Karen Peck and New River and Triumphant Quartet April 2024

Hey Friends,

Odie is reporting today. Thanks for checking in for this Saturday! I am happy to have my faithful readers, and welcome to any new readers!

Last Friday was a terrific evening. The weather was very cool, windy and spitting rain much of the day, but the yucky weather did not stop us from having some fun. My cousins Lisa Isaacs and Stephanie Stansell picked me up around 4 in the afternoon. We were ready for a girl's night out. All three of us were finally able to coordinate our schedules.

The first item of business for us was food. We headed to one of our local Skyline Chili restaurants. We knew we could get a delicious meal and be on our way to the main event promptly. Skyline did not disappoint!

Local news has been abuzz lately. Skylines are changing from Pepsi products to Coke. Mountain Dew just pairs perfectly with a Skyline meal! Lots of people are sad about this drink change. The changeover was scheduled to start on April 1st. The Centerville location on Main Street still had the Dew last week! It sure made me happy!

Then, it was time to point Lisa's car toward First Baptist of Kettering. Strictly Gospel Concerts was hosting a concert to celebrate 20 years of bringing Southern Gospel Music to the Miami Valley.

We were excited to attend this concert featuring Karen Peck and New River and Triumphant Quartet! Doors opened at 6. We quickly entered the sanctuary. The promoter helped us find seats that would accommodate my chair.

KPNR was brought on stage shortly after 7PM.

We were blessed with wonderful singing from the beginning to the end of their set. 

Matt Gooch jamming out.

Grant Gibson recently celebrated his 6th anniversary with the group! He is a highly talented vocalist.

I was thrilled to see my buddies of KPNR one more time!

The evening featured both old and new favorites from the group. I have too many favorites to hear them all in one night, but they hit the highlights of their hits!

You know it is time for the song Dance when Susan breaks out her pink tambourine. 

I am always happy to hear them live in concert. I also had good friends to enjoy the night with me. It was great to have this concert close to home.

Karen Peck Gooch.

Kari Faith Gooch Balcoum.

Karen, her husband Ricky Gooch, and her sister Susan Peck Jackson started New River 33 years ago. They are still going strong!

KPNR are industry and fan favorites. 

Then, It was time for the Triumphant Quartet to take the stage. They have been voted the favorite male quartet and group of the year many times by Singing News subscribers,

David Sutton is their tenor singer.

We heard many of the Triuphant hits, and the songs that they have introduced to Southern Gospel and made them their hits.

Sean Barber, the lead singer, joined the group last year. This was my first time hearing him. He replaced Scotty Inman. Sean was a great addition to the group.

Triumphant will continue to be a fan favorite! I will go see them again!

Clayton Inman and Eric Bennnett have steadily held their baritone and bass parts for all of Triumphant's history!

The addition of Sean gave them a piano player. He played for several songs of the night.

On one song, Eric Bennette came down and greeted the crowd.

It is impossible to have a Triumphant concert without Clayton singing Old White Flag. It is always a crowd favorite and gets the crowd on their feet. It was a happy note to end the night on.

After the concert, I got the chance to say hooty hoo to the KPNR gang. I put on my Night Owl Diaries hoodie. I was glad to be repping the KPNR Owl Nation. It was Friday night, which meant there was a Night Owl Diaries episode live from the road later that night.

It was good to see my buddy Matt again. 

Kari and Grant were busy working the table I did not get pictures with them. Susan wanted to get a picture with me. 

We got a group selfie with Karen to remember our fantastic girl's night out.

Then we headed to visit the guys from Triumphant. I caught a break in the crowd. I added selfies with the guys to my photo collection. They were so friendly to me!

David Sutton and Odie.

Sean Barber and Odie.

Eric Bennette and Odie.

Clayton Inman and Odie.

Here is another picture with Stephanie and Lisa. 

We made it back home, and it was time to say bye until next time. We gained many great memories on the girl's night out. I am so glad we go to spend a wonderful evening together! They are both not only my cousins but also my dear friends! I am thankful to have them in my life!

I purchased a bag of freshly roasted coffee from Matthew Gooch at the concert. I wish all of you could smell this goodness!

Saturday morning, I was ready for a good cup of coffee. You can check out Solid Ground Coffee online by clicking here.

That wraps up this concert recap. We are already on the lookout for the next adventure. Stay tuned, we will give you a full report when it happens.

Friends, I will see you next week.

Odie

Please Help Us Rejoice!

Look at this beautiful new church in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria!

I have great news about the church where we preached in Abeikuta late last year!

They needed a bigger sanctuary and this is what the new one looked like the night we were there in December.

We had a wonderful service that night and my heart was refreshed and encouraged. I left there that night with determination to help them complete the church. 

I was delayed a while with a detour through the ER, hospital and rehab, but in early February I found out what they needed. I eventually sent the amount they said was needed for completion.

I posted these pictures on March 1 of the day they were putting in the concrete floor.

I am happy in my heart to tell you the construction is finished and I received pictures yesterday to prove it! Hallelujah! Most of the finance came from our missions budget but we did receive some direct help toward the expense. Thank you very much!

