Home Sweet Barn!

For 6 1/2 years we have had Dodds Church marked on our GPS as "HOME" but now we can move the dot over about 200 feet. It has been a long, long road but we are finally home. The worldwide headquarters of Boggs Family Ministries, INC. is now open for business!

Early Thursday morning I pulled into Dodds Church about 5:30 after a long run. I was finishing the trip from Wichita, Kansas with a small U-Haul trailer behind the BoggsMobile. The trailer contained the remnants of our belongings that have resided in Wichita all these years since we left. 

For those of you just joining us, we pastored a church in Wichta from early 1999 to the end of 2002. We began evangelizing the first Sunday of 2003 and liquidated most of our household belonging. We gave away or sold most of the big stuff, brought tools, instruments and a few other things to Ohio, took my library to Missouri and left a bunch of stuff in Wichita in storage. We emptied the storage on Monday the 8th. With that task tackled we have finally moved completely out of Wichita. It took us twelve years but we finally got it done!

Here is the BoggsMobile and the trailer parked at Dodds Church.

I rested until after daylight and then Kelly Jo and Dad came out to the church and I pulled the BoggsMobile next door to the Lazy OD Ranch for the very first time.

Some of the tree branches are in way the but I hope to trim those before we leave December 26th. The trees closest to the road are just about right on the property line and the tree next to the house is completely on our property. The line goes very close to the neighbor's house. 

Speaking of neighbors, we have great neighbors! I have known the lady of the house, Sue, since we were kids at Dodds Church. They have lived next door for many, many years. They keep a good eye on the place and know as much about the barn and property as anybody. 

It is super to have good neighbors especially a neighbor as handy as Donny. In fact he is the neighbor I mentioned in This Post that welded a bracket on the AC for me. He is going to help me trim some of the bigger limbs from the trees. 

There it is! It does not look big enough from here!

Going in for the first time. Dad had the key and has been in the barn a few times since we contracted to buy the place. He handed me the key and it would not work. He did not quite believe me that it would not work until he realized he had given me the wrong key. I thought I was locked out of my own barn.

Can you tell it was a very cold 22 degrees? I had the electric turned on the day before and Dad is turning on the breakers for the first time. The electric seems to be in good shape with plenty of receptacles all around the barn. I wired in for the bus temporarily but I plan to have a 50 amp plug inside and out before we leave.

After I backed the trailer to the side door, I turned the BoggsMobile around and put it into position so Kelly Jo could back it into the barn for the first time.

Kelly Jo backing into the barn.

Plenty of room.

Please excuse the dirty bus. It was pretty clean before I ran through the rain and winter mess for a few hundred miles.

The barn is 64 ' long and the bus is 45'. We parked it 4-5 feet from the door in the front so we have plenty of room in the back to pull something through the side door behind the bus. That door is nearly 15' wide but only 11 1/2' tall so the tent trailer will not fit under it but almost anything else will.

The concrete has been poured at different times and by different people and some if it is in poor shape. The concrete on one side of the barn has been compromised by animals digging under it but it is completely fine for now. It seems very solid under the bus.

It is so nice park the bus out of the wind. The only time we have had the BoggsMobile inside since we have owned it is to have it worked on. I think it looks good in the barn and I know it makes me feel good.

Some of the walls of the barn are insulated and I am sure that helps some with the temperatures. It would be impossible to heat the whole barn without the roof being insulated but we will get to that all in good time, along with a few dozen other things. 

Right now I am working on storage for all the "stuff", wiring the 50 amp plugs and cleaning up. The floor needs a good pressure washing but it is probably a bit cold for that right now. 

It feels a little different for us. Not completely weird but definitely different. Over all though I think we are Home Sweet Barn.

Thanks for reading.

Davy

Sunday December 14, 2014

We started revival at Dodds Sunday morning and we had a full day of church with a few hours of hospital thrown in and a dash of Acapulco for good measure. Church was great, Kelly Jo's Dad continues to improve and Acapulco was excellent. What's not to like about a day like that?

