The Weekend Dispatch 7/17/23

We were beginning revival Friday evening, but first, we had to have some local seafood for lunch. It would not be right to be in Maine and neglect to have some seafood.

What a beautiful place to eat!

Saturday we were treated to Cracker Barrel and had Haddock there too.

Our first night of revival was wonderful and the second night was even better! Hallelujah! Both services Sunday were also outstanding and we enjoyed every moment.

The weather turned rainy all day Sunday but we were able to get Odie back and forth to church without any of us getting soaked. That is always the main concern when the rain sets in.

And it was sunny on the inside all day long. Praise God for His help for us and for God's people. It was a super conclusion to a great weekend in Maine.

Tomorrow I will try to have a bunch of pictures from the revival. Thank you for stopping in.

Davy

Our View Out The Front Window of The BoggsMobile 7/16/23

Sunday Morning Sanity

Let me remind you of something, child of God.

You are not in this alone.

You are not walking alone.

You are not talking alone.

And you are not facing this alone! DB

Our View Out The Front Window of The BoggsMobile

A campground in Long Pond, Pennsylvania

The Welcome Center on I-95 in New Hampshire

The Deliverance Center in Arundel Maine

I hope you have a super great Sunday. Thank you for dropping in.

Davy

Choosing Christ

Hey Friends,

This is Odie reporting in from the magnificent state of Maine. I am thrilled to be here. I have been waiting two years to see this scenery again! God's creation is astounding, and I am always amazed!

Today I come to you one more time with a heart of gratitude. This post was born out of a random moment that became worship for me.

I Choose Christ

Written by three great songwriters, Sue C. Smith, Gerald Douglas Crabb and Jason Cox.

Last week, I was preparing things to leave home. I was singing to myself while working around my house. I was singing I Choose Christ, which Karen Peck and New River made popular.

I thought I had previously shared this song here, but I could not find a record of the post. The song I Choose Christ has spoken to my soul from the day it was released. A few days ago, the lyrics hit home with me in a special way.

Here is a glimpse of my thoughts from that moment. My entire life has been full of questions. Most of the time, the questions outnumbered the answers. I have been blessed with parents and people that taught me to Choose Christ.

I know that God has carried me every single day of my life. Through my pain and struggles, I survive because of Him! Do I understand everything today? Absolutely not!! God is in control of the big picture. Every single day I choose Him.

The part of this song that spoke to me recently was the bridge and the chorus. Here are the lyrics that made me worship.

Bridge

His grace is sufficient

Whatever happens in my life

I have made my decision 

No matter what price

Chorus

I choose Christ 

When everything around me says give up

I choose faith I choose to trust

to believe that He is good

He'll come through 

Like He said He would

Everytime Oh I choose Christ

As I sang these words, I was overwhelmed by all the times that God had brought me through those times when it seemed easier to give up. When I could see no hope and the future was uncertain. 

Now I am on the other side of that trial years, months, or days down the road. I can testify  God came through just like He said He would. 

Right now, things are going good for me. My pain is not a constant struggle for me. On days like these, it can be easier to trust Him. I have found Him also on the hard days. On the hard days, it can be harder to find or feel Him near me in the fog of life. Without a doubt, I know He is there too!

He is even working on my questions and problems now. The unanswered prayers of today will one day be answered! I am thankful that I have chosen Christ. Because of Him, I, by faith, have hope and victory for today and tomorrow. 

I am once again determining in my heart to choose Christ. Will you join me in trusting in Christ? He will be with you too!

Thanks for stopping to visit with me today! I hope you have a great weekend.

Odie

It Has Been A Great Week

If driving was still fun like it was when I was 16, I would have been having a blast this week.😍

But driving is more work nowadays. We drove the BoggsMobile 656 miles since Monday and 1003 miles since we left home Saturday morning. Yep, loads of fun! Keep in mind, Davy, you could be pastoring a church!😜

It has been a beautiful week of scenery as we drove from western Pennsylvania Monday and finally into southern Maine on Thursday. We have had some torrential storms while parked but very little rain while driving. We are very thankful for that.

