Water

The word of the day is Water! Tune in next time for more exciting Words of the day!

Davy

When Normal Days Are Changed To Special Days

Hello friends, this is Odie writing a praise report. 10 years ago today began like any other normal day but ultimately it was a life changing day for me. It is the day my miracle began. I wanted to take a moment to Praise God one more time. Please pardon me while I testify. 

I have had Cerbral Palsy from birth. Doctors diagnosed me with CP at age 2. I am very blessed that I am mostly effected from the knees down. My brain does not send the correct signals to my muscles and tells my muscles to be constantly tight. This causes me not to be able to walk on my own. 

Over the years, my legs began to work as tight unit. They were stuck together like glue. It was hard and painful just to get them separated to put my boots on. I lived in almost constant pain and had developed a high pain tolerance. I would wake up sometimes several times a night with my muscles so tight that I would be curled up in a ball. The pain would be excruciating and I would have to slowly and painfully unwind myself from the balled up position. 

November 2, 2006, started off as a normal travel day. We were making the trip from Neosho, Missouri to Purcell, Oklahoma. Our new friend Pastor Shobanke, was visiting the United States from Nigeria and needed a ride to Oklahoma. It worked out for Bro. Shobanke to ride with us. We met up with Bro. and Sis. Fellers and Bro. Shobanke for a meal at Cracker Barrel then continued the journey to Oklahoma. 

Bro. Shobanke told my Dad during the trip, "When we get to Claremore I want to pray for your daughter." God had told Bro. Shobanke the night before he would pray for Bro. Boggs' daughter the next day. At that point neither us nor Bro. Shobanke knew we would cross paths on that day, but God knew. 

When we arrived at Westside Holiness Church in Claremore, Oklahoma, Dad got Bro. Shobanke settled in the evangelist quarters. Then we had a prayer meeting right in the church parking lot. It was a prayer meeting like I had never experienced before. For close to a hour Bro. Shobanke prayed, preached, sang, read scriptures and walked me around the parking lot. He had me pray, sing, read scripture and repeat it all again. It was an amazing time. Dad says he got distracted from praying because he was wondering who to call first when I started walking. We just knew it would happen that day! 

But in a while the spirit lifted and it was time to load back up in the truck and head to Purcell. Later in the evening we were sitting in the living room of our 5th wheel, Dad in his chair, me on the couch and Mom on the floor. We were probably listening to Old Time Radio on XM but I do not remember for sure. 

Now remember, my muscles are always tight and I lived in pain and my legs worked pretty much as a unit. Mom sitting in the floor was picking on me. She picked one of my legs up and held it out even with the couch and my other foot stayed on the floor. Mom did this a couple times before I realized what was happening. My legs were working separately and I was not screaming in pain as I normally would have been. 

We praised God for hours that night! I kept trying all kinds of things to see what I was able to do now. 

From that time forward, if I concentrate, I can relax my leg muscles from the knees down. I can separate my feet and legs and my pain levels have dropped 90%. Waking up in a tight ball with horrible pain used to happen nightly and it is now a rarity. I still have pain at times but I am so thankful it is not constant. God is awesome!

This came at a time that my faith was week. I knew God could heal but I doubted He would do it for me. For 10 years now I have had renewed faith. I believe any day that my miracle is going to be completed. 

I certainly did not think I would still be waiting for a completed miracle 10 years later. But I  know I am a lot closer to a full healing than I used to be. I know my healing may come when I least expect it. I want to be ready and waiting. There have been many times in the last 10 years that I have thought I would rise and walk aid free. I am so thankful for each faith building moment!

On Sunday night we had a wonderful service at Dryden Road Pentecostal Church. The beginning of the service Bro. Bennie was exhorting/preaching to us about healing. Then the Holy Ghost spoke and confirmed what our Pastor told us. I know I was just one of many in the service waiting on a healing but God touched me. I had several days of unusual pain, including during that service. After Dad and others prayed for me the pain left and I have felt so much better!

Thank you for reading my testimony. I want to Thank God for what He has done and what He  will do today and in the future. Please be encouraged and believe that God is moving on your behalf even on "normal" days. November 2, 2006 was a "normal" day but now it is a special day we will never forget.

