Travel Day - Sullivan, Missouri to Joplin, Missouri

Friday was a pretty short travel day for us. I let the girls rest a while in the morning and then we left Sullivan, Missouri and pointed the BoggsMobile toward Joplin. 

We only made one stop beside the rest area above and that was near Carthage at Colaw RV Salvage. It is a huge place where I have bought many new and used RV parts in the past but I found nothing I really needed yesterday.

They sell new and used RV's at Colaw but they specialize in stripping totaled RV's and selling the parts. Sometimes they have some super great deals. During our first few months on the road in 2003 we lost a window out of our 1984 Hitchhiker fifth wheel while we were going down the road. We left Louisiana one morning with the window in and arrived in Alabama that afternoon with the window gone. It really was not as strange as it sounds with a 19 year old camper.

I put a piece of Plexiglas in the hole until I could get to Colaw. I told them what I was looking for and they gave me the keys to a golf cart and pointed me to a huge conglomeration of RV windows of every size, shape and type of construction near the back of their property. After about an hour of searching I found one that would work and I was on my way.

No windows Friday just window shopping you might say.

We parked at Flying J in Joplin, Missouri by mid afternoon. We have spent quite a few nights in this Flying J parking lot over the last 12 years. We stopped here because we planned to spend some time with Bro. Kurt McCrorey and his family. Bro. Kurt serves on the board of Boggs Family Ministries and has been my dear friend for many years. It has been way too long since we have spent much time with them.

They are in the process of building a house and we wanted to see that too. They have been living in their RV for quite some time and they are anxious to finish and move in. Bro. Kurt and Sis. Angie found a great deal on a beautiful piece of property south of Joplin and I could not be happier for them.

When things slow down for them and for us we need to spend a few days doing nothing but catching up but until then our few hours together will have to do. We enjoyed it very much and it brought back good memories. We kept them from getting any work done yesterday evening so we appreciate them taking time for us.

If all goes as planned we should arrive in Oklahoma City later today and start tent revival for Mt. Vernon Holiness Church and Pastor Rickey Searcy Sunday morning. They are renting a tent so all I will have to do is set up our PA system and start singing and preaching. I can hardly wait to get to it. 

Thanks for praying for us.

Davy

On The Road Again!

My Dad and Mom brought Odie to meet us at Dodds just as we were pulling into position to leave the parking lot. We almost got away without her but she caught us in the nick of time! It probably would have been lonely without her. We loaded up, said our goodbyes and hit the road a few minutes after 9:00 Thursday morning.

Yesterday's Post

Within the first two miles I thought the BoggsMobile was running like an old dog. I pushed the little skinny pedal on the right and it was not responding like it should. After about 20 seconds I realized what the problem was. I was pulling the big heavy tent trailer again! That makes all the difference in the world. The tent trailer with the chairs, tent and the Green Machine is a whole lot heavier than the Green Machine by itself. No wonder the BoggsMobile was working so hard.

Here we are at the first rest area in I-74 in Indiana.

By 12:25 we had unloaded the car and dropped the trailer in great spot. We should be back around to pick it back up in 21-22 days.

And we were on our way again.

We had been fighting the wind all morning but when we turned west at Indianapolis the wind really started beating up on us. I fought it all the rest of the way. Although the weather was cool, the sun was shining and the bus was running good it was not a fun day to drive with all that wind. By the time I was approaching 460 miles and the Sullivan, Missouri exit was in view I was ready to call it a day.

That is exactly what we did. We pulled into the Flying J at Sullivan, emptied the holding tanks from our two weeks at home and parked for the night.

Bro. Ryan Martin pastors a church about 1/2 mile from the Flying J so we met him and his precious family for supper at the Denny's inside the truck stop. Bro. Brian Graham and his family met us too and we had a big time catching up with friends. The food was good, the service was normal Denny's and the fellowship was wonderful. These folks have been our friends for a long time and I appreciate them taking time to visit as we were going through.

