The Providence of God

There are times when I am overwhelmed with amazement at the wonder of God. It often happens when I am watching the providence of God at work in our lives. We may never fully understand any of the events in our lives and things we do partially understand may take years to develop, but I love to watch the providence of God emerge into something I can comprehend.

I had a moment of clear understanding Sunday morning while I was preaching at Bethel Revival Center in Everett Massachusetts. I was marveling at what God was doing in hearts right in front of me when my mind swooshed backwards in time over 27 years ago.

In 1989 Pastor Al Hunt asked his brother in law, Bro. Kim Meyers to preach an Easter fellowship meeting in Wallville, Oklahoma. For some reason I ended up driving Bro. Kim from Ohio to preach that meeting. While there I met some great folks, including several Pastors.

One of those Pastors was Bro. Kevin Clounch. I preached for him on Sunday morning while there. Fast forward to early summer of 1990. Bro. Kevin was Pastor of another church and I was working a temporary job that was about to end. He asked me to preach him a revival and some how I found myself agreeing to do so.

Through that revival and a series of convoluted and vaguely remembered events, I met Pastor Terry White from Wichita, Kansas. He was visiting friends that came to revival. Eventually Bro. Terry asked me to preach a revival for him and I did that a few times through the years.

In 1999 I went, at Bro. Terry's recommendation, to Pastor in Wichita. While there I met the DiZazzo's. I have been preaching revival for them since 2003. I was preaching Sunday morning for Pastor Orville as a direct result of my relationship with the DiZazzo's.

Watch this with me. 

People hearing the word, folks receiving help, God changing lives Sunday morning was the result of a random invitation from Pastor Hunt to Bro. Meyers.

A fluke decision for me to drive Bro. Meyers to Oklahoma. 

A chance meeting with Pastor Clounch.

A fortuitous invitation from Pastor Clounch for me to preach revival when he really barely knew me.

An arbitrary decision by Pastor White to spend his vacation visiting friends in Oklahoma and then going to revival with those friends when he probably really needed some time away.

And then revivals in Wichita.

And Pastoring in Wichita.

And many wonderful revivals for Pastor John DiZazzo at Bethany in Wichita.

And this random, hastily planned side trip to Boston (Everett).

And finally the connection I felt while I was preaching and the confirmation I received from men and women at the altar and after service as they told what God was doing in their lives at that very moment.

Are these casual, aimless, designless, purposeless, accidental events in our lives and the lives of others?

A thousand times no! When Pastor Al Hunt picked up the phone 27 years ago, when Pastor Kevin Clounch called me 26 years ago, when all these other things happened, God knew I would be preaching Sunday in Boston and tent revival later this week in Vermont (Another direct result of all of this). God knew who would be there. God knew what they would need. God knew what I would need to say. God knew it all and He knew it all before I had a clue.

That is the providence of God and that is why I stand amazed! What an awesome God we serve! I say, "Do it again, God! When I do not understand. When I do not have a clue. When I think it is random or even worthless. Work your will and your way and your wonder!"

God bless you. Thank you for reading.

Davy

#32 Weekend Woundup and Weview

It has been a wonderful weekend and now I give you the Weekend Woundup and Weview complete with pictures to prove it.

The weekend started with an exciting few minutes on Friday morning as we prepared to leave the Ranch. I was maneuvering the Green Machine in place to hook up to the BoggsMobile and what to my wondering eyes should appear? No, not a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer! What ever gave you that idea?

A huge hot air balloon! It was going over the Dodd's church and then over the Lazy OD Ranch. We are near the small Waynesville airport and we regularly see stunt planes practicing some pretty crazy stuff but the hot air balloon was a little more unusual.

It looks like in the pictures that the balloon was loosing altitude pretty quickly as it went across. That is because it was loosing altitude. 

It was on target to land on the roof of our neighbors about three houses down. The pilot was pouring the blasts of fire to it and it finally started gaining altitude again. I do not know if he was nervous but Kelly Jo and I were.

Pretty neat!

I already mentioned in Friday's post that we drove 554 miles from home to a rest area near Tannersville, Pennsylvania. For my own personal reference in the future we went up I-71 to a short jaunt on I-76 to I-80. I-80 is great road for the bus and definitely the best way to cross Pennsylvania if going toward New York City.

