Foster Grove - Revival In Pictures

It has become the norm for Odie to post on Saturday but as she is still traveling I am stepping up to fill in for her this morning. Her ship should be pulling into port this morning in Tampa, Florida and then she will begin the long round about flying route to Hattiesburg, Mississippi. We should have her in our arms by 9:30 tonight.

We have missed Odie but we have had a tremendous week in Alabama. This was our first revival at Foster Grove Holiness Church in Mobile and it has been wonderful. We have had great fellowship from the local churches and several visitors each and every night. God has moved in the singing, in the preaching and especially in the altar services and I give him honor and glory for that.

Pastor Jimmie McDuffie and his wife and all the folks at Foster Grove have been so very kind to us all week long. They have provided a nice place to park, meals every night and have done their very best to see that we are taken care of while we are here. May God bless them greatly for their hospitality.

I hope you enjoy the Revival In Pictures.

Davy

Pastor and Sis. McDuffie

Pastor Michael Groves

Rev. Jimmy Lloyd

The Apostle Donald C. Williamson

The Epistle

Pastor Tim Cauley

Pastor Eugene Futral

Pastor Gaylon and Sis. Kim Cunnigham

Pastor Shad McDonald and Pastor Barry Gautreaux

Bro. Gautreaux was preaching revival nearby for Trinity so we were blessed to spend a little time with them during the day.

Pastor Scott Morris and his family came down to spend a little time with us one day. We organized and were the only participants in the first annual Mobile, Alabama lawn mover race sponsored by Lowe's and John Deere. 

City Reach Update February, 2015

We are still looking forward toward City Reach and praying daily for God's supervision in this whole adventure. I am talking to folks nearly every day trying to bring together these outreach tent revivals in some of our larger cities. The logistics and planning is slightly overwhelming but I have momentary glimpses of God working behind the scenes. That hope is enough to keep me believing that it will all come together.

Excitement

We are hearing from a lot of excited folks about City Reach. There are churches, Pastors, missionaries, members, young people and other evangelists that are reaching out to us to encourage us on purpose concerning City Reach. That strengthens my faith and boosts my resolve. Some of these folks are prepared to help financially, others are able and willing to become physically involved in the actual revivals and still others are taking on the responsibility to hold us up in fervent prayer.

All of this encouragement is a definite shot in the arm for us. We thank God for the inspiration and enthusiastic support. God has sent folks to "hold ropes" for us and what a blessing these friends have been and continue to be.

Home Missions Opportunity - City Reach Crew

I have mentioned before that some churches and youth groups have expressed an interest in sending a group of young people or young at heart to be a tangible help in the actual revivals. I am embracing that wholeheartedly. It would be a blessing to us as well as a tremendous home missions opportunity for a group from your church.

We would love to have groups help with canvassing communities, knocking on doors passing out flyers, intercessory prayer, working the altars, setting up and tearing down equipment, cleaning chairs, cleaning the grounds, helping with seating, distributing and collecting visitors cards and a million other things that will need to be done in each city.

It may even be possible to do some street ministry, tract distribution or outreach to children during the day or afternoon in some of the cities. The possibilities are really endless and I am anxious to see all the avenues to minister that God will open to us through City Reach.

As you can see, we will be able to put folks to work in the actual work of evangelism. If you have any interest in forming a City Reach Crew from your group, your church, your family to join forces with us for a few days or a week in a metropolitan area near you or across the country please contact me or have your Pastor get in touch with me.

I need to know as much in advance as possible since we would like to coordinate the response. There are some cities where we will be working closely with several churches and some cities where our local help will be sparse. It would be nice if groups could rally around those areas where local help could possibly be thin, but I am sure we can put you to work in whatever City Reach you choose to attend.

Since this will be a mission effort, groups that join us and families that travel to help in City Reach would be responsible for funding their own motels, meals and travel expenses.

Schedule

I am in the final stages of determining the best times and dates for some of the early cities. My tentative plans are to be in Arizona and California in February and March, Phoenix, Arizona in April, Ft. Worth, Texas in May, Tulsa, Oklahoma in June and Dayton, Ohio in July and Nashville in September. I will be talking to Pastors in the next several days confirming times and dates. I hope to have many of those dates confirmed by the time PFYC rolls around which is the end of March.

Things We are Thankful to God For

   Tent Section

We plan to order the new 22' section of our tent that will allow it to be expanded to 48x92 and seat 500 people under it. This section will join with out current 48x70 tent and we a family has already pledged to purchase this piece for us. I plan to order it in April and pick it up in Miami, Oklahoma in June.

   Chairs

I mentioned that we were saving for 200 more chairs and we now have enough in the City Reach fund to purchase those chairs. They will be about $1700 or $8.50 per chair plus shipping. I will order them in late April or early May and have them shipped to Ohio.

   Speakers

I also mentioned that we will need to purchase two additional PA speakers for the additional width of the tent. My intention was to purchase two Mackie 450's to match my current speakers. We now have the money saved to do that but there may be a great blessing in the works that I can not tell you about right now. Either way, we are very thankful to God for his help.