We appreciate many folks checking on us concerning the heavy flooding that has been happening in Vermont and New York among other places. We paused for a day in western PA and another day in eastern PA and avoided the problem areas as much as possible.

We drove north on I-87 in New York toward I-90 and Albany. There was much flooding just to the east of the whole route in the river valley, but the interstate was fine.

Pastor David DiZazzo in northern Vermont sent some pictures of the devastation. The destruction is terrible, but they have not been directly affected as of yet. He sent one picture of a grocery store in the town of Johnson. The water level was near the roof line and the picture was taken from a boat in the parking lot.

We have preached in Johnson and KJo has been to that grocery. It is amazing how quickly the weather can change and turn whole communities upside down. Some places in the northeast received all their normal rainfall for the summer in a few hours. 

We plan to be in that area of Vermont within a month by God's grace.

While at a truck stop, I spied this new Chevy truck painted in the two-tone style of a truck from the 70s. I had read that some dealerships were offering this as an upgrade a few years ago, but this is the first time I have seen one in the wild.

We plan to have much more on this, but we visited the Martin Guitar factory in Nazareth, Pennsylvania on Tuesday. It was a super great day.

This is the sign in front of the old factory a few blocks from the picture above.

We needed to eat in Nazareth and the options were limited. When will we ever learn? We know better than to trust Mexican food in far-flung places. Why do we do it? I reckon we do it because we are hungry. It did not work out.

But the girls smile politely anyway.

After a hard push on Wednesday, we arrived at The Deliverance Center in Arundel, Maine before noon on Thursday.

In the evening, we loaded in sound equipment and got a good long sound check. Our digital sound mixer is at least two firmware updates behind so we took time to try and bring it up to date. I could not update it before now because our existing sound tablet is 11.5 years old and would not update to the proper level. 

We purchased a new tablet in June, but this is the first chance we have had to take time to get it running properly with the mixer. I made progress last night but did not get it finished. I could not get the mixer to recognize the file on the USB. I will work on it more today.

We are excited to begin four services of revival tonight. We have parked here before and we have been in services with these folks, but we have never preached in this church. There is no telling what God may do. Please pray for us.

Thank you for stopping by today.

Davy

A Mid-Week Drive

Wednesday was a big driving day for us. The day was 10.5 hours long after dumping the holding tanks and getting ready to roll in the morning. 

We stopped for diesel at the last Love's going this direction. It had been about 900 miles since our last fill-up in Indiana.

The 10.5 hours included nearly three hours parked in a truck stop while we were eating and resting. That was a big help after the first 277 miles.

The Wednesday drive included eastern Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts and into New Hampshire for a total of 400 miles. That used to be an easy day for us but time is making a change.

We had only one really bad traffic spell losing about 25 minutes in four miles in Massachusetts. We never did see the reason.

I will try to post pictures from the week tomorrow. Thank you for stopping in.

Davy

A Word For Wednesday Using Faith As A Defensive Weapon

So glad you joined us today. It is time again for A Word For Wednesday. A few moments 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.

Using Faith As A Defensive Weapon

Paul is clearly telling the Christians in Ephesus and us that we should be prepared to use faith as a defensive weapon.

Ephesians 6:16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

We are able to quench the fiery darts of the enemy by believing the promises of God. Faith is a tremendous offensive weapon, believing God to take new ground. However, it is also incredibly effective when we are backed against the proverbial wall. The shield of faith. I believe God!

Thank you for reading and watching today.

Davy

History of Odie in The Electric Chair

Odie's first power chair was given to her nearly 20 years ago. It was a regular looking push-type chair with motors on the wheels. We affectionately called it her "electric chair".

