The School Supplies Arrived!

Pastor Sam Snow arrived back in the states this week safe and sound from a trip to Nigeria. He was there with Bro. Shobanke dedicating a church and preaching for the saints. He delivered the suitcase of school supplies that we sent and he took some pictures to document it. You know what we say around here, "If there are no pictures, it did not happen."

Here is proof it happened!

I am thankful that the supplies and the candy for the children made it to Nigeria. I mentioned sending the supplies HERE and HERE and we appreciate those that were able and willing to help. At times some one will give what they feel like is a very small amount of money and they feel it is not enough, but every dollar is put to good use in Nigeria. Thank you very much!

Sis. Ruth and Sis. Rebecca, their staff and all of the children at GoodNews Christian School thank you as well. I am sure I will be receiving an email soon expressing their gratitude and I will pass it on to you. I sincerely believe these kids are a worthwhile investment and should the Lord tarry His coming, their Christian education will bring great dividends for the kingdom of God.

By God's grace, I am expecting that Kelly Jo and I can deliver the school supplies next year live and in person. We should be finished with City Reach 2016 sometime in November and I hope and pray we are able to go to Nigeria shortly thereafter before we shut down for the year. It is in our plans and I am believing God to bring it to pass.

Thanks again for all your help with this and I appreciate Pastor Sam Snow for doing the leg and back work.

God bless you all.

Davy

City Reach Information - Tent Trailer for Bro. Jimmie Radcliffe

I intend to keep everyone up to date as much as possible on the logistics and planning for City Reach. This post is an attempt to do that. I appreciate all the interest.

I mentioned in our Summary of City Reach Wichita that we learned several things during that first campaign. We actually learned that we got a few things right. That was refreshing.

One of the things we got right was adding another team member to City Reach. Bro. Jimmie Radcliffe has been planning to travel with us during City Reach next year and City Reach Wichita was a trial run. Bro. Jimmie is an excellent worker and has a heart to serve. God has used him to minister effectively to the lost and troubled in society and it seems he is especially gifted to reach those that have been hurt and cast aside.

Bro. Jimmie is the founder of Salvage Life Restorations, a ministry to men and women that have been damaged by adversity and the misfortunes of life. He reaches for the suffering, the addicts, the homeless, the abused, the used and the grief stricken. For City Reach we have half jokingly but appropriately named him Director of Tent Transportation and Onsite Operations. During City Reach Wichita Bro. Jimmie dealt with all things related to keeping the tent in the air and helping everything run smoothly. But just as I hoped, he was very instrumental in reaching many people for Christ both one on one and in the altar services.

We are thrilled to have Bro. Jimmie on board for City Reach and we are looking forward to what God is going to do through him. This is a huge step for us financially and a huge step for Bro. Jimmie as well. It is exciting to see God's hand at work in such a large leap of faith!

One of the things we have been working on for quite a while is living quarters for Bro. Jimmie next year. We knew we needed some way to combine his living quarters with a vehicle to haul the tent, chairs and other equipment. We have considered totorhomes, motorhomes, box trucks (think Uhaul type) and various types of trailers. Bro. Jimmie has spent countless hours looking online and in person.

We all wanted to get this purchase right because the needs of City Reach are so specific but it also needed to suit Bro. Jimmie's long term needs. He determined that a goose-neck cargo trailer would work best for him and he scoured the internet to find the right one at the right price.

He finally found a trailer in super great shape and bought it at a fair price too. This trailer has so many extras and several obvious and hidden stuctural advantages. It really is a great trailer. Here are a few pictures of the exterior.

Bro. Jimmie will live in the front part. The tent, chairs and other equipment will ride in the back. We should be able to park the trailer onsite during most tent revivals as we have other tent trailers. If so, we can load the sound equipment in at night and Bro. Jimmie can stay right onsite.

Boggs Family Ministries purchased the trailer but it actually belongs to Bro. Jimmie. The purchase price is part of his wages for the time he spends with us working in City Reach next year. This is possible because folks have shared our burden for City Reach and we are very thankful.

There will be more expense before the trailer is completely ready to go. It will need an RV fridge, a roof air, holding tanks, bathroom fixtures, bed, cabinets and other items. One brother wants to help him with the cabinets IF he can spare the time. That will be a huge blessing if it comes through. 

It will also need new tires all they way around and good load range G tires are not on special at Walmart! Bro. Jimmie can do most of the work (He is super duper handy, that is one reason he is on our team.) and he hopes to have it ready to go shortly after the first of the year.

Bro. Jimmie has an older Dodge truck that is in great shape with a Cummins engine. He is confident it can do the job but we do have our eyes open for a truck that might be even better suited for this particular task. He is mainly looking at single axle 2-ton type trucks, with the dream being a Freightliner Sport Chassis. I know that the right truck at the right price is out there.

Thank you very much for helping us pray for City Reach. Our ultimate goal is to be in the right place, at the right time, with the right message, for the right person. However, to do that there are a thousand little decisions that need to be made correctly and that job is much bigger than my ability. I am trusting God to help.

Thanks for reading. If you have any questions or suggestions, get in touch with us.

Davy

Withholding Information

Yesterday's post was a rambling monstrosity and entirely too long, but the fact is I withheld some important information. In the interest of keeping the narrative moving I omitted one story that I will include today.

Do you remember the smooth night of driving we had after church Tuesday night? The BoggsMobile pulled out of Pauls Valley, Oklahoma and sailed through the night and landed north of Little Rock at 3:30 AM. It was a great night to drive and everything was perfect.

Well, it was almost perfect. We did have one little hiccup on the late night drive. It was about 1:30 AM and my GPS was bouncing between 70-72 MPH and had been for many miles in the 70 MPH zone. The Green Machine stayed in the barn this trip so we were pretty much tied to the speed limit the whole way.

There was a police car next to I-40 not long after I entered Arkansas. He was sitting on the right shoulder with his lights on so I passed him in the left lane and never slowed down. Well, it turns out it must have been a slow night for the Arkansas State Policeman and I provided little diversion.

After I passed by he pulled out immediately and I knew he was going to light me up. He did. Before he turned on the flashing lights, he pulled up to my back bumper and rode there a mile or two, probably radioing my tag number in.

Then came the lights.

(Not the actual lights below)



Once I was slowed down, I pulled off the road as far as I could, turned all the lights on inside and Kelly Jo and I put our hands where he could see them. Instead of coming to the open window on the driver's side, he went to the front door on Kelly Jo's side. We do not open that door so I went to the mid door and opened it for him.

I sat down on the steps and we had a friendly if quick conversation. He said I was running a little fast and he was thinking I might be sleepy. 

After telling him I was wide awake but Garth was asleep, he left. I am totally joking, Garth was wide awake and inside singing Christmas carols! That is a fact with my hand up. He sang to me for hours that night!

The friendly policeman let me leave with no ticket and we were stopped a total of less than two minutes according to the GPS. I think the he just wanted to check us out and make sure I was not drinking. 

That is the first time I have ever been pulled over in the BoggsMobile after driving it about 113,000 miles. That is not too bad for an average. Especially since I escaped with no ticket.

Thanks for reading.

Davy