Wow! This is beautiful!

Bro. Shobanke wants me to travel to Nigeria at my convenience to dedicate the new church building. If I had to go next week, I could not do it due to the hardship of travel for me. But we are fervently praying that I will be strong enough to travel to Nigeria at some point this year. That would be a mighty victory.

Having this building finished so soon is a mighty victory in itself. Praise God! I m so happy to see it!

We are also helping to build a new building at GoodNews School in Abeokuta and they need some miracles concerning that. I will try to bring you up tp date on that project next week.

Thank you for reading today.

Davy

 

Wow! We Are Overwhelmed By Kindness!

Less than two weeks ago we came face-to-face with another example of extreme kindness being shown to our family by people who do not even personally know us. There have been other examples, but this one has been knocking on my heart's door for the last few days.

My word for Wednesday yesterday was entitled Distributing Joy On Purpose/I Want To Be A Brother Like That. The week before was Try A Little kindness. 

They were not recorded on successive weeks, however they ended up being posted one week after the other. I guess it is appropriate that they fall on weeks when we were inundated with examples of kindness and joy being shown to us. 

I will put the links to those two videos at the end of this Mile Marker. If you have not seen them I would love for you to take a few moments to view them.

Now, let me explain this handful of kindness and dose of joy that we were given recently. 

The first Sunday night in April, we preached for Pastor Kenny Morris in Ellisville, Mississippi. We had a wonderful service, great response at the altar and sweet fellowship with our dear friends.

Immediately following service I was sitting on the front pew. A man that I did not recognize approached me and handed me an ink pen. He said this is a pen with the information of my home church. The church is just south of town.

He said we have been praying for you as a church and individually since the moment we heard you had a stroke. He said, we have taken your situation very seriously at our church and when we heard you would be here preaching we purposed to be here to see the work that the Lord was doing.

I do not know if they have been to hear us in revivals at Ellisville before, they may have. We have been going there for many years. 

But the fact that these people are not personally acquainted with us yet have taken us and our situation very seriously, moves our hearts deeply. Friendship Baptist Church in Ellisville Mississippi has purposely prayed for us and we have been blessed abundantly by it.

This situation has been and is right now being repeated over and over and we are touched by the kindness these people have shown to us. Perhaps you are reading this page right now and you fall into this category. 

I am taking a moment today to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you, thank you, thank you! 

We appreciate you being concerned for us so much that you have prayed for us, encouraged us and sustained us in this difficult season. May God bless you for the blessing you are being to us right now. 

God is using his people all over the country to lift us up when we have not been able to see the end of this situation. I know that God has this in control. You have proven it to me.

Thank you for reading today. These are the links to A Word For Wednesday. 

Davy

A Word For Wednesday Distributing Joy On Purpose - I want to be a brother like that!

Good Morning! Thank you for joining us today. We are so happy to bring you 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.

We have been incredibly blessed by others who were going through situations that seemed much more difficult than our own. Reasons for happiness may have been in short supply for them but they were distributing JOY to others on purpose. That is amazing. I want to be a brother like that!

Near the end of this episode, I relate a story from the C. Roy Angel book, Baskets of Silver. I think you will enjoy it.

Davy

10 Years of Vision And Praise

Hey Friends,

This is Odie reporting in from the homefront. I hope you are having a great week.

Today, I am here with extra praise in my heart. This week is a special anniversary in my life. 10 years ago, my life drastically changed for a period of time. Faithful and long time readers can probably recite my testimony for me. I feel the need to praise God one more time.

In April 2014, in Salem, Kentucky, I woke up blind in my left eye.

I described it as a black smudge over my eye. This came on with little warning and with no apparent reason.

9 days, I lived with questions, worry, fear and very few answers. God was faithful to me through it all! The family of God rallied around us. Thousands of prayers were prayed for me and my family! God heard and answered those prayers! 

The Lord taught me a lot about trusting, waiting and faith during my eye issues. Doctors tried to help me with treatments and answers. I am so grateful for the help from my family, friends and medical professionals. It was God who was there, preparing the way and leading each step.

At the end of the 9th day, my vision did not just suddenly come back. But the healing began! I could make out things on the eye chart. It was blurry, but earlier in the day, it was not possible. My heart overflowed with joy that April 2014 day and the vision progressively improved! God deserves all the praise! 

Each day, when I wake up with clear vision in both eyes, there is praise in my heart! 10 years and my praise has not stopped! I know my help came from God in April of 2014. Today, He is still my helper! He is the same yesterday, today and forever!

Is life overran with questions? Does your question seem just out of sight or reach? Friend, I know exactly where you are standing! It is not an easy or fun place to be! 

I encourage you to place everything into God's hands one more time. Please let Him have your troubles, heartaches, fears, questions and doubts! His hands are big enough to hold all of our junk, and His arm can still wrap you and me in His loving embrace. God is waiting for all of us at this very moment.

I will be praying for you! I hope you have the best day in a long time! May God bless you is my prayer!

Odie