Summer of Tent Revivals Begins

Over the last several months I have mentioned on the blog several times about our Summer of Tent Revivals coming up. Well, we are about to begin. As you read this post today, Saturday, June 4, 2011, we will be raising the tent for the first revival of the season at Hilldale Holiness Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I am preparing this post ahead of time because I am sure the next few days will be chocked full of activity. 

We plan to kick off the first service on Sunday, June 5th at 2:30 in the afternoon. Pastor Nathan Conner and his church have been busy canvassing the neighborhood, praying and making other preparations for this outreach.  I believe that God is preparing the hearts of the people in that area for a move of God as well. Wow! There is no telling what God will do next week in Tulsa.

We will be joined in our first three tent revivals by Bro. Jimmy and Sis. Shauna Millikin.  When I began to plan these meetings two years ago, I asked the Millikins to pray about participating.  They graciously consented to do so and they will be assisting our family in singing congregationals, special songs, playing music, preaching and praying in the altars.  I know they will be a great addition and blessing to these revivals and we are overjoyed to have them with us.

I am very excited about each of these tent revivals this summer.  I know that God will meet with us as we reach out to communities across our nation. My vision for these meetings is for the lost to be converted, the sick to be healed and the saints to be encouraged as they are saturated with a fresh outpouring of the Holy Ghost.  Each night I plan to place heavy emphasis on the power of the Word and the moving of God’s Spirit. I know that God will move among us.

The month of June we plan to be in:

Tulsa, Oklahoma-Hilldale Holiness Church June 5-10.

Miami, Oklahoma-Faith Pentecostal Church June 19-24.

Weir, Kansas-Faith Tabernacle June 26-July 1.

Please make plans to attend one or more nights if you possibly can. By mid July we plan to be in Kentucky then on to Virginia and then back to my hometown of Waynesville, Ohio. I will post exact dates and locations later.

We have been praying and preparing for these particular meetings for two years. The churches that will be participating have been praying as well.  I have ask each church to make a push in the weeks leading up to tent revival, knock on doors, pass out flyers and tracts, advertise on radio or in the newspaper, cover their neighborhood in prayer and generally prepare for a genuine revival.  I believe that God will honor this effort and give us revival.

The logistics and expense of all the extra equipment, transportation, set up and tear down seems a little overwhelming at times. We have the cargo trailer, tent, platforms, chairs, extra PA equipment, lights and several things I have forgotten that must be transported and put it place each week. It would be much easier and cheaper to pull up to a different church every week and preach revival as we normally do. 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, wisdom and strength to do it. The potential harvest of souls will be worth every mile we drive and every dollar we spend.

Several months ago I listed several things for folks to pray about concerning these meetings.  Those requests are still every bit as valid as they were then. Here is that list again.

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 with little rain, low winds, moderate temperatures and no storms.

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 and meet all of our normal obligations.

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.

Hope to have up pictures of a Tent Revival soon. God bless you.

Davy

Keystone Lake, West of Tulsa, Oklahoma

I mentioned earlier that Pastor Joseph Snow and the Hale Station Church parked us in a campground at Keystone Lake last week. It was a great place to park and we enjoyed it very much. It is unusual in my experience for a state park to have big level spots with 50 amp electric service but Oklahoma appears to be above average in that department. It sure was quiet at night and the lake was very nice.

Since we had Friday off and Odie was gone to Ohio, Kelly Jo and I did as little as possible all day long. We concluded the glorious day with an evening sitting by the BoggsMobile watching the sun go down.  Now I realized the sun goes down "nearly" every day but since we are either in church or getting ready for church "nearly" every day, we do not get to see the event very often.  Even more rare is the day when we are off, the sun is going down, Odie is away and we actually have the gumption to drag the chairs out and watch the sunset.

So for the first time since last August in Montana (That I can remember) out came the chairs, the sun went down and we watched it all! We even broke out a bag of charcoal we have been carrying around for over two years and grilled some hot dogs. Throw in some cheese, bread, ketchup and mustard and we had a pretty good little snack. I know a steak would have been better but that would have required some advanced planning and that is something we refuse to do on a rare day off. Out with the plan and away with the schedule on a day off.  That is a rule we try to live by!

It was beautiful and relaxing. We need to do that more often. 

God Bless,

Davy

BoggsMobile Saturday morning before we headed to Wichita

Pastor E. Ade Shobanke

Bro. Shobanke Ministering At Hale Station Pentecostal Church

May 24, 2011

Bro. Shobanke and Davy

Shobanke
We were blessed to visit with Pastor E. Ade Shobanke from Nigeria for a few hours on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week. We picked him up at the Tulsa airport on Tuesday and he was in church with us at Hale Station that night.

