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Thursday, February 28, 2019

Frozen Key Lime Pie on a Stick!


Well, I am writing to you from beautiful Key West, Florida this morning. We closed a great revival and had a few days to kick back and chill. We wanted to go to the south Pacific, but we only have a few days and did not want to spend most of our time on a plane. We decided a quick little jaunt to Key West would be perfect. Odie took a plane to Ohio and we headed toward the sunshine.

I find myself watching the waves roll in while sitting on the patio of a little beachside cottage. I glance down at the neglected blog I am trying to type on my laptop and notice my tie has pictures of green and blues striped oysters and clams on it. Where did I get this tie? Did I wear this tie to church? 

A tie? I find myself wondering, Why do I have a tie on? I am dressed in my suit and tie with flippers on my feet and snorkeling equipment on my head. I am just now noticing what a weird combination that is when a rogue wave crashes over the low seawall and
Awwwwwwwkellyjoooooooooohelpmeeeee!!

Wow! That dream did not end so well!

I must say that dream is a whole lot better than some of the nightmares I have been having about buses. 

While the bus was running good a couple of weeks ago, I dreamed I was laying down behind the bus and someone reached up in the engine compartment to see if it would start. It started in gear and lurched forward. 

Kelly was close by so she jumped into the bus to steer around other vehicles and people in the campground. She did not even think to hit the brakes, just steer. I started immediately running at an angle to meet the bus on the trajectory she was going. I was jumping over hedges and flying like a deer. As I reached the door, she saw me there and jumped out as I jumped in.

I immediately hit the brakes, but I had the tent trailer hooked behind and I crashed through a small barrier and was headed down a steep hill. I pushed the lever for the trailer brakes and it looked like I was going to get stopped before I blew through a red light and four lanes of traffic at the bottom of the hill. That is when I woke up in a cold sweat.

Bus dreams are actually catching. I am not the only one having them. A dear friend told me the other morning that he was worn out. He and I had crawled all over the bus all night long in his dreams tracing wires and checking voltage, but had not found the problem.

I guess I could talk about reality.

Reality is that I am trying my best to concentrate so much on trying to have revival that I find myself having a hard time launching into a full scale description of the latest bus saga. I told the church in Ellisville that I want to be an instrument of revival and I have a hard time doing that by talking about the bus all the time. My nerves do so much better when I concentrate on praying and preaching.

Back to more dreams of Key West and frozen Key Lime Pie on a stick!


Thank you for reading today.

Davy

Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Vintage View Vednesday Washington State 2005

Real Time
We are having a wonderful revival in Ellisville this week and enjoying God's people and God's blessings. Little Sadie is doing very well and we "think" we are making progress on the BoggsMobile. Still Praying.

Back In Time
When we left Missoula, Montana we were going into more brand new territory for us. We headed west on Interstate 90 through a sliver of Idaho and into the state of Washington. Our first glimpse of the Columbia River took our breath away.





We have seen different sections of the Columbia River a few times since then and it is always a highlight of the journey. It is no wonder that Lewis and Clark could not say enough grand things about this amazing waterway!









Once we got into western Washington we found a campground maybe 30 miles before Seattle. We parked, unhooked the fifth wheel and ate some lunch. It was a very scenic campground, with NO level spots.

















Here is our Chevy truck and our Kountry Star.



Why do some things stick in your mind? I remember that Kelly Jo had a super large can of ravioli and she prepared the whole batch for me. It was an extremely big bowl of ravioli and it tasted so good. I ate it outside at the picnic table by our trailer in the campground. Why do I remember that and can not remember something important I was going to say two minutes ago? 




Then we drove the truck into Seattle. You can tell by the pictures, we did not pay much attention to the city itself and went right to the coast.

It was a beautiful day. The next day was so foggy and rainy that you could barely see ten feet in front of you and it made us really appreciate the great day we had.

















In next week's post, we will meander down the coast to Forts Clatsop and into Oregon. Thank you for joining us today.

Davy

We are making our way through our accidental vacation in 2005. We have a long way to go, here are the first four installments in case you missed them.