Today we will mosey toward Oklahoma with some planned stops along the way for business and for friends. I imagine we will spend the night in Joplin or Tulsa before finishing the trip Saturday. Thank you so much for reading. May God bless you all.

Davy

It Is Time To Roll!

Odie is much improved from where she was ten days ago when God began to give us victory in this. Although the vision in her affected eye is not 100%, we are praising God for His help. She can now see how many fingers somebody is holding up from over 20 feet away! She could not see that from 2 inches for over nine days. 

God has given Odie a miracle and we will not stop giving Him credit and praising Him for it. Thank you so much for praying for us. We have been overwhelmed with your kindness and compassion. Please continue to pray for complete healing. We would love for Odie's eyes to see better than ever. Wouldn't that be just like our God?

It is time to roll our wheels and I can feel it in my bones. We have really enjoyed our time at home but we are called to "go" and it is time to put that calling into motion. God has really helped us during this forced down time. I think I mentioned earlier that I am usually pretty stir crazy after three or four days at home. We love our family and we love spending time with them. We love our home church and we could quickly get used to being there every service. But I am called to be an evangelist and I can not stay still forever.

Bro. Bennie told me years ago that I have asphalt in my blood and I suppose it is true. I come home, visit and hug our family, eat some Acapulco, go to Dryden Rd for some fellowship and spiritual recharging and then I am ready to go again. When I am forced to stay at home without being in revival I get antsy pretty quickly. Although our home church and probably even our families will never completely understand what drives us, they love us unconditionally. They always pray for us while we are gone and love on us while we are home.

We arrived in Ohio two weeks ago yesterday. Kelly Jo and Odie arrived in the early morning hours and I arrived late that evening. We felt like it was best to cancel our next revival and try to get Odie some help for her medical emergency. That's what I decided to do and I knew it was the right thing to do. That does not mean that I thought it would be easy. I expected I would be climbing the walls by the first weekend. Even with doctor appointments, bus projects, family time and church I know how restless I can be.

But God has really, really helped me. We have had doctors appointments. We have had several good visits with family. I have spent several hours on bus projects. We have been to our home church and enjoyed it very much. We have had several invitations to preach and I appreciate that. But none of that is usually enough to keep me calm. I believe God has helped me. While He has been helping Odie He has been helping me too. I have genuinely enjoyed every day of the last two weeks.

It has been stressful but relaxing. It has been challenging but refreshing. It has been a nerve wracking battle but it has been a faith inducing victory as well. We have felt the enemy of our souls pressing us but we have felt the God of our salvation blessing us. Even though we have not rested much physically we feel prepared for the demands of our summer schedule. 

Praise God for His help while we have been home.

Yet it is time to climb back in the saddle and ride. I feel our first tent revival pulling me to Oklahoma City. I know I am called to be an evangelist and an evangelist must go. I am anxious to preach to the people of Oklahoma City, Wichita, Kansas, Omaha, Nebraska and Springville, Indiana. I am ready to roll.

Home has been good and fun though.

My Mother prepared a super great meal Tuesday evening before church. It was so good!

Bro. David and Sis. Karen Noe are preaching revival in Maineville this week and they met us, my parents and my bother Steve at Acapulco for lunch Wednesday. They are always great fun to be around. It was wonderful to spend a little time with them.

Tuesday my Dad helped me put the batteries back in the trailer and then we pulled it to the church with his truck. A family friend allowed me to store it at his business since Christmas and it was in perfect shape when I went to pick it up.

Wednesday I checked the air in the tires and then organized a bunch of the stuff to make it ready to ride and to be better prepared for the first time we use it in Springville, Indiana in just a few weeks. As I mentioned yesterday, we plan to drop the tent trailer at a church along the route in Indiana and then pick it up on our way back through.

We loaded the Green Machine in the trailer for the first time this year Wednesday evening. We will let the Green Machine rest a few hours this morning and then it will push us the rest of the way to Oklahoma.

Thanks for reading.

Davy