Davy's Last Post

Hey Friends,

Thank you for joining us for a special post. Here is the back story to this post that Dad wrote. 

Every time Dad took a trip overseas. He would write and schedule “Davy’s Last Post”. Just in case something tragic happened on the trip. He would always alert me and give me strict orders DO NOT hit publish by accident on the the post. Upon his safe arrival back to the states I ALWAYS reminded him to unschedule the post.

This particular version was written before his last trip to Nigeria in 2023. The trip went smoothly. My parents arrived back in the States shortly before Christmas. This was originally scheduled to post on 12/20/23. I had to remind him not to let the post publish last year, I think the day before the scheduled date. 

We were blessed with a phenomenal Christmas! December 29th Dad had the stroke! God blessed us with a little over 10 more months with Daddy! Mom and I are so grateful!

I found this in draft form a few days ago. I could not believe it was still saved! It took me a few days before I could read it fully Then I took it to Mom for her to see. 

Here we are a year later. Heaven is now his reality. We still can not wrap our minds around this fact.  Oddly we found comfort in reading Davy’s Last Post. Mom wanted me to share it here. All of the black font below is Dad’s personal unedited writing. 

I am scheduling this post for December 20. We should have made it home from our little jaunt days ago. If this is posting, then for some reason or another, we might not have made it home safely. We could be in some type of trouble and need God to help us. If that is the case then, Odie will probably post more information and let you know how you can pray.

__________________

Also, this post going live might mean we are in Heaven right now. Wouldn't that be awesome? Well if we are in Heaven then I assure you, it is awesome!

I want to encourage everyone to prepare to meet God. God has given you the plan of salvation in the Bible. Read it, search the scriptures, get on your knees and confess your sin. God will forgive you. He will cleanse you from all sin. He will totally and radically change your life. You will be a brand new creature in Christ. 

You can begin here.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

Keep reading. Go ahead, God loves you enough to send His only begotten son to die for you. Do you think that merits some investigation and trust on your part? I believe it does.

Thanks

To all of our friends and fellow saints. Thanks for being there for the Boggs Family. Thanks for not throwing us away. Thanks for loving us to the extreme. Keep living for God. I promise you it is worth it all!

Thanks to the Boggs, the Morgans and all of our great big extended family. We love each and every one of you. Live for God. Do not blame God. He knows exactly what He is doing. "Blessed is he whosoever is not offended in me." You may not understand God, but that is OK. Serve Him with all of your heart anyway. I may not know what God is doing, but I do know that God is doing!

Dad, Mom, Danny and Betty. You all have loved us when you did not understand us. You have accepted our passion for Christ and for souls. Your encouragement has emboldened us to spend our lives in pursuit of God and winning others to God through Christ. Thank you, thank you, thank you. We love you fiercely.

God bless you, Pastor Bennie Sutherland and all the saints that worship at Dryden Rd. Pentecostal Church. You loved us enough to keep us and we never forgot it. Neither will God.

Brothers Riddell, Woods, Winkler, Searcy, McCrorey, Eaton, Landress, Rowe, Whiffen, Burris, Williamson, Gautreaux, Metzger, DiZazzo, K.Morris, S.Morris, Stringfellow, Harris, Fellers, Millikin, Radcliffe, Webster, Allen, J.Gabbard, B.Gabbard, Hicks, M. Boggs, B. Mayhan, D. Webb, my brother Steve and many more! Wow, you all have helped me and my family. I made it because you loved and loved deeply. God bless you, brothers. I needed you and you were there for me.

To all of the preachers and churches that have invited us to your churches for services and revivals. God bless you for being such a blessing to us. It has been an incredible ride. I can not imagine working with better folks. Thank you for being incredibly kind to our family.

_______________

Kelly Jo and Odie could have had a better husband and father but I have had the best. We have had a great life.

Odie, we love you better than a hog loves slop.

You have been a joy to us. We could not have asked for a more Godly, dedicated, loyal, sweet and loving daughter. I have confidence that you will continue to serve God with all your heart and that you will not live in grief or allow sorrow to define you or consume you. You will remember why we were living on earth in the first place. We were never here to stay. We were only pilgrims and strangers. Now we are home. You will join us in God's time.

