A Busy and Blessed Easter Sunday

There is really nothing new to report on Odie's situation today. She is about the same as far as she can tell although at times she thinks there may be a slight improvement. We are clinging to every promise we can and we really do thank you for all the prayers and concern.

Tomorrow she will try to reach the neurologist that has been recommended and make an appointment as soon as possible. We are hoping she can get in this week. If she does then MAYBE we can get back on the road by next weekend. We are anxious to get back to our duties but we are also at peace with being in Ohio at this time if that is what we need to do. I am usually climbing the walls after about 3 days at home. Although I am staying busy with several bus projects I do feel a contentment that I know God is giving me.

As of right now we are still planning to be in Lawton, Oklahoma next Sunday to begin revival. I talked to Pastor Brandon Murray again yesterday and brought him up to date on what we know. We should know by midweek whether or not we will be able to keep our commitment to Pastor Murray and his great church. We always have a great time there so we are hoping it works out.

So many of you have called, text and emailed to let us know you are holding Odie up in prayer. God bless you for it. We are thankful for the good news we received Friday night but blindness in her left eye is still a very serious matter to us and to her. Please keep praying. Thank you.

Sunday's Easter Poem

We had a very busy but very blessed Easter Sunday. Thank God for His blessings on our family.

Kelly and I started the day at Sunrise Service at Corwin Pentecostal Church with Pastor Acy Lamb. I used to attend sunrise service at Corwin many years ago when I was a kid and teenager. I have always enjoyed sunrise service. Bro. Terry Bowling has been in revival there and he was preaching Sunday morning. He preached great and God was reaching for the lost.

They had a huge breakfast prepared but we did not get to stay and enjoy it. We had to get back to the BoggsMobile and fetch Odie in time to leave for Sunday morning service at Dryden Rd. It was a great service with a great crowd and Bro. Bennie preached a tremendous message.

We had a move of God while the youth choir was singing. It was awesome. I was blessed, Odie was blessed and several others were blessed as well. Thank God for reaching down in His mercy and coming close to us. He knows how despertely we need Him at this time.

Sunday night we were scheduled to preach at Dodds where we are parked. I appreciate Pastor Kelly Rogers for inviting us to preach. The church was a great blessing to us and I hope we were a blessing to them. Several of the area churches have invited us to preach while we are home. It is very thoughtful of these pastors to have us in their churches while we are here in limbo. May God bless them for it.

I hope you had a great Easter too. Now for the pictures.

Davy

Sunday night at Dodds.

He Wouldn't Stay Dead - Easter Sunday 2014

Odie's Saturday Post

In what is becoming an Easter tradition, I am re-posting a great poem on this beautiful Resurrection Sunday. I hope you enjoy it. 

I have quoted this poem in my preaching for many, many years. It was written by a Baptist preacher named Willard G. Thomas from Georgia. I heard him quote it in person long years ago. It spoke to me then and it speaks to me every time I think of it. I love this poem. I added the last stanza when I started quoting it myself.

May God bless you on this Easter. If you are not a Christian, may you be moved by the fact that Jesus Christ died for you and then got up out of the grave for you as well. Thank God He arose!

Davy

He Wouldn’t Stay Dead

by:Willard G. Thomas

They laid His body in Joseph’s new tomb

And filled His disciples with sorrow and gloom

They did not remember what He had said

That He would die, but He wouldn’t stay dead

Mary came at the break of day

And found the stone was rolled away

She saw an angel and in terror fled

And told His disciples that He didn’t stay dead

In that cold dark tomb He would not stay

He conquered death and walked away

And now that old grave has lost it’s fear and dread

He lives again! He wouldn’t stay dead

Full atonement and pardon were made

And forever the sin debt was marked fully paid

The price was His blood as it flowed crimson red

And I’m thankful today that He didn’t stay dead!

Let’s go to our churches and cry aloud

Let’s go to the marketplace and talk to the crowd

Let’s go to the mission fields that lie up ahead

And tell the whole world that He didn’t stay dead!

Because if Jesus Christ had only died

Then the gulf between us and God would still be wide

But thank God He did what He said

He got up out of the ground, He couldn’t stay dead!

Last Stanza by Davy Boggs

Thank You From Odie

Hey friends, Odie here today. I just thought I would check in today. This has been a crazy eight days. God has been so good to me.  He has given me peace and strength continually. The Lord has let me know that He is nigh to me.  His spirit is definitely my comfort. 

I am not through this completely yet. I am resting on my Great Big God to resolve this totally. We are praising God for every good report!!

