Vintage View Wednesday Norfolk, VA 2002

Wow! I ran across some pictures from way back in ancient history. These are from a parking lot meeting in Norfolk, Virginia in October 2002 I believe.

The vintage pictures are part of a much larger story, probably too large to tell here, but since when has that stopped me.

In 1999, our first year in Wichita, we some how decided to have a few nights of service in a park. I had never participated in anything like that at all. We had sang and preached in jails, prisons, nursing homes and all manner of churches, but I had never ministered to the public outdoors that I can recall.

The park was in a little town north of the church. We carried some music to a gazebo, sang and then I preached some Gospel. I do not think we had much tangible results from the services, but I am still personally reaping results today.

Every time I put the tent up, step behind the little Bible stand, read the scripture and begin to preach, I am reaping the results of those two or three nights of revival in a park north of Wichita. It started a fire in me to win souls to Christ that still burns in my heart. Praise God for that little gazebo revival!

The next year I had a green army tent and we set it up next to the church in Wichita for two weeks. We did that every spring I was pastor there.

One of those years I brought in Bro. Paul Blanton to preach part of the tent revival. He was an old pro at outdoor services and I learned a lot from him. I learn a bunch of things that worked and I also learned that some of his strengths were not my strengths. I found out that I had to discover how to surrender to the hand of God for myself. Bro. Blanton was a huge help.

At Bro. Blanton's invitation we traveled from Wichita, Kansas to Norfolk, Virginia to preach a parking lot meeting. I believe it was in October 2002. 

We had a wonderful revival. I hope I never forget the woman that was sitting on her porch when I gave the invitation to the altar. She stood up, walked down the steps of her porch, looked both ways, crossed the street, made her way across the parking lot, walked straight to the altar and knelt down to pray! Wow!

I am more than ready for our next tent revival. I want to see more of that and I want to see it bad!

I found a few pictures from that week of the services and of Bro. Blanton's family. I hope you enjoy.

Davy

Raising Up To Ground Level

We had a great night of revival Monday and we are hoping it gets better and better the next two nights. During the day we have been working on more house projects, ticking off at a time.

I had a guy here Monday working on installing five more porch posts. These posts are not supporting posts, but have been part of the plan from the beginning. I worked with him most of the day Monday. Hopefully he will finish up today and I will have pictures later.

We also have the internet company coming to day to install the internet service. We ran a conduit underground when we ran the electricity. It even already has a pull string in it. Hopefully that process will be painless.

I forgot a to show you a project I completed last week. It was not a huge project but it was dirty and necessary. I was super happy to get it done.

When Bro. Jimmie Radcliffe and I put in the water back in November 2016, we installed three access pits. Do you see the pit on the left below?

Each pit allows access to a shut off valve like this.

Three pits accessing three valves. One is a valve to the house. One is a valve for the hydrant by the fire pit. The third is for the hydrant by the barn.

The one for the house has been mostly in the way during the whole construction process. I have kept it marked with a rock and a stake most of the time to keep a big truck from running over it and also to prevent me from losing track of it.

We knew the house would be raised up a little above ground level so we raised this particular pit about 6" above the ground. When the house was completed and the driveway was poured, the top of the pit was 12" BELOW ground level.

Oops I missed that one!

One morning before the sun got hot I attacked it with the shovel and rake and figured out how much it needed to be raised. I made a trip to Pickrel Brothers, a big pluming supply house, in Dayton and purchased the proper amount of lid extensions. Dad helped me put them in, I covered it all up and here is the finished product. I still have the rock laying on top of the lid.

My hands were a mess most of the time and I was laying on my belly so no pictures were taken while the work was going on. 

I plan to eventually widen the driveway some and this should be perfect level for the concrete. I have fretted about that job a long time and I am very glad to get it done.

We may never get all these things done, but we will leave Ohio and let it all go soon. I am looking forward to that.

Thanks for reading today.

Davy

Weekend Woundup and Weview 8/13/2018

On Wednesday Odie received a special visit from my Dad's Uncle Ed Mays and his wife Nettie. He is my great Uncle and Odie's great great Uncle. They live about 90 miles north of here and came down to visit family and included a stop at Odie's house. It was great to see them again.

The garage is completely cleaned out so it was time to try the Green Machine out for size.

There is plenty of room for Odie to bring her chair down the sloping sidewalk and to load up in the car. Wonderful!

The whole drive has been a mess for many months. All the construction trucks and concrete trucks have made it worse. It was time for a big load of limestone gravel. One 18 ton load coated from the road to the back corner of the house. We would probably need 4-5 more loads to cover all the gravel area. 

There is no limestone gravel in our county so the local gravel company has to ship it in. That makes it more expensive but it sure packs nice.

The driver tailgated the gravel and made it look great. There was very little for me to fix.

Thursday night at Dryden Rd.

The guy that did the septic system was hauling in dirt most of the day Thursday. Friday two of his guys came and had everything graded to near perfect in less than two hours. It really looks good.

Dad dragged a piece of weighted fence behind the lawn mower to get it ready for seed in the front. Steve picked up a bunch of debris before seeding.

Previously in the week I had cut the viewing ports for the septic lines down to ground level. I had one that needed to go a little lower.

Then we put grass seed on the yard and Dad, Mom Steve, Lisa and Kelly Jo helped me spread straw on the whole yard. We used 18 bails of straw altogether. I would have still been spreading straw if they had not jumped in and worked so hard.

We had a nice soaking rain most of that first night so hopefully the grass comes up good.

We had a van load of dear friends from Hodgenville, Kentucky come to visit Odie's house on Saturday. It was super, super great to have them.

Saturday evening Steve and Karen helped us take our sound system to Anchor of Hope. It is only 7 miles to the church, but we enjoyed their company and loved having some one else to help with the lifting.

We had two very good revival services at Anchor of Hope on Sunday.

For many years we have preached at Anchor for Pastor Bill Lamb. He and his church have been very good to us. I believe we have preached there each of the last 16 years and have preached a revival many of those years

His son, Bro. E.J. Lamb, has been his assistant for several years.

Earlier this year Bro. Bill made the transition into retirement and Pastor Emeritus. The church transitioned Bro. E.J. into the senior Pastor position. It seems to have been a seamless process and the church is doing great.

Of course Sunday afternoon included a little salsa! Bro and Sis. Lamb are the ones that introduced us to Acapulco just a few months after they opened! God bless them for that!

It was nice to have Kelly Jo's parents and more of her family with us Sunday night.

We are expecting three more great nights of revival this week. Come be with us if you can.

That wraps up our weekend. Thanks for joining us.

Davy