Our Dear Friend, Bro. Wade Hicks

It has been a tremendous blessing for us to meet fine people all over this nation and in other parts of the world. Some of the best people in God's creation have crossed our paths and become our dear friends. What an amazing privilege God has bestowed upon us to know so many wonderful people.

Some of the best people have been right here close at home!

We have been blessed with over 35 years of friendship and fellowship with our dear friend, Bro. Wade Hicks. Last year and the year before had us at home more than usual and we became used to seeing him a little more. 

We sure miss him when we are out on the road. We do not get to see him as often as we would like, but we made us for that yesterday.

There is one Ruby Tuesday's in our general vicinity and it is about halfway between us and Bro. Wade. It is a great place to meet for lunch and we have done it a few times.

Wednesday, we met him for lunch and we enjoyed our time together.

The food was pretty good too.

We have been wonderfully blessed with friends and we praise God for it. He has been wonderfully kind to us. Thank you for being our friends. We are thankful for you too.

Davy

Another Week Passing

Another week has flown by and what a mixed bag it has been. The days have been full and we have loved being in revival services each night at our home church. Bro. Randy Webb has preached outstanding and God has ministered to us tremendously.

Yet it has not been all roses this week. Yesterday I asked you to pray for our friends that are grieving and you responded wonderfully. Thank you for that. 

I need to ask you to pray for some more friends. We received word yesterday afternoon that Sis. Bittle in Oklahoma passed away. Regular readers will remember Bro. Bruce and Priscilla Mayhan showing up on Mile Markers pretty regularly through the years. They have surprised us with visits all over the country. Sis. Bittle is Priscilla's Mother.

In fact, we are friends with several of Sis. Bittle's children and their spouses. She was a great Christian lady and her Godly influence still rings through multiple generations. She was sick and she was advanced in years, but no one is ready to lose Mother. Please pray for our friends in Oklahoma.

Now, I have a few pictures from the week for you.

Three generations of ladies.

I like this selfie that Odie snapped of her and Bro. Bennie.

I hope you enjoy the pictures. Thank you for stopping by. I always appreciate you spending a few moments with us.

Davy

Amazed By God's Provision

Hey Friends,

This is Odie checking in with you. How are you doing? I am doing great. I am grateful that I am alive to praise God for another day.

Amazed By God's Provision

We broke ground to build the home where I now live on April 17, 2017. I remember a memorable text that I received on that groundbreaking day. Bro Gary Lee said, “You are watching a miracle happen right before your eyes.” His statement to me was one hundred percent true! This miracle began taking shape years before that time, but that day we could physically see progress. Over three years later I am still amazed by God's provision. 

The vision behind the whole project was to provide a home for my future. A house that was accessible for my physical needs was a dream of mine. It was difficult to imagine that my dream would actually be a reality. 

The house project was a long process of vision, bravery, faith, prayer, planning, time, labor and money. I watched a huge series of miracles and God was always faithful. He provided just what was needed. The finished product is a beautiful place built just for me and I can access everything. 

My house was approved for occupancy on June 1, 2018. Immediately I started to make the house my home. I will always remember the joy of spending my first night here. Surprisingly it immediately felt like home. Two years I am still excited to be in my house.

It is impossible to publicly thank every individual that performed any part in my miracle. Countless people sacrificed abundantly for me. I appreciate every person that showed their love for me. Their incredible gifts turned my dream into a reality and their generosity continues to bless me! I am still overwhelmed by their kindness. 

I know several of you, my dear friends, will read this post. The words "thank you" have never fully expressed my sincere gratitude accurately. I do not want them to just be hollow words, but I mean them with heartfelt passion. I have been praying extra for the people who made my home a complete miracle.

I planned for a while to be home for a month this spring. I was thrilled to enjoy being home. Well, due to circumstances beyond anybody’s control, I had an extended stay at home. Nobody had any idea that a world crisis would happen, but God provided me a wonderful place to hide from the virus! I have had plenty of time to reflect on my blessings.

During the pandemic, I have been so grateful for my beach cottage. I remember what Wendy Bagwell once said about his home.”We ain’t got no ocean in Smyrna, Georgia." Well, we ain’t got no ocean in Waynesville, Ohio, but I am surrounded by a home that reminds me of the ocean. The sight of a beautiful ocean is my happy place. Living in a bright beach cottage has helped me stay cheerful!  I am so thankful for God's provision for me.

