The Weekend Dispatch 1/17/2022

It is time to get back into our regular schedule of weekend reporting. For 2022 it will be called The Weekend Dispatch along with the Monday date. Thank you for coming along for the ride.

The Weekend Dispatch 1/17/2022

Friday we drove down through Arkansas, sliced through the northwest corner of Louisiana and then exited the interstate and stopped at a rest area close to our destination for the week. After a completely relaxing evening and a good night of sleep, we finished the drive to Livingston, Texas.

The drive Friday was 315 miles, plus a few miles Saturday for a total of 1043 miles from the Ranch. I am thankful that the BoggsMobile ran wonderfully since the moment we left home. Praise God for that! It now has over 395,000 miles and is almost ready to seriously run!

After setting up and taking an obligatory nap Saturday, we carried in our sound equipment. Set up went as normal as it could be and then KJo and I had a little Soundcheck Church. It was posted on our YouTube channel for the world to see.

Only a small percentage of the world has seen it so far, so here you go.😍😍

It is wonderful to be with Pastor Don Goodwin and his family and church again this year. The services Sunday morning and Sunday evening were both excellent. We enjoyed the presence of the Lord, the super great fellowship and a tremendous meal.

We are anticipating great things in the next three nights of revival. Odie should have pictures for all to enjoy later in the week. Until then, here are a few pictures for you to see with some running commentary along the way.

A dog walker left us a gift overnight in the Malvern, Arkansas rest area.

I guess that is what we get for parking in the designated RV parking along the sidewalk.😁

We love Joe's Italian in Livingston.

Bro. Joey Lamb and his wife Naomi from Sweeny, Texas came Sunday night and brought visitors from this area. It was great to have them.

Thank you for spending some time with us today. 

Davy

Our View Out The Front Window 1/16/22

Our View Out The Front Window

Our view out the front window at Flying J in Franklin, Kentucky

Our view out the front window at a rest area near Malvern, Arkansas.

Our view out the front window at a rest area in Texas

Our view out the front window at Beech Creek Assembly in Livingston, Texas.

Sunday Morning Sanity

There are three stages to every great work of God. First, it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done. Hudson Taylor

May God bless you with a super great Sunday.

Davy

Happy 55th Birthday Dad

Hey Friends

This is Odie writing to you today. Hopefully, by the time you are reading this post, we will be in Livingston, Texas. I am excited to see our friends at Beech Creek Assembly! We always have a wonderful time with Pastor Don Goodwin.

We have a birthday on the BoggsMobile this weekend! That means we will take a moment to celebrate the birthday person today. We are not celebrating the entire month or week, but we must devote one blog post to celebrating. I am using a few of my favorite pictures from last year for this post.

Dad does not like attention to be drawn to his birthday. That is OK. I understand his reluctance. But surely I can get by with a few sentences.

He is the first to make a big deal of my birthday or Mom's birthday. He likes to write posts that tug at the heartstrings and make us feel special for our birthdays. 

I can not write something that can make my Father feel as special and loved as much as he is truly loved. Dad is the most incredible person I know. 

In the last year, I have watched him overcome incredible obstacles. He has come through an extremely rough time with incredible grace. Even on his sickest days, Dad was surrendered to God's plan!

I am incredibly grateful that God's plan included my Dad living another year! Words can not explain how happy I am to celebrate my Dad's 55th birthday with him!

I cherish the times that I get to experience my Dad being anointed by God to help others through his preaching and singing. I am so proud when I get to witness it firsthand right there by him.

Dad has  taught me by example to selflessly love others! My Dad is at his happiest when he can give or do something for someone else! God has blessed us immensely! Dad has received those blessings with an open hand, always willing to bless others!

Ministry has always been part of our lives as a family. Through it all Dad's number one priority has been Mom and me! He would pause everything in an instant if we really needed him too. Dad keeps our best interests at heart. He never wants to take a turn without us being on board. Dad's support and love mean the world to me!

Daddy,

I love you more than a hog loves slop! Happy, Happy 55th birthday! My hope is that you have super terrific birthday.

I am almost certain this weekends celebrating will include great Mexican food and possibly a ruben sandwich. It will bring me great joy and happiness to enjoy those things with you.

You are an amazing human! Our blog friends only get a glimsp into your greatness as they read your daily post. I on the other hand can know for certain how great you really are! I am proud to call you my Dad now more than ever. I will forever and be Daddy's girl!