Accidental Vacation 2005 I Yellowstone National Park


Accidental Vacation 2005 II Grand Teton National Park

Accidental Vacation 2005 III More Grand Tetons and Yellowstone

Accidental Vacation 2005 IV Glacier National Park and The Metzger's


Tuesday, February 26, 2019

It Is A Matter of Proper Perspective

Perspective helps me deal with things in life that I can not understand. I am a little overwhelmed right now. Our little house on wheels is broken. We do not know as yet, the cause or the extent, but it is not starting, it is not moving.

We move for a living. Our home not moving is a large problem.


This week, our revival is only 90 minutes away from where the bus is broken in Citronelle. Next week is 2.5 hours away and the next week is only one hour away from the bus. After that, it gets complicated real quick.

All of that troubles me. It perplexes me. It confuses me. It unnerves me. It puts a sense of urgency in me that can not be matched by the reality of the way things actually play out most of the time. My emergency is not automatically everyone else's emergency. I understand that perfectly, but I do not like it at all.

Perspective
When my eyes popped open and I began to prepare to meet with God in prayer Monday morning, I was pretty quickly neck deep in bus psychosis. What now? What if? What then? What now? What if? What then? What now? What if? What then?

Although I was praying in the hotel room, I felt an urgency to get away somewhere and talk with God alone where I would not disturb the girls and I could pour my heart out to Him. I made my way to the church and up into the balcony where I have become accustomed to praying while in Ellisville.

As I knelt in prayer, I began with glorifying God for who He is, after this manner, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. After a while I moved into exalting His will and way far above mine, after this manner, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.

I often keep a prayer list near me when I pray because it works for me. The list helps me to remain focused in prayer and also reminds me of things I want to pray about and need to pray about. This list has things we need as a family, but many more things that others need from God.

I had not looked at the list, but along with my bus psychosis, I had already been thinking strong about needs that others were facing Monday morning. As I was asking God to work HIS will in our lives and in our day and in this revival, my mind was quickened even more to others that needed God to help them Monday morning. 

Bro. Scott Morris is doing better now, but he had a rough 24 hours or so physically. He spent many hours on Saturday with us working on the bus and running other places trying to help. I told him that he was suffering from Bus psychosis too.😀

There are two people very dear to me that were having surgery on Monday. Bro. Scott and these two others came to mind and immediately took priority in prayer. Before moving onto the next larger segment of prayer, Give us this day our daily bread, I purposely veered off course and began to pray for my friends. They needed daily bread too.

I felt God's presence while praying for my friends in need. Then I moved onto a family that needs God to help them right here in the Ellisville church. This little family has a 4 month old baby, their first child. She was born without a soft spot in her head and her little skull can not expand.

Monday morning she was having surgery, a drastic surgery, to help begin the process to repair the problem. Compared to what that mommy and daddy are facing, I do not have any problems at all. 

I hope I am making that clear. I am talking about the value of perspective.

Man made things break. Old man made things break at a higher rate. The bank and I own an old man made bus. It is going to break and it can be fixed eventually.

When I was first praying at the hotel I was sitting in a chair next to my little girl's bed. I could have reached out and touched her face from where I was sitting. I cannot imagine turning her over to the surgeon this morning, knowing he is planning to cut her skull open from ear to ear.

I only have one baby girl and I shudder at the very idea that she would need such drastic measures to keep her alive long term.

No, my friends, when looking from the proper perspective, I do not have serious problems. 

So, Monday morning, I placed my problems in God's hands and spent the rest of my prayer time talking to God about that precious little family that needs God's help so much more than I could ever fathom at this moment.

Now, God cares about all of our problems, both great and small. He asks us to cast all of our cares upon Him, for He cares for us. I have prayed about what is going on in our lives many more times over the last 18 hours. God wants me to ask, seek and knock. 

Ask, seek and knock with faith that all things are possible with God, then allow God opportunity to do it.

But proper perspective says there is no sense in me having a nervous breakdown in the grand scheme of things. Proper perspective says for me to spend time knocking on heaven's door in faith for people in my life that have much bigger problems than me.

Please help me pray for Landon, Ashley and little baby Sadie. God brought her through Monday and we are believing Him to continue holding up and strengthening this precious family.

