Two Milestones and A Contest?

Make sure you read the Blog from yesterday and also note the recent schedule change.

We have two milestones to note today.

1. Yesterday's post was post number 800 for the boggsblogs.com.

2. Today we will reach 100,000 page views on the blog according to Blogger.

While these are pitiful numbers for big blogs, it is not half bad for us.

We started this blog in order to post updates from Nigeria during our second evangelistic trip there. It worked so good that we decided to move our Mile Marker updates from www.davykellyandodie.com to this blog.

This is much easier to update and has proven to be an effective way to communicate with friends and family around the world.  Plus it is a whole lot of fun.

Speaking of fun, I think we need to celebrate 800 posts and 100,000 page views. What do you think?

There is no way to know who actually makes the 100,000th view so here is what we will do.  Each person that makes a comment at any time on Saturday (today) on any of the 800 posts will be eligible for a prize. The prize will be our Live CD or gift card of some kind if you already have the CD.  We will draw a name from all the names of commenters. Each comment will earn a place in the drawing. If you comment on five different posts you will be entered five times.  

Spam comments will not be entered. How will you know it was a fair drawing? We will let Odie draw the name. Everybody trusts Odie.

This should be fun. Comment away. We will announce the winner on Monday.  Have a great weekend!

Davy

Happy Anniversary, Kelly Jo!

Please note the schedule change for next week.

Wow! Time flies when you are having fun! It is hard to believe that another year has blown by. it seems like just yesterday that I was writing about our 25th and 26th wedding anniversaries. Here we are again.

27 years ago today I made one of the best decisions that I have ever made. We were two messed up kids way back then but we said "I do" and stayed with it. We had a few folks that believed in us and encouraged us and by the grace of God we are here today.

I was too stupid to really know or appreciate all that Kelly Jo would mean to me but thank God I did not stay stupid forever! I am married to the hardest working woman that I know. She labors continually to keep us on the road. She not only does her work but almost every time that I am working on something she is right there handing me tools and keeping encouraged.

Kelly Jo has a servants heart. She loves to serve and people notice that every where we go. She has made the perfect evangelist's wife. She seems tailor made to our lifestyle and our calling. I can not even imagine a better partner for what I do. 

She is dedicated to me 100%. She has loved me through thick and thin and back to thick again. She loves me with my weak mind and aging body. She loves me without conditions and affirms her love to me constantly. She has followed me all over this country and to several other countries. When it seems that new doors  are opening in other places she is ready and willing to go.

She lives in a 45x8 foot home on wheels and works hard to make it doable. I will not tell you how many run down rent houses she has helped me clean and move into. For the last 10 years she has lived in an RV. She does not have a garden, porch, shade tree or walk-in closet. She misses birthdays, weddings and funerals of family members on a regular basis. 

She lives on other people's schedules, eats what they want to eat and entertains friends when she would rather be alone. She is in church over 350 times a year and most of those times she is playing the piano, singing and carrying the weight of the altar service.

Most every anniversary and birthday of her own she is in revival, campmeeting or youth camp. I have never heard her complain about it one time. I know some good ladies that would throw a fit or sulk if they did not get a special day or at least a special meal on their birthday or anniversary. Not Kelly Jo. To my shame, she has worked nearly every one.

She loves God and loves living for Him. She has no complaints about any thing God requires of us or her as an individual! Her relationship with God is real.

She is so beautiful! I could not take my eyes off her years ago but I can not believe how beautiful she is today. She is gorgeous and she is all mine. Isn't that amazing? Yes, Davy, that is absolutely positively amazing!

Yes, we were a mess 27 years ago today. We were scared to death. I was 18 and Kelly Jo was 4 days away from being 17. We were 2 kids on a collision course with real life. There was no way for us to win. No way for us to win and in the back of our minds we knew it. But we are winning. Hallelujah, we are winning and having a blast doing it.

God used my dear little wife to pull me through. She pulled me through the early years of our marriage. She pulled me through when I could have been destroyed. She pulled me through when I had NO confidence in myself. I am saved and preaching today because Kelly Jo was and is a good, Godly and wise woman!

She was a blond headed little girl when I first noticed her. I could not have known how happy that little girl, all grown up, would make me. 

I love you, Kelly Jo! Sorry about your luck but I think your stuck! Happy Anniversary. I hope you have a wonderful day. Mine was wonderful the moment I woke up next to you!