After resting several hours and giving NYC traffic a chance to clear, we left about 11:30 Friday night and drove around NYC with no traffic slowdowns whatsoever. Nice!

We followed I-80 to the I-287 bypass around the north side, across the Tappan Zee Bridge and then hit I-95. We had been on I-95 before and we like that drive up the coast into Connecticut and then turning north through Rhode Island. They have taken the toll booths down on the bridge and will now bill us by mail. There is no telling what the toll will be for the bus and the car. Some of the NYC bridges are over $50 for the combination!

We stopped for the rest of the night about 2:30 at a travel plaza in Fairfield, Connecticut. We had a good night's rest before finishing the trip to the north side of Boston Saturday afternoon.

Parking for the BoggsMobile in the Boston area is very, very limited. Campgrounds with big spots are in short supply all over the New England area and we were coming up with nothing available in this area. Our dear friend Esther that now lives in Wichita, lived here for many years. In fact, the last time we were here she was our tour and restaurant guide.

Esther worked for many years at CBD, Christian Book Distributors. We toured the plant when we were here in 2014. We love CBD and have shopped from their catalogs for years.

Esther called the right people and we are parked in their parking lot Saturday and Sunday nights. We have to run the generator while here but I am very pleased to have a safe place to park. 

I am sure that is not something they usually do and certainly not something they would do for just anyone, but Esther got it done for us. Thanks my dear friend and thanks to CBD. If you have never shopped at CBD, now might be a good time to start.

I mentioned yesterday that we would be seeing friends and family this weekend and the first installment of that started last night. My brother Steve and his wife Karen flew into Boston on vacation last night and we met for a late supper at Polcari's Italian in Saugus. 

We first ate there in 2014 and it was as good as we remembered. But it was even better to get to spend time with my bother and his wife. They were in church with us yesterday at Bethel and we should get to cross paths with them again over the next several days.

Speaking of church at Bethel, we had a great day there. I addition to Steve and Karen we also had several friends from Wichita with us both services.

Sis. Judy DiZazzo treated us to a great Italian meal at Capone's. It was tremendous!

This is Pastor Orville Plummer and Davy. Pastor Orville is a super great guy and we really enjoyed meeting him and his sweet wife Sis. Jennifer.

Odie and Sis. Beth

Sis. Jane DiZazzo and Sis. Jennifer Plummer

Davy and Bro. Larry DiZazzo. Bro. Larry is a brother to Pastor John DiZazzo in Wichita, Kansas and Pastor David DiZazzo where we are headed Friday for tent revival. This is the first time we met Bro. Larry and his wife. We really enjoyed visiting with them.

That pretty much wraps up our wonderful weekend. It was a great one that we will cherish a long time. Thanks for reading.

Davy

View Out The Front Window August 7, 2016

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

Odie's Saturday Post

Travel Day

Time To Roll Again

A Prayer For Safety

Here Comes The Water

Weekend Woundup and Weview

Our view was quite variable the last part of the week since we were on the move. We started out with this for most of the week.

By Friday evening we were seeing this out the window in a rest area near Tannersville, Pennsylvania.

This was the view out the front door.

About 2:30 in the morning we pulled into a travel plaza near Fairfield, Connecticut and this was the view out the front window.

This was the view out the same window Saturday morning.

And this was the view out the front door.

By Saturday afternoon we were looking at this out the front window in a parking lot in Peabody, Massachusetts.

This is our view out the front door.

Today we plan to be at Bethel Revival Center in Everett. This is a new church for us but we hope to have a host of friends and family there. We will explain later. I hope you have a great Sunday.

Davy

On The Road Again

The timing of yesterday's post and Friday's post was a little off. You can click on the bold links to read them if you missed them. In fact, any time you see a bold word like this on here, it will probably open a link in a new tab.

Hello Friends, from a rolling BoggsMobile. We are some where in Connecticut, I believe. It feels great to be back in the saddle again. Yes, I am singing our theme song "On The Road Again" as I type. On The Road Again, Just can't wait to get On The Road Again, The life I love is making music with my friends.... You are welcome, I know you will be singing it now too. 

I am excited about this northeastern trip we are making. It will be wonderful to see friends again and make new friends along the way. We came up through here two years ago and it is nice to be going back.