Saturday was a good day too. After I left the hospital I worked in the barn for several hours and then slipped over to the fellowship hall at Dodds for a bit of their Christmas dinner. The food and fellowship was great! Kelly Jo and Odie spent the whole day at the hospital until KJ dropped Odie at the dinner and she went to do laundry so we would have clean clothes to wear to church.

Speaking of the barn, we have pictures of us pulling in Thursday and we will try to post them tomorrow. Not enough days in the week to get all our activities posted! Looks like it would be easy, seven days of activities and seven posts but some how it does not work that way.

As I post this Kelly Jo is on her way back to the hospital to spend some time with her Dad. Odie is probably spending time with her pillow at my parent's house. The long travel day followed by several long days at the hospital and then the services yesterday have combined to knock her out. I need her in top shape for revival tonight so she has orders to rest. I am working on projects here. Between bus projects and barn projects I have more than enough to keep me busy quite a while. In fact if nothing else comes up I should be finished about September of 2021.

Of course I need to be prepared for service tonight . We are expecting the Lord to help folks every night and he has certainly met us both services so far. Please pray that God will work among us again. 

I hope you had a great Sunday. Thank you for reading. I am posting a few pictures from Dodds yesterday. I am sure we will have many more before the week is over.

Davy

Pastor Kelly Rogers and Davy

View Out The Front Window December 14, 2014

Odie's Saturday Post

Prayer For Danny Morgan

From Wichita To Ohio

Wonderful Night In Wichita

Song About Odie by The Isaacs

Weekend In Blanchard

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Danny Morgan Update

Kelly Jo's Dad continues to improve as he recovers from open heart surgery and we are very thankful to God for that. Thank you for holding him and his family up in prayer.

Prayer Request

Friday night Morgan and Laura Stephens lost their house in a fire. It was a total loss. Laura is the daughter of Pastor John Eaton. Morgan is the son of Pastor Shawn Stephens. He is also the grandson of Pastor Mike Stephens. We have mentioned all of these folks many times on the blog.

Morgan and Laura have only been married about two years and you can imagine how devastating this is  for a young couple. To add insult to injury they had welcomed their first child on Wednesday. They were dismissed from the hospital Friday and lost their house and possessions that evening. They were not at home at the time and arrived to find it on fire. As I said it was a total loss. Please pray for them. I am sure they could use financial help too. If you would like to help, we could point you in the right direction.

View Out The Front Window

With a busy travel week comes a varied view out the front window. Monday morning we left Blanchard, Oklahoma and hurried to Wichita, Kansas. We parked at Bethany Revival Center and jumped quickly into sorting and emptying our storage unit. Here is our view at Bethany.

Out the front window.

Out the front door.

Tuesday night was spent in the parking lot at First Church of God in Christ in Wichita. I neglected to take pictures from the window but I did get one of the BoggsMobile and Uhaul trailer from the parking lot.

At least part of Wednesday night was spent at the Flying J in Effingham, Illinois. 

Out the front window.

Out the front door.

It was a great place to park and I should have rested good. But my girls were already home and I was anxious to join them. I left Effingham a little before 11:00 and pointed toward Ohio.

I pulled into the Dodds Church a little after 5:30 Thursday morning. After posting the blog I sacked out for about 2 hours and took this picture about 8:00. The BoggsMobile is parked at Dodds and I am standing on our new property.

The BoggsMobile is safely parked inside the barn at the Ranch and honestly does not have much of a view.

Here is the view out the front window with the doors closed.



And with the doors open.

And the view our the door.

We begin our last revival before Christmas this morning at Dodds Church. We sure appreciate Pastor Kelly Rogers inviting us to be with them. We may have to drive to church since we are 200 feet away from the parking lot instead of being parked right in it as was usual until this week!

I hope you have a great Sunday.

Davy