Hope you all enjoy the pictures....

Davy

June 29, 1985

Wait For it....

Changing the Batteries in The BoggsMobile

Please note the schedule change for next week.

I was outside at 5:30 yesterday morning preparing to change the eight 4D batteries in the BoggsMobile. I turned all the power off at 6:05 and climbed in and set to work. At 11:20 I turned all the power back on and nothing has exploded yet...

I praise God for His help. This was a huge challenge for me and it was amazing to watch God provide the help I needed. Several men across the country have made their knowledge and experience available to me and it was a tremendous help. I could not have done it otherwise.

You will find a few pictures below.

Today I plan to put all the brackets, braces and walls back in place. I should be finished with that in an hour or so. Then I hope to start working on the trailer floor. I am installing a better tie down system over the next two days if all goes well.

Church last night was wonderful. Folks are really responding in the altar and God is meeting their needs. I am so thankful for the help of the Lord.

Davy

Ready to disconnect and remove...

Out...

Old ones on the ground.

A few were in very bad shape...

New ones ready to go in...

We used a floor jack to lift the ones on the top shelf of the rack. That was a great idea passed on to me by a fellow bus nut... It is almost impossible to lift 125 lbs bent over on your knees in a bay of the bus. Bro. Caleb and Bro. Colton were a great help with the manual labor of removing and installing the batteries.

In but not connected...

This is a  side view of the rack of six right before the last two were put in place.

Finished...

Schedule Change - Weir, Kansas

Due to the extreme record breaking heat with no end in sight, we are cancelling the Tent Revival scheduled for July 2-6 in Weir, Kansas. We continue to have great services here at Miami but the heat has definitely affected the amount of visitors we are receiving. With the oppressive heat, Pastor Fellers felt like it would hinder the revival in Weir so he decided to cancel and do it another time. I completely agree.

We were already scheduled to be near Reeds Spring, Missouri on Sunday, July 1st and we still intend to be there. We may head northwest toward Montana after that. Surely we can run into cooler weather eventually. We gave up five days of rest at the end of July. We rescheduled our revival in Wichita that we canceled at the last minute to stay in Owensburg, Indiana. It looks like the Lord just gave those days of rest back to us...

If you know anybody that was planning to be with us in Weir, please let them know of the change in schedule....

Davy

A Little Friend

We were sitting outside Saturday evening after the tent was up and all of the day's work was completed and a little friend discovered us. He was super surprised when he noticed me. My guess is that he had never encountered anybody as big as me.

He looked around for a minute or so while I was snapping pictures and then turned around and went back under the bus. I suspect he had never seen anything as big as the BoggsMobile either.

Yesterday's project was tires. About two weeks ago in THIS POST I told you about a leaking tire. I had just replaced all six trailer tires in Indiana and one of then was leaking within 300 miles. I put the spare on in Missouri and while in Claremore I took the leaking one to the Firestone dealer. The new tire was OK but the aluminum rim was bad. Evidently they can develop porous spots and start leaking over time. This one did.

Fortunately the spare rim was also a matching aluminum rim. I thought that Colaw RV salvage in Carthage, Missouri would have a matching rim but they did not. They told me that used tires and wheels are in a big demand and they do not last long in there at all. They had a steel rim for $70. Thanks but no thanks.

I found a new steel rim in Claremore for $38. Bro. Millikin brought it to me Monday. I had the spare put on the steel rim and the new Firestone tire on the spare aluminum rim. Then I mounted it on the trailer, mounted the spare in its place, put all of the tools and jack away and called it quits.

Today's project is the batteries. I plan to start at 5:30. This is going to be a touch job for me but I know God is going to help. In fact, I know He is already helping. A man from North Carolina helped me tremendously with many of the technical aspects of the job and that really took a load off of my mind.

Now it is down to hard manual labor, squeezing into the tight places to do the disconnecting and then connecting the new ones. Just moving the batteries in and out at more than 125 lbs each will be a chore. I will let you know how it goes.

Tent Revival last night was tremendous. It was very hot but we had another great response in the altar service to Bro. Millikin's preaching.