I am sure that many folks will line up to take care of your every need, Odie. God will see to that because He is ultimately in charge of your care. I am thankful you have a home to live in. The house is a timely and wonderful miracle. Praise God for that! Keep the faith, Odie!

OK, that's enough. It has been a fun ride and Heaven is worth the journey. 

Davy

Praise God for His love and grace to me!

Romans 5:6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

If Dad only knew how loved and appreciated he really was! He would be blown away by the outpouring of love and support people have blessed us with! 

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

Odie and Kelly Jo. 

Success On a Dreaded Task!

There is a task each year that must be completed and Tuesday was the day we appointed to get it done. In 2008 we incorporated our ministry and applied to the IRS for Boggs Family Ministries to be recognized as a 501c3. 

There is one inconvenience to being a non-church 501c3. Every year, Boggs Family Ministries is required to file one of the various versions of Form 990 with the IRS. 990 is not a tax return, but a reporting form. They want to make sure we are operating according to the regulations and not personally profiting from tax-exempt funds. 

The Form 990 is due on May 15, but we filed an extension until October 15 and that will be on us soon. We knew we would be parked by Monday with no church Tuesday so Tuesday was the day.

You may remember that we had taken a few days in September to work on our books and that was part of the preparation for the 990 EZ. All that work made the task lighter but not easy. The 990 EZ is a misnomer for sure. It is laborious and intensive and we dread it every year. 

We are now using an online service that provides online software to non-profits and it is getting easier every year. With all the numbers at hand and the repetitive information saved in the software, we were finished in a little over three hours. It was an intense three hours, but we breathed a big sigh of relief at the end.

With the online software, we pay a small fee to transmit the form electronically to the IRS and we received confirmation within a couple hours that it was received and accepted. That does not mean the IRS accepts all our numbers, but it used to be incredibly frustrating getting them to acknowledge receiving the form by mail.

Hallelujah! The dreaded task was successful! When the calendar rolls around we will do it all over again!

That is part of our life and we are thankful you stopped by today.

Davy

A Unique Place To Park

Two weeks ago while we were singing each night and preaching two nights of Campmeeting for Bro Eddie Stringfellow, we were parked a few miles away at Sims Chapel. Pastor Willie Long Jr. invited us to park there and it was an amazing place to park the bus.

It has good level concrete for all six tires, water, sewer and 50 amps of electricity. To top it off, laterally, the RV parking is COVERED parking. 

Look at this!

This is the first time we have had parking like this at a church. I told the congregation while I was preaching that we might stay a few months with covered parking!

There is even covered parking for the Jeep!

Sims Chapel is out in the country, but there is a small gas roadside diner/gas station about a mile down the road. KJo and Odie ordered lunch there several days and they loved it. Kelly had a toasted BLT every time and said it was probably the best she has ever had.

Then Pastor Long told me the church had high-speed internet! Wow! What will they think of next? We have parked the BoggsMobile in a lot of nice places but this may be the most unique parking spot yet.

Thank you for reading today.

Davy

Our Week Including a Few Pictures

Monday we traveled about 75 miles but it seemed we were all day doing it. It was raining hard off and on all morning and when the rain would let up it was hot and steamy. We finally completed all the work required for departure and waved goodbye to Bro. and Sis. Long.

Ninety minutes later we were pulling into Trinity near Moss Point and reversing the process. We were without the rain this time, but the heat and humidity were present in large quantities. By the time we made it inside, we were soaked again.

We knew that Bro. Michael Switzer was in revival nearby at Forts Lake so we ate, rested and prepared to attend the revival. Although this week is designated as rest, I can not imagine being any more rested than I was by the presence of the Lord Monday night.

Wow! Bro. Switzer's preaching and the visitation of the Lord I experienced will stay in my mind for a long time to come. Praise God for His amazing help and encouragement! Hallelujah! 

It was also wonderful to see Pastor Cauley and our dear friends from Forts Lake. They received us warmly and reminded us why we love to visit them. It was a great night all way around.

On Tuesday I was up way before humans should be up preparing for the long week of paperwork ahead of us, downloading and gathering all of the proper documents. Before we could dive all the way in, Odie had to be taken to the airport.

Odie has planned to fly home for my nephew's wedding and is expecting to join us next week. That is the main reason we wanted to be parked near Mobile Tuesday morning. Once she was on her way, it was time for work.