Odie

Here Comes The Water Part II

Long, long days usually mean short posts but at least this long day/short post has lots of pictures.

I mentioned yesterday that we were starting a new project at the Lazy OD Ranch this week. The project for the week is actually the second phase of a project I wrote about in August. The water tap was installed the first week of August and now we are getting around to running the line from the road to the barn. I have no idea how to run a track hoe so Bro. Jimmie is the man of the hour. 

As with most projects, this is a much bigger job than I imagined it would be. By the time the water company gives you all the requirements, it makes you wonder if taking regular showers might be overrated!

We had started very early but the track hoe was delivered Monday a few minutes before 10:00. Bro. Jimmie finally climbed off of it a little after 7:00. He was pretty much hard at it the whole 9 hours with the exception of a 30 minute break for lunch. It was a long day but the ditch is almost completely finished.

Hopefully we will have all the pipe, fittings and hydrants installed by this evening. The water company is supposed to be back tomorrow morning to look it over and start the water flowing.

I will probably have more pictures tomorrow or later in the week.

Thank you for reading.

Davy

#42 Weekend Woundup and Weview

This ended up being a long post but the one redeeming quality is lots of pictures. Let us get started. On your mark, get ready, go!

To properly wrap up the weekend, we need to go all the way back to our first evening home which was Wednesday. We arrived home after 2:00 PM and Dad was waiting for us at the barn. Once we were parked, we slipped down to Acapulco for a little "welcome home salsa." The salsa was good enough to drink and spending time with Dad capped it off perfectly.

Bro. Jimmy Millikin was in revival this week a few miles away at Corwin and we knew that Wednesday would probably be our only night to attend. We had a great service and enjoyed being with the Millikins very much.

On Thursday the first thing on the agenda was moving all the tent stuff from Bro. Jimmie's trailer, sorting through it all and then packing it away in our tent trailer. Bro. Jimmie Radcliffe, Bro. Jimmy Millikin, Kelly Jo and I worked several hours to get it all completed.

Of course, we had to throw in a little salsa for good measure.

Thursday night we went to Dryden Rd. It was very good to be back home and to hear Bro. Bennie preach.

Friday was more work with a pause for a Birthday lunch for Miss Carli Rose Millikin at Acapulco.

Then Kelly Jo and I plunged into catching up on ministry and personal book work. We worked several hours Friday evening and late into the night. We did pause for a little more salsa.

I finished up the remaining book work Saturday morning and that catches us up for a little while.

Saturday at 11:00 AM we all gathered with family and friends at Dad's barn for a big home cooked breakfast. Steve and Karen's son Isaac is going into the military this week and he requested a big breakfast as his going away celebration. I must say I am glad we were home to participate. It was wonderful!

Saturday evening I walked over to the fellowship hall at Dodd's Church for a few minutes. They were having a 90th Birthday party for Bro. John Coffman. Bro. John has attended Dodds all of my life and had a big influence on me as a kid. He was my Royal Ranger teacher on Monday nights and he was a lot of fun.

He and his wife, Sis. Margie are great folks and it was an honor to attend his special day.

Another project Saturday was repairing the fence out front. It was hit by a neighbor riding a dirt bike the other day and a post broke and a few horizontal boards. 

Dad had saved the posts when he removed the long north/south fence for me right after we purchased this place.We used one of the old posts and a few new cedar boards to repair it. It was an easy repair with Bro. Jimmie on the job.

We will let the cedar boards season some and then paint them to match.

Sunday morning we preached at our home church, Dryden Rd. Pentecostal Church. 



It was wonderful to be there and enjoy the presence of the Lord both services Sunday. We love being home and each time are with our home church we are reminded of exactly why we chose this church many, many years ago.

God has used our Pastor and these precious people to guide us, help us and strengthen us along the way at very strategic times in our lives. He is still using them for His purposes and we are thankful for it. We are still very glad to be a part of Dryden Rd. Pentecostal Church.

That pretty much wraps up our weekend of activities. It was a super great weekend. This morning we start a new project at the Lazy OD Ranch and we will let you know more about that as the week and the work progresses.

Thank you for reading.

Davy