Watching A Miracle Grow

Public Service Announcement 

The clock springs forward tonight so we lose an hour of sleep. I love the extra daylight but I miss my wonderful hour of sleep. I apologize ahead of time if I seem grumpy to some of you tomorrow! 😂 

Are you dreading losing your hour of sleep? Then there is something to look forward to in the future. The hour will be back in 238 days! You can mark November 3rd on your calendar as fall back day.

Now Back To Regular Programming 

Hey Friends,

This is Odie reporting in from the BoggsMobile. I am extremely happy and thankful that our home on wheels is on the move again. I appreciate everyone’s prayers and concern during our bus troubles! We are grateful for the prayers that have carried us countless miles through the years and I look forward to many more miles ahead!

We had a great time this week near Sebastopol, Mississippi. Our dear friends at White Plains are super fine people and we enjoy visiting with them every time. God was at revival too and that makes all things grand. 

Tomorrow we will be joining Tanner Williams Holiness Church for Family and Friends Day At 10:30 AM! This special day is always fabulous and we love spending it with Pastor Donnie Williamson! Another scrumptious highlight to the day will be a delicious church dinner. The Tanner Williams Church sure knows how to prepare a spread fit for a king. 

Watching A Miracle Grow

Last week in Ellisville, Mississippi I was able to see a few children that are “Miracle Babies”. God answered countless prayers of their parents and church family. The Lord gave them the desires of their hearts. They are truly blessings sent from Heaven. These little ones hold a special place in my heart and I praise God for them often! It thrills me to see my special buddies growing up, but I cannot believe how quickly it is happening.

Here are two of the miracles growing up in Ellisville that I have written about several other times.

Caleb and Katie are precious absolute miracles from the Lord.

Our first weekend visit to Ellisville was in March 2006 and we followed that with our first revival in March 2007. My then new friend, Allison, was preparing to marry, Jamie. They married later that year and they have become great friends to me. 

For several years Jamie and Allison prayed, believed and waited for God to give them a baby. We joined them in that prayer and believed with them too.  In 2016 word came that their prayer was being answered. Their family would be growing in the spring! We thanked God and rejoiced with them!

Lucas Warren Brownlee changed their world on May 4, 2017! This bundle of joy brought happiness to many people around him. We officially met him and I introduced him here in the fall of 2017. I wanted to praise God once again for giving the gift of Lucas! Thanks to his Mama, Allison, for giving me permission to write about him. 

Oh my goodness Lucas is precious! He is a growing boy and will be 2 years old soon. I loved getting to see him last week. He is definitely all boy full of energy and he is loving and happy. 

He is learning new things and words every day. Lucas’ smile and bright eyes melt me into a puddle. His parents taught him to say my name last week. It started as “O” and then changed to “Odie O”. It was cute some nights when I was singing he would wave and call for me.

I love this little guy! It is a blessing to watch this miracle grow! Lucas is a reminder that waiting on the miracle is worth it! Today I wanted to encourage us and remind us that waiting for miracles really does pay off. God hears our prayers and sometimes we receive a partial miracle. Then God will finish it over a period of time. Maybe without realizing it, we are watching miracles grow. 

Have you ever experienced a miracle over time? I would love to hear about it!

​

As you can see Lucas is a ball of fun. Have a great weekend!

Odie

Glory And Gratitude

Our hearts are full of Glory For God and Gratitude Toward God's People



Today's post is long and has lots of pictures. Many of the pictures came from friends that graciously allowed us to post them. We were a touch to much in the moment to take many pictures.

Friday August 17, 2018 is a day that will bring a smile to our faces and joy to our hearts for a long time to come. It was a beautiful day adorned with family and friends from across the country as we celebrated the completion of the house, praised God for His provision and dedicated the house in prayer. Yes, it was a super great day indeed.

We invited all the churches, families and individuals that had helped build the house for Odie to live in. There were at least 35 churches across 16 states and 2 countries that contributed and we knew that only a fraction of those could come, but we wanted to give them an opportunity to witness first hand the miracle that God used them to bring to pass.

We do not know how any people attended, but we are very pleased with the response. We secured the use of the Dodds Fellowship Hall next door and used it as a staging ground for tours of the house and also served light refreshments in the fellowship hall.

Light refreshments included a few lunch meat sandwiches, five gallons of salsa from Acapulco and at least five quarts of the best guacamole that has ever been made, also from Acapulco! Oh and a whole bunch of Acapulco chips to go with the salsa and guacamole.

When Kelly Jo arrived from Acapulco about 11:30, Bro. Mitch Boggs and I taste tested the chips, salsa and the guacamole to make sure they were fit to eat. Thankfully they were tolerable. I appreciate Mitch helping me. I "might" have been able to do it by myself, but it would have been difficult. It is nice to have friends around to help.

