Another Circle Behind Us

We are already in the second day of our next trip, but I need to recap our last circle. We were gone four weeks exactly, September 8 to October 6 and drove the bus 1761 miles. This is our approximate route.

We preached three revivals and attend two camp meetings and two single services in churches. The stops included in Thomasville, Alabama, under our tent in Richton, Mississippi, Moss Point, Mississippi, Tanner Williams, Alabama, Semmes, Alabama and Bond, Kentucky.

We also did the special singing at Pastor Stringfellow's camp meeting in Alabama and attended three days of Bond camp meeting and preached one morning.

This circle was intended to last until December, but we had a schedule change in Texas and I made a course correction. That correction included taking the tent trailer to Ohio. 

In planning the trip to Ohio, I realized we would be going through Kentucky during Bond camp meeting. That worked great for us and we were thrilled to be there.

It also gave me a chance to schedule a stop at East Tennessee Luxury Coach to repair a small bus problem. I will try to tell you more about that later.

Now we have begun what would have been the second half of the bigger circle. We will be in seven meetings in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri before taking the bus back to Tennessee and flying to Africa for a short mission trip.

Big wheels keep on turning. Thank you for following along.

Davy

Where And Why?

It occurred to me while I was driving today that I had not brought you up to date on our whereabouts for the next several days. Where are we and why?

If you looked at our schedule two weeks ago, you would be excused for thinking we left Alabama yesterday afternoon on our way to Texas for revival beginning Wednesday. That was the original plan.

Plans are always subject to change and the church we were going to had a change of plans nearly two weeks ago. I shifted gears and decided to make a very quick trip to Ohio in order to deliver our tent trailer to the barn where it needed to be.

Going to Ohio opened up two opportunities. First, I was able to schedule a quick trip to East Tennessee Luxury Coach to have a wheel seal replaced and secondly, we should be able to stop for a couple days of Bond Campmeeting. We are on our way to see you, friends. Surprise!

Then we will drop the trailer at the Lazy OD Ranch and make our way to Oklahoma. The change in routing added 700 miles, but it will save me many more miles later by having the trailer in place. Adding Bond Campmeeting to that was like a cherry on top!

With the trip to Texas deleted, I was able to accept the invitation to preach Sunday night at Allentown so we can add that to the plus side too. All in all, the change worked out fine.

Yesterday we finished the first leg of the trip. We left Tanner Williams at 6:30 and we were hooked up to the trailer and leaving Allentown by 7:00. Eleven hours later we were pulling into East Tennessee Luxury Coach in Vonore, Tennessee. I drove the bus 508 miles pulling the tent trailer and KJo and followed in the Jeep.

That is probably the longest bus travel day since Covid and absolutely the longest day pulling the trailer in a few years. I am really glad to have that day over. Hallelujah!

That is where we are and the why. I hope we see you along the way. You can find our latest schedule changes HERE. Thank you for stopping in.

Davy

Remembering Again September 11, 2001

Nearly 3000 people died on American soil on September 11, 2001 because religious nuts hated America, hated capitalism, hated our system of government, hated anyone that did not serve their god and tried their best to destroy us.
 
It must be said loudly that most followers of that same religion did not, do not want to kill Americans or destroy Americans. But it must be said just as loudly that these men killed Americans in the name of their religion.
 
3000 lives ended in a moment. 22 years later and people are still grieving, still hurting, still crying and still trying to live on. 
 
Many in the world would like us to forget.
 
Many in the press would like for us to forget.
 
Many in the government would like for us to forget.
 
But we must never forget.
 
Families were forever changed and scarred. 
 
Parents lost children. 
 
Spouses lost their companions. 
 
Friends were separated forever. 
 
Many businesses lost key employees. 
 
New York City Fire Department lost 343 firefighters. 
 
New York City Police Department lost 23 officers. 
 
New York City Port Authority lost 37 officers. 
 
Over 3200 children lost at least one parent.
 
How could we ever forget?
 
We must never forget. We must never omit the details. We must never sidestep the truth to avoid hurting a snowflake's feelings. Those 19 hijackers and the men who sent them did not care for the feelings of thousands they hoped to kill.
 