We paused only to allow our brains to rest, eat and sleep. Wednesday we were working again with a pause for lunch with Pastor JR and Sis. Teresa Alexander and church Wednesday night at Trinity where we are parked. We were blessed to be in a wonderful service and we are very thankful for it.

Thursday, we worked all day again on bookwork until we felt like our heads would explode. The work was not completed on Thursday, but we reached the place we needed to be. It was great to have a little satisfaction in the process. 

We may work some more today. Saturday we travel to Richton, Mississippi and begin revival Sunday for Pastor Scott Morris and our friends. We are looking forward to that.

Last night we went to revival again at Forts Lake. It was another awesome service with friends. I know we are resting by not preaching revival services this week, but all three services we have attended have been fantastic for us.

Thank you for spending a few minutes with us today.

Davy

The Great Experiment- Interesting Initial Information

I have been hearing from a few of you each day wondering how my body and mind are handling our first revival on the road since the brainstem stroke at the end of December. I do not blame you for your curiosity, I am a little curious too.

Actually, I am a lot curious. As I have explained before, this whole thing is about getting into our regular routine for a couple of months and discovering the result.

With that said, it is too early to tell the final result, but this is some interesting initial information. Week by week we aim to assess our progress and look for clues. I am not sure whether I am Sherlock or Shaggy, but I am looking for clues at the scene of the crime. 

Number one, the long trip here took a toll on me, as we knew it probably would. We drove it over three days and I am sure that helped. I am very thankful we did not begin revival the next morning. Sometimes I get things right. 

We will continue to plan shorter travel days and a day or more of rest after travel. Hopefully and prayerfully I will improve in that aspect. 

Next, is my endurance preaching several services strung together and being social and taking care of the bus and my family. Thankfully, the services have been great and the bus has required little attention so I have been able to enjoy the preaching without much strain of daytime activity.

Not all weeks will be like that, so I am going to enjoy every week that is. By God’s grace, we will continue to expect great revivals, low levels of trouble and time to rest. 

I have been spent physically at the end of each night and that is what we expected. I surmise that will also improve some along the way. We will continue to build in rest until we get there. 

I have experienced trouble in one area that we did not foresee. All three of us have fall allergies that normally come on strong in late August and this year they came with a vengeance. However, my voice responded in a way it never has before. 

Normally, during even horrible allergy season, I will have some weakness in my voice but I can warm it up during the day and be very close to full strength each night. This week, my voice has been rough enough to be unpleasant to the ear. 

Perhaps my vocal cords being partially numb on the right side has caused this. It may be that my voice will respond to allergies in a completely different way than they have in the past because of this. I will run that by my speech therapists when we return home.

Thankfully, my voice was stronger during the preaching the final night. Praise God! Three days without singing and preaching should help it.

We are purposely resting Thursday and Friday, traveling less than 90 minutes Saturday and then taking part in an outdoor camp meeting all next week. I am supposed to preach on Sunday night but only help with singing and worship the rest of the nights.

Kelly Jo has taken so much on her plate to help me to be able to do this. I could not do it without her. We also had help getting sound equipment in place and back into the bus and that is a huge relief to both of us. 

Thank you very much for praying for us during this adventure in revivals. As I said, it remains to be seen what the final results will bring, but the way the Lord has helped people this week really makes every effort worthwhile. That is most certainly Interesting Initial Information.

May God bless you, friends. 

Davy 

4,300,000 Views!

I recently noticed that we have passed the 4 million page view mark on Mile Markers. In fact, today we are at 4,300,000 page views. In the grand scheme of things that is minuscule for nearly 15 years. Drudge had 24,000,000 views yesterday. So he had as many views in six hours as we have since November 2009. 

😊

But for us, that is not too shabby. I have often wondered if the numbers are accurate, but we have over 5200 published Mile Markers. That is only about 825 views per post, so that number seems reasonable. There were days when thousands of people came and days when almost no one came.

That works for us. We are not producing content that will attract the masses. We are writing for family, friends and people we meet in churches along the way. Mile Markers also serve as a journal and travelogue for us. 

