God Bless America, Again: The Good Americans ~ Strangers Helping Others (Transcript)

God bless America again; you must know the trouble that she’s in. Wash her pretty face, dry her eyes and then. God bless America again.

Well, hello. This is Bob Barney with the Noontime Midday Plain Truth Today update and I started us out with a song by Bobby Bare, a 1960s, 70s, Country Western star singer…we do hope that God blesses America again.

Today I’m thinking that maybe God is blessing America again.

 The people that have fasted and prayed and want God in our lives and in this nation’s lives, maybe are being listened to.

I want to go over a few examples of help for the people of Hurricane Helene and how strangers have come to their aid. Strangers who believe in God, for the most part, I can guarantee you that, are going the extra mile in order to save people, their possessions, and much more. They are helping them rebuild and give them aid and comfort and everything!

 (1:30) Here is a story from New Jersey, of all places. Cody Coburn remembers the days after Superstorm Sandy devastated the Jersey Shore in 2012. I was in chest deep water for a week, said Coburn, who was only 16 at the time. He remembers that in the initial days after the Storm Sandy, the bulk of the help he saw was average people coming to the aid of those needing it and the worst destruction. As always, the federal government was the last to show up. Coburn also remembers how strangers stepped up to help him and his family after he had a horrible motorcycle crash in 2018 where he actually lost a leg. He was then only 23 and was a father of two, when his motorcycle collided with a Range Rover on a Saturday night on East County Line Road in Lakewood, New Jersey. Thousands of dollars were raised and donated to help him with his medical expenses even then. That’s why when Coburn’s sister told him about the devastation from the Tropical Storm, by then it was a Tropical Storm, by the time it hit the Carolinas, by the Tropical Storm Helene, he decided he had to do something. Coburn is now organizing donation collections and airlifts of items to North Carolina and South Carolina, where hundreds of thousands remain without power and need of critical necessities. Coburn’s sister, who works for the Woodruff Township Police Department in South Carolina, not far from Asheville, where some of the worst destruction has been, she is also near Greenville, South Carolina, and there has been significant damage there as well.

Tom said there are elderly and babies in that area, and they’re not going to have the power in that area for a month. Coburn, who is now 29, owns Cole Home Construction in Toms River, New Jersey, and he is coordinating, along with Jersey Aero Flying Club, where his cousin is a member, they’re flying donations and goods to the Carolinas, where they will be dropped out by helicopter to the people that are isolated and need it because of washed out roads and downed trees. Coburn said his sister has shared photos and videos from the area, and they show complete destruction, which we’ve all seen that now.

He said, Tom said, it’s like Farmingdale had 25 feet of water, the entire town has been washed away, unquote. 

One video in particular showing footage from cameras facing the river in one town was Harbridge, and homes go past the cameras floating down the river with what appears to be a family of four, mother, father, son, and daughter on the roof, Coburn said. Ironically, that turned out to be a grandfather, a grandmother, a daughter, and a little boy who died.

(4:34)  It’s a terrible story we mentioned earlier, and it still bothers me to this day, and yes, I do plan on having a story on that family later on. 

Story goes on and said, it struck a nerve with Coburn, who has suffered painful losses in the last six years himself. After treatment to recover from the loss of his leg in 2021, he and his high school sweetheart suffered the loss of their seven-week-old son who died of a bacterial infection in his lungs that causes heart failure. Coburn’s mother died just weeks after that. He said, I was in a really dark place. That’s why he was driven to help the victims of Helene.

He has been coordinating locally with the Surf City Volunteer Fire Department and others who are trying to bring aid to the people in the Carolinas. Six planes have been arranged through the Jersey Aero Club, with two headed to Greenville, South Carolina, and the other four to Asheville. Because so many areas are cut off with the roads destroyed, critical items are going to be airdropped by helicopter, said Coburn.