We must know. We must learn. We must remember. We must care. We must remain vigilant. We must never forget.
 
September 11, 2001 made me want to pull people I love closer and let them know how much I care for them. It still does. Nearly 3000 people lost their lives in NYC, Washington DC and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The more I read the stories of victims and survivors and heroes, the more I value life at its very core.
 
Life is valuable. Life is fleeting. Life is too short to waste on ourselves. God help me to remember.
 
We visited the 9/11 Museum and Memorial in August 2014 and 2016. These two visits had a sobering impact on our family. We were seeing many of the film clips and pictures for the very first time. I have described it as an emotional punch in the gut.
 
The hours we spent there were some of the most sobering, severe and significant hours in my life. It is a place that haunts not only my sleep, but often even my waking hours. It may seem cliche but I assure you it is not, 9/11 changed our lives forever, even those of us that were thousands of miles removed from the destruction.
 
In the museum I came to the slow realization that we are not talking about a group of 3000 random people being tragically killed, which is heartbreaking in itself, but we are talking about 3000 individuals, all with families, hopes, dreams, ambitions and plans.
 
The personal cost, the personal hurt, the personal tragedies are completely overwhelming when standing on their own. To hear their voices, to see their pictures, to watch video clips of them with their families, to hear their loved ones talk about them is powerfully poignant. When you put it all together in one event and attempt to add up all the loss of real, living, breathing humanity, it is unfathomable!
 
Consider just one personal story we learned there. It is the story of Captain Terrance S. Hatton the commander of Rescue 1 in Manhattan. Captain Terry Hatton was killed in the north tower when it fell. 
 
His wife, Beth Petrone Hatton was the Executive Assistant to Mayor Rudy Giuliani. She was standing on the steps of City Hall as the World Trade Center collapsed. She knew exactly where her husband was at that moment.
 
Captain Hatton was a man of duty. He was 41 years old and had served the NYFD for 21 years. In those 21 years he had earned 19 medals for bravery including the highest award in the city, the Medal of Honor. He was considered by those that served with him as one of the best.
 
Beth Petrone knew all that. She knew her honorable husband would be on the highest accessible floor conducting rescue operations. That was his job and he did it well.
 
As she watched the tower fall, she instantly knew he was dead. The dust engulfed City Hall and Beth found herself holding handfuls of the debris thinking she was somehow holding her husband.
 
They found Captain Terry Hatton's remains two weeks later and buried him in the fashion of the hero he was. By then, Beth Petrone Hatton had learned she was expecting their first child.
 
Terri Elizabeth Hatton was born in May of 2002. She is a beautiful young lady now and she will never know her heroic father except for stories. He will never hold her. He will never tuck her into bed. He will never read to her. He will never walk her down the aisle. He is gone. Beth lost her husband and little Terri lost her Daddy, simply because he went to work that morning.

That is the story of only one man that died and it does not even include the hurt of his parents, his siblings, his other relatives, his friends or the men he worked with and all the rest he left behind.

Multiply that one story by 3000 plus stories and you have not even begun to scratch the surface of why we should never forget!

Maybe you will enjoy your family today. Maybe you will go to church and worship. Maybe you must concentrate today on walking through your own personal hardships or even tragedy. Wherever you are and whatever stage in life you are in, please take a moment to think about all that were lost on September 11, 2001. 

Take a moment to remember. Take a moment to consider what might have been. Take a moment to pray for Terri Elizabeth Hatton and many, many of thousands of others that are moving forward and trying to overcome each day.

I believe we owe them that much.

Thank you.

Davy Boggs

Now We Wait!

Now We Wait!

I mentioned Tuesday that we would need to begin the tedious process of the Nigerian Visa application. That very day, I waded into the deep hole and KJo finally dropped the FedEx envelope in the box about 6:15 Wednesday evening. Wow! What an experience!

They have simplified the actual application by about five pages. I do appreciate that, but the website is still incredibly buggy, clunky and slow. We were so happy to get that part finished and paid for Tuesday night, but the journey was only beginning.

After the application is completed for the Nigerian Consulate, then we have to print the application, print the payment receipt AND print the payment acknowledgment slip. 

Payment receipt and payment acknowledgment slip? What is the difference? Who knows!

