Coming Back To Thank God For A Miracle

Hello my dear friends, this is Odie reporting in from City Reach in El Mirage, Arizona. We have had a wonderful week! It is amazing to watch God moving in people's hearts and lives. I cannot wait to see what next week holds. I am praying and believing for several of our friends and others to come back home to God this week!

I really do appreciate all of you who have taken time to pray for us this week! Many of you have called, text , or emailed and let us know you were keeping up with the events of City Reach. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

I wanted to take a little bit of time to thank God once again for the miracle he gave me in April 2014. Here is a short recap, I woke up April 13, 2014 completely blind in my left eye. For nine days I had no vision in my left eye. It was an extremely scary time for me and my family. We had no idea what the future held for us.

Doctors say I had Optic Neuritis. My optic nerve in left eye was inflamed. A team of wonderful doctors begin to treat me with medicine, but I had no promise that my vision would return.   

At the end of the ninth day my victory began. The family of God had surrounded our family with prayer and love. Many of you are the soldiers that went to war for us! I will forever be indebted to everyone who prayed and fought for my victory. 

April 21, 2014 my vision began to return in my left eye. And as of my last check up at the eye doctor in November 2015, I now have 20/20 vision in both of my eyes. In fact, my vision is better now than before I went blind! God is so good!

This Wednesday will mark 2 years since we suddenly began that battle. It was scary. At the time I felt like I was fighting for my life. I look back now and I am blown away by God's sustaining grace that carried me to victory. 

I thank God daily for the miracle He gave me. I will never be able to give Him praise He deserves!  We blogged about the whole journey, but today I wanted to thank God once again for restoring my vision!

I will close today with my actual words from nearly two years ago. It was a frightening experience and I am still praising God for His help.

Have a great weekend.

Odie 

Odie's Heart Full of Praise

Originally posted April 26, 2014

A Note From Odie:

Hey friends, it is almost 2:30 AM Saturday morning as I type now. I can not find sleep yet. I am full of thoughts about what God has done for me. Two weeks ago this battle started with blurred vision in my left eye on Saturday. By Sunday morning, as most of you know, I was mostly blind in my left eye. In a way I sit here shaking my head saying that it does not seem like two weeks ago, It feels like yesterday.  In other ways it has been a very long two weeks. 

I think back to Friday night before this all started as we finished revival in Central City, Kentucky. At the end of the service The Lord visited the place strongly with peace. As we begin to sing Peace Peace Wonderful Peace, wave after wave of God's peace came through the building that night. I remember thanking God for the nearness of His spirit. Little did I know how much I would lean on His Peace the next two weeks.  

By that Sunday night in Salem, Kentucky I was in the thick of the fight. Yet I had an assurance of peace to weather whatever this storm brought my way. Most of the times I have had way more questions than answers but God's peace settled me. Now I am seeing victory clearer and clearer everyday. My heart is so full of joy right now. 

One week ago I crashed into bed after an eventful afternoon and evening at the ER. I must say the ER staff at Bethesda North Hospital treated me great last week. All along I have prayed for God to heal or to guide me where I needed to go to get the correct care. After last weeks MRI results I was rejoicing over some good news but I still did not have the promise of my sight returning. 

I chose to believe I would see again because of God. Everyday is  better!  I can not begin to thank God for His help!! God began to give us insight Monday into what was going on spiritually and He began to heal me physically. Although I am not seeing like I used to, I am improving tremendously every day.

My doctor's office called yesterday to check on my progress and I gladly told the receptionist who called that I am praising God because my sight is coming back. I have talked to her many times in the last two weeks. I was desperate to get the correct treatment in a timely manner. I have stressed to her, I am blind and I need help. I was glad to now be able to tell her that God is helping me.

Over the last last several days I have leaned on scriptures and songs to encourage me.  "Be still an know that I am God" has been my lifeline. During my MRI I was listening to Enlighten on XM and the song "Stand Still" began to play. As I listened closely to the words of one my all time favorite songs again, every word hit home. I had to stop myself from losing it completely right there. I knew again this was in God's hands.

Take few moments to listen my favorite group sing this timeless song. This video is from September 2010. 

I can not yet declare total victory. I know it is close!!!  I know it is because of prayer! Thank you to all who went to war on my behalf. Please continue to pray. I hope and pray I never face this again, but I have no promise this will not return. But I will try to rest with these words in my mind 

Victory is mine Victory is mine 

Victory today is mine

I told satan get the behind

Victory today is mine."

