Nigeria Update #2 - Friday 11/30/12.

Update #2

We were not able to post from Nigeria as we had planned. This is an update that I wrote while there. Please scroll down for additional updates.

Praise God! We slept great last night. I stayed in bed from 2-9:00 and got up feeling refreshed. I still feel like somebody beat me up but at least I am rested. Lol

Kelly Jo was able to nap a little more while we are waiting for Bro. Shobanke.

Bro. Shobanke is coming about 1:00 to visit for a while then we have our first service this evening around 5:00.

4:40 PM

We had lunch in the hotel restaurant. It was our first meal here and I forgot to take pictures.

Bro Shobanke came and had the tailor measure me and Bro. Lockwood for some African clothes. We visited some with him afterward and had prayer too.

Bro. Lockwood getting measured by the tailor.

I had hoped to be able to skip a nap this afternoon so I can adjust to the right time zone but the power went out about 2:45 and off went the lights.

I was already fighting sleep and since I could not see to read I laid across the bed and went out like the lights. The way I feel right now, the nap will not hinder me an ounce tonight.

10:20 PM

We had church tonight in one of Christ Ambassadors Holiness church branches. Bro. Lawrence is the pastor and Bro. Stephen is his assistant.

It was so good to be with them again. They have completed a lot of work on the church and it looks so nice.

The church is so beautiful. The crowd kept coming in until is was packed and many were sitting outside.

Who is that pretty girl playing that Yamaha keyboard?

The kid's choir sang us a welcome song.

Pastor Lawrence is the first one on the left.

The folks received us with open arms and made us feel so welcome. They always make us feel special but we know the truth. It is our distinct honor and privilege to be here in such wonderful company.

I preached from Jesus miracle of feeding the multitude with the lad's lunch in John 6. Several young people and children surrendered their lives to Christ in the altar.

Afterward I called for folks that needed a miracle and asked Bro. Shobanke to pray over them.

It was beautiful. Thank you for those of you that prayed and fasted for service #1. There is no doubt you made an eternal difference in somebody's life.

Tomorrow (Saturday) we are supposed to preach in a second branch church. We were blessed to be in that church as well in 2009. It should be a great night.

Thanks for praying for us.

Davy

Home Update: We are adjusting back to eastern time zone and rested several hours over the first 24 hours we were home. My parents and Odie picked us up at the airport and we stopped at Skyline Chili on the way to the BoggsMobile. Odie had purchased some groceries for us so we would not have to think about food the first few days. Isn't she sweet? I think we may decide to keep her. Lol

We had a great meal at Acapulco Wednesday. The salsa is still good enough to drink!

Nigeria Update #1 Travel Day - Waynesville, Ohio to Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria.

Update #1
We were not able to post from Nigeria as we had planned. This is an update that I wrote while there. Please scroll down for additional updates.

We left Waynesville about 11:30 AM and flew from Dayton to Atlanta.

We finally left Atlanta about 2:00 AM Thursday morning. The flight from Atlanta to Lagos is 10 1/2 hours but it seemed so much longer with the delay.

The flight from Atlanta to Lagos was completely full.

There is not much Delta could have done to make things any easier. Both flight crews and the ground crew were great. The flight really was very smooth.

Whatever the problem was with the plane, I am glad they found it on the ground instead of over the Atlantic. I did not see one place to pull over.

The picture below was taken just as we were passing over the coast of Africa.

We landed at 12:40 PM eastern which is 6:40 PM here in Nigeria. The lines for Customs here can be long and slow but we breezed right through.

Bro. Clement Okoh attends Bro. Shobanke's church in Abeokuta and is an immigration officer in Lagos. He met us at the front of the line and walked us right through to baggage claim.

While I was getting our carts and Bro. Gary was watching for our bags, Bro. Clement took our passports, visas and immigration forms and processed of all that for us.

It was a huge blessing to us. Thank God that Bro. Clement was working in the right place at the right time on the night of our arrival.

We waited at baggage claim over two hours on our bags but thankfully every bag made it through. That's a blessing in any airport.

When our bags were on the carts we went through a couple more check points and then met Bro. Shobanke and the brothers outside. It was so good to see them all.

By 3:20 PM eastern we were loaded up and ready to leave the airport. The drive from Lagos is always exciting but by 5:20 we had arrived at the hotel in Abeokuta.

It is 7:30 PM eastern time now and we have been up 36 hours. That means it is 1:30 AM here and time for a long, long nap.

We usually wake up at 3:00 AM for 2-3 hours our first several days but we are hoping to do better tonight.

In future posts when I refer to time I will be referring to the local time here in Nigeria. It is six hours ahead of the eastern time zone in the USA.

We do not have WiFi in the motel so posting maybe infrequent, sporadic or nonexistent.

Friday night is service #1. Thanks for praying for us.

Davy

On American Soil Tuesday

12:10 AM / 6:10 PM
Eastern

Not quite on American soil but I will be by the time I finish this post. Right now I am somewhere over Africa on my way to Atlanta.

Yesterday's trip to the airport in Lagos went fine. It only took a little while to process through customs and to check-in. The last time we left Nigeria it was at least two hours before we even approached the security line.