The proper thing after that is for both of us to make an appointment and travel to the consulate in New York City. We need the printed application, receipt and acknowledgment slip plus our passports, new passport-type photos, proof of flight and hotel reservations, a bank statement and a pocket full of money.

Then we leave all of that in NYC and go back in 8-10 business days and pick up our passports and hopefully the approved visa. Sounds completely simple, right? Yep, easy-peasy! NOT!

Since two trips to NYC are not feasible, we pay a company $240 each to carry the stuff into the consulate for us and pick it up when it is finished. The fee is way higher than it was 16 years ago, but I am sure they earn their money.

We send them all the things above and a big fat check, including more Nigerian government fees and wait a couple weeks for them to do their magic. Once they have the Nigerian visa in hand, they will overnight our passports and visas to us.

Hopefully, we did everything correctly and the applications will sail through and the visas are approved. Then we will work on trying to get the right flights for the right dates and all will be set.

After we are reunited with our people in Nigeria, it will all be worth it. I am looking forward to that!

Thank you for dropping by today.

Davy

More News On Nigeria

More news on Nigeria

Unfortunately, we missed our scheduled trip to Nigeria in 2020. The world took a turn upside down and we were not able to go in November/December 2020.

By early fall 2021, I had only been back on the road a few weeks after being sick with COVID-19. I was still using supplemental Oxygen and could not handle the long trip so we set our sights on late 2022 for our Nigeria trip.

2022 did not work because of Nigerian Visa problems. It is best to apply for our Nigerian Visa about 90 days before the trip so in July of 2022, I began to check on the Visas. I found that the Nigerian Consulate had temporarily stopped Visas for US citizens and would begin shortly.

By October they had gone through about four different reasons why they could not process Visas, but they were still not issuing them. I have to send my actual passport with the application and I needed my passport for travel in November so we finally called off the trip.

We were all disappointed, but there was nothing to be done. We shifted to planning for 2023. That has been the strategy all year.

With Bro. Shobanke in the US, sick and unable to travel home, we did not know if we should proceed or not. I told you yesterday that he was able to travel home and we are praising God.

As I visited with him the day he left, he plainly told me that he wanted us to come to Nigeria this year. He made me assure him that even if he passed away tomorrow I would do my best to go to his people in Nigeria.

I promised him that if we can obtain Visas and his people will allow us to come, we will certainly do our best to keep our commitment to him.

So, by God's grace and help, KJo and I plan to leave for Nigeria, West Africa in the last few days of November for about two weeks. If all goes as planned we will preach to all of Christ Ambassadors churches on the first Sunday along with a Minister's Conference and an outdoor Gospel Crusade while we are there.

We are now beginning the tedious process of the Nigerian Visa application. It has always been incredibly complicated and also expensive in the past. I will let you know if anything has changed.😊

KJo and I are concerned about my ability to make the trip physically as well so we would appreciate if you would speak to God for us. Would you pray for us through the whole process beginning now? Thank you very much.

AND thank you for joining us for a few hours today.

Davy

I Ought To Be A Whole Lot Better!

We are nearing the end of August 2023 and I need to mark a milestone before August slips into September.

In August 1983 I talked to my Pastor at the time, Pastor John Lamb in Harveysburg. I had been working through something in my mind for quite a while and it was time to talk it over.

On Saturday night or Sunday night, I told Bro. Lamb that I was feeling like that maybe I was going to preach at some point. He talked a while and said, "No better way to find out than try. You are up Thursday night." I was halfway expecting him to say something like that, but I did not feel ready to do it.

We talked some more and by the time I left him that night, I was scheduled to preach my first sermon the following Thursday night. If I was scheduled to swim across the Ohio River, I do not think I could have felt any more nervous. 

Thankfully, he did not announce it to the church and I am not sure I told anyone either.

I preached my first sermon on the Love of God from the Gospel of John. I had some scriptures scribbled down and a few main bullet points and I cried the whole time. We had a pretty good altar service and I remember being relieved and happy when the service ended.

The second sermon was preached a few weeks later from Ezekiel 33 about the Watchman. It also went pretty well and the people responded very well. I began to think I might be on to something.