A Thankful Heart

A Pastor opened up a revival service for testimonies and his young son was one of the first to stand up. We could see the lump in the Pastor's throat and apprehension in his face as he wondered what his son would say. He was probably questioning his own decision to open up the floor to testimonies.

The young man said with complete sincerity, "I want to thank God for my family. We are not a perfect family, but we are a family."

I know the Pastor/Dad felt like crawling into the Bible stand as we all smiled politely and laughed like crazy inwardly. We all had a good tease and laugh about it later but it has become a common phrase in the BoggsMobile.

We will look at one another quite often and say, "We are not a perfect family, but we are family."

That pretty much sums us up. Even though we might like for the world around us to view us without all of our warts and other imperfections, the truth remains we are not perfect, we are not whole, we are not exactly what we planned to be by now. Yet we are thankful we are not what we use to be and certainly not as low down as we could be.

We are very thankful as a family that God has been so very good to us. That does not mean that everything is rosy or that we can even begin to understand some of the things that are going on around us. It simply means we are thankful for the place that God has brought us to at the moment in spite of what we think about the present circumstances.

We are thankful every day. We must be. When Paul describes the perilous times we live in, he includes two words grouped together; unthankful, unholy. I do not believe these words are placed side by side on accident. When we are unthankful, unholy will not be far behind.

So, we are thankful for all God has done every day. But today, we will be thankful on purpose. We will gather with family and formally praise God for all He has done the last year. We will praise Him for the good, the bad and the ugly. In everything we will do our best to give thanks!

One thing we will be praising God for is definitely on the good side of the ledger. Odie visited the neuro-ophthalmologist Wednesday for her periodic check-up since she woke up on April 13, 2014 completely blind in her left eye. Each visit since God began restoring her vision has been marked by progress and good news. It has been miraculous.

Yesterday the news was a tremendous continuation of her miracle. Odie's good eye is 20/20. The left eye, the eye that was blind had improved to 20/25 last summer. 20/25 was awesome after being completely blind but she is still getting better. Now the left eye is 20/20!  We praise God for helping and healing Odie!

May God help us all to find something or several somethings to thank God for today.

Thanks for reading and have a good Thanksgiving Day.

Davy

View Out The Front Window May 24, 2015

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

Odie's Saturday Post

Birds Eye View of The Barn

Revival In Picture, Bristow, Virginia

Waynesville, Ohio Tent Revival

On The Road Again Newsletter

A Weekend Wound Up and Weview

Here is our view out the front window for a few hours Wednesday night/Thursday morning at a rest area near Bruceton Mills, West Virginia.

And the view out the front door.

We arrived home about 2:00 PM Thursday and this is our view out the front window IF the barn door is open.

The tent is up in Waynesville.

We are scheduled to begin tent revival tonight at 7:00. Come be with us if you can at all. We would love to have you. I will try to post pictures from the set up and more news from our weekend later in the week.

Davy

2014 In the Rear View Mirror

2014 has been a fun ride as usual and this post hits some of the highlights of the year. I added some links along the way through this post like I do in a lot of our blog posts. If you see a bold highlighted word or phrase like THIS, you can click on it and the link should open in a new tab! I hope you enjoy seeing our 2014 in the rear view mirror.

We started 2014 in Claremore, Oklahoma. We were supposed to be in Central City, Kentucky that week in revival with Pastor Alan Harris and the saints at Trinity. Instead we were in Claremore with our dear friends the Millikins mourning the passing of Bro. Marty from earth to glory. His funeral was on December 31st and we stayed a few days to visit with Bro. Jimmy and Sis. Shauna and elder Bro. and Sis. Millikin.

It almost unbelievable that a year has slipped through our fingers since those painful days. Marty made it, no doubt about it, but his leaving left a huge empty place in the hearts of bunches of friends but especially his immediate family. One year has done little to change any of that. We still miss you, Marty.

We started 2014 preaching that Wednesday night for Pastor Darrell Meadow at Claremore and then we spent the next seven weeks in Missouri, Oklahoma and Kansas trying to have revival in spite of the blistering cold, snow and ice. I am not sure if we had one complete week of revival without a night off for bad weather or not. We had some great services but the weather was miserable.

