Thursday- From Odie in Ohio

Hi Friends, 

Our family is doing well, although we are split on different sides of the world. Dad posted two blog posts yesterday, the first one from Frankfurt Germany and the second from 

Abeokuta Nigeria. If you missed those posts take a moment to catch up on the exciting happenings of my parents trip. 

Thank you for your prayers for their safe travels! They were able to get some much-needed rest last night! I talked to them by phone this morning and I also missed a call this afternoon. Dad let me know he does not have Wi-Fi for the next couple of days. He should be able to post on the blog again by the end of the weekend. 

Back here in Ohio things are going good too. I am enjoying time with my family. Last night I was able to attend service at our home church at Dryden Road Pentecostal Church. It is always wonderful to be in service at home. 

Bro. Bill Preskitt from Virginia was preaching. He preached a wonderful message on the resurrection!! It was great to see Bro. and Sis. Preskitt. They are wonderful people of God. 

 

I will close for now. I just thought I would take a moment to update you and let you know what was going on. Thank you again for your prayers and please keep it up!

Mom and Dad, when you get a chance to read this, I love and miss you both very much!

Odie

Wednesday Night From Abeokuta

If you read the blog every night from your email, you only get the latest post by email. If we have posted twice or three times during the day you will miss the earlier post. You must go back to the website itself and look. I will try to mention if I am posting for a second or third time during the day but sometimes I get the days mixed up.

So, this is the second post for Wednesday.

It is late Wednesday night/Thursday morning and we are in the hotel in Abeokuta, Ogun state, Nigeria. We arrived here safe and mostly sound about 11 PM.

Right after I posted this morning from Frankfurt, Germany, they announced a gate change. It was only 43 gates away. We arrived at the new gate in time to sit down, listen to the announcement and get back up and go stand in line so everyone could be run through passport control.

When it was time to go, they loaded us on buses and drove us about 15 minutes to the other side of the airport or the other side of Germany, I am not sure which, and put us on the plane

The flight from Frankfurt to Lagos, Nigeria was 6 1/2 hours long. Once we got going, time "flew" by.

We got off the plane In Lagos and made it through customs and immigration and then went to baggage claim and started the long wait for the luggage. We waited about 45 minutes or so for luggage.

While we were waiting, Bro. Clement came and helped us and stayed with us until Bro. Shobanke ariived. Bro. Clement works at the airport in immigration. He is always a huge help to us. 

Bro. Shobanke and his men were a little late getting to the airport. There was a really bad tanker accident between Abeokuta and Lagos. They arrived about 30 minutes or so after we retrieved our baggage and made it to the door.

They could not go back the normal route because of the accident, so they went a different route. It was longer and the roads were in rough shape but we made it just fine. We left the airport about 7:20 and arrived at the hotel at 11:00 PM. 

We are trying to get situated here and get in the bed. We have been traveling since 10:15 Tuesday morning Eastern time and it is now almost 6:00 Tuesday evening Eastern time. It is time for a long winter's nap.

We get back on the road tomorrow to drive a couple states away Osun State for a couple of days of camp meeting.  If we have Wi-Fi there, we will let you know what is going on. If not, it does look like we will have it here in Abeokuta when we return Saturday.

Thank you so much for reading and thank you for praying.

Davy 

From Frankfurt, Germany - Wednesday

Kelly Jo and I are sitting at our connecting gate in Frankfurt, Germany. It is 8:45 AM here and 2:45 AM at home. 

Dad, Mom and Odie picked us up this morning and we left the barn at 10:15. After a stop at Golden Corral they dropped us at the Dayton airport about 12:30. 

It took us nearly an hour to get through security but we had plenty of time. 

The flight from Dayton to Washington DC was on a smaller plane The trip was very smooth and short and uneventful, just as we like it. We had to change terminals to catch our next flight but it was an easy walk.

The flight from Washington DC to Frankfurt, Germany was about 7 1/2 hours. We began by making a new friend from San Antonio, Texas but originally from Nigeria.

We love tracking the plane as we go. 

The walk from where we landed to the gate we are leaving from, was just under 13 miles. That might be a slight exaggeration but my feet think it is pretty accurate.

We had another exciting adventure in security here as well. This is starting to be a pattern that is not fun or something we want to continue. 

It took us 90 minutes from the time the plane landed to the time we sat down at our departure gate.

