View Out The Front Window December 20, 2015

Check out our posts from the last week at the links below.

Odie's post from Saturday was especially sweet.

Odie's Saturday Post

Barn Project

The School Supplies Arrived

City Reach Information - Tent Trailer

Withholding Information

Weekend Woundup and Weview

This is our view out the front window with the barn doors open. This will pretty much be our view for the next little while. Our first revival after Christmas is only an hour or so away so we will probably drive back and forth most nights.

This is our view out the front door.

We were blessed to be in our home church Thursday night and we are planning to be there both services today by God's grace. I hope you have a great Sunday.

Davy

My Friend Amanda Hasty

Hey Friends,

This Odie checking in from Ohio. I have had a excellent week here at home. My Mamaw and Papaw are so kind to let me stay with them! I love coming to my home away from the BoggsMobile.

As I type this post I am listening to Christmas music and looking at my tree. I want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas! 

Amanda Hasty

Now let me introduce you to my dear friend Amanda Hasty. Everyone who meets Amanda loves her and they do not forget her. People all across the country often ask me how she is doing. Amanda is doing great. I was thrilled to see her Sunday night! That visit with her has kept me smiling all week. 

Last Sunday night.

Amanda has been my friend for just about as long as I can remember. We grew up together at Dryden Road Pentecostal Church. She always made life fun! I was 3 when we started attending Dryden Road so Amanda would have been 2. We are 13 months and 2 days apart in age. 

In 1995 we became neighbors. The Hasty's bought a house next to the house they had been renting. When they moved from the rent house to the house they purchased, we started renting their old house. 

I collected many happy memories the two and a half years we lived on Nicholson Road next to the Hasty's. Their back yard bordered our side yard. We had a chain length fence separating the yards. Amanda and I spent countless hours playing across the fence. We played house, school, cowboys and Indians and always church. When we could not be outside playing, we would talk on the phone.

This picture was taken August 2015

In 1997 we bought a house and moved to a West Carrollton and closer to the church. Amanda and I remained close and still spent time together at church and I remember visiting their house on some Sundays between church services. Oh, and the daily phone conversations continued.

In 1999 Dad became the Pastor at a church in Wichita and we moved to Kansas. I will never forget having to tell Amanda goodbye. That is definitely a sad memory. She could not understand why I was moving away and she was mad at me for leaving. Ever since then she lets me know she loves me but she loves my Dad and Mom more than she does me. LOL! It Is okay, because my parents are way cool! 

The last few years she lets me know how much she loves me when we are home. I think she is starting to forgive me for moving to Kansas over 16 1/2 years ago!

Last Sunday night, Amanda with one of her favorite preachers.

I am so thankful to have Amanda as a friend. I love you, Amanda Elizabeth Hasty! You will always be my buddy. Thank you for brightening my life.

Thanks for reading. I hope you have a superb Holiday week. 

Odie 

Barn Project - LED Yard Light

Kelly Jo and I have been working on a project at the Lazy OD Ranch. There are so many projects that need to be done and so little time to work, so it is difficult for me to prioritize them. It is almost like I do the one that is screaming the most at the moment. But this one needed a day or two without rain and temperatures above freezing would be nice too. When the weather window opened up, we jumped on it.

The barn has a light on the front that comes on automatically at night. It is plenty bright and it should be. It is a 500 watt light. I have been looking for an LED replacement and I found one a few weeks ago and ordered two of them.

This is the light on Amazon

This is their description:

This high powered 38 watt LED Yard Light is a direct replacement for a 300 watt incandescent. It features wall or pole mount installation and corrosive resistant housing. This LED Yard Light has an average life of 35,000 hours and it has 4000 lumens.

I could probably have used one light and mounted it in the center where the 500 watt light is but I did not know for sure it would be bright enough so I bought two and mounted one on each side.

They looked good as darkness fell and the lights came on.

This is the real test after dark. Here is the front of the barn with the 500 watt light on. It lights up the front really well.

This is the front of the barn with only the two new LED lights on and the area is lit up as well if not better than the big 500 watt light. I am well pleased. I was not sure a 38 watt light could really put out that much light!

Other than the fact that I have nothing to do and I love climbing 15-17 feet up an extension ladder carrying tools and materials 40 times over two days; here is the real reason I made this change.

A 500 watt light running an average of 12 hours per day at 12 cents per kilowatt, costs right at $21.60 per month. That's not that bad in the grand scheme of things especially when a good light is one of the cheapest forms of protection from thieves and vandals. (Men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that does evil hates the light.)

As you can see the LED lights light the front of the barn up very well and they use 76 watts combined. 76 watts of light running an average of 12 hours per day at 12 cents per kilowatt, costs $3.28 per month.

Basically the same light for $3.28 per month! That is a saving in electricity of $18.32 per month!

Now, the lights cost $60 each so they were $120 for the pair. I already had the wire, boxes, screws, staples and wire nuts. My labor is free and Kelly Jo works for Salsa. That means the total cost was $120.

At $18 per month savings I can make that back in less than 7 months. Everything after that is all gravy!

I had already replaced the light over the man door. It was also a 500 watt light that stayed on all the time. I replaced it with an LED with a motion detector that is super bright and only comes on at night when some one approaches the door. That light is less than 23 watts.

I dropped from 500 watts to 23 watts on that one, plus it only comes on when needed. At this rate, the power company will be sending me money for my bus payment and diesel. Riiight! I will let you know how that works out.

That is some of what we have been up too. Thanks for reading.

Davy

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