The Tent Goes Up For the Last Time in 2019.

We had a second wonderful service last night under the tent. There is a man and woman from the community that seem to really be getting help in the altar. Hallelujah! We are also hearing testimonies from others outside the tent too. Keep praying for us, please.

In Richton, we use the 48x70 oval three-piece tent most years and that requires a little bit more planning and work. But this is the seventh year this tent has gone up in Richton Recreation Park so the guys from First Assembly are old pros by now.

Their experience and willingness to work together turned a big job into a relatively easy morning last Saturday. 90 minutes for the 48x70 tent to be in the air, tight and the chairs to be in place is not a record, but it is mighty close.

We appreciate the hard work of Pastor Scott Morris and all of his men and women that were able to help get the tent up. May God bless them for their effort.

Odie was on the job taking pictures like a champ.

 

Here is the faster version of the set up.

Thank you for going along for the ride with us today.

Davy

Our Weekend In the Rearview Mirror 9/23/19

We were up and at em' Friday morning trying to get ready to hit the road. My first task was to Do the Work of the Evangelist and to take the time to rinse the tanks too. Rinsing the tanks needs to be done occasionally and when I am dumping the tanks at a public dump station, I usually do not take the time to do it in consideration of others.

Soon my evangelistic duties were completed, the bus was cranked, the Green Machine was hooked up and we were on the road. It was only 130 miles to Richton, but we were on the road almost 3 hours. It was a beautiful day to travel, but the route is a little convoluted. 

The 20 miles to the interstate took us over 30 minutes with intersections, small roads and turns and then we lost a little more time in Mobile. The traffic was fine, but we entered Mobile on the southeast side and then left Mobile on the northwest side and we exited the interstate about 1/2 way through all of that.

When we arrived in Richton, we went straight to Recreation Park where the tent goes up. We have been here many times before so in a few minutes we were parked and shut down.

This is Love Bug season and the front of the bus was covered. You can not leave Love Bugs on paint, so the first thing I did was hook up the hose and wash them off.

The next step was going to the church, hooking the church bus to the tent trailer and pulling it to the park. KJ and I took a few minutes to measure where the trailer needed to go and then we put it in place. By then a city employee was there with the keys to the electrical area so we plugged the bus into the 50 amp box I installed years ago.

Odie loaded up in the Green Machine with us and we went to Hattiesburg to meet Bro. Scott and Sis. Kim Morris and Bro. Kenny and Sis. Joan Morris for a super great meal at Front Porch. I love that place.

Just before dark, Bro. Scott helped us measure and mark the stake line for the tent. We put up three sections of the tent here so the marking is a little more involved than normal, but we were finished in a jiffy.

I was outside early Saturday to prepare the trailer and by 8:00 the gang had arrived and we began pulling stakes out of the trailer and driving them into the ground. By 9:02 the tent was standing on its own and by 9:30 the chairs were in place and the tent was tight.

By 11:00, the lights were up, the cords were hung and the cameras were in place. That is a pretty good morning for us and we appreciate all the help. I will try to put up pictures of set up later in the week. I just happened to have a timelapse video too.😉

Although Kelly Jo and I spent some time under the tent Saturday evening, we pretty much took it easy the rest of the day. I might have squeezed in a nap in the afternoon. I seem to have an hour missing from my memory bank. Yeah, I probably took a little snooze.

We sang and preached Sunday morning in the church and had a good service. We love being in Richton for tent revival, but we love having service inside the church too.






Sunday afternoon we began setting up our sound system at 3:00 PM. Bro. Scott was here to help with the heavy lifting so even with first night glitches everything was up and sound checked by 4:30, right on time.

The first service cranked up at 6:00 and we were off to the races. God was reaching for people right off the bat and it was wonderful to see a few responses in the altar. The church folks led the way and others followed and God touched them. Praise God for it.

Here are a few pictures of the tent. In some of the daytime pictures, you can see the horrible contrast between the faded blue on the ends of the tent and the original blue on the center section of the tent. It looks really bad as you are driving up to it. That almost makes my decision for me.

