Wow! What A Weekend!

We closed revival Friday night at New Mission with an awesome service. We enjoyed the presence of the Lord so very close to us as folks prayed and we sought God. We had quite a bit of fellowship from the local churches that night as well so it was all good.

We were scheduled to start revival Sunday morning over 700 miles away so normally we would leave after service on Friday night. During the week I felt just a little check about leaving after service and I have learned to be sensitive to that. There are times that the Lord speaks to us way.  We found out later that this was probably one of those times.

We started early Saturday morning by pulling the trailer a few miles to the interstate with the jeep. I was pretty confident that I couldn't get the trailer out of the narrow approach of the parking lot while hooked to the BoggsMobile so I didn't even try. As you can see in the picture below, the trailer is more that the jeep can handle but it will work for a very short distance in situations like this.

I didn't feel too sorry for Mr. Cheap Jeep because soon he would be inside the trailer and kicked back and enjoying the ride to Mississippi. We had some trouble with straps and trouble with the brake control but soon we were on the road. We stopped while still in Oklahoma and looked everything over and it all looked great.  The bus was pulling the trailer very well.

Just below Gainesville, Texas we came on a terrible wreck on the interstate involving several cars and a semi truck and trailer. Kelly Jo was thanking God for the delays we had in getting started since they could have prevented us from being involved in it as well.

We stopped again about 140 miles into the trip and discovered a problem. The hitch on the BoggsMobile was broken and the trailer was almost on the ground in the front. I was only a mile or less from Camping World so I limped into their parking lot.  To make a very long story short (Trust me you do not want the long version) we made a trip across town to Redneck Welding (Not the real name, but you get the idea) then back to Camping World to pick up the trailer and after only losing about 4 hours we were back on the road. I was so stressed and busy working that I forgot to take a picture.

The guys at Redneck Welding discovered the weld had been broken a long time. The tow bar for the Jeep has very little tongue weight so I had not noticed it. If the other welds had broken the Jeep would have been lost a long time ago. The trailer has much more weight on the tongue so it exposed the weakness that was already there. The welders were very helpful but didn't know how to unhook the electronics so they only repaired the weld that broke. They wanted to weld quite a bit more to reinforce the hitch but I was afraid it would fry the computer on the motor or the transmission. We decided to start off slow and see if the weld would hold.

We drove 20-40 mph across Dallas which is pretty much as fast as we could have driven in the traffic any way.  Then we bumped it up to 50 mph for a few hours and then 60. We checked it each time and the weld seemed to be holding good until about 10:50 that night about 20 minutes west of Monroe, Louisiana. Kelly Jo and I both heard it brake and could see the trailer riding lower in the back up camera. We limped to the next exit and found a wide spot to park. I did take a few pictures by flashlight and also a picture of our location. 

We were about 40 miles from Bro. Tracy Boyd and in a little while he came with Bro. Jr. Bordelon from his church to rescue us.  We put the trailer on Bro. Jr's truck and they left about 1:00AM taking the trailer with them.  Here is a picture of our heroes! Thank you brothers for coming to help us. It was so good to see you arrive.

We will have to backtrack to pick up the trailer in a few days.  Kelly Jo climbed in the Jeep and followed me nearly 2 more hours until we could find a truck stop that had a place to park. We finished up the trip today, had an absolutely wonderful service tonight in Richton, Mississippi and we are now headed to bed. I don't feel all that tired but I do feel like somebody ran over me with a truck!

We have been praising God that the trailer did not come completely unhooked.  That could have been tragic. It was a long hard two days but at least I'm not pastoring a church!

God bless,

Davy

Part Two

Revival in Purcell, Oklahoma/Special Request

We have been in revival at New Mission Holiness Church near Purcell, Oklahoma since Sunday morning. We have been having good services each night with one night being exceptionally good. Praise God for meeting with us in the altar!

We love coming to New Mission to be with Pastor Steve Moore and the folks here. They have been our friends for years and have proven that friendship through thick and thin. They love preaching and love to have church and THAT is our kind of place

The church is out in the country and we love to park here with nothing but the cows and coyotes. We like being in the city with everything we need close at hand but this is always a welcomed break.

We plan to leave here Friday night or Saturday morning headed for Mississippi. It will be our first long trip with the Cheap Jeep loaded up in the trailer so it will be a new experience. Please pray that all goes well. We hope to leave the trailer in one place in the south until it's time to pick up the tent.

SPECIAL PRAYER REQUEST
We received word today that Bro. Steve Gray and his wife Sis. Lynn from Bond, Kentucky are in desperate need of prayer. Sis. Lynn's mother died tragically this morning and they need God to help them through. Please pray for their family and ask others to pray.
God bless you all,
Davy
Sent from my iPhone

Summer of Tent Revivals

We have always enjoyed singing and preaching outdoors. It is a thrill to take the gospel outside the four walls of the church. Nearly every year for the last 11 years we have conducted at least one outdoor revival. It has been in our heart to do more of these type of meetings especially as we see the perilous times we are facing. We see the need, we feel the desire but we could not see a way to devote more than a week or two a year to outdoor meetings.

In the spring of 2009 we began to pray about a summer full of tent revivals. It still seemed impossible but I felt like we needed to start making plans to do it. We set aside 2011 as the time appointed and asked God to lead us each step.

As we prayed, the details began to fall in place. God began to stir the hearts of Pastors and they expressed to us their burden to reach out to their community. We now have 6 tent revivals scheduled over a 10 week period in Oklahoma, Kansas, Virginia and Ohio.

We felt we should ask Bro. Jimmy and Sis. Shauna Millikin to participate in as many meetings as they could so they are planning to join us in singing and preaching the first 3 tent revivals. We are so glad to have them on board with us for three revivals. They are going to be a blessing as they minister each night.

We also hope to have a couple of young men join us each week to help with set up and tear down of the tent, canvassing neighborhoods and working in the altars. We are asking God to direct us to the right ministry minded young men.

We have secured the use of a tent along with chairs and a portable platform. We have been planning to pull a trailer behind the BoggsMobile with the tent, chairs, platform and extra sound equipment. That meant Kelly Jo would have to follow behind in Mr. Jeep about 3500 miles this summer.

In the last few weeks a brother told me he had a trailer big enough to haul the things we needed AND the jeep. It is a 2009 24 foot enclosed car hauler made by Interstate. It is very nice. He was willing to donate nearly 1/3 of the price and that made it very reasonable. We bought it Saturday and you can see the pictures below. I certainly would not want to pull it every where I go but it will be a blessing to us this summer.

The cost of the trailer when factored in with all the other expenses of conducting these revivals is part of the impossibility of devoting a summer to tent revivals. It would be much easier and cheaper to pull up to a different church every week and preach revival. But we feel that God has directed us into these tent revivals and He has never pointed us where He did not provide us with the means to do it. The potential harvest of souls will be worth every mile we drive and every dollar we spend.

Please help us pray about a few key areas concerning these tent revivals. Pray that:
1. God would saturate each revival with His presence.
2. Men and women would be gloriously saved from sin.
3. God would miraculously heal the sick and encourage the saints.
4. God would protect us and each person that attends or works in the meetings and all of the equipment.
5. The weather would be good each week.
6. God would supply the necessary finance to conduct the meetings, for us to bless the Millikin's and other workers, buy the equipment and pay all the expenses.

Thanks for your prayers. I lay all of this out because I know that many folks read these posts every week that are interested in seeing God's work progress. That is exactly what we are trying to do.

God bless
Davy