In fact it was enough to drive me away. We spent the first several weeks of the year preaching revivals in that area for 12 years in a row. Other years had tested me. Other years had tempted me. But the winter of 2014 tortured me. Yes, I am a wimp but at least I am an honest wimp. I gave up on Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma in January and February, at least for now!

By the third week in February we were headed south to Mississippi. Even though the south had a severe winter too, we were glad to be going the right direction for warmth. We spent the next several weeks in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia thawing out and enjoying the blessings of God.

By the first part of April we were in Tennessee for PFYC and revivals in Kentucky before heading back west to Texas, Oklahoma and beyond. The first day of revival in Salem Kentucky with Pastor Philip Sanders and Faith Church Odie woke up completely blind in her left eye.

We immediately sent out calls for prayer and took Odie to a eye specialist in Paducah. He could find nothing wrong with the eye itself. On his recommendation we canceled the next few weeks and begin to navigate the arduous process of doctors hospitals and the Extremely Un-affordable Care Act!

After nine days God began to restore the vision in Odie's left eye. You can read some of the praise reports Here and Here and at the end of this post Here. The devil did not die and he has been back around since then and will continue to attack the saints but praise God for the miracle God gave us concerning Odie's sight! To God be all the glory!

After a few weeks preaching close to home while all that was going on we left for a big loop to Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and Indiana. We had four great revivals before heading back home for some revivals and follow up doctor appointments in Ohio. We had a refreshing revival at our home church, a great tent revival in Goshen, Ohio as well as other revivals in our home area.

Then we started a loop that included several churches in eastern, Kentucky, time with family and friends at Carter Caves State Park, and revivals in Illinois, western Kentucky and Tennessee.

We dropped the bus at home and took the Green Machine on an epic trip to all of the north eastern states. Our main objective was tent revival in Vermont but along the way we saw New York City, the 9/11 Museum, Boston, Maine, Niagara Falls and enjoyed many other sights and special friends too. It was a quick trip with memories that will last a life time.

We returned home for Homecoming at Dodds and the annual Indoor Fellowship Meeting at our home church on Dryden Rd. Then loaded up in the BoggsMobile, hooked up to the tent trailer and left for our longest tour of the year. The first four stops were great tent revivals in Kentucky, Virginia, Alabama and Mississippi. 

We left the tent trailer in Mississippi and pointed the bus toward the west. The next several weeks we had revival in Arizona and California. We had a wonderful time seeing California, seeing friends and having revival. It was a great trip.

One of the highlights of the California trip was taking part in the church dedication at Amazing Grace Holiness Church in Atwater, California. It was awesome to see pastor Jared Burris and the saints rejoice in their new location. It was one of the greatest moments of the year for our family. Praise God for His faithfulness. 

We finished the long California tour with a revival in Texas, a weekend in Oklahoma and a City Reach vision and planning service in Wichita, Kansas. Speaking of City Reach, we announced in May our burden to hold tent revivals in larger cities during 2016. We had been dreaming and planning for two years and now we are in hyper planning mode. God is placing the burden on churches and individuals to help with the logistics and expenses and we are very thankful for that.

We arrived at the Ranch on December 11th and pulled into the barn for the first time. It was good to be home but it was too good to last. After a revival, open heart surgery for Kelly Jo's Dad and a great big Christmas it was time to hit the road again. We are now in revival in Kilgore, Texas and we are ready to crank up 2015!

That pretty much covers 2014. Well, that pretty much covers it except for visits with friends. things learned, things remembered, and lots and lots and lots  and lots and lots of bus fun. Wow! We have had such a fun year, maybe we ought to start a blog.

Thank you for joining us for the ride in 2014. We rolled the BoggsMobile 15,421 miles and we took you all with us every mile of the way. Meet me right here tomorrow and we will start on 2015 together.

May God bless you with a great New Year!

Davy

View Out The Front Window December 28, 2014

Odie's Saturday Post

A Very Bogglioni Christmas

A Very Morgan Christmas 2014

Progress On Barn Projects

Eye Balls and Round Bails

A Terrific Weekend

This morning we are in an RV park behind the Flying J in Texarkana, Arkansas. Our view has changed twice since Friday morning and should change again today.

We arrived at Prevost Nashville about sundown Friday evening. The view out the front window had all kinds of reflection from the lights inside.

Here it is zoomed in some.

And here it is Saturday morning.

This is the door out the front door Saturday morning. You can see the reflection of the BoggsMobile in the bus parked next to us.

