Revival In Pictures - Sweeny, Texas

Yesterday's Mile Marker posted with the text jumbled and the header and footer over top of it. It looked correct in draft mode and I could not fix it. I had to copy the text and then paste it in a completely new post. IF you tuned in early and were not able to read the Mile Marker, I apologize. You should be able to read it here. 

Revival In Pictures - Sweeny, Texas

It has been wonderful to be in Sweeny, Texas at Lighthouse Full Gospel Church this week. I wrote about our history with this church on Tuesday. We are very thankful for our friendships here and the opportunity to preach again.

May God bless our friends for having us and being such a blessing to us. We look forward to returning next year. May God bless Pastor Larry Lamb and all of these fine people.

I hope you enjoy the Revival In Pictures. Thank you for dropping in.

Davy

Doing The Best We Can

Wow! There is something weird going on with today's post. I am going to post it again and see what happens. Ok, that seemed to fix it. This is what it looked like in its original form.

Like I said, weird. Now back to our regularly scheduled broadcast.

Doing The Best We Can

It is tricky to know how to have revival in these strange days. Churches desire revival. We desire to be instruments of revival. God knows our nation and our people need revival. 

Yet we understand that when people gather together from different places, there is a high probability that someone is going to be there without knowing they are sick or infectious. That makes it difficult to know what to do.

With all this Covid mess going on, the confusion that comes with it and the new variants that seem to be constantly developing, I have wondered about the wisdom of being out on the road. Would it be better to stay home and not subject people to having to have revival?

But I settled this in my heart during the shutdown in 2020. We go for three reasons.

First and foremost, we are called to go. Our calling is not dependent on convenience or ease. I have never been beaten or stoned or poisoned for preaching revivals, but some have. How dare I stay comfortable at home when I am called to go. 

We are called to spread the Gospel message and encourage churches in good times and bad times. These certainly qualify for bad times and we must go.

Secondly, not only do we feel responsible to God to fulfill our calling, but we feel responsible to Pastors and churches. Pastors schedule us months or even years ahead and I am very hesitant to cancel those dates. 

These Pastors feel like we can be instruments of revival and I am going to do my dead level best to do it. I desire to honor each commitment even to my own hurt. I believe this is right, at least it is right for me and my family.

Thirdly, most churches are going to have revival if we are there or if we are not. There might be a couple of churches that will not have revival if we are not there, but most are going to have revival. They are going to call a Pastor or find another evangelist and have revival.

Since they are having revival anyway, I want to be right smack in the middle of a move of God IF I have an opportunity.

Since we are going to go, I believe we have a responsibility to go as carefully as we can. We have never felt like it was part of our ministry to spread the flu from church to church in the winter. Spreading Covid is not part of our job description either.

That is one reason we were vaccinated as soon as we were eligible. We made a choice of our own free will. We are happy with that choice. I did not say you must be vaccinated and I certainly do not believe the government should make you be vaccinated.

We also wash our hands frequently, use hand sanitizer by the gallon and we often wear masks when in close contact. We avoid congested restaurants and stores and we have not been on a plane since March 2020.

We cancel meetings and get tested for Covid if we feel sick and we are completely understanding when Pastors need to cancel, postpone or cut meetings short. It is all part of the way things are now and we are able and willing to roll with it.

All of that to say, we are all doing our best to do what we think is best at the time. I said something repeatedly in our online revival from March-May 2020. 

Here it is

None of us have ever Pastored a church during a pandemic. None of us have ever been here before. We must be gracious to one another and not be so judgmental of each other's actions. We are doing the best we can. We must give each other grace.

It sure would have been nice if we had followed that unsolicited advice. It would be nice if we could do it now. I really, really want to believe the best about people.

Thank you for reading my thoughts today. Thank you for being gracious.

Davy

A Word For Wednesday - A Safe Landing

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.