Fellowship under the tent and then with Bro. Scott and his family brought a great weekend to a close. Pray for us this week. I would like for God to surprise us with His awesome power in this community.

Thank you for dropping in today.

Davy

The View Out The Front Window 9/22/19

This is an awesome view if I ever saw one. This is right outside our door this week in Richton, Mississippi!

Another Sunday has rolled around so here are the links to our posts from this last week.

Odie's Saturday Evening Post

Taking Care of Business

Dashcam Incident

Vintage View Vednesday

Ville Platte Gazette

The Weekend In Our Rearview Mirror

We always appreciate you taking a moment to drop in to read Mile Markers. Have a great Sunday!

Davy

Power In Prayer

Hey Friends,

This is Odie reporting in from Mississippi. Today the tent is going up for the final time in 2019. I am excited to be back in Richton once again. We always have a phenomenal time under The Gospel tent with Pastor Scott Morris and the congregation of First Assembly! We would love to see you under the tent this week too. Revival begins tomorrow night and runs through Friday. 

Power In Prayer

Earlier this week we were in Cantonment, Florida. While we were there, I spent time in the evangelist quarters at Beams of Light Holiness Church. I have great memories from my first stay in those quarters in 2008 with my cousin Deidre. 

The Lord met with us there and it is a special place for us. We will always treasure our fond memories that were collected while there. We laughed a ton and had a blast spending time together and with the Lord in our midst.

One special time happened late at night after a service that built our faith. We had a sweet time in our nightly devotions. That evening we read Mathew chapter seven and verses seven and eight became real to us. 

Matthew 7:7-8

7  Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

I remember discussing theses verses with Deidre that night. We decided if the Bible said to ask, seek and knock then we were going to do those three things in prayer. Deidre and I joined together and believed for many things that were important to us. We had a Holy Ghost prayer meeting in our bedroom that night. It was amazing! I know neither of us will never forget the way God met with us. 

Eleven years later I can testify that we have watched many of those prayers answered in our lives and in the lives of others! Some things took years to see the full answer and others we are still waiting to get our answers. I know they will come according to God’s timing. 

The prayers that have been answered came to pass in ways we never imagined. Several times over the years we have reminded each other of the time that we knew our petitions were heard. The answer was definitely on the way. We had to keep believing and trusting the Lord. 

As I visited our spiritual monument this week, I had joyful praise in my heart. I was reminded of the blessed assurance that I felt from God. It was absolutely real in the summer of 2008 and that has not changed in 2019. 

I am so grateful that I can go boldly to the throne of grace and talk to my God. He hears me anytime I call to Him! I know from experience that there is power in prayer. 

I want to give you a personal reminder. Your petitions are being heard today. Please take courage!  A song by the southern gospel group, 11th Hour, has been on repeat in my heard this week. Click here to hear Power In Prayer on YouTube.

Thank you for taking some time with me today.

Odie 

Taking Care of Business

Bro. Samuel from Beams of Light slipped into eternity Wednesday evening. Please pray for his wife, all of his family and the church family. Bro. Samuel was a true Christian man and his absence is going to leave a permanent mark on a lot of lives.

Take Care of Business
Life can not be all tent revivals, church revivals and mission trips. All of those things are the public and enjoyable side of ministry. There are also buses to maintain, miles to drive, books to keep, bills to pay, budgets to write and a million other things, most of which I seldom write about.

Bookwork and business may be boring, but if we neglect the business side, the wheels of ministry will fall off and we find ourselves broke down beside the proverbial road wondering what in the world just happened.

This week it was time to take care of some business. We always require lots of help and instruction on the business side. Kelly Jo and I rely heavily on people that know more than we do. They guide us in every area of our lives. 

It may be humbling for some to admit that we do not know things that we are "supposed" to know, but it is also liberating. It is pleading guilty to being a normal human and by doing so, we open ourself up to wisdom, guidance and direction we would otherwise miss.

