#9 Weekend Woundup and Weview

Today is LEAP DAY! I want to say Happy Birthday to two friends. Bro. Bruce Mayhan has grandchildren but is having his 13th birthday. Bailey Boggs is nearly a full grown man and is having his 4th birthday today! Happy Birthday, friends!

Thursday, Friday and Saturday we spent working on the new PA equipment for City Reach and trying to get everything arranged and ready to ride. Kelly Jo has been working like a mule and I have been trying to keep up. I am putting together a post about the new equipment and all that goes with it. I hope to have the post ready later this week.

Friday afternoon Kelly Jo and I make a quip trip in the rental truck to Wynnewood, Oklahoma to put a bunch of stuff in the tent trailer that is stored there. We came back to Gainesville and picked up the Green Machine and then drove on down to Denton, Texas to return the truck. We arrived about 5 minutes before 6:00 PM. Just in time.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend including an ever important Taco Truck!

Sunday morning we drove the Green Machine to Plano, Texas to sing and preach for Bro. Tom Goodwin and the fine folks from First Assembly. I would have taken the bus down Saturday night but I was not sure I could get it in. It turns out that there is one drive I could get in so I will mark that in my mind for next time.

We had a wonderful service Sunday morning and great visit with Bro. and Sis. Goodwin and some of their family. They have a beautiful facility and their folks were very kind to us.

Pastor Tom and Sis. Jeanna Goodwin

By the time we were finished eating I was not feeling very well. I have been running from some chest congestion for a few days and it seems to have caught me Sunday morning. We made it back to Gainesville by 4:00 and I rested until church time. I was hoping that Pastor Dennis King would let me rest Sunday night and listen to him preach, but no such luck.

He insisted that I preach and about half way through the preaching, I was glad he did. I really felt heaven come down. God moved in a wonderful way during the altar service and I am so thankful. The folks at Gainesville are like family to us and we hate to see them in the rear view mirror but that time has come.

We plan to leave this morning for Arizona and eventually California. There is only about 60 mile difference between going I-40 or going I-10. We actually prefer the southern I-10 route even though it is a little longer. However we need an oil change in the BoggsMobile and I can get that done in Amarillo, Texas on I-40. 

If the weather was "iffy" on that route I would go southern but it looks good all week. So as soon as I have the tires checked, the bus cranked, the car hooked up and the holding tanks emptied we will hit the road.

Thanks for reading. I hope you all had a great weekend.

Davy

View Out The Front Window February 28, 2016

Check out our posts from the last week at the links below.

Odie's Saturday Post

Pictures of This Week's Travel

Back In The BoggsMobile

Contempt From The Sophisticated World

Weekend Woundup and Weview

Monday night we stayed in a motel near the airport in Nashville and I forgot to take a picture out the window. However, we stayed at this same motel once before and I have a picture from that visit. We were on the other side of the motel so I guess this is our view out the back window. 

Here is a picture out the window of our hotel near Little Rock Tuesday night. You also get a glimpse of the Budget truck we drove from Nashville to Gainesville, Texas.

Here is our view out the door at Gainesville.

And here is our view out the front window.

Odie took a picture of the bus Saturday for good measure.

We are singing and preaching in Plano, Texas this morning and we are looking forward to it. I hope you have a great Sunday.

Davy

Unexpected Encouragement

Hi friends, we have reached the final Saturday of February 2016. This is Odie coming to you from Texas. We are looking forward to being in Plano, Texas for morning service tomorrow. This will be our first visit to First Assembly. Pastor Tommy Goodwin invited us and we are thrilled we could be in service with them.

The plan for next week is for the BoggsMobile to head farther west. We are excited to be going westward. Who knows what adventures we will find along the way.

Since I wrote last week we had exciting things happen. We had fantastic time in New York last weekend. If you missed Dad's Weekend Woundup and Weview last Monday please read it. God allowed us to meet so many great people and he gave us favor by touching people in the services. I am thankful for the friendships that were started from our quick trip. I am looking forward to a return trip to New York.

Then we enjoyed a quick stop over in Nashville, Tennessee. There is definitely more to come about our time in Nashville. The equipment that was donated to us for City Reach is amazing! We drove a Budget rental truck from Nashville to Texas. It is a good thing that we are a close family. We had 700 plus miles of close family time in the cab of that truck. We had a great time making memories.

I love getting notes from my young friends. Sometimes I get them before or after church. A lot the times their notes reflect their childlike faith. I want to keep the faith of of a child.

Thursday we received our mail from home. I received the sweetest note from Calley Taylor of Laurel, Mississippi. It made my day! She drew a picture of me and the caption read, "You are gitting Hilled!"

Click on the picture below to make it bigger for better viewing.

Calley, I treasure your faith and encouragement! Thank you for sharing your masterpiece with me. I believed I will be healed. And God used you to encourage me. 

I want to encourage everyone reading to keep believing God. Our God turns impossibilities into possible realities, in His time. Also take a little time to be an encourager. A card, call, text, a kind word or deed can brighten someone's day unexpectedly. It feels good to help somebody see a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day. 