Davy

On Top of the World... Almost

Thanks to Bro. Joe Dikeman from Bethel Chapel in Granite City, Illinois our front air conditioner is working again. Bro. Joe diagnosed the problem over the phone and sent the part to me. I climbed up on top of the world at daylight Monday morning and now we have cool air again. Yes, you read correctly, I climbed up on top of the bus. I did not want to. I did not like it. I was glad to get down. But you do what you have to do...

After the AC, I worked about 3 hours trying to prepare for changing the batteries. The power has to be completely off that day until I am finished. I want to have everything ready before I pull the plug, turn off the inverters, disconnect the equalizer and start in on the batteries. The BoggsMobile will be very hot after several hours in direct sunlight with temps at around 100. Don't worry about sweet little Odie. She can go in the church....

Please pray that the actual change goes smooth on Wednesday. I am trying to do all the advance work and learn all that I can but I really need God to help me. I am very serious, I need His help for this.

Service was great last night. It is hot but it is bearable. I appreciate God helping folks...

Davy

Tent Revival and Braum's

Tent Revival and Braum's? It doesn't get much better than that!

We had a wonderful service to kick off revival under the tent in Miami last night and then capped it off with a trip to Braum's for hamburgers and ice cream. Wow! What a night.

It was near 100 degrees when we started service at 5:00 but there was a nice breeze and the humidity was about 35%. It was not near as hot as it could have been and every one was thankful. God is mindful of us.

Bro. Jimmy and Sis. Shauna Millikin were anointed from the first word of their testimony and song. God used Bro. Millikin to bring us to a wonderful prayer line and the Lord blessed tremendously. I appreciate Bro. Jimmy obeying the Lord and I appreciate the Lord moving among us. We are expecting good testimonies from the service last night.

I have several projects that need to be completed on the BoggsMobile and the trailer the next few days. Our front air on the bus has not been working correctly and I have been told it is the circuit board. I have a new board so I plan to be up there as the sun comes up to replace it before it gets too hot.

The batteries for the bus were delivered Saturday and I will begin the prep work for that job tomorrow. It is a big job with a huge learning curve. All the power has to be completely off to the bus so I am hoping to finish in one day. I am apprehensive about the whole thing so if you would pray for me I would be thankful. I plan to wade in Wednesday about daylight.

Later in the week or maybe next week I will be mounting some brackets to the floor of the trailer to make tying down the car easier. I am sure I will have pictures of all the work.

It's going to be a busy week!

Davy

Hot Under the Tent.

I have been posting in the evening the last few days so if you missed yesterday's post you will find it HERE

It is HOT in Oklahoma this week!.

Leave it to me to pick the hottest week so far this year for Tent Revival in Miami, Oklahoma. It is forecast to be a scorcher this afternoon and the next few days.

I know from experience that it can cool down to a tolerable level with a little wind and a slight reduction in temperature. Please help us pray that it will not be as hot as they are predicting. Just the threat of record temps will often keep some folks away. God certainly knows what we need but He has instructed us to seek Him and to ask Him and to make our needs known to Him. I will be doing that a lot the next few days and I am asking you for your help.

We had a great service this morning inside the church here at Faith Pentecostal Church. God visited with us and help us in a sweet and powerful way. We are expecting that to carry over right into the tent services this evening.

It is time to eat a small bite now and then venture out into the sun to prepare for service. I always set up the sound system at least two hours before church on the first night in order to be ready for surprises. They start at 5:00 on Sunday nights so it is about that time.

Thanks for reading...

Davy

Tent Goes Up in Miami, Oklahoma

Tent set up went extremely well in Miami, Oklahoma. Pastor Mike Stephens and his men worked hard and well and in no time at all the tent was up. Bro. Jimmy Millikin was also there and working hard as well. Bro. Colton Cravatt, one of the young men traveling with us for a few weeks, had his mom and dad her and they  were helping too. We appreciate all the hard work. 

We had a great tent revival here in Miami last year and we are expecting more blessings from the Lord again this week. We will have the first service Sunday evening at 5:00. It is supposed to be very hot the first couple of days this week. Please pray that it will be cooler in the evening.

I hope you enjoy the pictures!

Davy

Everything is laid out the stakes are in the ground and it is time for a break!

We had just enough wind blowing to make it interesting...

After the tent was up we went for a nice Mexican lunch. It was very good.

This is what I ordered...

Bro. Jimmy said that he made the mistake of ordering the same thing I did!