I received word later in the day about a dear friend that is away from His relationship with God has suffered a horrible episode with his health and it reinforced for me that others are in much greater need than I. He is not only in a struggle between life and death, but facing eternal questions as well.

Helen Keller, who was born both blind and deaf said, "I cried because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet." It is a matter of proper perspective. Oh, God help me!


II Corinthians 4:8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
 9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;

The greatest perspective for me and my family is this. Even if we are covered up with trouble way too big for us, the trouble is not too big for God. We may be down in the valley, way down in the valley, but we are still in the hand of God and that is the safest place in the world to be!

Thank you for reading today and also for praying.

Davy

Monday, February 25, 2019

Our Weekend In The Rearview Mirror

This has been a wild and woolly weekend and God has been faithful through it all. I updated Friday's post several hours after it was posted with information about the bus not starting. Bro. Brad Nicholson from the church in Richton worked on it Friday and Saturday and has eliminated several possibilities, we still do not have a definitive diagnosis. 

I do not have the time or brain power to write all about it at the moment, but I will get you the information later. Please pray for us and as one friend told me years ago, "put a quiver in your voice so that God knows your serious."

Saturday evening we took Odie's power chair out of the Green Machine and loaded up a little bit of sound equipment to take to Ellisville Sunday. We left Cedar Creek at 7:45 Sunday morning and pulled into the church at Ellisville at 9:10. I do not think we could make it any faster than that.

Some of the brothers were there to help us get loaded in and set up in record time. I do not like to do all of that in a hurry, but with good help like that, it was no trouble at all.

During the Sunday School hour, I needed some time to pray all of the bus mess through again. I do not want drama in my life to become the focus of revival, so I must stand before God. After praying and quoting scripture and reading scripture I sat in a chair to go over a few notes.

As the time neared for service to begin, I looked at my phone and saw a message from my brother, Steve. I will not go into the content of the message, but it was the Word of the Lord I had been seeking. I lifted my hands toward Heaven and the Holy Ghost came down! Hallelujah!

I was able to sing and preach Sunday morning with complete confidence that God is working and that God is in control. It was a wonderful service and we enjoyed the alter service so much.















After service, I received a text and phone call from Pastor Dennis King in Gainesville, Texas. While they were trying to transition into Sunday School someone felt like they needed to pray for me right then. They prayed for us and also anointed a handkerchief to send to us too. Praise God! While I was struggling in prayer in the Pastor's office, a church was praying for me! No wonder God helped me.



Sunday night service was excellent too! Praise God for a wonderful altar service. We are having revival.























That wraps up our weekend. Come back and see us again soon, there is no telling how much excitement we will have in the next few days.

Davy

Sunday, February 24, 2019

View Out The Front Window 2/24/19

Here are the links to our posts from this last week.







Thank you for stopping in to read our Mile Marker today. May God bless you with a great start to a brand new week.

Davy

Saturday, February 23, 2019

Friends By Chance

Hey Friends,

Happy Saturday, This is Odie reporting in. We had a fantastic week in Citronelle, Alabama. Pastor Darius Templeton and our friends at Cedar Creek Holy Church of God welcomed us with open arms. They were ready for revival and God met us from the first service. It was really incredible to see God blessing them! We love the precious people at Cedar Creek!

Yesterday the BoggsMobile was supposed to take us to Ellisville, Mississippi, but it would not start. Check Dad's post yesterday to find out about that. It was a very long day for him Friday. I am sure he will update you all on Monday. Please pray for us.

We are anticipating a wonderful revival starting tomorrow at Ellisville and going through Friday! The church services are always amazing and the fellowship is grand! Stay tuned for revival coverage. Our friends at Ellisville are sure to provide us with great blog material. 😀

Friends By Chance

Our family is blessed abundantly with amazing friends. Traveling has allowed us to meet people from all over. It is a privilege that I am so thankful to have and I try not to take it for granted. 

Many of my friends I met by chance and the friendship happened accidentally. Looking back over time I thank God for allowing our paths to cross.

Incredible friends have helped me get through life and I want to purpose to be a friend that helps others along too. My goal is to give as much friendship as I have received and more! I owe a lot of debt in the friendship department.