Have a God Blesses Weekend. I pray you find extra unexpected encouragement today. Thank you for reading!

Odie 

Pictures From This Week's Travel

Well, I did not stay in bed 12 hours Wednesday night like I wanted to but I did sleep almost 7 hours and that is pretty good for me. I woke up ready to get with it so I must have rested all I needed.

Odie had taken a few pictures from our travel days this week that have not been posted. I will remedy that right now. 

This Deli was a few gates down from our departing gate at JFK on Monday.

Here we are at the gate ready to go. Bro. Wade's flight was just a few minutes after ours and was going out right next to ours.

I guess we received phone calls at the same time.

Odie took some pictures from the plane.

This was a gravel pit as we were about to land in Nashville, Tennessee.

Tuesday we rented a Budget truck in Nashville and picked up some equipment that was donated to City Reach. I am excited to tell you all about that some time next week probably.

By Tuesday late afternoon we were loaded and headed west.

Driving in the rain was no fun at all!

Wednesday the rain was mostly gone and we had only the high winds to contend with.

That pretty much sums up our three travel days this week in pictures. Thursday we worked on sorting and arranging equipment and figuring out how we can haul it all. We had a lot of fun playing with all the new stuff but we worked hard and long too. It was after 11:00 before we went in the bus and sat down last night. 

Thanks for reading.

Davy

Back In The BoggsMobile

We post most days here but occasionally we will miss a day due to various things going on. Yesterday we were very busy with travel and such, but I left Tuesday's post at the top an extra day on purpose. I received several texts and a few phone calls from friends and family reacting positively to the blog that day and I knew a bunch of folks were reading it.

Evidently others must have been linking to it or sharing it on other sites because it received more than our normal MILLIONS of visitors. IF by chance you have not read it, you can read it HERE. It is called Contempt From The Sophisticated World.

We traveled pretty hard most of the last three days and we arrived back at the BoggsMobile at 12:20 AM Wednesday night/Thursday morning. Tuesday we drove in wind and driving rain for over 300 miles. We finally gave up and got a room just east of Little Rock.

Wednesday the rain was mostly gone but the wind was super strong all day long. It was hitting us head on or from the side so it beat us up pretty bad. We were hauling some things for City Reach in a rental truck and that made us a great big target for the wind. I was glad to stop for a while Wednesday evening.

We detoured just a little bit from the straight route to Gainesville so we could attend one night of Fellowship Meeting in Idabel, Oklahoma. It had been 25 years since we had been there. Pastor Phillip Snow and his family are great people and although we see them at meetings and see their children scattered about the country working in ministry, it took us a while to circle back through. It was good to be close enough to go again.

I really wanted to go so we could hear Pastor Jon Isaacs preach. We love Bro. Jon and his family. It was wonderful to be with them a few months ago in Alabama and we have been anxious to see them again. Only Bro. Jon and Alivya were able to make the trip but we loved being with them. Bro. Jon preached great and it was well worth the few extra miles we drove to be there.

It was 9:55 when we pulled out of the church and 2 hours and 25 minutes later we were here. I am writing this and posting this before I go to bed and I know it is going to feel good to crawl into my own bed. I may stay there 12 hours!

Thanks for reading.

Davy

Contempt From The Sophisticated World

I ran across this quote from Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia a while back and I filed it away for future reference. In the days since his death, I have seen it several places and it rings powerful and profound every time I read it. 

It is credited as part of a speech at Living the Catholic Faith conference in 2012. I have seen it credited to other speeches as well and it is entirely possible and highly probable he said this on multiple occasions.

“God assumed from the beginning that the wise of the world would view Christians as fools…and he has not been disappointed.… If I have brought any message today, it is this: Have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity. Be fools for Christ. And have the courage to suffer the contempt of the sophisticated world.”

Admittedly, Justice Scalia's view of the Christian faith was 180 degrees opposite from mine but his great legal mind grasped very clearly the opposition of the world to nearly every thing considered Christian. He echoed Paul's words and summed them up very succinctly.

It was a reoccurring theme for Paul. He knew we would be tempted to allow the elite, the noble, the cultivated, the sophisticated as Judge Scalia said, the wise, to intimidate us into denying the preaching of the cross, the power of the Gospel and the truth of the Word of God because they know it is foolish.

Paul rejected that notion repeatedly and forcefully! I have listed just a few examples below. Take a moment to read each verse carefully, please.

I Corinthians 1:18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

 19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.

 20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

 21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

I Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

I Corinthians 3:18  Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.

 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.

 20 And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.

I am sure the Supreme Court may never be the same without the brilliant mind of Justice Antonin Scalia. I am sure the conservative segment of American society will have to look long and hard for a replacement. His untimely death may have long and lasting effects on our society.

But I find it extremely interesting that in every article of the great and witty things he said or wrote, you find the quote above in every list. This man wrote literal volumes of legal opinions that law schools will be teaching and debating for years to come. Yet out of all his great analytic, brilliant, intelligent, profound things he uttered: it is amazing that one taken directly from scripture would be among his most quoted. That alone should speak volumes to us.