😀

People began arriving at the fellowship hall at 4:00 and Kelly Jo, Odie and I began tours of the house at 4:30. The next time I took the clock seriously it was about 7:10. Wow! That went fast.

Lisa, my sister Theresa, Steve and others kept things rolling in the fellowship hall, Karen organized and shuttled people back and forth in the Dodds Church van and Bro. Scott Morris shuttled people in Bro. EJ's golf cart. A well oiled machine, I say.

We were blessed with good weather. At 3:50 it was pouring rain so hard that we had rivers running every where. The rain stopped before 4:00 and stayed dry. It was too muddy to have people walk from the fellowship hall to the house, but that was solved by the golf cart and the van.

We intended to take pictures of every one as they came through the house. We managed well for a while, but it kind of broke down as we neared the time for the dedication at 7:30. We did get a bunch though.

This couple, Ryan and Bekah, came from Kokomo, Indiana. We had never met them, but she and Odie know each other through our blog and her blog. I called Odie and Bekah co-stalkers.

Ryan and Bekah have been planning to attend this for a long time and they TOTALLY surprised Odie. We should have been videoing Odie's face. It was awesome!

It was very nice of them to take time to drive several hours to be a part of Odie's special day. Thank you both. It was great to meet you.

We love it when our friends meet our friends and they actually like each other. We had a lot of that going on Friday!

Not everyone had toured the house yet, but shortly after 7:30 we gathered the crowd that was still there on the porch, sidewalk and driveway for a short dedication service for the house.

I told a little of the house story, Odie said a few gracious words, Bro. Scott Morris spoke and then our Pastor, Bro. Bennie Sutherland said a few words and prayed a very touching prayer over Odie, us and the house. Bro. Eddie Deane led us in a spontaneous song and we all enjoyed the obvious presence of the Lord. It was even better than we imagined it would be.

Most of you know that it was Bro. Scott Morris that got this whole project rolling. He never wants me to say much about him and I understand that. But I can not tell the house story without telling his part. I will be brief, Bro. Scott.

He told us on January 15, 2015 that God spoke to him over the previous months to build Odie a house. We were blown away. We were fearful. We were cautious. But if Bro. Scott said that God said, then we decided we could trust that.

God did speak. There is a house to prove it.

We celebrated the truth of that Friday night with a bunch of friends. God spoke. Bro. Scott listened. Bro. Scott spoke and God honored His Word and and Bro. Scott's word.

The whole project was made possible as God moved on people to take part in it. 

There were several Pastors that signed their name to the project and believed Bro. Scott’s vision and loved Odie.

There were individuals, families, churches and businesses that gave of their resources, time, material and heart. Everyone that gave, gave freely and many, many gave sacrificially. 

Our families worked many hundreds of hours helping us on this house for nothing more than the satisfaction of knowing they were doing it for Odie.

My Dad and Mom (Eugene and Martha Boggs), Kelly Jo's parents (Dan and Betty Morgan) and my brother Steve and his wife Karen worked especially long, hard and often. Then they gave sacrificially on top of their work.

Pastor Wade Hicks repeatedly saw a need and rallied men to work and saved my hide numerous times.

And the list goes on and on and on. There was one miraculous intervention and provision after another throughout the whole process. We were celebrating that Friday night.

The evening was an open house style event so people came and went throughout the whole time. This picture below shows the crowd that was there moments after the dedication. That is beautiful!

A few closeup pictures.

When the dedication was complete, we gave more tours of the house then went back to the fellowship hall for more salsa, music, fellowship and then clean up. We finally ended up back in the house until all of our friends and family slowly filtered out. 

Kelly Jo wrote on grease boards the names of all the people that contributed finances, labor and material to this house. These boards were displayed in the fellowship hall along with a PowerPoint presentation. I tried to post some closeups too. I hope they are readable.

This is Bro. EJ Lamb's golf cart. I think it looks good in Odie's garage. Maybe we should have built a two car garage.

And finally, the highlight of Bro. Scott's trip from Mississippi was when he drove Steve's tractor! He was a happy man!

As I bring this to a close I am thinking of 10 more things I would like to say about Friday evening, but I have rambled on too long already. It was a super celebration and we are grateful for each one that was able to come. What an amazing night it was!

Every time we think of Odie's house, we will think of the miracle. Every time we think of the miracle, we will think of the people that made it possible! May God bless them all. May God bless you all!

Thank you for reading today.

Davy

There are dozens of posts detailing all the little things about building this house. Here is the link. It will display them from the most recent to the oldest. This is one of the first posts about the house from January 2017.