A Safe Landing

Thank you to Pastor Devin Birdsong for loaning us his best announcer voice to A Word For Wednesday.😍 I asked him to record an intro and outro for these episodes and he did a super great job. I highly recommend Bro. Devin's Podcast called Pod'N Me.

Life comes with a manual for safe Christian living. It is called the Bible. However, events of life can still slip up on us by surprise. Black Ice is what Pastor David Webb calls these events in his book, Leading Like a Lion. Accidents, sudden illnesses, the death of loved ones and a million other patches of ice can cause us to go into the ditch.

But, Bro. Webb tells a story of how God can divinely intervene and bring us to a safe landing on solid ground. Oh, God, we need you to bring us to a safe landing in thee turbulent times!

I hope you enjoy A Word For Wednesday.

Davy

Praise God For Sweeny, Texas

Over thirty years ago, probably 1991, we were on our way from Florida to preach a revival in Oklahoma. We went a few miles out of our way to visit Lighthouse Full Gospel Church in Sweeny, Texas. It was our very first visit although KJo had been here as a small girl with her family.

We knew Pastor Larry Lamb and he was familiar with all of our families, but he did not know me specifically. We arrived for midweek service and Bro. Lamb asked me to preach. I did and God blessed His people with a wonderful move in the altar.

Bro. Larry Lamb 2022

Bro. Lamb asked if we could stay for a few nights of revival and we were gladly able to do it. We had a wonderful revival with these wonderful people and along the way, we made friends for life.

We preached a couple of revivals in Sweeny during those early days and we loved every moment. When we purchased our first used fifth wheel to travel in, Bro. Lamb and the church sent us $500 toward the $4000 price. We never forgot their kindness.

We were traveling in a car back then and we stayed in the evangelist quarters. There is definitely one thing about that visit we will never forget. Frank Peretti's first two books were huge then and we had bought his first book on cassette tape in Florida.

We were staying in the evangelist quarters which is a single room in the big dark church. We were in the bed and Odie was sleeping on a pallet on the floor. Each night we would start the tape player, turn out the lights and climb into bed. 

We would listen to one side of one tape each night. When that side finished, we would go to sleep. Or I should say, we would try to sleep. We all had spooky dreams full of devils and angels fighting all night long. If you have read about Sally Beth Roe and her journey to Christ, then you understand.

I suppose we were not the smartest kids in the world, but we get a good laugh about it now.

Beginning in 1993, we spent six years home working a public job and attending our home church, followed by nearly four years pastoring in Wichita, Kansas. Shortly after we went back to road life, Bro. Lamb contacted us about coming back to Sweeny and we have been coming back ever since.

We have not been here every year over the last 19 years, but we have been here most years. We have had some great experiences at Full Gospel Lighthouse and we have created some great memories with these tremendous friends.

It is easy to trace the fingerprints of God's goodness to us, by remembering the people that He has brought into our lives. Praise God for His grace and mercy! Praise God for Sweeny, Texas

Thank you for reading today. We sure appreciate you as well. May God bless you every single one.

Davy

The Weekend Dispatch 1/24/2022

It has been another great weekend in Texas. Thank you for stopping by today for a few pictures and a description of our weekend.

The time to leave Livingston, Texas felt like it came way too soon. I was physically dragging after church Wednesday night, but I hated to close revival. We love preaching revival all the way through Friday night, but I know these shorter weeks are necessary to build to 100% strength. 

We were in no hurry Thursday morning. KJo helped me do the work of the evangelist and then she prepared the inside of the bus to ride. When her work was completed, they loaded in the Jeep and drove to the north side of Houston to shop a bit.

It has been nearly two years since we were in a big city AND they felt comfortable enough to go in multiple stores. They were very careful, masked and stayed away from close proximity to people. They must have found some deals too!

I cranked the bus, unhooked the utilities and started south. The route from Livingston toward Sweeny is future I-69. It goes right into the heart of Houston where you basically stay straight on Hwy 288 to Angleton. There is a Love's at Angleton and then the exit for Sweeny, Hwy 35 is a couple of miles down.