In 2003 we looked into incorporating our ministry and applying to the IRS to be recognized as a 501c3. It seemed too daunting and expensive and that outweighed the benefits in our minds. We decided to wait.

Near the end of 2007, some of the men that we trust for guidance thought we should reconsider and work toward qualifying as a 501c3. We began the process in early 2008 by incorporating in Ohio and then hiring a company to lead us through the process with the IRS.

It was time consuming and aggravating, but in early 2009 we received our determination letter from the IRS. As a 501c3 we can receive donations that have the potential to be tax deductible to the giver, just like a church. But since we are not a church, we have to fill out a tax form at the end of each year.

During our early years, our income was low and the tax form was a simple formality that took about 3 minutes online. It was basically an acknowledgment that we were still in business and carrying on under a certain financial threshold.

With City Reach and then building the house, we began to go over that threshold. Last year we had to file a more complicated version of that tax form. We parked at a Flying J truck stop and buried ourselves in forms, figures and fistfuls of facts. After two full days, we were feeling fatigued, but finished with our financial filings! Hallelujah!

The form for 2018 is now due November 15. The next several weeks will be chock full of travel and preaching and it really does not look like it will slow down until way past the deadline. That is why we had set aside this week to get it done.

This week went a little sideways with unplanned stuff, but we needed to get on track. With revival service being canceled Wednesday we went to work. KJ pulled out last years forms, I pulled out the financial numbers from 2018 and we plunged in. In about 4 hours, we were really close to wrapping up. Wow! That is better.

Thursday I took several hours to go over the forms AND all the instructions for the forms, dotting my "i"s and crossing my "t"s. I think it is ready and we are very grateful. Business is taken care of for a while. Whew!

In a few minutes, we will leave and begin our journey to Richton, Mississippi. We hope to get settled in at the park and measure and mark the stake line for the tent before dark tonight. Saturday morning the tent will go up in the air for the final time this season by the grace of God.

Thank you for reading.

Davy

Dashcam Incident

We have captured some interesting events with our dashcam since we began using it a few years ago. Right out of the box it captured a guy brake checking me on the interstate. I saw it coming so I was already on the brakes and in no danger of hitting him, but I was continually pointing up at the dashcam.

I could not see the look on his face when he realized he was busted by the camera, but the video plainly showed the smoke from his tailpipe as he mashed the skinny pedal on the right to get away as quick as possible.

The camera has also captured numerous near misses, people passing on a double yellow line, multiple drivers with zero merging skill and driving knowledge, the suicides or near suicides of several animals and a whole bunch of people giving me the signal that they think I am the number one preacher on the highway because I could not magically merge into thin air in order to make up for their lack of planning.

Two weeks ago the dashcam captured an accident. On our way to a tent revival in Pine Prairie, we witnessed an accident in Ferriday, Louisiana. It was a four lane city street, two lanes each direction. We were in the far right lane approaching a signal light. There were some cars in the left lane and it looked like the first car in line was waiting to turn left.

The first car, a white one, turned left right into the path of a car coming from the opposite direction. Ouch! T-bone!

Neither KJ or I actually witness the impact, but we both watched as both cars slid together and came to a halt. The guy coming from the other direction had both hands in the air and a look on his face that said, "What in the world just happened?" or "I cannot believe he just did that." or "Holy Cow! I just paid my car off yesterday!"

It did not appear that anyone was hurt in the accident. Once I realized the dashcam took it all in, I thought the Ferriday police might be interested in the video. Nope. The Ferriday police, the Parish police nor the State police acted as if they had any interest in the video of the accident at all.

Maybe it was too cut and dried to need any video evidence, but I have watched roadside Louisiana justice up close. If I was the guy in the oncoming car, I would welcome some proof that the guy I just t-boned made an illegal left turn on a right into my path and it was not my fault. I am sure his insurance company might be interested too.

Here is the clip. The action begins at about the 8 second mark and happens quickly.

Thank you for tuning in to Mile Markers today. Be safe out there.

Davy