That time the airport was so hot that I nearly melted into a "little" puddle while we were waiting to be processed. This time it was much cooler, much faster and much easier.

After we had our boarding passes it was time for security and time to say goodbye to Bro. Shobanke, my dear friend.

That was hard. I love that man so much. I appreciate him more every time I am with him. We spent at least a couple of hours together each day in addition to the time in church. I hated to leave him.

I can not believe how good this trip was. God was working at every turn. Kelly Jo had some allergy problems and we did not sleep much but watching God change people's lives was definitely worth a little inconvenience.

It seems humanly impossible but we are hoping to rest some on this flight. The man across the aisle was asleep before we left the ground.

Good night all.

8:00 AM Eastern
We have arrived in Atlanta after a long flight from Lagos, Nigeria and we are glad to be on the ground. It is good to be on American soil. We love Nigeria but there is no place like home. (To quote my friend Dorothy)

We did sleep some on the flight. Kelly Jo let me sit next to the window for a while and we slept fitfully, sporadically and uncomfortably for about 5 hours. That is much better than normal.

We still have to fly to Dayton today but if all goes well we should be home shortly after noon.

Later today or tomorrow I hope to start posting updates as I wrote them each day. They will be numbered 1-12 in the title and will have the date they were written in the title too.

Kelly Jo and I also have lots of pictures between us. We should be able to post them with the update from the day they were taken. The pictures in this post are random pictures from throughout the trip.

Not everything we saw and experienced was included in those daily updates so I will have other news from Nigeria also. I may post more than once a day so be sure to scroll down and look at the posts below.

I can not stress enough how much God helped us. I know you prayed for us and God answered us those prayers. Thank you and thank God.

God bless you and thanks again for praying.

Davy

On the Way Home from Nigeria

We are in the airport at Lagos getting ready to fly home and we found some Wifi!! I am going to try to post an update. If you are reading this, it worked!

As you already know we were not able to post updates this year from Nigeria. Not only did the hotel not have Wifi but none of the employees had ever heard of Wifi. That's OK, a few years ago I did not know what it was myself.

A man in Bro. Shobanke's church brought his laptop and cell phone modem for me to use and I appreciate his kindness. The plan was to email updates to the blog with his computer.

That would not work because Google locked me out of my email since I was in a strange place. I thought that was the whole idea of web based email that could be accessed ANYwhere.

I know many of you were praying and anxious to hear from us. I wanted to do post but could not get it done. Thank you so much for praying. You will read in the next several days how those prayers were answered.

I did type an update every day while the thoughts and experiences were fresh in my mind. I also have pictures to go along with each daily post. I hope to post the daily updates one or two a day now that we are back.

Thank you for praying for our safety and for the meetings. Everything went very well. God saved many souls and the saints were encouraged too.

The Gospel Crusade was so good. It was held at the future site of the new branch church. The building is not finished and they had not planned to have church there for quite a while.

However the Crusade changed their plans. Enough people were saved that they had to start services in the unfinished building the next Sunday. Praise God. You will read more about that in the updates.

The Ministers Conference was especially good too. I had an awesome time preaching to and fellowshipping with these brothers. God blessed us all each day of the meeting.

I will post updates about the conference and lots of pictures too.

We preached in both of the other branch churches in Abeokuta and a special service for Bro. Kuye in Ibadan. All of these services were wonderful and we have lots of pictures.

Bro. Gary Lockwood had a good time and the folks there loved him. The humidity was rough on his Montana blood but thankfully it was not too hot. I am pretty sure this will not be his last trip to Nigeria.

Bro. Shobanke and all of the saints seem to be doing well. It was good to spend a few days will all of these blessed people.

It was also good to see folks that were converted in our last meetings here. That is always a blessing.

There is one that was saved in 2009 that is really special. Her name is Dorcas. I can not wait to tell you about Dorcas.

It has been a super great trip and I am sure you will have to slap me to get me to shut up. We should be home tomorrow and after about 30 hours of sleep I will try to start posting some of the updates.

God bless you and thanks again for praying.

Davy

The Hunt

Nigeria update: Dad, Mom & Bro. Gary will be flying today. They will arrive back tomorrow. Please pray for safe travels.

Dad will be giving you full trip updates when they get back. I am excited to hear everything.

I did go deer hunting while in Hillsboro I had a blast!!!! Thank you sooooo much to Uncle Danny and Papaw for working so hard to make it possible!!!!!! I love you both!!

Due to several factors the deer didn't come to there normal spots. So I am still a hunter and not a slayer. The deer were really liking my grandparent back yard.

Papaw was going to let me kill from their deck. But the deer were stay too close to the neighbors house.

I am really hoping I get to fill a deer tag this year. The season is not over so I am not giving up hope.

Here are a few pictures of our hunt. I did not get any of our hunting from the back deck of my grandparents house.

Odie

Dryden Road Christmas Dinner and Play

Last night I attended the Christmas diner and play at our home church. It was so good to be home. It is always good to see everyone!!

The dinner was great. The play was really good. It was written by Sis. Lana Rank. All the cast did outstanding. I will let the pictures do the rest of the talking


Odie