View Out The Front Window February 21, 2016

Check out our posts from the last week at the links below.

Odie's Saturday Post

Big Loop

Look What The Lord Has Done - Castle Rock

Tent Poles, Tent Trailers and Tent Sites

Travel, Trailers and A Good Tired

Weekend Woundup and Weview

Our view this week has been one of almost constant change.

Here is our view out the front door in Sapulpa, Oklahoma.

This is our view out the front window in Sapulpa.

This is our view out the window at the Oklahoma City Walmart.

This is our view out the front door at Walmart.

This is our view out the front window at Pauls Valley Walmart.

This is our view out the door at Pauls Valley.

This is our view out the front door in Gainesville, Texas.

This is our view out the front window in Gainesville.



This is our view out the window from our motel in Queens the night we arrived.

This is our view out the window during the day.

This morning we are singing and preaching for Pastor Hardyall at New Life Christian Center in Queens, New York and at another church this evening. Bro. and Sis. Hardyall have really rolled out the red carpet welcome for us and we appreciate it so much. We are having a wonderful time. Hopefully we will have pictures and information about the trip tomorrow.

I hope you have a great Sunday.

Davy

Planning Time For Singing at Sea 2017

Hey friends, it is Odie checking in. When I wrote last week's Saturday Blog I had no idea where I would be reporting from this week. We could get no clear direction on where I needed to be while my parents were gone to New York. 

On Sunday afternoon we decided that I should go to New York with them and I was able to get the last cheap seat on their flight. So here I am reporting from New York. 

We flew into JFK on a nonstop flight from Dallas yesterday, Friday. We are here to preach and to meet with some pastors over the weekend about the possibility of a City Reach Campaign in New York this summer. We have no idea if something can be put together that quick but we are super excited about the doors God is opening here! Stay tuned in the coming days. I am sure we will have many exciting things to report.

Pastor Hardyall and his wife and son met us at the airport and then we met two of their daughters later. They have already captured our hearts in just a few hours. We are really looking forward to spending some more time with them this weekend.

Singing At Sea

Long time blog readers will remember that I have been on two southern gospel singing cruises. The first cruise was in February 2012. My cruise companion for 2012 was my cousin Lisa Isaacs.

Enjoying beautiful Half Moon Key

My Host group The Isaacs

Our ship The Carnival Fascination

My second cruise was in February 2015. My 2015 cruise companion was Kaylene Stephens.

The Carnival Paradise in Mexico

Breath taking sunset 

The Isaacs were not on the 2015 cruise. Jeff and Sheri Easter were our host group in 2015.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Singing at Sea put on by Templeton Tours. The ship is completely chartered. The bars and casinos are shut down. We get to enjoy all the fun and food of a cruise in a Christian atmosphere. At least 25 of southern gospel groups are there to sing. I have a fantastic time! 

The picture below is  me and Jeff Templeton on the cruise in 2012. 

I knew 2016 would be extremely busy year so I did not plan to go this year. As sailing day approached for this years cruise I caught a very bad case of cruise fever. The Carnival Paradise set sail for the Singing at Sea on Monday and I was not on board.  I did have some dear friends who sailed this week. I cannot wait until they get back to land today for their reports to start coming in!

Monday afternoon I called Templeton Tours and started the official planning for my next cruise. I have to book a handicap accessible cabin way in advance because there are only a few and they fill up fast. The 2017 Singing at Sea will set sail on Monday February 13th and I plan to be aboard. 

Many of you have expressed interest in this cruise to me. Now is the time to begin planning. The 2017 brochure is supposed to be online Monday at www.singingatsea.com or you can call the offices of Templeton Tours to request a brochure to be mailed to you. 1 (800) 334-2630 Prices are reasonable for a Christian cruise starting at just under $600 plus  $195 taxes and fees per person.  It will not get you or me a discount but tell them Andrea Boggs sent you. 

Next year the cruise we be sailing with Royal Caribbean. The ship is the Enchantment of the Seas. From my initial investigation the ship looks beautiful. The cruise will be a four night cruise leaving Florida on Monday the 13th and returning Friday the 17th of February. I am already counting the days. Let me know if you will be sailing too on the Singing at Sea.

Thanks to  Google for photo of the Enchantment of the Seas. 

Thank you for reading today. Have a wonderful weekend!

Odie 

A Big Loop!