Friends, thank you for joining me for this birthday tribute and celebration. Take a second to leave birthday greating in the comments for Dad. 

Odie

It Has Been Quite A Week

We are now 708 miles from the Lazy OD Ranch and we have about 325 miles to go. The BoggsMobile is running and driving great and we are very thankful for that. Praise God!

The generator is running fine, but we are still having voltage problems with it. With the cold weather, we need to run the generator overnight for heat and to preheat the bus engine in the morning.

I had intended to leave very early Thursday morning so that we could get through Nashville, before rush hour traffic. I was up and wide awake, but we could not get the bus out without removing the Jeep. 

We like to park in the RV spots at Flying J, but cars, vans, RVs and semis park in all directions at times. That is the only downside and we deal with it as it comes. It was really no problem to wait a few hours.

Even though we did not roll until about 8:30 AM, we were able to skirt around Nashville without too much traffic. We drove 264 miles to a rest area west of Memphis and rested about 90 minutes.

After resting, we drove to a rest area near Malvern, Arkansas where I am typing this Mile Marker. We ended the day with 435 total miles under our wheels. That is a lot of miles for us right now, but the 90 minutes of rest made it possible.

I received an absolutely positively wonderful reward for all my effort Thursday. KJo's Taco Bus is back in business! yay!

Hopefully, we will get very close to Livingston, Texas tomorrow.

Odie has a few pictures for you today and I have thrown in a few as well. Thank you for dropping in.

Davy

Kelly's Dad and Mom came to the Ranch Wednesday and helped us get ready to roll. It is always great to have them around and we appreciated the assistance.

Rolling Into 2022

Yesterday our interrupted winter tour kicked off in earnest. The BoggsMobile started, aired up like it should, the brakes released properly and it ran like a scaled dog. Yay!

Since this is the first day we have run the bus in 2022, I made note of our milage and such for 2021 and cleared the computer for the new year.

The long COVID recovery last year kept our miles at the lowest they have ever been in nearly 22 years of evangelism. Back in the early 90s we traveled in a car and averaged over 60,000 miles each year during that 32 month run of traveling.

We did not have an RV to stay in and we were not booked solid during most of that time. We would often preach a revival in Oklahoma, drive 900 miles home for a week or ten days and then go right back to Oklahoma for revival. It was cheaper to go home than it was to stay in a hotel.

We also did a lot of crisscrossing of the country. Virginia, then Texas, then Tennesse and then Oklahoma. We once left central California and started a revival in central Florida seven days later.

Yep, we were driving a lot of miles each year.

When we hit the road in January of 2003, we were driving a Chevy truck and pulling a fifth wheel. We traveled like that with two different truck and fifth wheel combinations for five years and we averaged 40,000 miles a year pulling a trailer.

By the time we purchased the BoggsMobile in March of 2008, diesel was $4 a gallon and Pastors began to tell me, come when you can. Do not make a 1000 mile trip just for us.

That allowed us to begin to group revivals together better and that reduced our mileage drastically. COVID in 2021 reduced it even more. Although we drove the Jeep a few more ministry miles than usual, we only drove the bus 8846 miles. Wow!

If all goes as planned, we should roll 20,000 ++ miles this year.

Those miles have to begin somewhere and they began today. We traveled 273 miles of our 1000+ mile trip to Livingston, Texas. We will make a bigger dent tomorrow by God's grace.

Early yesterday morning we loaded the sound system, finished up a few last minute things and pulled out of the barn. 

While the holding tanks were emptying, we hooked Dad's truck to the tent trailer and moved that into the barn. That was not without problems. The tongue jack on the tent trailer is electric and hydraulic and the trailer batteries were dead. After about an hour of charging, the jack operated enough to get the trailer moved.

The batteries are old and have served us well. The arctic weather probably finished them off. I will add that to the list of things to do this summer.

It is wonderful to be moving again! Hallelujah!

Thank you for spending a few minutes with us today.

Davy

A Word For Wednesday, It Is More Blessed To Give Part Two, Discipline In Finance

It is time for A Word For Wednesday. A Few minutes ago, I posted A Word for Wednesday on our YouTube Channel. Please give it a listen and leave us a comment here or on YouTube.

Discipline In Finance

Today's episode of A Word For Wednesday was recorded in 2021 and held for this time. This lesson is one of a three part series about Christian giving. At the time they were recorded, we were home, sick and not working.

We did not want anyone to think we were working an angle to get people to give to us. So we saved these lessons for now.