Although I love being on the road I dread having to bid everyone at home a final goodbye. Thankfully this is a short trip, in our books. The BoggsMobile will heading back toward Ohio before we know it. My final few days in Ohio were so good. I relaxed and spent time with family, that is two of my favorite things to do. 

Here are a few highlights of my week. 

Monday evening I spent with my cousin Lisa. We had a fabulous meal at Acapulco. Then we sat outside and enjoyed a beautiful summer night. It was a great time to catch up. I so glad our schedules finally lined up. 

Tuesday Mom and I had a chance to spend the day with Gran and Papaw. It was wonderful to see them one more time. Thanks again for being our chauffeurs all around creation and running errands with us. We had a great day kicking around town and watching Dad and a few others working at the barn.

Mamaw and I saw this beautiful sunset Tuesday evening between the Ranch and Mamaw and Papaw's. It was truly an amazing sight. It was a perfect ending to our day. 

Finally on Thursday Mamaw and I decided to enjoy some girl time with lunch and a Walmart run. Pictured below is the goodness of a Skyline 3-Way. What is a 3-Way you ask? It is spaghetti, chilli and cheese. It is one of my favorites and I had been carrying a gift card since Christmas just waiting for a trip home. Definitely not diet food but WOW it was good!

I think this concludes my pics from this trip home to Ohio. Thank you for stopping by! Stay tuned for more adventures in the coming days. I should be coming to you from tent revival in northern Vermont next Saturday if we have phone service.

Odie

Travel Day - Home to Tannersville, Pennsylvania

Yesterday's post went up late last night so you may have missed it. You can read it HERE. This post is going up Friday evening and Odie should have her post ready mid morning on Saturday as usual.

We were ready to roll shortly before 8:00 AM Friday morning as Dad and Mom pulled into the Lazy OD Ranch with Odie. She loaded in the bus and then we stopped a moment for one more picture before we hit the road.

We drove about 554 miles in about 9 hours and 15 minutes so it was a pretty good day of travel with only about 40 minutes of stops. The weather was perfect! We saw some beautiful sights going across I-80 in Pennsylvania and finally stopped at a rest area near the New Jersey state line.

Kelly had a wonderful supper prepared when we arrived and now we plan to lay down a few hours. If all goes well, we will leave here about midnight and skirt around the north side of New York City while the traffic is hopefully lighter. 

We have about 340 miles to go but we hope to only drive a couple of hours tonight. If we can find a place to stop in Connecticut, we will sleep the morning away and finish the trip Saturday afternoon.

Thanks for reading.

Davy

It Is Time to Roll Again

It is time to roll the big wheels of the BoggsMobile again. If all goes as planned we should pull out Friday  morning for our whirlwind tour of the northeast. We are really looking forward to it.

You can see our schedule for the next few weeks HERE.

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The first leg from the Lazy OD Ranch to Boston is nearly 900 miles. We plan to divide that up over the next two days, driving the biggest share Friday and then finishing up with a shorter day on Saturday. We will be preaching both Sunday services for Bethel Revival Center in the Boston suburb of Everett.

Many of you may remember that we originally had a revival scheduled at Bethlehem but had to reschedule it. They are changing locations and are right in the middle of a building sale and have way too many pieces to juggle at this time. They ask us to preach their regular services on Sunday though and we are thrilled to do so.

Our next scheduled stop is for tent revival in Lowell, Vermont. We are honored to be returning to Vermont to preach for Pastor David DiZazzo. They are providing the tent so all we have to do is show up, sing, preach and let the Lord have His way.

After the Vermont tent revival we will mosey down to New York City. We are scheduled to sing and preach the Anniversary services for Pastor Sunny Philip at Gateway Christian Center in Valley Stream, New York. The church is on Long Island just east of Queens and only 4-6 miles from the churches we preached in back in February.

We are planning to see many of our new friends in New York City while we are there. We will be visiting a few churches and some our friends will attend the services at Gateway. Taking the bus through New York City should be enough excitement for any one but I sure there will be more than just that.

When that meeting is over we will rush back to Dayton, Ohio as fast as our little wheels will carry us for Indoor Fellowship at our home church. That meeting should be a highlight of our year.

We have a few other special things planned for this trip. I am sure we will post about some of that as it happens. Stay tuned!

Thanks for reading.

Davy