As of Saturday morning, and this is two weeks ago, two planes have flown from Lakewood toward the Carolina with donations. The items most needed right now are blankets and camping equipment. They are collecting medications such as Advil, Motrin, medical supplies like Band-Aids and bandages, flashlights, batteries, diapers of all sizes, wipes, baby wipes, baby food, baby formula. Feminine hygiene products including pads and tampons, toiletries, flushable wipes, powdered milk, non-perishable foods such as canned tuna, canned chicken, canned openers, granola bars, breakfast bars, dry cereals, and dog and cat food. Because there are many cats and dogs that need to be taken care of as well, as he pointed out. Donations can be dropped off at the Lakewood Municipal Airport, and he asked for other people to donate.

He was very happy to say that total strangers have come up to him and to the people in New Jersey asking if they could help themselves. 

In other stories, I’m going to go through a few stories here, and then I’m going to talk about God saving America again.

(6:52) Nate Fackler, an 18-year-old who’s only had his pilot’s license for one year has gone to the rescue.

And he is, even though he’s not from the area, flew in, and he is flying in materials and aid to people in North Carolina who needs help. He’s only 18 years old. He’s only had his pilot’s license for a year, and he is doing everything he can do to bring aid to the people who need it.

(7:27)  In another story, a Tennessee couple who went to North Carolina in order to celebrate their anniversary found themselves knee-deep in water and in Hurricane Helene. They found themselves in a very desperate situation. And the couple’s name, just read this, is Ben and Amanda Gibson, and they’re thankful to be alive. He said, you feel everything shake around you, and it was just everything was gone, and we were up to our necks in water. The two were celebrating their sixth wedding anniversary at the time when the storm struck. Amanda said, we were completely shocked. I was bursting into tears. When she opened the door, and there were two women there to help clean up and get them some help and aid, she said, their selflessness is everything. Two complete strangers showed up at our door, which was underwater, and we were sitting up on the second floor, and they came to help us. They’ve lost their jobs themselves. They have no work. They were maids at a local hotel without a job anymore, but they’re going around the community helping strangers to get what they need to get out of town or to get at least fed or clothing or blankets or whatever. And she said, to this day, I don’t know even who the two were.Many private pilots are flying in aid day and night, day and night, and it’s just amazing.

 (8:55) The last story I wanted to share about does touch home. As I have mentioned many times, my wife and I and family, we own a paint manufacturing company. We manufacture mainly automotive, marine, and aircraft paint, and we have many customers all over the United States. We have one particular customer in North Carolina, Shenandoah Junction, named Aaron Rains, who owns Shenandoah Metal Fabrication in Shenandoah Junction. He is a customer of Tamco, he uses Tamco products. He makes metal signs, metal flags, really nice patriotic items. Actually, if you guys want to help people that do good for others, take care of the little guy out there. Buy from the little paint companies. Buy from the neighborhood repair shops that are there to be honest for you. This guy here does a great job. He makes, like I said, he makes metal signs, metal flags for patriots, stuff like that.

Following Hurricane Helene, Aaron began gathering supplies to take down to North Carolina to offer some assistance for the devastated families of that storm. Aaron shared that while he was planning stages and in collection of things needed by the locals who have lost everything, if not everything.  Aaron’s young son named Kip asked his father, what could he do to help the kids in the area? He wanted to start collecting matchbox cars and then travel with his dad to Asheville and hand them out to other kids to show them that he cared and that he wanted to help. 

Kip is, by the way, a six-year-old kindergarten student from Lowry and set the goal of collecting 600 matchbox cars.

(10:43) Just to make a point here, we are going to have this story that I’m reading up on The Plain Truth today. It should already be there by the time this broadcast comes on in noon.  You can read all about it and you can read about the company that Aaron owns and what they do, with their telephone number. Like I said, I think Americans need to support other Americans who support everybody that needs help. 

Anyway, going on, Aaron said, I reached out to CJ Miller of CJM Industries in North Carolina and told him that my son wanted to help kids in that area with matchbox cars. Aaron went on to share that Kip wanted to personally share those matchbox and Hot Wheels cars with kids that were in need in the affected areas.