I will close for now. I am always grateful that you spend part of your day with us. Thanks for reading as I reflected on God's amazing provision for me. His blessings are awesome! If you are new to the blog you can click here to read more about the house. You can see all the posts about the house by clicking here.

Odie 

Ready, Set, Go! It Is Thanksgiving Day!

Like today, most years we are away from home over Thanksgiving. Last year Kelly Jo and I were in Nigeria. The day before we traveled seven hours to preach one service of camp meeting at City of Mercy in Osun State for Pastor Isaac Adewale by special request. It was a difficult trip after just arriving in Nigeria, but we enjoyed it so much.

Thanksgiving day we began the Minister's Conference at Christ Ambassadors Holiness Church in Abeokuta. The conference started well and Kelly Jo and I had a great Thanksgiving Day with many, many of our dear friends.

We have spent a few Thanksgiving Days in Nigeria or traveling toward Nigeria, but we have spent the vast majority in the states.  What an amazing difference one year makes. This morning we are in Riverdale, California, 7692 miles from Christ Ambassadors Holiness Church in Abeokuta as a crow flies or as a crowbar flies if you have a good arm.

When in the states on Thanksgiving and not in Ohio, we have a pretty steady tradition.

That Thanksgiving tradition is a trip to Cracker Barrel for their annual Thanksgiving meal. We love Cracker Barrel on the fourth Thursday of November. That tradition is difficult to keep in California since Cracker Barrel is more rare than hen's teeth out hear.

Thanksgiving 2017 we ate our holiday dinner at Golden Corral in Modesto, California. Wow, was it every good! We are quite a bit south of Modesto this morning, but we have some special plans for Thanksgiving Day. We had to finagle our plans because of some unexpected disruption, but I will fill you in on all of that next week sometime.

We hope that all of you have a very special Thanksgiving Day. To our families and friends, we love and miss you on this wonderful family holiday. We thank God for each of you and hope to see you soon.

God bless you all.

Davy, Kelly and Odie

I Made It! The Jackson County Sun!

I am now a published author. Well, technically, I have been a published author for many years. I have written something here on Mile Markers several days a week for well over nine years and to do that I hit the publish button every day. 😁

Plus, I wrote a book in the late 90s and self-published it in 2000. Even though I remember writing that book and I remember receiving shipments of that book, I can not hardly prove I wrote a book, because nobody has it! Half of the 3-4 thousand copies of that book were sent to prisons and jails, where it was well received, but I still missed the New York Times Best Sellers list by a few million copies.😉

Now I am legitimate. I have been published in my Mother's home county and the county where many of my family and friends live. Something I have written has been printed in the Jackson County Sun and I could not be more pleased. 

On May 14 I wrote on Mile Markers about my maternal grandparents, Godfrey and Bessie Isaacs. 

It was well accepted and shared widely by some of our regular readers. We received a lot of feedback from family and friends along with notes, emails and texts from people way outside our normal circle of readers.

It is always nice when something we post here resonates with people that we do not know and have no way of normally meeting in this big wide world.

After a few days, we received this comment from Ms. Carmen Abner on the post. 

New comment on your post "Godfrey and Bessie Isaacs - 100 Years":

I would love to use this story and the pictures in The Jackson County Sun, with full credit to yourself of course. If you’ll allow, my e-mail address is jcsun14@gmail.com. Just let me know if I have your permission. Our readers would love it! 

Wow! What? For real?

I did not post the comment, but I did respond by email. We corresponded back and forth by email and sure enough, it was legit. The Jackson County Sun wanted to post the article. They like to post stories on Jackson County residents and Jackson Country history. Carmen said, "Our readers will love it" and "It is a wonderful tribute and will undoubtedly take several of our readers down memory lane."

In the Jackson County Sun June 5, 2019 issue, Ms. Abner dedicated most of page 9 to my article on Godfrey and Bessie Isaacs. She sent some copies to my Mother and Mom put one up for me. I will get it when I get home, but in the meantime she sent pictures.

I wish Grandpa and Grandma were alive to see it. They were a huge inspiration to me and many, many others in our family and beyond and it is kind of neat to let others learn a little about them.