   Financial Support

I have detailed before how that churches and Pastors and friends have come along side us to help us in City Reach. We are very thankful to God for that. We are no where near the resources it will require to take City Reach to at least ten cities but we are WAY farther than we were a year ago when I first became brave enough to mention this dream. A very, very small handful of churches and individuals have made a huge difference already. Thank you and thank God.

Things We Are Seeking God For

   God's Will Concerning Transportation

We really need direction on transportation next year. Right now during tent revivals we drive the BoggsMobile and pull the tent trailer with all of the equipment and the Green Machine inside of it. This works really, really well. However, with the extra tent piece, including the extra poles, straps and stakes, plus an extra two hundred chairs, there will be no room for the car in the trailer. That means Kelly Jo will have to drive separately for thousands of miles in 2016.

Bro. Jimmie Radcliffe will be traveling with us during City Reach by God's grace. We have considered purchasing a used one ton truck and having Bro. Jimmie pull the tent trailer with that and then the bus would pull the car. That would work fine but it would put Bro. Jimmie staying in the tent trailer without adequate facilities. 

Since he will be staying as close to the tent as possible it would be nice for him to have a trailer with living quarters. If we could find a suitable trailer that he could stay in AND that would have adequate payload capacity for the tent and chairs AND that he could pull with his own truck, that would be perfect.

So you see we need some direction from the Lord concerning transportation. All these things need to fall in place by December but it would be great if we could sense some guidance now.

   God's Will Concerning Location

We want to take the tent to the right place at the right time every single time we set it up in 2016. I want to be preaching on the right street, in the right neighborhood, the Word of God penetrating the right heart and at the right moment. I need God's direction.

There are many more things I would like to mention but this is already too lengthy. Would you join us in praising God for the help He has given already and in fervent prayer that He would reveal His perfect plan to us? Would you forward this post onto others?

Thank you and God bless you, friends.

Davy

Evangelism - Encouraging The Local Pastor

I wrote a post last week called My View of Evangelism. I appreciate all of the response. It lets me know that folks really are reading. I ended with talking about how much we really love what God has called us to do and that "I say, IF you love what you do then you never really work a day in your life."

We really do love it. I honestly want to be faithful in evangelism. There is no sense giving our lives to something and then NOT being effective now and in the long term. That brings me back to sharing my vision and approach to evangelism that I promised to elaborate on last week.

Our family has operated with three deliberate objectives. There are three things that we purpose to do in every revival, every camp meeting and every church where we minister in any capacity. These three things do not always happen in a particular order but when we leave a revival we sincerely want to see them accomplished. For the sake of time and brevity I will only mention one today and discuss the rest in later posts

1. In every revival we purpose to encourage the local Pastor.

Pastoring a church is hard work. It is a difficult and often thankless task. Even though the Pastor is often surrounded by people, his job can be very lonely. We see it as part of our duties as an evangelist to come along beside him and be an encouragement.

We need Pastors. I know some folks that do not believe they need a Pastor but they are wrong about that. God gave Pastors the responsibility to teach us His Word and to shepherd our souls. God gave some Pastors! If God gave them then I need them.

I would not be in the ministry and probably would not be saved if it were not for my faithful Pastor, Bro. Bennie Sutherland. Thank God that he preached the Word of God without fear or favor and poured in the right amount of law and grace when I needed it.

Also there would not be local churches for me to preach in and for us to sing in if it were not for God called Pastors that give their lives to reach souls and keep churches afloat. So it is fair and just to say that I would not have an a ministry as an evangelist if it were not for local Pastors all over the USA. Thank God for the local Pastors.

We have some hard and fast rules when it comes to conducting ourselves properly when it concerns Pastors of churches where we are preaching. You might say it is our ethical frame work.

The Pastor is the Pastor. I am not the Pastor. I follow the Pastor's lead. Although I have a great working relationship with Pastors and I am free to "obey God" in their churches, I purpose to work within the bounds of his authority and not mine own.

We do not usurp the Pastor's authority in the services or out of church. We are under his authority and I often communicate that to the church from the pulpit. I do not only say it, we model our genuine submission to his authority in front of his folks.

We do not disrespect the local Pastor. In fact we do our best to elevate him in the eyes of his people. We constantly affirm him and his leadership in the local church.

We do not slam the local Pastor while we are there or after we leave. There may be things that I think I would do differently if I were the Pastor but I am not the Pastor and my duty is to keep my big mouth shut.

Many Pastors are bi-vocational and are not available during the day but we spend time with the local Pastor when possible and befriend him and his family. Many of them desire and even need the friendship of an evangelist and we are determined to show ourselves friendly.

Encouraging the Pastor extends to being an encouragement to his wife and his children. People have been so kind to Odie and we intend to pay that kindness forward to the kids of Pastors in every church where we minister.

This is only one facet of my vision and approach to evangelism but it is a very important part of it. Pastors are not perfect and we all know that. But God gave them to us for our own good and encouraging them on purpose is a large part of what evangelists or at least this evangelist is called to do.

Thanks for reading.

Davy