Our new friend, Victoria, is leaving two gates down from us so we saw her again as we passed by.

The plane is supposed to leave from here in a little over two hours and then we have a 6 1/2 hour flight to Lagos, Nigeria. You will hear from us in Nigeria if we have Wi-Fi.

Thank you all for praying for us and thank you for reading.

Davy

Here We Go!

The big day is finally here. In a few hours we will be off to the airport. We have one US stop, one Europe stop and then Lagos by about 11:45 AM eastern time Wednesday. It usually takes a couple of ours to clear customs, grab our luggage and get to the van. Then it is a couple of hours to get to Abeokuta. Hopefully we will make it to the hotel by 4-5:00 PM eastern time which is 10-11:00 PM Nigerian time. That is about 36 hours after we leave the barn, IF all goes well.

I am sure we will be taking pictures and posting them here along the way if we have Wifi. There may be some days where there are no posts and there may be days with multiple posts. Check back when you can. Odie will also be posting some as well while we are gone.

I talked to Bro. Shobanke on the phone yesterday. He is excited to see what God is going to do in the next several days. I think he may be the only one more excited than us about us going back to Nigeria. It is going to be wonderful to see everyone again.

Kelly Jo and I appreciate you praying for us. We desire God to lead us every step of the way, keeping us safe and making us effective for His purpose. It will be a colossal waste of time, money and energy if we go to Africa and help no one. I believe that God is going to speak and that God will receive the glory.

We should be back in US circulation in a few weeks. Thank you for reading.

Davy

#44 Weekend Woundup and Weview

If you missed the view yesterday, click on over and see it. I will wait for you.

The weekend was mostly spent in preparation for our trip to Nigeria with some family time and church services thrown in for good measure. It was definitely a great weekend.

By Friday afternoon I had pretty much finished with the sermons for the conference in Nigeria. After dinner Friday night I put the last touches on the last one and began the process of transferring them to my iPad and printing handouts for attendees and hard copies of my notes in case of technical failure.

We did pause for a nice birthday dinner for my sister, Theresa Friday evening.

We met at Outback for a wonderful meal and visit with the family. All the kids and spouses were there but a few of the grandkids were missing.

This weekend was also cousin Lisa's birthday!

Saturday was more work to get ready for Nigeria. Kelly Jo has worked so hard to bring it all together and the end was in sight by Saturday night. 

Sunday morning I preached for Pastor Kelly Rogers next door at Dodds and Sunday night I preached for Pastor Kevin Allen in Middleton. We had two wonderful services but we neglected to take many pictures. We took zero at Dodds and only three at Calvary Pentecostal Tabernacle. We must do better than that!

Today we will try to wrap things up in order to leave tomorrow. I still have some more notes to print, my computer bag to pack and then I will concentrate on getting the BoggsMobile and barn ready to leave. Kelly Jo will work on getting the inside of the bus ready to leave, doing last minute laundry and packing. It is all coming together but there are always a bunch of things that must be done at the last minute.

Thank you for reading.

Davy

View Out The Front Window November 13, 2016

Check out our posts from the last week at the links below. 

Odie's Saturday Post

Hope For The Hurting Dedication

Richmond, Indiana

What To Say On A Day Like This?

Summary of City Reach Fayetteville

Weekend Woundup and Weview

We are still parked in the barn so the view has not changed much. I do have a way to make it interesting though. IF you look out the bedroom window on the driver's side of the bus, you might see a mountain goat climbing the stairs!

Today is the mountain goat's birthday! Happy, Happy Birthday to my favorite sister, Theresa Osborn! We love you, sis!

Davy

Mr. and Mrs. John and Whitney Hackworth

Happy Saturday Friends,

This is Odie reporting in. I hope you have had a great week. It has been a full week for us. My parents have worked many hours getting ready for their trip to Nigeria.  I helped mom some with Nigeria preparation.  

Tuesday was an exciting day in our nation. I was glad to exercise my voting right as a United States Citizen. Usually we are on the road so we cast absentee ballots for elections. This was the first time on a Presidential election that I was able to go to our polling place to vote. I have been interested in elections since I was 7 years old and this was the 4th presidential election for my vote to actually count. 

Also this week I have been working on my own project. I will tell you more about in a few days. Today is a big day for me and I could use some extra prayer between 9:00 AM and 1:00 PM Eastern time. 

