Travel Day - Toward Nigeria, West Africa

This Morning's Post

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We have had a very good day of travel so far. The flight from Pensacola to Atlanta was only about 40 minutes and was mostly smooth. 

We are now sitting at our gate in Atlanta waiting for our overnight flight. In a few blinks of an eye we will be in Nigeria by God's grace. 

Here are a few pictures and we bid you farewell. God bless. 

Davy

Atlanta

On deplane! Every seat is sold!

Time to Go to Nigeria!

This is departure day! In less than 24 hours Kelly Jo and I should be in Nigeria with Bro. Shobanke and his precious people. We never look forward to the long flight but we are anxious to see every one again. Bro. Shobanke called this morning to hear my voice and I told him that soon I would see him face to face.

We "should" be on the ground in Lagos by Friday at 8:30 AM central time. I put that in parentheses because our flight was delayed in Atlanta over 4 hours last time and then we waited over 2 hours for our luggage in what felt like a sauna once we arrived in Lagos. That made for a very, very long day and night and day and into night again. Although we did get a good free meal in Atlanta and two small travel vouchers from Delta out of the deal. lol

As I have said before this is supposed to be a quick trip for us. Normally we are preaching Gospel crusades and a minister's conference while we are there and we usually stay several days. This trip we are dedicating the new branch church at Osara Rd, then preaching Sunday at Bro. Shobanke's main church, visiting the school on Monday and then heading home. I am sure it will feel like a whirlwind trip because of the short duration but we will be much less busy than normal.

Please pray for us while we are gone to Nigeria. Pray that we will be effective in the Ministry that God has called us to do. Pray that souls will be won to God and that saints will be encouraged. Pray that God will overshadow us all as we dedicate the new church. Pray for our safety and our health as well. Pray for Odie in Mississippi and pray that all goes as planned on our bus here in Florida. Thank you so much for holding us up in prayer.

If I have WiFi in Abeokuta and IF Google will allow me to access my email while I am there, I will update the blog with pictures and information as it happens. If not then Odie will be blogging in our absence and I will bring you up to date next week. Rest assured we will be taking lots of pictures.

I am sure I will be posting a few pictures before we leave Atlanta tonight.

God bless you all.

Davy

Counting Hours Now

Are you tired of eating cold pizza because the delivery driver can not find your house?

Maybe you should try making your house number a little more visible from the street.

Yep, I think that should do the trick!

Is that hilarious or what? That really is their house number. It matches the numbers on the porch post.

We are counting down the hours to departure time. We leave Pensacola in the afternoon tomorrow and then take the overnight flight out of Atlanta. We always try to plan a couple of days of down time before international trips but it never seems to work. We are normally floundering around at the last minute feeling like we are forgetting 47 important things.

This time it worked. Although last week and up until Monday morning was a total sprint, all of that work enabled us to relax yesterday (Tuesday) and today. I feel more emotionally and spiritually ready for this trip than I have in times past. Of course the fact that I am only scheduled to preach a few times instead of 10 times is probably helping with that.

Monday evening we met Bro. and Sis. Deane and Bro. Howard and Sis. Glenda for supper at Cheddar's.

We had a wonderful meal and fabulous fellowship. It capped off a great day. We appreciate the invitation and Bro. Howard and Sis. Glenda buying our meal.

I also appreciate Odie taking a little time to blog last night. I was under the weather pretty badly yesterday afternoon and evening. I woke up feeling better this morning, praise God. I think it might have been the malaria medicine that we began taking a few days ago. Any way, I think I will live.

You will probably hear from me once or twice Thursday and then Odie will probably take over the blog while we are gone. I will post from Nigeria if I can. It all depends on if dependable WiFi can be found.

God bless you all.

Davy

Odie Reporting From Mississippi

My home this week is Mississippi. Thanks to the Morris family for accepting as part of their family. I am having a wonderful time visiting with friends!!!  We have a full week ahead of us. I will be checking in along the way. I will probably be blogging while my parents are gone to Nigeria. 

Today I  met sweet Madison Hunnell. She is just a few days old. Congrats to Marlee and Cody and big brother Brody. Maddie is beautiful!!!

Tonight we celebrated "Mr. Anonymous" birthday!! Happy birthday Mr. Anonymous!!!  

Odie

The BoggsMobile and Odie are Gone

A Great Sunday

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This morning started pretty early. I cranked the BoggsMobile and gave it about 20 minutes to warm up. Then Kelly Jo flipped it around in its parking space so I could empty the holding tanks. When that was finished we were ready to go. 

I pulled out of Beams of Light Holiness church at 7:30 on the dot. I was supposed to have the bus at Jake Parkerson's shop at 8 and I arrived with about 4 minutes to spare. 

It was only 13 miles and only 2 turns but traffic was busy. Stop and go traffic gave me a chance to take a couple of pictures of the BoggsMobile and the Green Machine. 

Bro. Jake and his crew were waiting on me when I arrived. 

We went over everything and discussed the time schedule and then Bro. Jake showed me around his new shop. He has a great place to work and I know the BoggsMobile is it good hands. 

I still teared up a little as I drove away. 

Next it was time to get Odie started toward her temporary home. The Morris family have been on vacation a few days and they were passing through Pensacola at lunch time. We met them for lunch at Sonny's and off they went with Odie.  

We dropped Odie's Luggage and power chair in Richton when we picked up the trailer Thursday. We knew they would not have much room in their car. 

Even with her push chair they had a little room so I guess they just had to stop at Walmart. 

So now the BoggsMobile AND Odie are gone from us for several days. Can you guess which one I am missing more?

Davy

A Great Sunday

We had a great Sunday at Beams of Light Holiness Church in Cantonment, Florida. We were thrilled to be here for Pastor Appreciation Sunday morning. 

Pastor Philip Deane and his family have been here nearly 12 years and they are well loved by their church. The service Sunday morning was beautiful and the meal was beautiful too!

We had a good service Sunday night as well. These folks have always been so kind to us through the years and this weekend was no exception. We had a wonderful time. 

It was great to have Bro. Farrell Stearnes with us this weekend. He lives in the Pensacola area and is a dear friend. It is always a blessing to see his smiling face. 

We are planning to crank the BoggsMobile early Monday morning. It is less than 15 miles to Bro. Jake's shop but it will probably take about 30 minutes to get there with traffic. I also need to empty the holding tanks and it needs to be moved to do that. 

Hopefully after the bus is in position tomorrow we can take a moment to breathe. We have been going at a run for several weeks and at a flat out sprint for several days. We need to catch out breath before going to Africa. 

I am usually pretty nervous when the BoggsMobile is in somebody else's hands and out of my sight. I am asking the Lord to put my mind at ease this week. My sermons for Africa are ready but I need to be spiritually and emotionally fit for the services. 

Kelly Jo has been working so hard. i hope she can get rested by Wednesday. Thank you for praying for us. 

Davy