(11:27) When heading to North Carolina, Aaron said he reached out to George Henry of Hot Rods by George in Denver, North Carolina, who jumped on board and rounded up almost 500 matchbox cars in just a five-day period. Kid Will Plumbing locally donated the first $100 towards purchasing cars and to set Kip back on track for his first purchase of nearly 82 cars. Other donations came from Raymond Stubbs, Shenandoah Metal, which is Aaron’s company, John and Kathy Blue, CJM Industries, and North Carolina Foothills Die Cast Club, Constantine Kosmokogan, and Kenny Arnold, along with Hot Rods by George. These are people that are just small businesses and small, good people doing their best to help even the kids affected by this storm. Aaron shared that the venture was a success. Kip wants to continue to collect cars for another potential trip to North Carolina, as well as the cars for children in other areas that also face natural disasters.

(12:45) He would like to keep doing this down the road. This kid is six years old, by the way. Those who are interested in helping Kip and helping others can reach out to Aaron at Shenandoah Metal Fabfor details on donating the cars and his telephone number. And you can find this on the Plain Truth on today’s main page articles. His telephone number is area code 304-596-3535.

(13:01)  I just wanted to go on now for the rest of the program, just my take on everything that’s going on. As the show started out with God Bless America Again, because we need God to bless this country again. This country has fallen off its path. This country is in deep trouble with God, in my opinion. This country has thrown God out of its schools. It’s thrown God out of its courthouses. It’s thrown God out of its politics. Heck, last week, Kamala Harris, after a woman mentioned Jesus Christ, said, this is not the place to talk about Jesus Christ. That’s how popular God is with Democrats and Kamala Harris.

We should remember that during the election that’s coming up in just two weeks. 

 (13:52) The country as a whole, its leadership as a whole, has rejected God’s laws and God’s ways and God’s love. There are millions of Americans, however, who do love God, who actually do the work of God, and who come to the rescue of total strangers when that rescue is needed. I’m very proud to say that these Americans are probably what is keeping this country glued together long enough for God to save America again. Why do I say this? Because personally, and I’ve said this in other broadcasts that I’ve done, I don’t see why God should give America a second chance in the way that God is being treated by the leadership of this country and many of the Americans of this country.

 I believe in one of the last polls, nearly a third of Americans no longer believe in any God, and especially the God of Jesus Christ and the Father in Heaven. That’s a total shame. 

(13:39) We had, again, with Kamala Harris refusing to even go to the Catholic function, the Al Smith dinner the other night that Donald Trump went to, and that, again, it just shows the disdain for Catholics, for example. I’m not a defender of the Catholicism or the Catholic faith, as you know what I think, but the mainstream members of the Catholic Church are Christians and the participating ones who follow the will of God, who do love their neighbor, who do try to do best as they know best how to do, deserve to have respect. We have an entire political party that no longer respects the Christian religion or Christian people. They go out of their way to accept and adopt the ways of the Muslims, or of other faiths, or even no faiths at all, the communist manifesto type, no God idea, but they go out of their way again to insult people of faith, be it Protestants, Catholics, Christians of any denomination, you name it.

(15:52) Like I have said in the past, I don’t see why God should give America another chance, but because there are millions of Americans out there who this year have prayed for this country, have prayed for Donald Trump…I think maybe that kept Donald Trump alive, personally, through two assassination attempts. There were people who also have fasted and prayed on June 14th. There was a national day that we really promoted of fasting and prayer on June 14th, which was Flag Day and Donald Trump’s birthday, to fast and pray for the salvation of America, that America admits their sins to God and does something about it.

That is to turn around, pray to God, fast, and ask for forgiveness. The Bible is clear. God is clear. If Americans, or if just you ask God to forgive what you have done wrong, God is true to forgive you. God wants a repentant heart and someone who believes in the laws of God and to obey those laws. It is that simple. So I think enough people in this country have petitioned God for the salvation of this country. I believe, and we’re going to see this in two weeks, I’m predicting right now, and I’ve said so for the last month and a half, I believe this is going to be a blowout election because I think there are enough Americans who are crying about what is going on in this nation under the Democrat rule, which has kicked God out of this country and who are trying to kick God out of all of our lives. I think enough people have petitioned God through fasting and prayer that this is going to be a major turnaround election and America is going to be in good graces with God again, at least for another four years.