Nearly weekly we receive emails from companies OR scammers who "absolutely love" our content here and on YouTube and "want to help us expand our audience and reach our full potential." They can "show us how to gain followers and make the money we deserve."

Their first two sentences are a dead giveaway that they have not read or watched any of our content. Our material does not appeal to most folks and probably never will. If the "experts" emailing us watched and read us, they would know that.

Would it be nice to make some money on something that we spend many hours doing? Sure, but it is not happening and we do not expect it to happen.

This is Mile Marker 5209 and we have never made a penny from Blogger. I am not averse to allowing Google to place ads here but I have never seriously considered it. 

We have 385 videos on YouTube since March 2020 and our channel is monetized. They are going to advertise no matter what so we might as well make a small slice. We have made a whopping $137 for many, many hours of work contributed.

I imagine we are about due another big check. They will not send it until they owe you at least $100. I have no idea what we will purchase with the next check.

We do these things because we enjoy them. Typing is not as easy this year and that may have affected my output, but we are gonna keep pressing on by God's grace.

We appreciate you being part of 4.3 three million Mile Marker page views and 20,000 watch time hours on YouTube, Thank you all for stopping in regularly. It is always very nice to hear from you.

Davy

August Rolling Through

Wow! It is difficult to believe that we are already in August 2024 and we are zooming our way toward fall at a high rate of speed. We have been planning the last couple of months on trying to be ready to resume my Revival schedule in September and that is still the plan.

However, it seems September is approaching quicker than we thought it would. In some ways the last 7+ months have passed as slow as molasses. There have been some nights that seemed about three nights long. But on the other hand we have moved from December to August at breakneck speed. 

Most every day of the rest of August is accounted for and we find ourselves looking for a few more days in the month. Before you know it we should be on the road and on our way toward Thomasville, Alabama to begin revival on September 1. 

Tomorrow, I plan to discuss some of our hopes for the next couple months and kind of bring you up-to-date on things both physically and emotionally. I am working on pulling all that together today.

I hope you have a super great Thursday. May God bless you every one. 

Davy

I'll Be Yawn Gone

Boy howdy! Do I have an interesting subject for you today. I imagine you will be yawning before you finish this Mile Marker.

I mentioned on February 21 that I had a few strange side effects lingering from the stroke in December. 

I did not sneeze for 13 days. Finally, one morning while still in in-patient rehab I sneezed. I still do not sneeze every morning like I used to, only a few times a week at most.

I also noticed that I did not dream at all after the stroke. It was 25 nights before I had a dream and I have always been a vivid and near constant dreamer. I seem to be back to normal in that respect. 

My sleep habits have been worse than ever since the stroke. I have never been a really good sleeper but there are some nights I hardly sleep at all and when I do it’s usually no more than four or five fitful hours with waking periods in between. 

I have always yawned a lot. It was sometimes embarrassing how much I yawned and often I yawned when I should have been wide awake and paying attention. 

After the stroke I have not yawned normally at all. 

On April 11, over three months post stroke, I was sitting in a chair about 5 AM reading when I felt a big yawn coming on. I involuntarily opened my mouth wide and the yawn was over in less than 1/2 second. I was disappointed but it was a start.

Later that week I had the exact same experience about five times one morning. A big yawn would feel like it was coming on and then nothing.

Unfortunately, the yawns did not build from there but stopped again. Last Friday, May 31 my mouth opened involuntarily and I began to yawn that maybe lasted probably one full second and then was over quickly. 

I have had nothing since then. We have asked several doctors, therapists and even the neurologist about this and they seem to be as clueless as us. Nobody has offered any explanation at all. 

I can live without yawning, but it is vastly different than before. It is not something that I have prayed about, I have much bigger issues to pray about.😳🤪

Have you yawned yet while reading this?

Davy

Moving On And Praising God!

I felt like my head was a little mixed up when I realized last night that today is Friday already. Wow! Where did this week go? It seems like it was only yesterday when we woke up in London Kentucky on Monday morning.

In the same vein, we are Already more than halfway through May, the fifth month of 2024. That means it has been more than 4 1/2 months since I had a stroke on December 29. In some ways, that is unbelievable. 

They say that time flies when you are having fun but I reckon time flies whether you are having fun or not. 😂 I have felt like time has been dragging through many long days and many long nights this year only to look up and realize we are zooming through 2024 like crazy. 

