Future Mrs. Deidre Shoemaker

Quick note from Davy before Odie takes the stage:

10:55 AM 
As you probably know, NOT my friend Irma is now forecast to move up the west coast of Florida and possibly into the western part of Tennessee. The weather guessers are thinking Irma may park in Tennessee a couple of days and that is the route we need to take to Richton, Mississippi.

Driving the BoggsMobile through a tropical depression with high wind and heavy rains is not on my "to do" list. Adding the tent trailer 13' tall, 24' long and 16,000 lbs made the decision for me and Bro. Scott pretty uncomplicated except for all of the emotion tied up in it.

We love tent revival and we especially love tent revival in Richton, Mississippi. We have had super great tent revivals there in the past and we are expecting to be back there in the future under the Blue and White Gospel Tent. This year looks impossible for the tent but it is out of our hands.

I am adding this to Odie's already published blog today because some of you may have been planning to attend. I want you to have as much notice as possible.

We hope to make it to Richton by next weekend or shortly after. We will have revival in the church if we can make it there.

Thanks,

Davy

Now back to Odie!


Hey Friends, 

This is Odie checking from the road. We are excited to be in the beautiful state of Vermont this weekend. It is great to see friends and make new friends along the way. I know Dad will give you a complete report of the weekend on Monday. 

This post is about the future Mrs. Deidre Shoemaker. Next month this lovely lady will be a bride. 

I can not believe Deidre is getting married. It seems like she entered the world last week. But reality says she has now been in our family for a quarter of a century. I am so thankful for Deidre. Not only is she my very first first cousin but we are sisters in heart. 

I wanted to do something to celebrate Deidre and the change from Miss Boggs to Mrs. Shoemaker. It was impossible to gather everyone from across the nation that I wanted to. So I  opted to get some of Deidre's special family and friends together for an evening of fun and fellowship. Instead of a traditional personal shower for the bride, we showered her with gift cards for her future. 

This fun evening took place at a local Panera Bread a few weeks ago. My cousin Lisa was a big help to me with pulling everything together. Lisa, I appreciate your help!  Thanks to my aunt Theresa Osborn for capturing pictures of the fun. Thank you to all the ladies who attended! You helped make the night a success!

Now here are the rest of the pictures below.

Deidre was blessed with several gift cards. I know she has enjoyed shopping and using the gift cards. 

Aunt Holly is great at cutting cakes. 

The staff at Panera was so nice to us. We were able to get our group in their community room. The employees I dealt with were extremely friendly and helpful. I asked permission to bring cookie cake from another business. We ate dinner at Panera so they were fine with cookie cake. The cookie cake was delicious. It was from Sam's Club, and I highly recommend their cookie cakes.

The flowers and the balloon were from Kroger. 

Everything turned out great. The evening was very laid back and we all got to spend some time with the bride. Deidre Faye, remember, "I love you sister and you mean the world to me!"

Very soon it will be wedding time. I am thrilled for Deidre and her fiancé Ben Shoemaker. I am excited to see what God has planned for them in the days ahead. Please keep them in your prayers. 

Thanks for stopping by to visit us. Have a super weekend. 

Odie

On The Road Again

We are on the road again on our way to Johnson, Vermont and everything is going very well so far. We are always very thankful to be able to say that! I will have more information about our travel days when I give the weekend report on Monday.

Before we left the Lazy OD Ranch there was a lot to get done in the house, to the trailer, to the BoggsMobile and in the barn. If Irma cooperates we will be swinging through Ohio to pick up the tent trailer and I needed everything to be in its proper place in the correct vehicle. It took some figuring out but I think it all came together.

I also had some maintenance to do on the trailer and the bus and work to do in the house but, with much help from Kelly Jo, Steve and Lisa we were able to sew it all up and leave on time.

Also Steve's son Isaac came out one evening and helped us lift the cabinet in the utility room. It was the last cabinet to be set and it is heavy. All of the strong and willing help made the task a piece of cake.

The right side of this cabinet has a Rev-A-Shelf. It is an upper cabinet pull-down shelving system that is great for making upper cabinets handicap accessible. Odie will have them in most of her upper cabinets. They are really cool!

My sister Theresa and her son Luke stopped by and helped clean one day too. We sure appreciate all the help.

As we were cleaning the house and getting it in shape to leave, Kelly Jo remembered that two of the floor vents had been accidentally covered with concrete and needed to be opened. It was not a huge job with Steve's help and the right tools. We checked that one off the list.

The next two pictures show the kitchen with the finish color on the walls. It is called Icicle and it really looks great! Once the lights are on in the house, I should be able to capture better pictures of the color.

This is the roll under vanity in Odie's bathroom.

Early Wednesday morning I opened the barn door and started preparing to leave.

This was the view of the house as we prepared to roll.

With the ranch in the rear view mirror, we were on the road again!

On the road again

Going places that I've never been

Seeing things that I may never see again

I can't wait to get on the road again

Thank you very much for dropping in today. Cell phone signal is extremely week here this morning and we are headed into more remote country in northern Vermont. It is possible that we will not have enough signal to post anything this weekend. If you do not hear from us, you will know why.

Davy

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