Over the years I have missed several weddings that I would have liked to attended. I love weddings and I enjoy every time I get to be at a friend's special day. Last Saturday was the big day for Whitney Ward and John Hackworth. I was so glad to be there to witness them starting their life together. 

The wedding was beautiful and Whitney was a gorgeous bride. I have known Whitney her whole life and I am proud of the  young lady she has become. It has been great getting to know John this year. He is a wonderful young man. I am excited to see what God has planned for them! Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. John and Whitney Hackworth! I love you all!

I will let the wedding pics finish out the post. I hope you have a fabulous weekend. 

Odie

Hope For The Hurting Dedication

It is Veterans Day today and I first want to thank each and every veteran that has served. May God bless you for your sacrifice. I also want to link to a post I wrote in May about our visit with a true American hero and our great friend, Bro. Larry Smith.

Hope For The Hurting

A few years ago I told you about Bethany Revival Center's program Hope For the Hurting. Pastors John and Judy DiZazzo and their church have been reaching out to hurting people for many years in the Wichita, Kansas area and beyond. There are many men and women that are serving God today at Bethany and at other churches because of Hope For The Hurting.

They have been reaching for people in prison, people just getting out of jail, drug addicts, alcoholics, depressed, possessed and confused for many years. I have seen the grace of God at work in the lives of people that go through their church and I know first hand the good they have been blessed to do.

It has been their desire for many years to begin a residential program as part of Hope For The Hurting. They purchased and renovated a larger older church in their neighborhood and have been working toward their goal for a few years. It has been an almost unbelievable series of miracles to bring them to the launching point. The building is essentially completed and they plan to start accepting their first residents shortly after the first of the year! Praise God!

Because of the logistical challenges of housing both men and women in the same area, they will only be accepting women into the residential part of the program at this time. They are excited to get started and there are hurting women that are excited to get a chance to start over.

There are many churches and ministries across America that are reaching for people that are bruised and broken. There are jail ministries, homeless outreaches, clothing banks, free stores, drug intervention programs and much more that are ran by the conservative Pentecostal people in several cities. I love that! God is using my brothers and my sisters as His hand and His feet.

Many of these ministries desire to eventually do something similar to what Bro. John and Sis. Judy DiZazzo and the Bethany Revival Center are about to do. They realize the great need. They see the great potential. Yet they are also painfully aware of the great obstacles that block their way. A residential program is a tremendous expense and a tremendous commitment.

My friends in Wichita are clearing some of those last obstacles right now and this program should be up and running soon. This is huge. This is awesome. This is really ground breaking. We are so thrilled and happy for them and we hope it inspires and paves the way for other ministries to follow.

We are also happy that they have ask us to take part in their dedication service Sunday January 1, 2017. I know that many of you have shared in their vision through prayer and possibly even financial support. it would be awesome if you could continue that participation and even increase your participation by joining us and them for the dedication service. I know it is going to be a wonderful day! They are planning an afternoon service so that others can attend and I will give you more details as I receive them.

Shortly after the dedication, Hope For The Hurting will begin accepting the first women into the residential program. It is going to be an exciting adventure indeed. We are happy to be along for the ride!

Thank you for reading today.

Davy

Wednesday Night In Richmond, Indiana

Pastor Ronnie Baker from Richmond, Indiana had invited me over to preach for him and his folks so Wednesday night was appointed time. It is not really that far to Richmond from the Lazy OD Ranch. It only took us about an hour and five minutes to get home after church but the drive to Richmond was quite a bit longer because of traffic.

Eaton Pike Pentecostal Tabernacle is a beautiful church in a great location. They are just south of I-70 and at the very edge of the city. A good arm throwing a rock could almost hit the Lowe's and the restaurants around it from the church drive.

It has been several years since we had been to the Tabernacle and we were so glad to be back. Bro. Baker and his folks received us very warmly and responded well to the singing and preaching. It was a great night.

Odie captured a few pictures for your viewing pleasure.

This week has been going pretty much as we planned it. Kelly Jo and Odie have been buying, planning, preparing and packing things for Nigeria and I have been working on sermons. We are running close to our schedule and hoping we can keep the train on the tracks a few more days. It will not be long and we will be with our friends in Nigeria!

May God bless those that have helped with the school supplies for GoodNews Christian School, building the new classrooms and other Nigeria related expenses. Thank you very kindly. We appreciate it and we know that Bro. Shobanke will appreciate it too.

Thank you for reading.

Davy