God used Bro. Shobanke during the service and I think everybody there was blessed. I know that God ministered to our family in a very special way. It was so good to see him especially since we had not seen Bro. Shobanke since our last trip to Nigeria in December 2009.

For new readers, Bro. Shobanke pastors a church in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria, Africa. He is a man of faith that God has used mightily in Nigeria for many years. He tries to come to the states every year and he is always a blessing in each church he visits.

You can read more about Bro. Shobanke by going to the Missions-Nigeria page on the tab above. We thank God for such a friend.

God Bless,

Davy

Pastor Snow visiting with Bro. Shobanke after Church

Double Big Daddy - Ron's Hamburgers & Chili

When we arrived in Tulsa last week we met the Snow's at the campground at Keystone Lake and parked the BoggsMobile. The next stop? You guessed it! The next stop was Ron's Hamburgers and Chili. In fact, one of my favorite Ron's is the one in Sand Springs and that is where we went. Bro. Snow had the cheeseburger and sausage covered in chili and I had the Double Big Daddy! Of course regular readers already knew what I ordered. lol

The picture below is of Bro. Snow's feast and the next is mine. The discriminating eye will notice, no doubt, that the second and third pictures are not of the same Double Big Daddy. You see, this is not McDonald's, Wendy's or Burger King. If you have seen one Big Mac or Whopper you have seen them all, but no two Double Big Daddys are alike. lol

The second Double Big Daddy is the one I ate when Kelly Jo and I went back on Friday.  What a way to start AND end a work week!

The last picture is included just for my Mother.  I want her to know that I am still cleaning my plate exactly as she taught me over 40 years ago.  There is no telling how many starving children in China that I have helped by cleaning my plate!

I am suppose to be back in Tulsa next week.  You all want more Ron's pictures or have you seen enough?

God bless,
Davy

This Picture is for you, Mama Bear!

Bethany Revival Center Wichita, Kansas

We started revival at Bethany Revival Center in Wichita on Sunday morning. I am always excited to come back to Wichita where we pastored New Horizon Holiness Church from 1999 to 2003. It is good to see the folks again and spend time in the town we called home for about four years. The best way to describe Wichita is a big city with a small town feel. It really is a nice place.

Revival has been very good so far. Service last night was tremendous. I will try to take some more pictures and post a more extensive update a little later. The first picture is the awesome steak the DiZazzo's grilled for lunch and other pictures are some random shots at Braum's Monday after church.

Davy

Memorial Day 2011

I hope you are having a blessed Memorial Day. Bro. DiZazzo is grilling for our families today and that will probably be the extent of our Memorial Day celebrations since we are in revival this week. But Memorial Day is so much more than hamburgers, hot dogs and a trip to the lake. Memorial Day is the official day to remember the men and women who gave their lives for us in service to their country. It is a day to decorate the graves of brave solders that made the ultimate sacrifice but has evolved for most folks into a day to decorate the graves of our loved ones as well and to remember those that have meant so much to us when they were alive.

It is a sobering thing to remember those that have protected our nation, defended our freedom and set our course. I am sure that in Miami Cemetery, less than a mile from where I was raised, that they are probably having a ceremony marking Memorial Day as I type this post. I played in the band for that ceremony two years while in Jr. High School and I still remember the solemness that was impressed upon me during those events. In the late 1970s and early 1980s the veterans of WWII were in their 50s and early 60s. They were  the leaders of our community and were still strong and vibrant. I watched many of them as they wiped tears from their eyes as the flag was raised, the guns were fired and the prayers were offered. Strong men holding back tears, putting their hands over their hearts and bowing their heads grabbed my attention. 

There were Vietnam veterans there as well. Although they seemed old to me then, most of them were younger than my dad was at the time and 10-15 years younger than I am now. They didn't tear up as easy as the veterans from WWII and Korea but you could easily see they were affected just the same.

These men, along with my dad who is a Navy veteran, made Memorial Day real to me. We were in that cemetery honoring men that were just real as the men standing around me. They were men with families and futures, hopes and dreams. Those men sacrificed all of that so that I could live in a free America. Their families were left, their futures were cut off and their hopes and dreams vanished on a battle field in France, Iwo Jima, Vietnam, Korea or some other far flung place. How could I not honor that?

The seriousness of that sacrifice has never left me and I pray that it never does. I thank God for those men and for those men who are still giving their lives today in Iraq, Afghanistan and other places. Maybe you can't go to a cemetery today and decorate a grave. Maybe you are working today or you will spend it with friends and family with a hamburger and cold bottle of water as we will. But take a moment to thank God for men who are willing to give all and to pray for their families that sacrificed with them.

I could preach a sermon right now on what God gave and what our response should be but no sermon today. Just a reminder to mark this special day and remember... We must never forget...

Davy