We NEVER want anyone to feel we are asking for something or that we think we deserve something from you. We are thankful to be part of God's family and to work in His vineyard. God has been so good to us and we love sharing His message.

The truth of Christian giving and the joy of giving is an amazing truth that everyone needs to know. Jesus is quoted as saying It is more blessed to give than to receive and has been proven to be true over and over!

We hope you enjoy this three-part series and decide to share it with others.

Today I am spending a few moments on the second part of a sermon called, "It Is More Blessed To Give Than To Receive-Living By Giving." Part Two is Discipline In Finance.

Thank you for spending a few minutes with us today.

Davy

Oops!

Updated below the original post:

You may find this hard to believe, I find it incredibly hard to believe myself. However I speak the truth.😇 

I was busy Monday night until late and hit the ground running this morning and completely forgot about writing  a mile marker. I picked up my phone at 10 minutes after 8 to make sure everything was posted as planned and realized at that moment, I had not planned anything.

I will get back to you later today by God’s grace. 

Davy

Can you believe that I forgot to write and post a Mile Marker this morning until after 8:10? How many years have I been doing this?How many nights have I typed after midnight? How many mornings have I crawled out of bed early to write a Mile Marker?

I should definitely be in the habit of writing and posting a Mile Marker each day without a doubt. But I COMPLETELY forgot!

Most of the day Sunday and all day Monday I was preparing to preach a funeral Tuesday afternoon in Waynesville. It was the funeral of a first cousin, Marty Boggs. Marty was 52 years old and his death has shaken us all.

His Mother asked me to preach the funeral and I was honored to do it. I wanted every word to be placed exactly right and I wanted the Lord to help every individual in attendance and watching online.

I worked until late Monday night and I worked more very early Tuesday morning. I suppose that task was taking so much of my brainpower that the responsibility for Mile Markers slipped and away and oozed out of my brain cells.

OR I am losing it quickly.😒😒🤣

Thank you for checking in today.

Davy

Today In Local News!

Here is the skinny! (I think that is so funny coming from a fat guy!)

IF you pay attention to our schedule and Mile Markers and IF you keep up with where we are and where we are supposed to be, you know something is out of kilter. Since I know that many of you keep track of such things, I need to bring you up to date.

Originally we planned to leave from Taylor Mill last Monday and began moseying toward Gainesville, Texas. Even a blind squirrel gets a nut every now and then! I decided we needed a day of rest after eight days of preaching, so we came home Sunday night to rest Monday.

Monday afternoon, Bro. and Sis. King called from Gainesville to discuss the COVID situation in their church and area. We all decided it would be prudent to reschedule revival down the road and not begin on January 9 as planned.

We had other churches that likely would have been happy for us to move revival to their place on January 9, but we decided to wait until Tuesday to make plans. Late Monday night, KJo and Odie started feeling bad.

Testing for COVID seemed to be in order, even though we thought it unlikely that we had COVID. Kelly Jo and Odie have both been vaccinated and boosted. I had been vaccinated and tested very recently for natural antibodies, of which I had an abundance.

All three of us have had COVID, so surely we have some natural immunities that will help some. 

Plus, we had been very careful. We have been wearing masks in and out of the church and in public and carefully sanitizing our hands. We know that nothing can prevent COVID 100%, especially the Omicron variant apparently, but we were trying our best not to spread things from one church to another.

Odie tested negative. There is also a nasty cold making the rounds in this area. Odie either had that or she had a false negative. Either way, she felt pretty crummy for a couple of days and nights.

KJo also felt crummy for Monday and Tuesday and tested positive on Tuesday. I had a slight headache one day and also tested positive. After six days, I feel a barely noticeable tightness in my chest, but I have no cough, no congestion and no breathing problems.

We are praising God for light cases this time. I deserve nothing from the LORD, but I sure am glad he spared us the horrendous sickness we had last January and for months afterward. Hallelujah!!!

I think we have made it through and according to the latest guidance from the CDC, we are good to go now. Odie stayed secluded as well just to be safe.

We have been in contact with the Pastor of our next revival in Texas. If all is acceptable there midweek, we will try to roll the bus in that direction. It is over 1000 miles there, so the sooner we leave the better.

That is the skinny! Thank you for stopping by.

Davy

Sunday Morning Sanity

Sunday Morning Sanity

Christianity does not work without Christ. Pastor Tim Dilena

Our view was supposed to change this last week, but it did not. I will try to tell you about it tomorrow or Tuesday.

May God bless you with a great Sunday.

