A Winter Wonderland?

The week so far has pretty much been all about getting ready for the Christmas services that will be going on between now and Tuesday. I posted information about those services yesterday. We are looking forward to singing Christmas songs and preaching a little Christmas sermon.

Tuesday we met our dear friends, Bro. EJ and Sis. Lacey Lamb for a great lunch and wonderful fellowship. We love these folks and before we knew it we had talked and eaten for over two hours. Even after all that, you can see below that it was still smiles all around.

We will get to see them again Sunday night at Anchor of Hope where they serve as Associate Pastor and worship leader. This will be a special Christmas service so come be with us.

This is what it looked like on way home Tuesday afternoon.

And this is what it looked like as we turned into the ranch. That is the barn and tent trailer way back there but where is the lane?

I was up early Wednesday morning and went outside to check things out. I think we definitely beat the 1-3 inches estimate. In fact, that estimate spun off in a ditch some where! Then in a tragic road rage incident, a driver got out and beat that 1-3 inches estimate to death right there beside the road.

 

I shoveled some of the areas around the car and barn door because I knew if the cold came as they were predicting, the snow would be frozen solid.

We were going south for a lunch meeting so I was checking the roads. Our road looked good but I text my brother to check the conditions in Cincinnati. He said there was no snow there. I thought he was joking but there was literally NO snow there. In fact, I would say there was no more than one inch of snow ten miles south of us. That is crazy!

Although it did not get above freezing Wednesday, the cloudy day still brought us a little melting. Here is Kelly Jo styling and profiling in her warm, dry and fashionable snow boots. (Thank you Sis. G!)

This is the temperature now, Thursday morning. 7 degrees and feels like minus 9! For our readers overseas, that is minus 13 and minus 22 Celsius!

Please explain to me again why anyone one wants to live north of the Ohio river or even north of Interstate 40? This is ridiculous! I know that some of you love cold weather and I can sympathize with that. I get it. 

I may not be completely right in the head but THAT is not my particular kind of illness. This is too cold for human consumption!

Today we hope to set up the sound system and go through our Christmas program about 394 times. We should have it down pat by then.

Thanks for reading today. I do hope you are some place very warm, I am, if only in my dreams!

Davy

Schedule - Christmas Services

Update: Tomorrow morning's Christmas service has been rescheduled. The weather guessers are predicting a wintry mix early tomorrow morning in West Harrison so Pastor Wade Hicks decided to reschedule the service in an abundance of caution. We now plan to be there Wednesday December 21st at 7:00 PM.

Wow! Winter has arrived in grand fashion! This was how it looked yesterday afternoon and it snowed for a few more hours after this!

At one point yesterday the snow was falling in beautiful little star shaped flakes!

This was the temperature at 4:41 this morning. Look at the low of 7 for tonight. Thursday the high is forecast at 14 degrees!

Folks, that is too cold! Ouch!

Schedule - Christmas Services

Ok, I have finally whipped the calendar back into shape. I think I have every thing listed up through the third week of April. You can see the schedule HERE. As always, dates are completely subject to change and are likely to change before I finish this post!

I also added the dates for our Christmas services. We have done a few of these in the past and Pastor Brian Hisle has been asking us to come to New Castle, Indiana for a Christmas service the last few years. Bro. Brian is a great long time friend and we are happy to be able to go this year.

Things kind of snowballed from there. We have been asked to do others but there are only so many service nights between now and Christmas. Plus a Christmas service after December 25 is just...LATE!

December 16, Friday, - Sharonville, Ohio, Free Holiness Church of God, Pastor Randy Brown, 7:00 PM

Rescheduled Due to Weather 
December 18, Sunday Morning - West Harrison Pentecostal, West Harrison, IN, 10:00 AM
New Date: December 21, Wednesday Evening 7:00 PM

December 18, Sunday Evening - Lebanon, OH, Anchor of Hope, Pastor Bill Lamb, 6:00 PM

December 20, Tuesday - New Castle, IN, Trinity Full Gospel Tabernacle, Pastor Brian Hisle, 7:00 PM

We also changed up the first of the year schedule the last month or so. We knew we would not be home until now (Mid-December), so we had initially planned to begin revivals in Alabama the third Sunday in January. We wanted a little more time at home to prepare for the next sprint across the country.

Pastor John DiZazzo called and asked us to preach the dedication service for their Hope For The Hurting residential program on January 1st and we were thrilled to be asked to do it. We love what Bethany Revival Center is doing to change people's lives and we want to support it in every way we can.

I immediately accepted the invitation knowing full well we were not going to be any where near there at that time. No problem, right? We thought about driving the Green Machine out and back home but that is a 1600 mile round trip. We looked at flying but that was not appealing either.

After thinking it over and hashing it out, we decided to leave December 30th and make a big loop out of it. That gives us a chance to visit several friends that have been asking us to come. Most of those new dates have now been added to the calendar.

Come see us if you can. God bless you all.

Davy

Getting Back Into the Routine

When we hit the ground in the USA Saturday this was our view from the Newark, New Jersey airport. That is the World Trade Center Freedom Tower in the center. Kelly Jo saw the Statue of Liberty on the flight in but I missed it completely.

It was great to turn my phone off of airplane mode for the first time in 25 days.

My Dad and my brother Steve took care of everything at the barn and bus while we were gone as they always do. I appreciate them tending to things. Having the bus in the barn relieves a lot of worry about it freezing up but it still needs a watchful eye when things get really cold. Thanks Dad and Bubba!

Kelly Jo and I had to run to town Monday so we stopped in at Acapulco at 11:00 for a little Mexican food fix. Plus, I needed to see my friends!

Wow! It was delicious! We had not had any Mexican food the whole time we were gone until take out Sunday and dine-in on Monday. We were long overdue! We did see a Mexican restaurant in some country we were in but it was too far from Mexico to lure me in. I tried that in Canada once; bad, bad mistake!

I stopped at my Dad and Mom's Monday afternoon and Odie came back to the bus with me. We are trying to get ready for our Christmas services that begin Friday. We are only doing four and all of them are close to home. I will post those dates here tomorrow.

This is what practice looks like in the BoggsMobile. Kelly Jo is standing by the bed playing her Yamaha and Odie is in the floor. We have spent a few hours like this through the years!

Kelly Jo's parents came by and visited a while Monday afternoon and we enjoyed that very much. We will be able to see them more before the holidays are over but it was very nice to have them here for the afternoon.

Today should be more of the same. We have plans to meet some friends for lunch, but besides that, the day should look a lot like Monday. We are getting back into the routine. Of course by the time we are settled, it will be time to hit the road for a different routine. There is no time to get bored.

Thanks for stopping in today.

Davy