This is the view out the front window Saturday evening when we parked here in Texarkana. It has reflection too. If I can remember I will take another when the sun comes up and add it in here.

I hope you have a great Sunday.

Davy

Here is the RV Park Sunday morning.

Eye Balls and Round Bails

Odie's Eyes

Odie had a follow up appointment with the Neuro-Opthomologist on Monday. She had all the vision tests completed again and the doctor was very pleased with everything. This is the fifth time since April that she has had the whole battery of tests. Odie documented her last visit HERE.

Odie also had a follow up MRI last week. The results were not available for her doctor yesterday morning but she was notified they were in last night. We obviously do not understand all of the medical jargon but we do understand NO Change and we know That is a good thing since they are watching for any changes that would indicate MS or other diseases.

Thank God for His help. We really believe that God has given Odie AND us a miracle through all of this. In April she was completely blind in one eye as well as dealing with her life long mobility issues. It was a scary time for all of us but especially Odie. Jesus said in John 4 "fear hath torment" and it certainly does. But He also said in the same verse "perfect love casteth out fear" and we know that is true as well.

Now, the troubles of life have not ceased, the devil did not die or give up and we are still living in imperfect bodies. Turmoil could erupt almost any where at any time, however we want to go on record praising God for His help through it all. We know that God is faithful and just, righteous and true.

If we believe that "the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord" (Psalm 37:23) and that God's "word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path" (Psalm 119:105) then we must trust Him and follow where He leads. The path may lead through very dark places but God is leading the way. Even in the midst of slippery places and uncertain events, we take comfort that God is in control when life feels out of control.

Praise God!

Rolling Round Bails

On the way home from the doctor Kelly Jo and Odie witnessed a tractor and trailer losing four big round bails on a busy city street. All four of them were bouncing or rolling and one of them rolled quite a ways but stopped before it rolled onto them. The car in front of them narrowly avoided a tragedy and it could have been bad for all of us.

Thank God for keeping His hand on my girls. That big thing could have easily made short work of the Green Machine along with the two most precious people in my life. Praise God for protecting them and helping Kelly Jo to be alert and quick to respond.

Work Continues at the Ranch

I worked yesterday on trying to finish several projects on the barn before the rain sets in. Dad and my Uncle Jerry Smith brought a load of gravel and we spread it in front of the front doors in a low place where the bus goes in and out. I need some more in a few muddy places eventually but one load will do fine for now. I appreciate Uncle Jerry using his dump trailer and taking time to bring the gravel to me. It was a blessing to us.

I also worked on closing access under the barn. Rascally varmints have been tunneling and undermining the concrete along the east edge of the building. Time will tell if my efforts are effective. 

I also worked on some more electrical things and patched some of fascia board that will need to be replaced with the roof. We have a little yellow bird that comes in at sun down and sings a song in the morning before leaving. I saw it coming in through the holes before I patched them. Evidently they were not the only way in because as night came so did the little song bird.

More work today and tomorrow. Maybe I will take time to gather some pictures together and post them tomorrow. Thanks for reading.

Davy

A Schedule Change

The times they are a-changin'

We have another schedule change that I need to tell you about.

Next week we are scheduled to be in tent revival in Richton, Mississippi.  So far that is still on. If you are reading this Pastor Scott Morris you better not get any ideas!

After the tent is down in Richton we had planned to begin our long tour west with a quick trip to Oklahoma. The first stop was scheduled for that Wednesday through Sunday (October 1st-5th) in Blanchard, Oklahoma for Pastor Lendell Birdsong. We are not going to be able go to Blanchard at this time. Bro. Lendell's Dad, Bro. G.W. Birdsong has suffered a stoke and Bro. Lendell, Sis. Cindy and Bro. G.W.'s wife Sis. Fern are his primary care givers.

Bro. Lendell hated to cancel revival but it was the right thing to do. If I was in his shoes I would reluctantly do the very same thing. I have canceled meetings the last few years because of our parent's health issues and I canceled several meetings and rescheduled several more this year due to Odie's eye problems. At times there are circumstances that you can do nothing about and you must roll with the punches. This is one of those times and we completely understand.

Bro. Lendell left the door open to us to preach both services for them on Sunday October 5th and he made it very plain we were very welcome. I would have loved to do so. We love the folks at Blanchard and we are sad to have to bypass them this trip. 