The third time was an unmitigated disaster. I have no memory of my text or subject. I only remember that I stumbled and bumbled my way to a pitiful end. I learned a hard lesson.

I kept the notes of the first two efforts for several years. I had them with other sermon notes in a book that I laid on top of the car while loading the car after church in the mid-1990s. I drove off and left the book and never saw it again.

The book also had a page with important facts and dates, including the dates of my first sermons. I know the first time preaching was a Thursday night in August of 1983 and I think it was August 18. I could have been August 11, but I think 18.

Either way, it was 40 years ago this month that I preached my first sermon. I am thankful the first time was much better than the third time or I might have never tried again.

40 years is a long time to be doing anything. After thousands of sermons, I ought to be a whole lot better.

Thank you for stopping by today.

Davy

We Have Hit The Weather Jackpot This Summer!

Please tune in tomorrow for Part 1 of a special Word For Wednesday. I would be honored to have you join us.

We Have Hit The Weather Jackpot This Summer!

Vance Havner said,

Whether the weather be cold or whether the weather be hot.Whether the weather be good or whether the weather be not.

Whatever the weather we’ll weather the weather, whether we like it or not.

And while that is true and while that is clever, the fact remains, we have hit the weather jackpot this summer!

In May, June and early July 2022, KJo and I were in Arizona and southern California. Later in July we were in Kansas If we had been in those same locations this year, we would have roasted in no uncertain terms.

In fact, had we been almost anywhere in the USA this summer, other than where we have been, we would have been hotter than most summers and much hotter than we have been.

We hit the weather jackpot this summer, no doubt! Hallelujah!

The temperatures have been in the 70s and low 80s for most of our time in the northeast and that seems to be the forecast for the rest of our time up here as well. Vermont later this week is low 70s and even 60s one day. Unfortunately, the forecast includes a little rain.

Early on, we had some 90 degree days in southern Maine, but it felt nice and mild to us for the most part. The high only lasted an hour or two each afternoon and the humidity was completely tolerable for us. We can handle that and we did handle it just fine.

I have been getting texts regularly from friends across the country showing me temps in the 90s before 8:00 in the morning and still in the 90s as the sun goes down. Many of our friends had temperatures in the upper 90s or 100s nearly every day in July.

Yep, we hit the weather jackpot this summer!

We will head back south within a week and we are likely to encounter some oppressive heat before fall. We have two revivals in south Alabama and tent revival in Richton, Mississippi and all three of those are likely to be hot.

There is a chance that Mississippi tent revival will make us pay dearly for the beautiful weather we have thoroughly enjoyed the last five weeks. OR perhaps fall will swing into the south and we will breeze right through it.

One thing is for sure. Whether the weather be cold or whether the weather be hot.Whether the weather be good or whether the weather be not.

Whatever the weather we’ll weather the weather, whether we like it or not.

Thank you for dropping by Mile Markers today.

Davy

Going To Play Tourist

We are up early and at it this morning preparing to play tourist today. We are only 55 miles from an area we have never been before and we need to correct that. 

By God's grace, we plan to drive to Plymouth, Massachusetts and lay our eyes on Plymouth Rock. The rock is the supposed place where the inhabitants of the Mayflower disembarked the ship in 1620. I am hoping to find some good food around too.

While we are near the water, I am hoping to find a good place to record A Word For Wednesday. That is probably asking too much with the crowds this time of year, but who knows?

I will let you know how it goes. Thank you for stopping in.

Davy

A New Place Coming Up Soon

We met Pastor Marcos Fabiano here at Bethel Revival Center in 2019. He has been pioneering a Brazillian mission work in Everett since 2016.

Pastor Marcos on the left last night with Pastor Orville Plummer.

He is a great guy and we are excited to see him again this week at revival. He called and told me he would be there and we were excited to hear the great news. It was wonderful to have him and to get to visit with him.

Pastor Marcos contacted me a while back and asked about us preaching for him while we are in Boston and we are so glad to receive the invitation. We love going new places.

By God's grace, we will be singing and preaching for Pastor Marcos Sunday evening July 30 at 6:30. We are expecting a great visitation from the Lord in the service. Please pray for us as God opens new avenues for us to minister.

Thank you for stopping in today. Check back tomorrow. I think I will have a special Wordless Wednesday. See you then.