Ms. Abner told me she had extra copies of the paper if anyone would like a copy or two. She said to let her know and she would send them to you. You can contact Ms. Carmen Abner by email (jcsun14@gmail.com) or she said you could reach out to her through Jackson County Sun's Facebook.

She did not say this, but it would be nice to offer to cover the cost of the shipping. Also, I do not know how many extra copies she has so hurry while supplies last.😊

Thank you for following along today.

Davy

That Was An Exciting Day

Whew! That was an exciting day, in a weird sort of way.

We left Sevierville, TN area at 9:30ish yesterday morning and pulled into the barn at 11:20 last night. 

After we were parked and hooked up, we walked up to Odie's house to say Hello and catch up on all that has been going on. She had a crock pot full of chili for us and it was exactly what we needed on a very cold night at the end of a very stressful day. It was the first thing we had eaten beyond snacks all day.

By the time we stumbled into the bus and moved things around so that we would have a place to lay down, writing the blog did not seem like such a good idea. Besides, I think I needed some time to process the events of the day.

We arrived in Vonore Monday morning and Jeff had everything ready to go. We had a nice visit, settled the bill and cranked up the BoggsMobile to hit the road.

19 miles later on a busy stretch of four-lane, we smelled something burning and had to get off the road NOW.

I figured I had a brake dragging or seized, so while I was squeezing off the road, Kelly Jo was getting my infrared thermometer ready. The tag axle on the passenger side had a little smoke around it when we exited the bus so I shot the temperature on that one first.

Yep, that was it. I checked the temps on the other wheels to make sure and then called Jeff. Even though this had nothing to do with any work completed at Jeff's shop, I knew that he knew what I should do.

I was standing next to the tag axle on the grass between the bus and the ditch talking on the phone. Kelly Jo was standing in the doorway of the bus. And then COBLAMMY! It sounded like the motor fell out of the bus and onto the ground! Kelly Jo said later she thought a tire blew out.

She jumped out of the bus and said, "I think someone hit us." I relayed that information to Jeff and ran around the bus to the road side. I fully expected to see a car jammed up into one of the bays of the bus.

What I saw was one of our bay doors open a few inches. On each side of the bus, we have one bay that has a door on hinges that swings open. There were two big trucks going by and one of them clipped the hinged bay door on the driver's side.

I stopped traffic, closed the door and removed myself from the road. I did not examine the damage until later. It appears the damage is only cosmetic and not structural and that is good. The whole episode could have been much, much worse.

I will not be overdramatic, but this could have ended in a very bad way. Thank God for His protection and His help.

We put out the traffic triangles, which did not slow traffic down at all, unhooked the car and walked along the road thanking God for all the good things.

Jeff and one of his men arrived in a few minutes, accessed the situation, helped us get to a better place to park and then he and Dan took care of the brakes. He suggested going back to his shop so that the brakes could be examined closely and we were glad to do it.

So two hours after we left we were back in Vonore up on the lift.



Everything seemed to be working fine with the brakes and Jeff could not find any additional problems. After a 20 mile test run with lots of stop and go, braking and accelerating, it was determined all was well.

Nearly 5 hours after we left the first time, we hooked up the Green Machine and left again. We stayed very alert to the smell of hot brakes and stopped several times to check the temperatures of the wheels. In hindsight, we probably should have stopped somewhere for the night, but we did not realize how frazzled we were until we pulled into the barn.

We made one more stop at Flying J to fill up with diesel. We did not need fuel, but if the bus is going to sit for a couple of weeks in the barn, I like the tank to be full to prevent too much condensation.



After fuel it was home and hugs all around. Oh, and chili. Do not forget the chili!

Our nerves are still a little ragged and our bodies feel it, but we have some great things to be thankful for. 

-Thank God for a good bus that is still running and not badly damaged.
-Thank God that Kelly Jo and I were not hurt.
-Thank God for a friend like Jeff Rowe.
-Thank God for a barn so that we can park out of the bitter wind and sort this out.
-Thank God for Odie and her chili and willingness to help.
-Thank God for a wife that loves the adventure. Seriously, with Kelly Jo pushing me onward, I will be ready to fly in a few days!

And Thank God for you. Thank you for checking on us. Thank you for praying for us. May God bless you every one.

Yep, that was an exciting day.