I sure would like to have some date for the end of this current difficulty, but maybe the days will continue to fly and we will be on the other side of this before we know it. 👍🏽👍🏽

There is no doubt that God has brought us a very long way since December 29.

I could be dead

I could be paralyzed.

I could be in a care home. 

I could be on a feeding tube still.

My eyes could still be weirded out. 

I could be horribly dizzy like I was. 

I could be unable to walk and unable to use my right arm. 

And the list of “could bes” go on and on and on.

Instead, we are praising God for all the miracles he has given us. The persistent numbness which brings on the balance issues, swallowing problems and vocal weaknesses, do not prevent me from giving God glory for what he has done. Hallelujah!🙌🏽🙌🏽

Thank you Lord for bringing me and my family through the last 4 1/2 months and thank you for what you are gonna do in the next few days and in the next 4 1/2 months.

Praise God, He has been very good to us. You, dear friends, have been good to hold up our needs before God and we appreciate that too. May God bless you for it. 

Thank you for stopping in today.

Davy

A String Around My Finger?

I knew a week ago that I would needed to have something ready for today’s Mile Marker. In fact I knew that six months ago. Most weeks of the year, I am responsible for these mile markers six days a week, including every Thursday.

However, that did not stop me at about 8 o’clock yesterday evening being absolutely surprised that I had to have a Mile Marker ready sometime before Thursday morning. How in the world can I forget about that?

Almost 15 years I have been doing this and this still happens on a regular basis. At least twice a month I think of it between 2 and 3 o’clock in the morning and I roll out of bed, go to the computer and try to think of something to say, some story to tell, some meal to describe or find some pictures to post. 

Lately, when I have a brain freeze, I say well I had a stroke. unfortunately, this pre-dates the stroke by many years so the truth is my brain has been acting suspiciously most of my life.

Does that ever happen to you? I kind a hope that it does. I hate to be the only one in this condition because it is certainly not limited to this little corner of the world that we call Mile Markers. 

Our vehicle tags need to be renewed in mid January every single year. We normally leave sometime between December 26 and January 2 so it needs to be done in  December. 

I cannot tell you how many times I have  had to renew online from several states away in January and have someone in my family mail the stickers to me when they arrive. 

This year I remembered that early. Well, it was kind of early. It was the day before we were supposed to leave home for seven months. I also had to renew my drivers license. But at least I got it all done one day before I had the stroke.

There are other items, that I routinely forget even after  setting reminders on my phone and putting Post-it notes on my computer. Again, how does that happen? Age? Well, if it is age, I have been aged for 40 years.

Maybe I will remember tomorrow’s Mile Marker several hours before tomorrow. I hope so.

Thank you for stopping in. What is that string tied around your finger?

Davy

Life Gets Real For A Seven Year Old Boy 50 Years Ago Yesterday

It is hard to remember when in life I became aware of certain aspects of the world around me. I am not sure what I knew about tornados early in life but I know exactly the day I learned about their destructive force and that it was a force that was to be respected and even feared.

That day was exactly 50 years ago yesterday, Wednesday, April 3, 1974. 

YouTube Video

The Day the Clock Stopped: 50 years after the 1974 Xenia tornado

It was dark in the afternoon at our house in Waynesville, Ohio. It was frightening. However. it was much worse in several states and perhaps worst of all less than 15 miles away from us as a storm cell with an F5 tornado decimated Xenia, Ohio. 

The tornado was part of the largest supercell known at that time and the most destructive single day of tornado outbreaks for several years after that. It was a horrific day.

When the storm was gone from Xenia 32 residents were killed, over 1000 were injured and hundreds of houses were completely destroyed. Schools were hit directly and the downtown area was devastated. The tributes I have read and watched this week about those who died have touched me deeply. May God bless their families.

If I had not realized the power of the weather by age seven, I knew it that day and the days following. 15 miles is close enough to shake people up and I remember the emotional impact. 

Kids at school had family there or they went to church or shopped or ate in Xenia. The teachers talked about the storm and all of that brought the possibility of trouble much closer than it seemed before.

Of course, there was no internet and the pictures and news spread much slower then but the Xenia tornado was the main topic of conversation for days and weeks.