Davy

History of Odie in The Electric Chair

Odie's first power chair was given to her nearly 20 years ago. It was a regular looking push-type chair with motors on the wheels. We affectionately called it her "electric chair".

A few years later she was gifted a nice used "electric chair" and she gifted the first one to a man in our home church. A few years later she was gifted a newer "electric chair" and she gave the second one to another friend of ours.

It was always difficult to travel with the heavy chairs and over 10 years ago she changed to a lightweight scooter that easily breaks down in pieces for travel when necessary. She gave the last heavy "electric chair" to a cousin that needed it.

When we built the house she need a power chair with a compact footprint to get around inside the house and we purchased a used one in Bristol, Tennessee. It was not a really good one to begin with, but it served her well for the last five+ years.

She has been looking for a replacement for months, but she has had a hard time finding mobility stores recently that have wheelchairs in stock. She could buy them online, but that was not acceptable. She did not want to buy without seeing the chair and trying it out. 

KJo and Odie found a store in the Cincinnati area that had the specific chair she wanted to look at. They looked it over and tried it out, but the store's price was over $400 more than several places online. The salesman was kind and understanding but could not get near the online price.

However, that store services and repairs that brand of chair no matter where you buy it and he was sure to let her know it. That is great information because Odie's four-wheel scooter that we travel with is the same brand.

Odie researched the best place to purchase from online and ordered the chair at a great price with free and quick shipping. It arrived in a few days.

The company she ordered from is Marc's Mobility in Lakeland, Florida. Not only did Odie get a great price, but she is seriously impressed with their customer service and she highly recommends them.

Like her scooter, you can choose the color of the shrouds and Odie chose her favorite color, orange.

The chair is a hair wider, but much shorter, lengthwise, than her last chair. It has a very tight turning radius and fits easily all over the house. She used a scooter of the same brand for nine years and we think this chair should last a long time, especially since she will only use it while at home.

So we welcome Odie's new "electric chair" to the family.

Thank you for reading today.

Davy

A Plan For Tuesday and Beyond

Edit: Added a few pictures 

Sunday was a late night for us so we did not break any records leaving Crosslight Chapel in Moore on Monday morning. We had 300 miles to travel and a good weather forecast for the whole day. We were in no hurry.

It was a beautiful travel day with absolutely no bus trouble and one small traffic delay east of Joplin on I-44. OKC and Tusla were easy-peasy and we sailed right along. Beautiful I say!

I only stopped once for a short break on the turnpike between Tusla and Joplin and we pulled into an RV park after 308 miles and five hours and 20 minutes. That is a near perfect travel day.

I hear someone say, "RV park? What's up with that? You all hardly ever stay overnight in an RV park?"

Yep, that is absolutely correct. We are only in an RV park because we are having trouble with the generator. It is impossible to spend much time in the bus in summer temperatures without air conditioning and it is impossible to have air conditioning while parked without electricity. With no dependable generator, we need an RV park.

That cramps our travel style and is actually more expensive too. We are parked five miles from the generator shop where we have an appointment for 8:00 AM Tuesday. We paid $58 for the privilege of parking 16 hours on a gravel parking lot with water/sewer and 50 amps.

If we could generate electricity, we would have parked at the truck stop next door to the shop and spent less than $30 of diesel to run the generator for the same time period. But it is actually more about convenience than it is money. Planning our travel days around RV parks is inconvenient at best and impossible some days.

Plus, several places we are supposed to preach this summer have no parking or no electric access at the church and no RV parks anywhere nearby. That puts us in a pickle.

We really need this generator and we are praying this place can diagnose the problem and repair it lickety-split! Last week, while running the generator and checking voltage I noticed one of the electric cooling fans is not working. That will need to be replaced as well.

I hope we have good news by the end of today. We shall see.

Thank you for dropping in.

Davy

An Incredible Blessing 33 Years In The Making

No church tonight (Thursday) because of severe storms in the area. 

We are having a great time at Crosslight with Bro. and Sis. Birdsong and all the great people. Of course, we expect wonderful things each and every time we are blessed to be here. Tomorrow, I plan to have pictures of our first three nights of revival so you can share in our visit.