Here is the report from last night.

Odie finally had the scans she needed Friday night. They could see No tumors and we praise God for that. There was No obvious problem seen in the MRI. After consulting with the ophthalmologist in Paducah, Dr. Baker, the doctors here are going to treat her for Optic Neuritis. This is inflammation of the optic nerve. It shows up about 50% of the time in an MRI. They could not see it but they think this is a likely suspect. It is one of the possibilities Dr. Baker warned us of last Monday. Treatment begins with massive intravenous steroids tonight then oral steroids. Ww will follow up with a neurologist in Cincy. Vision loss is NOT always recovered with Optic Neuritis but can be. God is able! Thanks for praying. 

They gave me the steroids through an IV at the hospital last night and I am supposed to start on a high dosage by mouth today. I will taper off of those over the next 16 days. If I have inflammation in the optic nerve the steroids should help.

I want to personal say thank you from the bottom of my heart for your prayer and concern. Your out pouring of love has overwhelmed me! Words do not exist to express my appreciation. All the calls text and emails have encouraged me tremendously the last several days. The family of God is awesome!!! I am blessed beyond measure to be apart of His family!

My parents have been wonderful during this process. They are amazing and they have truly been my rock. I can never thank them enough for all they have done. 

I do not have many pictures from home this week. Here is one from Dryden Road Thursday night. My friends Anna and Seth Hoover showed up at church Thursday. It was wonderful to have them in service at our home church.  Of course my cousin Jacqueline will show up in a pic when I am home. I love you Jacque!

Have a blessed Easter Weekend. I am So thankful HE LIVES!!!

Odie

A 35 Gallon Oil Change On The BoggsMobile

It was special to be at our home church at Dryden Rd Thursday night. Praise God for His people. We love our Pastor and our church. It was good to be with them again.

I had this post ready to go live early this week but it was preempted by all of the excitement. I had some pretty exciting days in Tennessee last week and that is what this post is about. Before you know it last week will be ancient history so I thought I better post it now.  You can see the the latest on Odie HERE.

While I was in Vonore, Tennesse having a window replaced they lifted the BoggsMobile to look at a few issues and discovered I had a wheel seal leaking. It was not leaking terribly but a wheel with no gear oil is not a problem I want to deal with out on the road so I scheduled an appointment at Prevost in Nashville.

I had also been leaking a little more motor oil than "normal" and they pointed out that some of it was coming from one of my oil filters. I was within 1500 miles of my scheduled oil change but the normal place I have the work done was so busy that I would have been waiting for hours on the day I passed by there. In retrospect I probably should have had them change it in Vonore even though their price was quite a bit more expensive.

I asked them to do it while at Prevost and they started the oil change first. It was all going well until....

While the mechanic from Prevost was adding oil with their automated dispenser, the dispenser failed to kick off and they overfilled the engine. In fact, they drastically overfilled the engine. It holds about 40 quarts or 10 gallons. After they discovered the problem they drained 25 gallons to get down below the full line on the dipstick. Yep, you read that correctly. 25 Gallons too much!

Three buckets of oil


Plus a pan that was filled above the 50 quart line

They called the oil company out (If I understood correctly they had just been there to service everything that day) and the rep found he had left that particular dispenser on manual rather than automatic. He immediately corrected the problem. If he pays for 25 gallons of oil, that may be the last time he does that.

It could have been catastrophic had they started the engine. They did not start it because even though I had stepped away for a moment, the bus door was locked so they came looking for me to start it. While I was unlocking the door, going inside and getting seated they noticed the oil level was too high. You better believe I will look at the dipstick myself before I start it on future oil changes. (That is something they always do at where I normally have it changed.) 

They turned the crank on the engine by hand which is what I found out they were supposed to do. (Thanks to Bro. Scott Morris and his brother in law.) Once they realized it turned easily and had no oil above the pistons they had me start it and everything seems fine.

Once that baby heart attack was over it was time to move on to the leaking wheel seal. All of that went pretty smoothly.

This is the end of the axle.

This is the whole length of the axle. It is standing in front of a bus motor mounted on rack outside of the bus it is supposed to be in. This is a position that I never want to see my motor in by God's grace.

My old bus does not have a place to add gear oil directly to the wheel once it is put back together. So they seal it all up, lift it in the air, add gear oil and then tip it to the side and let gravity fill it up. It looked like it was fixing to lay over on its side. I am sure Prevost has good insurance!

Wow! What fun I had in Nashville.

Davy