Near the 25th anniversary of the Xenia tornado, we visited a temporary museum display with hundreds of pictures, videos, newspaper articles and archived news broadcasts. It was moving and nearly overwhelming. One of the most moving parts of the museum was the personal accounts of survivors.

I have always been glad that we took the time to visit that display at the 25 year mark. I had never seen or heard much of what we saw and heard that day in 1999. 

I was kind of taken back Tuesday when I realized that Wednesday was the 50th anniversary of the Xenia tornado. Yes, it does seem like a very long time since I was seven but the last 25 years have passed in a moment or two.

Several states, dozens of towns and cities and thousands of people were directly affected by the storms that day, but the knowledge that emerged from the intensive research that followed the tornados has saved many thousands of lives since that day. It really is an amazing story.

Maybe there really is a silver lining in the dark clouds of life.

Thank you for reading today.

Davy

Recovery Tour - The Plan Has Begun

Today is April 1, but this is no joking matter. OK, Here we go! We have begun the first leg of our Recovery Tour.😍

KJo and have commenced the next step in our loosely held plans that I wrote about in early March.

-Travel outside the area for single services or maybe weekends, building endurance and confidence. I also need to discover if I am able to travel extensively. 

Travel will also depend on my outpatient therapy schedule. As long as therapy is helpful and as long as they keep me going back, I want to take advantage of it.

Therapy is completed for now and we are ready to test the waters to see how I can handle the traveling. We jumped in the Jeep to travel and preach a few Sundays before coming home to preach in several local churches that have kindly invited us.

We have visited churches this first weekend and plan to visit 3-4 more over the next two weekends, but not preaching at all of them. The rest of the days we are relaxing as much as possible and visiting with friends. I am hoping I can sleep better than I have in the last 13 weeks.

I plan to keep Mile Markers and A Word For Wednesday current as much as possible. As long as we have access to good internet, we should be able to do it.

We sure appreciate you praying for us as we spread our wings and try to discover how wobbly our flying might be.

Davy
Coming Wednesday at 6:00 AM Eastern

A Tribute to The Real Stars Of Recovery

This Mile Marker is a heartfelt tribute to a few special individuals that we love. I would appreciate if you take a moment to read it and look at the pictures of these beautiful people. 

KJo and I are still very much in the process of recovery from the stroke I suffered on December 29, 2023. I include Kelly Jo in that sentence because she has worked as hard and probably much harder than I have in this course of recovery.

She has diligently stayed by my side since the first moment and completed absolutely every task that needed to be done and found even more to do. I do not understand how people can recover without dependable and faithful people to help them.

I am praising God for my dear wife standing beside me, walking with me and propping me up for the last 90 days.

Speaking of 90 days, yesterday was the 90th day since the stroke. As one friend said to me yesterday, on the one hand, it is hard to believe it has been that long and on the other hand it seems like an eternity since that dreadful day. 

It is quite a Mile Marker for us and we are so thankful that God has brought us to this point without more difficulty than we have had. The personnel in Neurology and ICU were very concerned about subsequent strokes in the beginning and we are thankful God kept me. 

This road of recovery is not over, but God has placed people in our path all along the way to encourage us, teach us and help us. We are sure He will continue. 

Much of the help that we have received has come in the form of the therapists at Atrium Hospital in Middletown, Ohio. I had a lot of therapy.

I had at least 6 sessions of therapy while in the ICU unit. 

I had 33 one hour long sessions of therapy over 11 days as part of inpatient therapy. 

I had 52 one hour long sessions of therapy between January 19 and March 22 as part of outpatient therapy. Those sessions involved 18 days of therapy. 

In total, we had somewhere around 90 hours of therapy. I am not sure the exact length because the 6 sessions in the ICU unit may not have always been an hour, but all the other 85 sessions were an hour in length. 

I had 28 sessions of occupational therapy. 

I had 31 sessions of physical therapy. 

I had 32 sessions of speech therapy.

The therapist involved in all those hours of therapy, literally changed my life. I was determined to improve as much as possible, but I could not do it without somebody teaching me, encouraging me and even pushing me beyond my limitations.

I wish you could meet all of these people, but at least I can show you some pictures of some of them. I did not even think to take pictures in the first few weeks, there was just too much going on. So for some of the therapists I have no pictures. 