However, I called Bro. Noah Martinez and he was thrilled to move their revival in El Mirage, Oklahoma to begin on October 5th. Bro. Noah told me that God has been really helping the church for the last six weeks and they are ready for revival. We are anticipating a super great move of God at Desert Cove.

So we will be leaving Richton, Mississippi headed for El Mirage, Arizona the week of September 29th. We are excited about seeing our Arizona friends. We have been going there since 2002 and we look forward to it every year. 

Once we arrive in California we have five weeks planned at five churches. It should be a tremendous trip. Of course, if you plan on joining us any where in revival you should probably call before you travel a long distance. Today proves that our schedule is liable to change at any moment. It sure makes life exciting!

As for this week it is getting even better. Last night was awesome. Praise God for His help in Millry, Alabama. Thank you so much for praying for us.

Davy

A Great Sunday!

We had two great services Sunday in Kentucky. Sunday morning we were at Dixie Park Free Will Baptist Church in Grayson and Sunday night we were about 13 miles away at Pleasant Valley Gospel Tabernacle near Olive Hill. Dad's first cousin George Boggs and his family attend Dixie Park and another first cousin Reva Whisman and her family attend Pleasant Valley.

We had a great time singing and preaching both places. I always appreciate an open door to minister. God knows I want to encourage and help folks when I can. It is especially nice when we have a chance to be with our families in church. We seldom get to spend much time with our Boggs kin in this area and I appreciate the opportunity to minister in their churches. It was an honor for us and a blessing to us.

It was a busy morning at Dixie Park and we did not get many pictures.

Kelly Jo and Hollywood!

We had a great lunch at a little Mexican place in Grayson. 

After lunch we moved the bus to Olive Hill.

The Green Machine and the BoggsMobile in front of the fellowship hall at Pleasant Valley in Olive Hill.

We have planned a few days off this week. We had this scheduled before we knew we would miss the weeks we did with Odie's eye crisis. We will be parking at a beautiful state park nearby and family will begin trickling in Wednesday night. By Saturday we should have Boggs people all over the place and the Boggs Reunion will be in full swing.

I won't be completely useless this week. I hope to spend the first three days of this week working on sermons for the conference in Nigeria in December. I am usually farther ahead in preparation by now and I need to get to work. If all goes well I should have some outlines in place before the week is out.

We may or may not have phone service or internet this week. If you do not hear from us for a few days you will know why. We will post if we can at all. God bless you all reading.

Davy

Schedule Changes and More Tent Pictures

Yesterday's Post-Update On Odie

The last two years I have learned some real lessons in scheduling revivals. The main lesson being that everything is subject to drastic change at any moment! We have had to change, cancel, postpone, or shorten more revivals the last 18 months than we have in over 14 years of evangelizing combined.

The reasons range from sickness in our families and friends, death and funerals, mechanical troubles, unforeseen logistical problems in tent revivals and lately because of Odie's health crisis with her eye. That does not even include Pastors that have needed to cancel or reschedule for whatever reason.

It is enough some times to make me wonder if I even know what I am supposed to be doing. I mentioned the other day that I get excited when God starts changing things around but there are times when I wonder if God is within a million miles of what I think I should do. These sudden changes are still exciting but for all the wrong reasons. Lol!

When Odie started having trouble we had to cut short revival in Salem, Kentucky and cancel revivals in Gainesville, Texas and Lawton, Oklahoma and we hated to do it. All those churches have been faithful to have us multiple times and we love going there. In June we had to cancel Homecoming revival near Wartburg, Tennessee because Pastor Herman Woods was in the hospital. We have basically rearranged our whole summer twice. Neither way worked!

Some of the changes have been good. If it were not for rearranging things we would not be in revival this week at Anchor of Hope. We would be missing out on the great move of God we are experiencing these last few nights. So God gets the glory even when I do not have a clue as to where I am really supposed to be until I find myself there.

This week we had some other changes out of our control but it did open a window for us to squeeze in Bro. Woods and his church in Tennessee. We will be able to swing by there and only go a couple hundred miles out of the way. IF all goes as planned we will be there July 23rd-27th, Wednesday through Sunday. We have been preaching for them for 26 years and we are glad to be able to reschedule that revival.

Who knows what will happen tomorrow. Stick around because something is liable to change again. Thank God that He does not change!

Here are a few more pictures from tent revival in Goshen, Ohio. These are from Friday night. We only have few from the tent take down for some reason. It came down great and the home folks and visitors all worked well together. It was a great night.

Thanks for reading.

Davy