Six years ago I clicked a link on a blog to see wedding pictures. That link led me to the blog of Bekah Shaffer. The blog’s content intrigued me and I wanted to read more. In six years I do not think that I missed reading a post. 

I read many of the blog posts in a short amount of time to get acquainted with Bekah and Ryan. I then sent Bekah an email thanking her for the encouragement that I found in her writing and life’s story. She responded to my message and an accidental friendship began. 

It was fun to find that we share several similar interests. Bekah and her husband Ryan became ”My Blogging Friends”. We kept in contact via email and text and hoped that one day we could meet in real life. Bekah also faithfully kept up with us here at Mile Markers. Dad called us Co-Stalkers. LOL

Bekah got sneaky and worked with my parents without my knowledge and planned a huge surprise. Bekah and Ryan made a plan to attend the open house and house dedication that we had last August. I never had written about my surprise here, but Dad mentions it in the dedication post.

Friday, August 17, 2018, was a very important day for me.  I do not believe I will ever forget that wonderful day. The house that God’s people built for me to live in was completed. It was the date that we set to dedicate it to God and show the house to family and friends that made it all possible. Words cannot express how awesome the entire day was for me!

I was sitting on my couch talking as a new group came in to tour the house. When Ryan and Bekah Shaffer walked through my front door! To say I was shocked, flabbergasted, surprised and many more adjectives would be a complete understatement!!  I could not believe my eyes. The well kept secret was a major success! 

I still smile when I remember that incredible moment that I met my friends in person. In an instant, we went from ”Blogging Friends” to ”Real Friends”. We have pictures to prove it! We both believe if there are no pictures then there is no proof that it happened.



Bekah and Ryan, thank you once again for the gift of your friendship and for making my day! I know that you sacrificed time out of your busy schedules to make the trip from Indiana to Ohio. I can not express my gratitude enough. I am humbled that you cared enough to come to meet me. Y’all deserve a huge gold star friendship award!⭐️ 

I know Bekah was nervous to contact my parents to try and plan a surprise meet up. I am so glad that she overcame her nervousness. It was an honor to meet them and introduce them to my family and friends!

Click here to read a blog post that Bekah wrote about the day.  You can also click here to listen to their podcast where they talked about the surprise. 

Six years ago I found Bekah’s blog by chance but I am grateful that God led me to friends! I want to remind all of us to be friendly to whoever that crosses our path. God may have a greater plan at work! A wonderful friend might come when you least expect it to happen. 

Thank you for reading. I hope that you have a fantastic weekend. 

Odie 

Friday, February 22, 2019

Revival In Pictures-Citronelle, Alabama

As I mentioned yesterday, we are having a wonderful time of revival with our friends at Cedar Creek this week. Pastor Templeton and all of his folks have been so good to us and we are loving our time with them during revival. Plus we have had other friends visiting every night during the week. That has been great too.

Revival closed last night and there will be no revival Friday. By God's grace, we will leave this morning and drive the BoggsMobile to Ellisville, Mississippi.

Edit: No Ellisville, Mississippi yet today. Whatever has been the intermittent problem with the BoggsMobile, is no longer intermittent. The bus did not, would not and still has not started this morning as of 10:30 AM. We tried to crank about 7:00 and have been working on it since then. It turns over fine, but no joy. 

It is a good thing our JOY is not based on engines that run. Some of the best minds I know are working on it and Bro. Nicholson from Richton is going to try to come see about it later today. For now, we wait and pray. 

We are thankful for several specific things concerning this today.
-We are in a safe place and not on the side of the road or blocking a lane on a country road between here and Ellisville.
-We have knowledgeable and skillful friends that are willing to guide us and help us all they can.
-We have a home full of love and grace and we are not falling apart, throwing accusations or devouring one another. It is downright peaceful in here.
-The more I list the things we have to be thankful for, the more thankful I become. Praise God for Jesus

Odie has captured several pictures of the Cedar Creek folks and pictures of the visitors too. Since this is a Revival In Pictures post, let us get to the pictures. 

Thank you for dropping in today.

Davy