An Encouraging Update From Nigeria

Pastor Michael Johnson from Goshen, Indiana and Pastor James Ganze from Independence, Iowa are with Bro. Shobanke in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria this week for his annual campmeeting. Bro. Shobanke is thrilled to have them.

Bro. Johnson has been to Africa multiple times for ministry but this is his first trip to Nigeria. This is the first time for Bro. Ganze too. They have a few days in country behind them and one day of campmeeting completed as well. I am anxious to hear how the meeting is going.

I have heard from Bro. Johnson and Bro. Shobanke about their trip to the school and the site of the church reconstruction. I posted on August 30th the good news about being able to send Bro. Shobanke a small part of the money required to rebuild the church. You will find links in that post to the story about the church having to be taken down.

It is with great joy that I show you a few pictures of the church going back up!

Bro. Shobanke also had someone email me a few pictures from the new church going up. Notice the huge rocks in the background of some of the pictures. We love that feature of Abeokuta!

May God bless the folks that helped us to send an offering for the church. Thank you so much.

Bro. Shobanke also took Bro. Ganze and Bro. Johnson to the church on Osara Rd that we helped to build and the Kelly Jo and I dedicated to the LORD. I was thrilled to see it again.

I have one more picture to show you. This is Bro. Ganze, Bro. Johnson with Bro. Shobanke and much of his family in front of his home. I love to see all their faces. I love these people.

Oh, these pictures make me want to be in Nigeria so bad! May God bless Bro. Johnson, Bro. Ganze and all my family in Nigeria this week!

We are praying for all the people affected by the current hurricane headed to Florida and Harvey in Texas. May God help them all.

Thanks for reading.

Davy

No Friend of Mine

We are planning to leave later this morning for a large looping tour of the USA to sing and preach the Gospel to as many people as we can. We are glad to hit the road and we are looking forward to seeing many of you in the next few months.

We go from home to Johnson, Vermont to minister to a group of folks we have never met. We are excited to go new places and see new faces and we are extremely thankful that God continues to open new avenues of ministry. While we are in beautiful Vermont we will also get to see Pastor David DiZazzo and many of the folks we have met from tent revivals there in previous years. It is going to be a great week.

Our plan is to leave Vermont and go to Mississippi to begin tent revival for our dear friends in Richton, Mississippi. We will swing through Ohio to pick up the tent trailer and hopefully arrive in Richton one week from Thursday.

The next revival after tent revival is Homecoming revival for Apostle Donald C. Williamson and the wonderful folks at Tanner Williams near Mobile, Alabama. We are excited about seeing them again too.

There is one great big obstacle that might stand in the way of our trip south. Her name is Irma and Irma is no friend of mine! It is too early to tell which direction she will go but Pastor Scott Morris and I are watching closely and we hope to make a decision by early next week what we need to do. We do not want to put our family or the BoggsMobile in the path of a strong storm and we certainly do not want the tent in the air.

Here are three possible routes from Tuesday morning's forecast.

This was the best guesstimate last night on Irma's course over the next several days.

The best thing for all concerned is for Irma to dissipate, turn out to sea and die a quick and painless death. We are praying about that and you are welcome to join us in those prayers.

After Alabama the loop goes on for thousands of miles and brings us back to the  Lazy OD Ranch near Christmas. We hope the first few stops are not impacted by the weather, but the good thing is, our house has wheels. We can move if we need too.

The house being built for Odie is secured for our absence and some work will continue right on while we are gone. Kelly Jo's Dad is making progress on the interior paint and it is beautiful. Kelly and Odie's choice for the wall color is very good. It reaches out and grabs you and looks different depending on the amount of light. I do not know if I can capture it well in a picture or not.

Thank you for reading today. You get extra points if you caught the cultural reference from the late 1940's.

Please ask God to help us and the bus as we travel the next few days. We need to pass some miles under the wheels!

Davy

Digging Again

Last week it was time to tackle a task that was overdue. The power company had set the new electric pole by the road several weeks ago but we had never dug the ditch from the road to the house.

My cousin, Gary Coffman, found an excavator to dig the ditch for a reasonable price and Thursday was the day.

We have been having a problem with water running out into the drive and washing away the gravel since we poured the footer and laid the block back in April and May. Since they were digging the ditch for the electric several feet down the side of the house, it was a good time to channel the water too.

He dug down to the footer, along the garage and down to a drain close to the barn.

Then he covered most of it up.

In preparation for more water, I removed the drain early Friday morning and cleaned it all out. I need to clean the pipe that drains it but that is a project for another day.

I wanted to fill part of the ditch with gravel where the house drive will cross it and also beside the house where the drain pipe was installed. I could not get the gravel delivered until Friday so Gary and I ran the drain pipe and filled in the ditch before most of the heavy rain started Friday.

Gary worked hard and I appreciate his help. I could not have done it without him. Once the meter base is set, the house will be ready to have the electric hooked up. That brings us one step farther!

Thank you for stopping in today.

Davy

Weekend Woundup and Weview #37

Our last weekend in Ohio for a while has come and gone and it was a great one. Thursday, Friday and Saturday we worked on the house from early in the morning until late in the evening and we are seeing a lot of progress. 

Danny (Kelly Jo's Dad) continued painting walls and cabinets and it all looks really good. I will try to snap some pictures the next few days.

Thursday evening we moved the finished linen cabinet from the garage to her bedroom. Isaac and I carried it around to the front door and then Kelly Jo, Lisa and Steve helped us from there. It required every one of us and a little combined brain power to get it in!

Here it is Saturday, mounted and with the doors installed. You can also see one of the pocket doors in place. The doors still need to be painted but we were trying this one out to see how they look. We love the pocket doors!

Thursday we had a team dig the ditch for the electric service.

That became a huge job with some drainage ditch work mixed in. I will devote a whole post to that later.

Sunday morning we were preaching at Dryden Rd which is always and honor and a privilege. It was a special honor Sunday because Bro. Bennie asked his daughter, Renae Coffman, to sing with us and she did. We used to sing with Renae a lot years ago and that is definitely one of the things we miss by not being at home. Thank you for singing with us Renae!

Ben was playing drums after church and it was so cute.

We had just enough time for a little salsa at Acapulco in the afternoon before our Sunday siesta.

Sunday night we went to Calvary Pentecostal Lighthouse in Middletown to preach for Pastor Kevin Allen and his folks.

It was a joy to be in church with friends and to experience the presence of God with them. God touched us in the altar and we are expecting to hear good reports in the future. Praise God for His help.

We have been keeping up with our friends near the Houston area since the hurricane and most of them are doing well. I honestly never thought about Bro. Mark Compton and his folks because they are quite a bit west of Houston and they are north of I-10.

We received word the other day that their church is flooded. The building is relatively new and they have built an additional building too. My heart is hurting for them as they try to figure out how to move forward.

A house we rented years ago flooded and I remember that helpless, hopeless feeling. We had less than one foot of water in the house. We moved out, spent a few nights in a hotel and then moved on with life. We had friends, family and the Red Cross to help us out. I do not think any of our personal items were damaged badly.

The folks in the Houston area have it much worse than that and the feeling of desperation must be overwhelming. Let's ask God to help them all. Please pray for Bro. Mark and his folks too.

That wraps up our weekend. Thank you for reading today.

Davy