On The Road Again - Thanksgiving

This is the second post for today.

If you "Follow by Email" then you receive an email each night alerting you to new posts. However, you only receive an alert to the latest post. If we have posted more than once in that day you will need to go to the blog itself to see the previous post. 

I am typing this Thanksgiving post before we leave for Nigeria. We may be able to post while where are there and we many not be able to post. Our last trip we had great WiFi in the hotel but during out stay in 2012, no one at that hotel had even heard tell of such things. We hope to keep you informed in some way.

I have something special planned for today's Thanksgiving post. It seems to me that traveling and Thanksgiving naturally go together.

Asphalt In My Blood

Bro. Bennie, our Pastor, told me several years ago that I must have asphalt in my blood. After a few more years and a lot more miles I am coming to the conclusion that he is probably correct. We do love life on the road.

Kelly Jo and I have had opportunities to settle down at times through the years. Have we ever seriously thought about it? Yes, but not often and not for long. Although there have been fleeting moments when we were sorely tempted and have come very near doing it.

Why keep going? 

Well, the answer is two fold. First and foremost, we believe that we are walking in God's plan for our lives, at this present time, to the best of our ability. That is most important.

Secondly, some where along the way, while growing up, Kelly Jo and I caught a bug that all the rest of our immediate families escaped. We love to go, we love to travel, we love the road and we can not help ourselves! 

Maybe be heard too many lonesome train whistles blowing when we were small. 

Maybe we saw too many cowboys ride over the next hill just to see what was in the next valley.

Maybe we read one too many books where the young man goes west and never comes back.

Maybe we heard "Ramblin' Man" and "The Running Kind" about 500 too many times growing up.

Maybe we breathed too much diesel exhaust.

Maybe we did get too close to the road when they were paving and we inhaled the blacktop dust.

Maybe we watched and read too much Charles Kuralt!

Yep, Charles Kuralt Is To Blame

Who is Charles Kuralt, you ask?

Mr. Charles Kuralt was a reporter and host for CBS for many, many years. His best known and best loved work was the short segments he produced for the CBS Evening News and later for the CBS Sunday Morning program. Some of my earliest memories are of Mr. Kuralt and his small crew reporting in from small town America every week as they traveled the back roads of the USA in a motorhome.

Maybe that is where I caught the traveling fever. Maybe the lonesome trains, wondering cowpokes, diesel fumes and asphalt are not really to blame after all. Maybe it is the fault of a man I never met but considered and old friend.

Mr. Kuralt was a paradoxical man and died before many of his personal imperfections or weaknesses became known. He was only 62 years old when he died on July 4, 1997. He will always be remembered best for his stories from small town America.

His On The Road with Charles Kuralt stories affected me more than I could possibly know at the time. In the 80's and 90's I found and read all of his books. We have eaten in restaurants where he has eaten, we have driven roads where he has driven and we have felt many of the same feelings he felt out on the open road in this great nation of ours.

About a year ago I discovered that some of his old stories are posted online. I ran across this one about the Chandler Family from Prairie, Missouri and I have saved it for this day.

I will probably write more about Mr. Kuralt in later posts but start with Alex and Mary Chandler and see if you can resist a hankering to find some more clips. I could not resist the tears as this family prays over their Thanksgiving meal as they celebrate Mr. and Mrs. Chandler's 50th anniversary. Let me know what you think.

Oh, and have a super great Thanksgiving!

Thank you for reading.

Davy

Thanksgiving with the Chandler Family from Prairie Missouri with Charles Kuralt 1978

Tuesday And Wednesday of the Gospel Crusade

The final two nights of the Gospel Crusade have been outstanding! We praise God for all that He has done'

Tuesday night I preached a message I have preached in nearly every Tent Revival and nearly every church revival for the last year. I believe it is a word that God has put in my heart for this season and Kelly Jo and Odie have encouraged me to keep preaching it. 

I try to demonstrate that God can heal the wounded in spirit and those with withered hearts by telling the story of Jesus healing "The Man With The Withered Hand" in Luke 6. 

Tuesday night I felt like I was trying to run underwater. I was making a whole lot of effort but not getting very far. 

Thankfully I recognized the problem right from the beginning and I knew it was spiritual opposition. I kept struggling until God broke through. 

The response in the altar was overwhelming, with 100% participation for the second night in a row. I Know God did a work of healing in many hearts and lives. Praise God for His touch!