However, I did get a few pictures.

The speech therapist who helped me during the inpatient and ICU time was Katie. She is pictured below on my last day of inpatient therapy. 

I had taken my first swallow of water the day before and we had been crying and rejoicing together right before this picture was taken. And she had just given me my first small bites of food. 

Katie worked so diligently during those first 18 days to help me swallow. I will never forget her commitment and dedication to helping me. She first came into the ICU less than 48 hours after the stroke.

I am still struggling to swallow some things, but I believe I am swallowing today because of her devotion to her job and to me as a patient. Katie Rocks!

Charlotte was my main inpatient physical therapist. 

She worked with me on using the wheelchair, the walker and the basics of balance and walking. I called her a drill sergeant and she lived up to the name. I am very thankful for those early sessions when she pushed me to try again and again. 

Because I went home with a feeding tube, we were assigned a home health nurse. Once I was evaluated our nurse came once or twice a week until the feeding tube was removed.

Her name was Lauren and she was a tremendous help medically and emotionally to us. She answered all of our questions and still would. She was very kind and thoughtful. 

My outpatient physical therapist, for most sessions, was Emma. Each and every outpatient physical therapist helped me tremendously, but Emma seemed to pour so much emotion and dedication into my therapy. 

She pushed me hard and I teased her constantly about it, but I never felt unsafe in her hands, even when I knew she was asking me to go beyond my perceived ability. She was a jewel to us. 

My outpatient speech therapist was Phyllis. 

She also improved my swallowing tremendously, building on everything I had learned from Katie and expanding what I could swallow to where it is today. 

There is no way I would be eating foods that I am eating today and looking forward to eating things that I cannot eat today, without her constant encouragement and the knowledge that she poured into Kelly and I. 

Phyllis also taught me so much about using and building strength in my vocal cords. I cannot sing at the same level that I have in times past, but I am 1000 times beyond where I was when I began. 

In the days after the stroke, when I discovered I could not sing, I was heartbroken.  Singing has been such a huge part of our family, our lives and our ministry. I felt completely crushed when I realized how much voice strength and control I had lost. 

Phyllis was eager and earnest about strengthening the muscles in my throat and teaching me the techniques I would need to regain what I have lost. She was amazing. 

This process was very emotional for me and I appreciate that she gave me room to be emotional and call on God and rejoice with us when he helped us. The three of us shared many tender moments. 

She brought a keyboard in and coached us each session as Kelly would play and as we warmed up my voice. Then we would sing songs that have been important to us through the years. It was wonderful.

The inpatient occupational therapists were instrumental in helping me function in the shape I was in after the stroke. They taught me how to dress, to brush my teeth, wash my face and all the other daily functions. 

They were tremendous, but unfortunately, I did not get a picture of any of them. McKenzie was the main one while an inpatient. 

As an outpatient, my occupational therapists have been Melissa and Allison in the pictures below. 

They have both been very attentive to carefully improve my balance, the use of my hand and also in my cognitive abilities in relation to driving. They have been so patient with me.

Full use of my hand may be out of my control as long as my right side is still asleep. But they have helped me to improve the use of my hand and arm in amazing ways. I believe my right hand might be stronger than it was before the stroke. 

Kelly and I felt very close to Melissa, as we did others and we will never forget all of these people and more who helped us regain as much of our life as we could. 

On March 22 we stood in the hallway of the therapy area and cried tears as we departed from these wonderful people. There were hugs and tears all around and we will always feel they are a part of our lives. 

Honestly, it felt pretty weird not to be there the following Monday and not to be going there this morning on Friday. We will be paying them a visit as soon as we can. 

The truth is, we are able to launch out and see if I am able to travel because of them. They made it possible.

I am able to sing a little and preach a little, I am able to walk, talk and function somewhat normally because of the love and care administered to us with professionalism mixed with compassion and tenderness from these folks that God brought into our lives. 

One of these precious therapists told us that she thinks we were brought into her life for a reason. That is amazing. But it is even more true that she and all these others were brought into our lives for such a time as this.

May God bless them in their lives, families, health, vocation and in every area. Kelly and I can honestly say we love these people and all the others very much and we are so thankful for them. 

Thank you for spending some time with us today.

Davy