Davy

GoodNews Christian School November 30, 2018

Thursday was our much anticipated visit to GoodNews Christian School in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria. It was an exciting day for us indeed!

Bro. Shobanke shared with me that his late wife had carried a vision of beginning a Christian School in Abeokuta. When she passed away several years before, it seemed that her vision passed with her. In time, their daughters, Sis. Rebecca and Sis Ruth went to the university and God began to transplant the vision for the Christian school in their hearts.

When Bro. Shobanke told me all of that in 2009, I was instantly 100% on board with the vision for the Christian school. We pledged $1000 for each of the first three years of the operation of the school. We honestly had no idea where $1000 would come from each year, but I believed the Christian school would have a huge impact and I wanted our family to support it. We did and we have been with them ever since.

The school took off right out of the gate and each and every day they are affecting unchurched families and multiple muslim families that send their children to the school. It is a vast mission field. 

How do you change a nation that is mired in poverty and corruption? Can you legislate change? Can you mandate improvement throughout a whole society? I believe the way up, is to change one life at a time. They are doing that at GoodNews Christian School! They are doing it well.

I told Bro. Shobanke today that it may be the single greatest thing that he and his people are doing to reach people for Christ. The children are receiving a good education and they are learning of Christ and the Bible too. That is a fantastic combination.

The school has two pre-kindergarten classes beginning at two years old and then kindergarten. Once they reach level 1 the school goes through level 6. 

This year the school has expanded to level 7 and they plan to add a level each year until the students graduate at level 12. We call these grades high school but they refer to it as college. This is a huge step for the school and it demands they expand their classroom space quickly.

Sis. Rebecca, Sis. Ruth and Bro. Samuel took us on a tour of the classes. The first building is two stories with 7 classrooms.

The little boy I am talking to below is David. He is Sis. Rebecca's son and was my best friend when I was here two years ago. Of course, he was only 7 months old then, so his judgment was off. Now he closes his eyes and hopes that it makes me disappear. In the picture below, I am trying to show David a picture of him smiling in my arms. He will not look at all.😀

The grade 7 students are meeting in the church until the classroom space can be expanded.

The building to my immediate right in the picture below is the two story building with 7 classrooms.

This is the back of that building. The construction material was removed from the roof of another building and will be reused soon.

The water tower was provided as a gift from the parents of the students. Now they have a good supply of gravity fed water even if the power is out.

The grand finale was an assembly of all the students in the church. They presented a program for us and then I addressed them and prayed for them.

One of the students was chosen to present a plaque to us and she brought me to tears. My eyes were leaking all over the place!

Here is the group picture with me tucked into the middle. They were literally crawling all over me in excitement.

This is the high school students.

This is all of the staff at GoodNews Christian School.

Everyone receives a couple of sweets.

I believe this is the fourth year we have brought a piece of luggage stuffed to the gills with school supplies. We have sent a suitcase with other preachers two other years. Supplies that can be purchased in Nigeria are cheaper so we try to give them some money too. 

When we visited in 2016 they were building another building with two more classrooms.

2016

2016

We left the money to complete that building and it was completed quickly.

January 2017

During a school break this year, they removed the roof of the new school building and poured a concrete roof. They also added on another room to the ground floor. When it is finished this two room building will have six classrooms.

May 2018

The concrete on the second floor was completed by the time that school began again. This is the progress they have made since then. We left them a little money to work on the building, but not near enough to finish it.

2017 was a busy year on the school property. The original church had to be torn down because it was about to collapse. 

2017

Through the help of God's people, we were able to send an offering toward the speedy rebuilding of the church. The new church was dedicated in December of 2017.

I took this picture yesterday with Pastor Isaiah standing at the corner. I am so happy for him and his congregation.

Here we are headed out the gate Thursday afternoon after about three hours at the school.

Our hearts were full as we pulled away from the church Thursday. These dear saints are on the front lines for hearts and minds and souls. I feel like I am doing so little to assist them, but I intend to do my best to do my part. 

We absolutely could not have done what we have done before or what we did yesterday without individuals and churches that have purposefully given so that we could give. We get the hugs, pats on the back and plaques, but the credit goes to the people of God. Thank you!

I appreciate you dropping in. I hope you enjoyed the visit to GoodNews Christian School at least half as much as we did!

Davy