Take courage, friend. Let the world call you a fool. Let the world say you are unlearned and uneducated. Let the wise of this world scorn you for your belief in the Bible, in Christ, in morality and in the Gospel.

But know this friend, God has the final say and God is always right. God will take the wise in their own craftiness.

Believe the Bible! Believe the Gospel! Believe Truth! 

Let the wise say what they will and let their insults ricochet off you like a smooth stone on water or bullets on armor. Their constant barrage of put downs, mockery and slander should not even turn our head. Their condescending babble is all vain, no matter how much they applaud themselves!

Does it really matter in the grand scheme of things if the talking heads on TV, the movie stars, sports heroes or music idols agree with God and give us permission to believe God too?

Think about it friend. Justice Scalia was right. Apostle Paul was right. And God is right. That is the side I want to be on.

Davy 

#8 Weekend Woundup and Weview

We are coming to you this morning live from New York.

Friday morning Sis. Judy King took us to DFW airport and we appreciate her kindness very, very much. We are not flying directly into Dallas when we return so we did not really need to leave the Green Machine at the airport. When Sis. Judy insisted on taking us, we were very thankful.

We zoomed through security and went to our gate, 29. Then went to the second gate, 40. Then went to the third gate, 20 and there we boarded the plane. 

Here is a funny. Gate 40 was a good ways from food. Odie said, "Our gates are never close to the restaurants." While they were gone to fetch the food they changed us to gate 20 and I took all of our stuff down there. Gate 20 was directly across from a huge complex of a bunch of restaurants!

Bro. and Sis. Hardyal met us at the airport in New York City and treated us like kings from the very first moment. We really appreciate all of their hospitality and kindness. They have really overwhelmed us with good treatment.

Odie, Kelly Jo, Pastor Ivan Hardyal and Pastor Wade Hicks.

Bro. Victor Raguenath came to the hotel to visit with us Saturday morning. 

Bro. Victor came from Guyana in the early 70's and attended Export Bible Institute. He pastored churches many years and is now semi-retired and now works to promote cooperation, evangelism and fellowship among churches hear and in Guyana.

Bro. Victor has also invited us to Guyana for open air meetings. We had a wonderful sweet visit with him.

Saturday afternoon Paul Hardyal drove us to The Bronx to visit Pastor Danilo Florian and Bro. Henry Reyes. 

They are interested in the possibility of organizing a city wide meeting there among some churches. They already cooperate with several churches in outreach so it is very possible they will be able to pull something together.

The Pastors in The Bronx and in Queens are unsure they can secure open ground for the tent, which is very hard to find in the city, plus permission for tent revival between now and July. If something comes together here it may be open air or in one of the churches.

Bro. Reyes, Davy, Bro. Wade and Bro. Florian

Saturday night Bro. Hardyal came to pick us up for supper and brought us a homemade treat. We love plantain and these are thinly sliced, fried green plantain chips! Trust me, they are absolutely delicious!

Sunday morning we sang and preached at New Life Christian Center for Pastor Hardyal and his fine people. We had a tremendous service. These folks love Bro. Wade Hicks and his brother in law Bro. Hobert Bowling. Bro. Wade and Bro. Hobert were kind enough to introduce us to their friends and so now they love us too!

Sis. Hardyal and Kelly Jo

Sunday night Pastor Gee at Love and Grace Church organized a special service so we could sing and preach to several congregations at once. I do not know how many churches were represented but I think I counted seven Pastors there.

We had a wonderful service of fellowship, singing, preaching and praying. God moved in mighty way in the altar service. I know God was working miracles in lives right before our very lives.

Pastor Gee, Kelly Jo and Davy

Thanks to Lydia for helping Odie get pics after church.

If we have a City Wide meeting in Queens inside a church, then Bro. Gee's church would be excellent. They also own a small parking lot close to their church and we may be able to set a tent there. My tent would not fit on it but that is just a small obstacle. There is a new hindu temple between the church and the parking lot so that would be interesting and could be the providence of God.

I would say the trip has been an overwhelming success and we have made some friendships that will last a lifetime. I appreciate God using Bro. Wade Hicks and Bro. Hobert Bowling to open the doors for us in New York City. Every preacher and every pastor we met here is a direct result of their introductions and influence. God bless you, friends for having confidence in our family and connecting us with your friends.

I want to thank Pastor Hardyal for opening his family and church to us. We have never been treated any better than by these folks that had no idea who we were. They went strictly on recommendation and made us feel like family.

Pastor Hardyal introduced us to Pastor Gee and then he in turn introduced us to all the Pastors that came to service Sunday night. Thank you, my dear brothers for taking a chance on us and for catching our vision to take the precious Gospel message outside the four walls of the church. I believe that God is going to do great things.

Thank you all for praying for us this weekend. God has helped us tremendously. This afternoon we fly to Nashville. I will tell you more about all that later.

Thanks for reading.

Davy