(17:43) Maybe if after Donald Trump, J.D. Vance becomes president for eight more years and enough good Republicans and maybe some good Democrats will wake up and kick the people out of their party that have destroyed their party, who have been anti-American, pro-communist, pro-Muslim, and pro-European, that these people get thrown out of the Democratic Party and the Democrats return to a party that cares about America first. 

(18:20) You know, when I was a kid, I didn’t always agree with the liberal Democrats, but those Democrats at the time did put America first. FDR was a liberal Democrat, but FDR allowed no American troops in World War II to go under commands of the British or the French or any other nation. As a matter of fact, all other nations had to go under the command of two American generals. In the Pacific it was General Douglas MacArthur and in the European War it was Dwight David Eisenhower who would later become president of the United States. So, there was a time when Democrats did put America first before other countries’ interests. Unfortunately, that went away and so many Republicans have followed suit, by the way. The RINO Republicans, the George Bushes and the George Bush Juniors, or King George I and King George II, as I like to call them. They themselves were globalists who put the efforts into what was best for the globalists of this world before what was best for the American people. 

.(19:16) George Bush, both of them, got us into wars in Iraq and the Middle East that we should have never been in, and because of that many Americans were killed, maimed, and their lives destroyed to this day because we’re fighting wars of globalism and not for what was best for Americanism. Donald Trump has put an end to that, and if he’s re-elected, and I believe he will be re-elected, he will put an end to these foreign wars. These very wars are ones that are draining the blood of patriotic, good American kids that need to have a full, good life of 70, 80, 90 years and not turn out dead at 19 years old in some foreign desert; fighting a war they have no right, no good reason to be in. 

That’s why I think it’s time for the American people to realize that God is taking a stand in this country, and God is going to allow people’s prayers to save this country to be fulfilled. I think we’re going to see the miracles already that have started happening. 

I think for Donald Trump’s life to be saved, especially in Pennsylvania, and some of the other things that’s happened, shows God’s hand. 

I actually believe these hurricanes have shown God’s Hands.

(20:36) You would say, how would God want to send hurricanes and kill all these people in order to save America? Well, one of the things you can say is maybe God didn’t send the hurricanes, but what God did do was allow those hurricanes to do what they did and to show two different states, for example. We got to witness Florida versus North Carolina. A Florida Republican governor versus a North Carolina Democratic governor who basically stayed in Raleigh for a while and waited for FEMA, where the Florida Governor DeSantis took action immediately on his own and did not wait for FEMA.

(21:16) The good news about all of this and what this program is really about today is that the regular person out there, the Mary and the Joe, the American citizen of all races, of all classes, rich, poor, alike, came to the rescue of total strangers because they themselves believe in a God that requires us to do good works and to do good things and to be a kindly neighbor to those who need a help up. I think it is not very hard to comprehend the idea when Jesus Christ said when you are taking care of the poor among you, the downcast among you, or those starving among you, you’re taking care of Me.  I think when people who are, like I said, total strangers come and rescue people that are knee-deep in water, and I read another story before preparing for this show, how many first responders died in this storm, Helene, trying to help people, it restores faith to a degree of human kindness and obedience to God. Unfortunately, some drowned and some were swept away in their patrol cars, one fire chief, I believe in South Carolina, I think it was South Carolina, I read, had a tree fall on his truck as he was driving down the road and it killed him instantly. There are many first responders, people who didn’t think of their own safety, who jumped into the water!

 (22:46) There was a story I saw the other week, a video I watched, of a guy jumping into the water, raging water, to save a woman who was drowning, and he saved her yet he himself could have been swept away. The river was raging, the water, it looked like I could not get through that water as bad as it was, and he got out there and he rescued that woman, a total stranger he did not even know. 

This is what God requires.

Jesus said to lay one’s life down for your neighbor is more important than to keep your life at any expense.

 That is not being godly. 

(23:28) So anyway, I wanted to give a plug to some of these heroes out there. I wanted to also give a personal plug to Aaron and his business and his son for doing what they’re doing, Tamco Paint Customers, that uses our product, that makes good, like I said, good metal objects for you, flags and all kinds of things you want. You name it, you can ask him to do it for you. He’s done it his whole life. He’s an expert at it, and he can do a good job, and he’s a small American business that needs our help. 

