Buttram

“JUST A MINUTE”

GOP HOPEFULS IN IOWA’S 8-WAY DEBATE

Just a Minute: Eight would-be primary challengers in the GOP presidential primary selecting a nominee against President Obama, squared off at the Iowa State Fairgrounds on Thursday night in a debate carried by FOX NEWS.

There was no clear winner but the top two in Iowa were Gov. Mitt Romney, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and then take your pick between Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Jon Huntsman, Jr., Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul.

In the category of “also running” add Rick Perry – Gov. of Texas who is apparently intending to cast his hat into the ring officially on Saturday when he makes an appearance in South Carolina and then journeys to Iowa where the Ames Iowa straw poll is being held that day. Others in the increasingly crowded field include former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who is scheduled just to drop by Iowa but has been shy about her presidential intentions; plus former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who has been flirting with a second White House run. And there are others…