Crosslight is in Moore, Oklahoma. For those that may not know (Not everyone is an expert on Geology😂) the city of Moore is sandwiched between Oklahoma City and Norman. We can be in either city in only minutes.

The people and the churches have been good to us for many years in this area. We have preached dozens of revivals and special meetings within an hour of OKC in the last 33 years. 

Our first revival in the general area was in June of 1990 and we have been in service this week with some of the people we met on that trip. That is pretty awesome. It is overwhelming to think that people we encountered on a "random" trip to Oklahoma so long ago have become enormously important to us all these years later.

Many of our closest friends now and through the years, live within an hour of where I sit right now. There is no way we could have known that when we were a young couple. At that time, our whole world was not much more than Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.

That is perfectly fine for some folks, but I shudder to think about all the great things, places, food, friends and spiritual experiences we would have missed if we had never ventured out here in 1990.

We had been through Oklahoma a few times and even preached one night in 1986 and a couple times in 1989, but the 1990 trip was to a church we had never heard of, by invitation of a Pastor I barely knew, traveling in sketchy transportation and with no resources.

Driving that 1984 Plymouth Reliant Station Wagon here in June of 1990 might have seemed to some a foolhardy thing to do. I understand that now. We had no credit card, no extra cash, no backup plan and we were driving a $900 car that would not start when I bought it two days before.

We preached a week or two of revival for Pastor Kevin Clounch, attended a few services of two youth camps and then drove the beat up Plymouth back to Ohio. KJo and I had no idea we had stumbled into our life's calling.

Even though we have worked in two churches and spent a six year stretch living in Ohio, attending our home church and working public jobs, we have spent over 23 of the last 33 years singing, preaching, traveling and trying to be an instrument of revival.

What an amazing adventure we have been blessed and privileged to enjoy all of these years. All the glory belongs to God and we give him praise from our hearts.

But I must give a little shoutout to the Pastors and friends in OKC and the surrounding area. The evangelistic ministry the Lord has allowed us to have really began right here among these precious people and has continued to flourish because of their love and kindness.

This is an incredible blessing 33 years in the making and this wonderful week of revival keeps adding to it!

Thank you for stopping in today. May God bless you.

Davy

Making It Look Easy!

We have been having a great week of travel and we will probably be giving you a full run down tomorrow. Today's Mile Marker is a little reminder that life on the road is not all kicks and grins. I know we make it look easy, but there is some work involved.😍

We were cruising along I-30 in Arkansas and I noticed a slowdown 45 miles ahead on my GPS. KJo investigated on Google Maps and WAZE and sure enough, it was coming with no way around it.

We never did figure out the root cause, but it looked as if there had been some peripheral accidents as always. This is what it looked like to us for a long time.

It took us exactly 30 minutes to travel 3.4 miles. Wow! So much for a good average yesterday.

Unfortunately, we were not finished.

Just as we cleared Texarkana, we topped a small rise and a large state truck was in the right lane. Thankfully, I was dawdling along in the right lane at about 60 while the left lane was speeding by us. I thought the large truck was on the shoulder and it took me a moment to realize he was in the lane.

I started braking, downshifting and praying. Soon I realized I could not slow down in time. There was no option in the left lane. The traffic was way too thick to attempt to merge at all. I pulled right to the shoulder and found the reason for the state truck in the right lane. He was protecting a truck with a small trailer that was cleaning the shoulder.

I seriously considered the grass embankment but decided to hold off until the last moment. When I stopped on the shoulder, I was next to the big truck and right behind the trailer loaded with road garbage. Whew! That was way too close.

Then I looked behind me and saw the speeding traffic coming over the hill trying to avoid all of us. It is a wonder there was no accident.

Less than 20 minutes later, we were in another slowdown. This one was caused by construction. This slowdown lasted 23 minutes and exactly 2 miles. We came to an exit with a detour we could utilize and jumped off. Otherwise, we might still be there.

You are going to love what happened at the end of the day. I will share that with you tomorrow. It is hilarious.

I know we are always talking about Mexican food, buffets, revivals and good times, but road life is more than fun and games. Yesterday was a dose of reality. I apologize if we make it look too easy. 

Thank you for tuning in today.

Davy