Wednesday Bro. Shobanke took us to the church at lunch time and we ate a wonderful meal prepared by Sis. Rebecca again. 

Prayer meeting of the local pastors was just ending in the prayer tower and so we went up there and met with those brethren as well.

Kelly has a new set of Nigerian clothes and she is posing in the picture with them and the seamstress that made them.

Wednesday night I began my part of the service passing out candy to the children. This has become a tradition every year we come and do a gospel crusade. I call all the children to the front and then I pray over them and then we pass out candy.

I told Bro. Shobanke several years ago that would kill a service in the US but it does not harm the service at all in Nigeria.

Then it was time for the preaching followed by another great response in the altar and a wonderful prayer line. 

That wrapped up the Gospel Crusade. This morning we will begin the first day of the Ministers Conference. By the time most of you read this I will have already preached twice and I will be spent for the day. I am looking forward to it.

Please pray that God helps us the next few days. Thank you for reading.

Davy

GoodNews Christian School, Abeokuta 2016

Tuesday was a very full, busy and satisfying day. Bro. Shobanke picked us up in the morning and we went straight to the GoodNews Christian School. We spent a big part of the day there and we enjoyed every minute of it. 

As I have mentioned earlier, from the moment Bro. Shobanke mentioned his desire to begin a school, we have been 100% on board. There is so much potential to touch and change young lives and the families attached to those lives with the school.

Sis. Rebecca told us today that they accept students from nominal Christian families, other branches of Christianity and Muslim families. They are very straight up with the parents that this is a Christian school and that they will teach them the Bible, how to pray, how to worship God and how to live holiness before him.

God has been and is even now working in many of these families. The children obviously love the school, the teachers and the instruction. They quote Scripture, they pray and they sing with all of their strength about loving Jesus.

It is amazing. I believe in what they are doing now more than ever. I am very thankful we were blessed to spend part of our day there. 

This is what we saw when we drove up this morning.

We visited each classroom and spoke to the children and posed for a picture. Kelly Jo has a good time watching the small children react to the big white man. Some of them want to get close to me immediately and others are not too sure.

Then we toured the new classroom building that is under construction. They are making good progress on it. It will have two very large classrooms and it can be divided into four classrooms.

They have planned ahead by building the foundation and the walls in such strength that a second-floor can be added later. They need this room now and about $1500 can finish the first floor. We are leaving that amount with them so it can be completed as soon as possible.

This is the last building Ithat can be built on this property. They are praying that God will give them one of the pieces of property next door so that they can expand in the future.

This generator runs the lights for the school building. They have public electricity here but it is unreliable. They also have a hand dug well and city water.

Then we gathered in the church for a great presentation by the students. The children demonstrated how each of three of the major tribes in Nigeria worships God. They did so well.

They also had other songs, scripture quoting and even a young man preaching on faith.

It was a very well-planned and well executed program. We enjoyed it very, very much.

I said a few words, mostly crying, because they had grabbed a hold of my heart and squeeze all the juice out of it.

Then we passed out candy to all the students and staff and left a little extra for them later. That is always a lot of fun.

During the program they also presented Kelly and I with medallions as the Patron and Matron of the school. They are so thoughtful and sweet.

Here is the Beautiful group picture.

Here I am with most of the staff. Sis. Ruth is missing from the picture.

Sis. Rebecca asked me to pray for each of the children as they exited the building and went back to their classes.

Bro. Samuel is Sis. Ruth's husband.

They live in a house built on the school grounds. We went there next for a beautiful lunch prepared by Sis. Rebecca and Sis. Ruth.

Then we presented the large suitcase full of school supplies that we were able to bring to Nigeria. Kelly Jo actually spread the supplies over several suitcases so we had much more than 50 pounds of supplies.

This is the fourth year we have been able to provide a suitcase full of supplies for the school. We are also leaving a little money with them this year to buy additional supplies.

Sis. Ruth and Sis. Rebecca make sure that the school is run properly and we are so proud of them. We have been supplementing their salaries the last few years and we are continuing to do that as God helps us to do so. It is an honor to be able to do it.

We appreciate those that helped fund the school supplies and also those that sent money to help with the building project. I wish you could see for yourselves the little lives that are being touched and changed every day at the GoodNews Christian school.

They made a video thanking you but we will have to wait till we get back to the states to post it. God bless you all.

We had another great service in the Gospel crusade Tuesday night and we will post more about that next time. Thank you for reading.

Davy