Davy

Introducing Karleigh Jo Daniels

Hey Friends,

This Odie reporting in for another Saturday post. 

 

2022 is shaping up to be a good year for our extended family. My cousin's families are growing. I am happy to introduce you to the new babies as they arrive.

I love babies! I am ready to meet my new cousins and spoil them. I am happy to be "Auntie O" to all of my precious little ones.

Our newest family member arrived at the end of 2021.  Karleigh Jo Daniels was born on December 27th. We have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of Princess Daniels. Miss Karliegh instantly melted my heart.

I am thrilled to have a baby girl in our family again. It has been almost 19 years since we had a girl born on the Morgan side of the family.

Our princess, Karleigh Jo arrived at 7:52 AM. Her birth weight surprised us, 9 pounds 5.2 ounces and 20 inches long. My guess was 8 pounds 13 ounces and 21 inches long. Needless to say, I was wrong!

Karleigh is doing great! She is an absolute doll baby! Each picture that I see of her, makes me love her even more! I hope you are ready for a cuteness overload!

Oh my goodness, I am ready to meet my baby girl in person! I have already talked to her via facetime. 

Big brother, Jackson, is her protector. He loves his sister. Courtney says that he is always checking on her and loving on her!

I have been excited to introduce our new princess to you today. Thanks to the mom, Courtney, for supplying the pictures for me to share with you! 

Congratulations to Courtney and Joey on your new addition! I am so happy for you all! I know Ezra and Jackson will both be great brothers to Karleigh.

I hope you enjoyed meeting Karleigh. Thanks for visiting with me today!

Odie

Bitter Cold , Barns Old and Gratitude Bold

We purchased the BoggsMobile in late March 2008. From then until December 2014, we parked outside whenever we were home for Christmas or any other time. Can you see the Dodds Church van and the funnel cake trailer parked at the church next door about 200' away?

The van and red trailer are parked where we parked with permission for a week or two at a time for nearly seven years when we were home. We were grateful to have a place to park at home. That was a wonderful blessing. 

But the winter weather at Christmas was ridiculous. 

We have had frozen everything there more than one time. The challenge to keep the bus from freezing was about to drive me crazy and I had determined not to bring the bus home for Christmas ever again.

Then the property next door with the big red pole barn came up for sale and we jumped as quick as we could. The guy that rented the property was there one day and I went to talk to him. First, I wanted to make sure that he was not trying to buy it. I did not want to step in front of him.

Next, I wanted permission to measure the door. When the height measured 14', I nearly shouted. Do you have any idea how many perfect places we found for sale and the door was 10' or 12' and could not be raised without removing the roof and trusses?

We knew we had found a home for the BoggsMobile!

An individual stepped up and loaned us most of the money we needed to purchase the property and we have thanked God for them a thousand times. Everything has been completely paid for over a year and we are very thankful for that too.

We are so incredibly thankful for what we call The Lazy OD Ranch and especially thankful for the only building on it when we purchased the property in December 2014. That building is the red barn. It is a pole barn built in 1982.

It needed some structural work and a roof when we bought it. That and many other things have been done and there still remains a lot to be completed. I would love to eventually have it totally insulated and fairly airtight and maybe even heated. That is the end goal.

However, it was great the first day we pulled the bus inside in December 2014. 

It changed our lives for the good and removed a heavy burden from my shoulders. The bus is out of the wind and easy to heat while it is inside the barn.

What makes me think and write of this now? Good question. It is never too far from my mind, but winter has hit with a vengeance this week.

It was already cold and then it was 20 shortly after midnight Wednesday night and felt like 7. Yikes!

Thursday morning it was 15 about 8:30 AM and felt like 9. 

It was supposed to get to 23, but I do not think it did. By 5:00 Wednesday evening, it was 19, snowing and felt like 9.

Eventually, IF it stays this cold, the barn will get below freezing too. But at this point, it is still 37-38 degrees just inside the front door. I will take that any day over being outside in the cold, snow and wind!

I do not think the pipe will freeze, but I always have a lightbulb in the place where the water enters the barn underground. I usually turn the water off while we are gone in the winter just in case there is a break from a frozen pipe.

Can you see why we are thankful for this old barn? Praise God for a barn! Praise God for protection, provision and providence! God knew what we needed and had a guy build it for me in 1982 when  I was 15 years old!

Yep, I am sold on the providence of God enough to believe that!

I am thankful for you, too! Thank you for spending a few minutes with us today.

Davy