This week was definitely a driving week. We drove the BoggsMobile 600 miles from the time we left Gainesville lastThursday night until we returned yesterday morning. Kelly Jo had to drive the car most of those miles with the exception of the leg between Tulsa and OKC.

We also drove the car at least a few hundred miles looking at tent sites and making other special trips along the way. The mile pretty much get bigger and longer the next few weeks but at least we do not have to pull the trailer for a while. Kelly Jo can take her proper place in the copilot seat in the front of the BoggsMobile.

As I mentioned Wednesday the Green Machine was already loaded in the trailer. It looked kind of lonely when I opened the door Wednesday morning before we left Sapulpa.

Since that task was completed all we had to do was crank the bus and then pull over and hook up the trailer. We were ready to roll about 8:30 AM.

We drove to Oklahoma City and parked at Walmart on the southeast side near I-240. We unloaded the car and set out to look at a few places for City Reach OKC.

We happened to be looking at sites near our favorite Chelino's and before I knew what was happening the Green Machine turned in and parked us right at the door!

I do not care for the salsa at Chelino's but I absolutely love their food. I need to combine their food with Acapulco salsa! It was a very, very good lunch.

We jumped right into eating and forgot about pictures. I did get a picture of the tacos we ate later from a super great taco truck that Pastor Jeremy Brooks told me about at SW 44th St and S May. Wow! Outstanding!

The taco truck is just 15 blocks from our number one choice of locations for City Reach OKC. The location was suggested by several folks at the Planning and Vision Service in Blanchard, Oklahoma in December and the taco truck certainly lends quite a bit of weight to that selection.

Since we never know if a location will be available until we make all of the inquiries, we looked at several other locations as well. We have a list of possibilities, with one that seems every bit as good as the number one choice. I believe that God is going to help us in OKC.

We went back to Walmart, loaded up and pointed the bus toward Blanchard. We wanted to stop for a few minutes at Bro. G.W. Birdsong's visitation at the Blanchard church. We stopped for fuel at Love's by the interstate with the intention of leaving the bus there. After we were fueled we could not get into a parking spot, so we drove on.

We ended up parking across the road from a gas station in Blanchard. There was plenty of room to park and it is obvious from the tire tracks that big trucks park there all the time. After we were situated, we exited the bus and there was a "No Parking" sign laying on the ground. We honestly had nothing to do with it being on the ground but Kelly Jo did turn it face down. It is the small white thing next to the first rock in the picture below.

I am very glad it was possible for us to stop in Blanchard last night. Bro. G.W. was a great man and devoted his entire life to spreading the Gospel message. He evangelized right up to the last few months of his life. He and his wife have pointed thousands of souls toward Heaven and now He is is seeing it for himself.

Since we wanted to avoid being towed, we did not stay long at the visitation, Soon we were back on the road and moving toward Pauls Valley, Oklahoma. We were settled in at Walmart and KJ was doing some shopping by 9:00. Who says parking at Walmart is free? Are you kidding me?

We were only 85 miles or so from Gainesville when we stopped at Pauls Valley but we needed to drop the tent trailer in Wynnewood. So we spent the night at Walmart and started early Thursday morning. 

We did have a special treat Wednesday night. Bro. Bruce and Sis. Priscilla Mayhan text us after church and came by to visit a few minutes.



We always love being with our friends. Thank you all for taking time to come see us and for treating us to whatever we wanted at Braum's. The next one is on me!

I rolled out of bed at 5:30 and worked on transferring a few more things from the bus into the trailer. We were rolling by 6:50 and pulled into Wynnewood as the sun was coming up. It took a couple of hours or so to get the trailer taken care of but that included visiting with my dear friend, Bro. Larry Landress.

While I was messing with the trailer, Kelly Jo went on toward Gainesville in the Green Machine so she could stop at the laundromat and get that out of the way. She and Odie worked the rest of they day sorting and packing for our big trip to New York City.

I pulled in about 11:30 and worked on several things throughout the day that I might get around to telling you about later. Needless to say, we have been keeping busy and having a good time preparing for City Reach.

Today we plan to fly to New York City. We will be preaching in at least two churches and meeting with other Pastors as well. It seems that God is already opening doors for revivals but our main focus in Queens is looking at the possibility of putting together a City Reach campaign there this summer. I appreciate all of you praying about that with us.

IF all goes as planned, Odie will be checking in with you tomorrow.

Thanks for reading.

Davy