There was a little slow down in Houston, which is not unusual. It was not bad. Two hours after leaving Livingston, I stopped at Love's and parked in their wide open parking lot and rested for about 90 minutes. Like I said, we were not in a hurry.

I pulled into Sweeny at 3:00 PM after 142 miles. I parked, hooked up the electricity and spent the rest of the evening gathering information for our end of the year bookwork.

KJo and I spent all day working on that Friday and most of the day Saturday. We now have our donation receipts finished and I am ready for my annual meeting with the board members of Boggs Family Ministries which will take place later this week by conference call.

We also set up sound Saturday and drove about 30 minutes to Lake Jackson to visit with Bro. Bruce and Sis. Priscilla Mayhan and company. They are in the area on vacation. Usually, they are able to attend revival when we see them, but the timing did not work out this trip. 

We met them for a meal and enjoyed the food and fellowship tremendously. It is always great to see them!

Bruce and Priscilla along with Alton and Naomi Brown

Both Sunday services were great at Lighthouse Full Gospel in Sweeny and we are looking forward to three more services.

That wraps up our weekend. Thank you for dropping in.

Davy

View Out The Front Window 1/23/2022

Sunday Morning Sanity

If you want your church to make a good first impression, make sure all your greeters this Sunday are asymptomatic. Mr. Church Guy

View Out The Front Window 1/23/2022

The view out the front window of the bus at Love's Travel Stop near Angleton, Texas.

Our view out the front window in Sweeny, Texas

I hope you have a super great Sunday.

Davy

An Unforgettable Friend

Hey Friends,

Welcome to another blog post. This is Odie reporting in from Texas. I hope all of you are doing well.

This week we had a wonderful time in Livingston, Texas. The precious church family at Beech Creek Assembly always welcome us with open arms.

I enjoy being with them for revival. Our time with them ends too quickly. I am sad to say goodbye to my friends! I am already looking forward to our next visit.

Last week, while traveling to Texas, I was excited to see all of my Beech Creek friends again. My anticipation caused me to look back on our previous visits and happy memories from those trips. Many of those memories include Dake Goodwin.

Dake Goodwin, An Unforgettable Friend

Fall 2013 was the first time that we came to Beech Creek. I was really nervous about going to a new place. I really can not explain the reason for my nervousness. Going to new places and meeting new people is extremely common for us. Therefore, I should not be nervous.

Within moments of entering the church for the first night of revival, I met Dake Goodwin. My nerves were gone and I knew that I had a friend. Dake was friendly and very welcoming to us. He introduced me to everyone! Dake was my Beech Creek tour guide for our first revival.

Dake included me in his friend group. I knew I had people to hang out with and a place to sit when we went to eat. By the end of the revival, I was sad to leave my new friends.

I will forever be grateful for my friendship with Dake that started in October 2013. We stayed in contact with the occasional text message. It was always good to hear from him. He was a proud uncle to his nieces! Often his text to me had something to do with the girls or good news from Beech Creek.

In 2016 we came back to Beech Creek for another visit! It was great to see my friend again!

Dake had a smile and laugh that were infectious. He would brighten any room with his hearty laughter! He always made things fun. The picture below is my favorite and it still makes me laugh!

I had the privilege of being Dake's friend for a few years. Then God took him home. The loss was shocking for all of Dake's countless friends! It was sad to say see you later to such an awesome person!

The heartbreak for his family and church family is still unimaginable to me! Life for them will never be the same. I have watched as they have carried on with grace!

The good memories with Dake will live on forever. Part of me will never stop laughing because of Dake's influence and friendship. I look forward to the day that we can all see Dake again!

Dake Goodwin is genuinely an unforgettable friend! It is an honor to have known such an awesome friend! His open armed welcome was immensely helpful to me!

I am thankful that Dake chose to be my friend! Dake's example challenges me to be a fun, loving and welcoming friend to someone else! There is always room for more friends.

Thanks for reading. I hope you have a super great weekend!

Odie