I always say, you know, when I got into the paint business in 1980, there were about 116 automotive paint companies that manufactured automotive paint in America. The Big Five, which are still in extant today, had about a 20% or 25% market share. Now we’re down to only 14 real paint manufacturing companies in America that make automotive paint. Of those 14, the Big Five have a 99% market share. Us little guys out there are divvying up that 1% market share. It’s time that American people vote with their feet and with their dollars as well. Don’t go to the big box stores all the time. Try to find local neighborhood stores and people and businesses to support because they’re the people in your community that’s going to come to your aid when you’re in trouble, and they’re going to come to the aid of total strangers when they’re in trouble. It’s time that America remembers small businesses. 

You know, American Express, to their credit, which Tamco Paint has always participated in, has Small Business Saturdays, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, where people are asked to buy from small businesses. You know, after Black Friday when everybody goes to the Walmart’s and the Best Buys and to the Targets, Saturday comes along, a day later, and American Express asks people to support small, local, family, usually family-run businesses.

(23:36) Like I said, Tamco Paint has been participating in that since 2017. We’ve done very well doing that. As a matter of fact, some years we did so well we couldn’t even get the products out in a timely manner because we had so many orders. That is little people taking care of other little people, and that will make America great again, and that will also keep God looking at us and deciding, You know what? I think I’m going to let these people slide. I’m going to forgive their sins, and I’m going to rebuild their country, and I’m going to make them a godly country again, and I will be their God, and they will be my people. 

That is what we need to do. We need to pull together. 

We need to believe in the real God, and the real God is found in your Bible.

  (26:11)  It’s not found anywhere else. You can look and read any book you want to read. You can read the Encyclopedia Britannica. You can read every novel that’s ever been written. However, if you don’t read the Holy Bible and understand who God is, because God is Jesus Christ, the Lord God of the Old Testament, and God the Father, who is the God that is hidden in the Old Testament and revealed by Jesus Christ in the New Testament. There’s a reason why Jesus said, no man has ever heard or seen the Father at any time. If so, who did Moses see? Who did David talk to? Who did the prophets listen to? It was the God who is the I Am Who I Am. Tell the people that I Am has sent you. Just go to John 8 and see what Jesus says about Himself when He said, Before Abraham was, I Am. He was revealing that He is the God who wrote the Ten Commandments with His own finger, who talked to Moses, who was the best friend of a prophet, and a patriarch called Abraham. By the way, He could be your best friend, too. He can be your God and Savior and everything else if you ask Him to be.

This country, I think, has saved itself by its little people praying to God for salvation, for forgiveness, and for help. God will respond favorably to the people of a nation who ask for God’s guidance. It’s about time we get rid of those politicians and leaders and businesses who do not want to accept the God of Heaven, Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father, and it’s about time that the American people stick together with other small businesses who share the same goals and the same God.

This is Bob Barney for The Plain Truth today, saying I do thank you all for listening. I do appreciate the emails that I get, and I do appreciate you all on a special level as you know, we do this on a little budget. Nobody’s sending me any money, and don’t think I’m asking for money because I won’t accept your money. If you’ve got money to give, give it to the people in North Carolina who need it right now, or Florida, or Tennessee, or South Carolina, or Georgia, or Alabama. Please do not send anything here because we won’t take it. We’ll send it back to you. This is my tithe to God, this broadcast. What little bit I can do to help God’s Word along, I want to do it. 

(29:24) Remember, God is news. The Plain Truth is not a religious site. It is a news site. But God is the biggest news maker, newscaster, and news predictor of all time. Whatever God says will happen, will happen. He says so in the words of his Bible which is the love letter to you and me, that He cares, that They care. They care about our well-being and the well-being of this nation. If we continue to go to God in prayer, and fasting, and by doing good works, God will listen, God will heal, and God will bless. 

Until tomorrow on The Plain Truth Today, brought to you by theplaintruth.com, saying goodbye, and thank you for listening.

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And so that’s where I’m going to leave it for this Friday wrap-up.