A few years later she was gifted a nice used "electric chair" and she gifted the first one to a man in our home church. A few years later she was gifted a newer "electric chair" and she gave the second one to another friend of ours.

It was always difficult to travel with the heavy chairs and over 10 years ago she changed to a lightweight scooter that easily breaks down in pieces for travel when necessary. She gave the last heavy "electric chair" to a cousin that needed it.

When we built the house she need a power chair with a compact footprint to get around inside the house and we purchased a used one in Bristol, Tennessee. It was not a really good one to begin with, but it served her well for the last five+ years.

She has been looking for a replacement for months, but she has had a hard time finding mobility stores recently that have wheelchairs in stock. She could buy them online, but that was not acceptable. She did not want to buy without seeing the chair and trying it out. 

KJo and Odie found a store in the Cincinnati area that had the specific chair she wanted to look at. They looked it over and tried it out, but the store's price was over $400 more than several places online. The salesman was kind and understanding but could not get near the online price.

However, that store services and repairs that brand of chair no matter where you buy it and he was sure to let her know it. That is great information because Odie's four-wheel scooter that we travel with is the same brand.

Odie researched the best place to purchase from online and ordered the chair at a great price with free and quick shipping. It arrived in a few days.

The company she ordered from is Marc's Mobility in Lakeland, Florida. Not only did Odie get a great price, but she is seriously impressed with their customer service and she highly recommends them.

Like her scooter, you can choose the color of the shrouds and Odie chose her favorite color, orange.

The chair is a hair wider, but much shorter, lengthwise, than her last chair. It has a very tight turning radius and fits easily all over the house. She used a scooter of the same brand for nine years and we think this chair should last a long time, especially since she will only use it while at home.

So we welcome Odie's new "electric chair" to the family.

Thank you for reading today.

Davy

The Weekend Dispatch 7/10/23

As I mentioned Friday, we planned to leave home Friday and make it into the NYC area by Saturday evening so that we could be in churches Sunday. However, we could not leave without an important package that was not delivered on time.

While the sun was shining Friday, we decided to make some hay or at least some grass clippings. 

In 2018 the county required us to put in a drainage tile on the house lot in order to drain the groundwater and enable the septic to be more effective. It seemed like an unnecessary expense when we were building the house, but it has proven its worth.

It is amazing how dry the ground was on both lots even after extremely heavy rains over the previous two days.

We turned the bus around and hooked up the Jeep Friday evening so we could be ready to roll Saturday morning.

There is no way I could drive to NYC in one day in my current condition, so our Sunday plans had to be canceled. We figured a new plan would raise its head and it did.

We took I-71 to I-76 through Akron, Ohio to I-80 into Pennsylvania. I had planned to try to make it to a Flying J near Brookville for the night, but discovered a new Love's one exit down. 

It is one of the new Love's that has a few RV spots with utilities. Since we are unsure of the generator, we parked there. $37 is worth the assurance that we would have AC overnight. It worked out great except for the torrential rain in the morning.😜

Sunday was spent for rest and worship and we enjoyed the day very much. Thank God the rain brought a little cooler weather.

We have about 645 miles to go and we want to arrive in Arundel, Maine Thursday. That gives us a comfortable margin. We plan to drive 2-300 miles today, visit a special site Tuesday and then finish the drive Wednesday and Thursday.

We may tell you about the Tuesday activities later. Thank you for stopping by today.

Davy

The View Out The Front Window of The BoggsMobile 7/9/23

Sunday Morning Sanity

Jesus did not say, I was the resurrection.

Jesus did not say, I will be the resurrection.

Jesus said, I am the resurrection.

Jesus is our help, your help right now! DB

The View Out The Front Window of The BoggsMobile

This was the view of the bus and Jeep and they were prepared to leave the Lazy OD Ranch.

This is the view out the front window of the BoggsMobile at a Loves Travel Stop Saturday evening near Brookville, Pennsylvania.

I hope you have a super great Sunday. Thank you for stopping in.

Davy