View Out The Front Window April 30, 2017

The view out our front window has not changed this week so I thought I would give you a glimpse out the front door of the parsonage here at HPC.

Odie has set up housekeeping in the parsonage and we are living part time in it and part time in the BoggsMobile. It is very nice have some extra elbow room but I am such a creature of habit. I happen to really like our little home.

Here are links to our posts from the last week.

Odie's Saturday Post

This Week in Pictures

Going Around The Block

Lord, I Believe

Your Must Have A Good Foundation

Weekend Woundup and Weview # 17

Harmony and Anointing Are Amazing

Hello Friends,

This is Odie checking in from Hodgenville, Kentucky. We have had a wonderful week working with some great people here at HPC. It is an honor for my family to be included in this Music and Ministry Month. I only play a small role but I am thrilled to be here. 

Music and singing is very dear to my heart. It has always been part of my life. I am grateful that my parents raised me in a home with a love of music and taught me an appreciation for it at a young age.

I started singing in church around the age of 4 and I was 5 when we recorded our first cassette tape. When I listen to the recording now I can not believe my parents let my singing slide by. I guess they thought it was cute. I do remember putting my heart into the recording. Thankfully my singing has progressed and gotten better, I think. I am a long way from being my best but I am always striving to be a better singer. 

In the summer of 1993 Mom started teaching me to sing harmony. I started with the alto part but I dreamed of being a high soprano singer. Sadly that was not in the plans for me. I accept my position as an alto and I have grown to love that part. 

I will always have a deep appreciation for someone who has a big vocal range and can ring the rafters but I am happy to add my voice in as well. It is a privilege to sing.

When I began singing at 4 years old I never dreamed that I would sing Gospel music all over the United States and in foreign countries. What an amazing journey it has been and continues to be.

I have been reflecting this week on things that happened when I was younger and the impact they had on me. One of the first songs I sang harmony on was Use Me Lord I Pray. Here are the lyrics to the chorus.

Use me Lord I Pray 

Make me stronger everyday 

Here's my life please take control 

Use me body mind and soul

Lord I give my life to you today 

Use me Lord I pray 

This song was written by John Dixon. I remember thinking way back then that it had awesome words. It has been a prayer of mine through the years. 

Mom sang this chorus during a prayer time after a session last Saturday. I was reminded of learning to sing harmony on this song. I had no clue how singing the Gospel would come to be an everyday part of my life. I am extremely blessed and grateful that get to do something I love so much. 

I love being able to work alongside my family as a ministry team. Singing with my Dad and Mom is my happy place. But I will never forget an experience I had when I was 14. I was at youth camp without my parents and I was asked at the last minute to sing a special. I usually did not sing without Mom and Dad.

I obeyed leadership and got up and sang my song. I sang it through once, repeated the chorus a couple times and maybe the second verse. I went and sat down as I was trained to do. 

Later those in charge told me the Lord had been moving and I should have kept singing. It Is one of the first times I remember feeling the anointing singing by myself. It kind of took me by surprise but it was a learning experience. My parents being there was not a necessity to be anointed. I could have it for myself too. 

Singing is nothing without the anointing of God. There are times when I sing and I do not feel anointed at all! It causes me to examine things and see why I did not have that extra touch. I want to always be a willing and available vessel that God can use to touch others. It is a honor and a humbling experience to be anointed by God! 

There a many experiences over the years when God moved while we have been singing. I never want to lose sight that it was Him moving. I was just a minor part of his plan. 

We have reached the end of my rambling and reminiscing. I have a hard time putting into words the things I feel in my heart. I hope my awesome editor was able to make sense of all this! I am so thankful for the opportunities that I have had to minister to others through music. 

Thanks for reading. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Odie

This Week In Pictures

I mentioned early on that our schedule the next few weeks would be busier than normal and that has proven to be true. We are enjoying every minute of it but there are only so many hours during the day. All I have for you today are pictures from our week. Most of these are from our week in Hodgenville but the last few are from Acapulco last night with family! That was sooooo good!

We are in Ohio this morning checking on things with the house construction. We will be headed back to Hodgenville in a few hours by His grace.

Thanks for checking in today.

Davy

Going Around the Block

Hey, the block has arrived on the job at the Lazy OD Ranch and it is time to get serious. The block layers are wanting to start today but we need the rain to hold off! The chance of rain goes way up in a couple of hours but I am asking God to let it go around. We need to get this part completed as quickly as possible so we can stay on schedule without much hurdle jumping.

I love the looks of this. Thanks Mom for the pictures!

Thank you all for the nice texts and comments about yesterday's post. I was writing from my heart and that usually connects with someone. It encourages me when you take time to let me know you are catching the message. Thank you.

There is no doubt that God is able to do what He has promised to do! All He asks us to do is believe Him and to take Him at His Word. Easy Peasy, right?

Well, it should be easy because we know that God can not lie. We also know that He has our best interests at heart. But when doubts and difficulties arise and the enemy of our soul is screaming in our ears, it easy to lose our grip on what we know to be true. God help us all.

We are traveling home today by God's grace so I need to get things shaking. Thanks for tuning in today.

Davy

Lord, I Believe!

I have written about this lots of times before but I think it needs to be repeated over and over. It seems that God constantly stretches the faith of His children by normal every day happenings and completely unexpected events in our lives.

It is fun to watch things come together when it looks near impossible for them to work out right. I have been having a bunch of fun lately because God has been bringing numerous pieces together for us the last few weeks. Praise God for His faithfulness.

City Reach was a complete test of radical faith and God proved Himself more than sufficient for the task. Several times during City Reach I would look at Kelly Jo or Bro. Jimmie Radcliffe and wonder out loud about the excitement of not knowing where and how the Lord was going to come through.

It was thrilling right then because we knew God was working even when we could not see it! In the back of my mind through all of that, I was curious what in the world God had in store for us after City Reach!

Now I know. He was going to direct us to Hodgenville, Kentucky for Music and Ministry Month (Completely outside our comfort zone) and He was going to have us build a house for Odie's future.

The faith stretching events of the past several years have definitely prepared us to be stretched a little more this year! I love that!

I am pretty transparent on this blog and in my preaching. I often tell about my struggles in believing God to do exactly what He has promised to do. Faith in God is one of my favorite subjects. Faith in God is a wonderful, amazing and often elusive thing for me. I pray often, "Lord, I believe. Help thou my unbelief."

The awesome thing is that just like the desperate father in the Bible that prayed that prayer, that statement does not disqualify me to receive the answer I am seeking. We think of that last phrase "Help thou my unbelief" as a dis-qualifier. But somehow in God's economy it often becomes the qualifier.

It is as if God appreciates the honesty. 
God I trust you! 
God I have faith you will do it. 
God I believe! 
But, Lord, there is a little part of my heart that I am not sure of yet. 
In the middle of the night, when I am all alone. 
-When the pain is great, when confusion reigns, Lord, I admit that I have doubts, fears and misgivings. 
Lord, help my unbelief.

It seems that God takes our declaration of faith mixed with the honest confession of nagging fears and doubts and puts it in the balance and finds in us the faith necessary to send the miracle we need. Hallelujah!

However, there are other times that I sense God pointing us in a certain impossible direction and in the depths of my soul I know without any doubt He is going to provide the open door and the means to walk through the door.

I have preached for years that where God leads, He feeds and where God guides He provides! I have watched him do it time after time. There are some impossibilities we face and I have no doubt whatsoever that God is about to do a miracle!

I wish I could say that I am right there right now. But honestly I am more in the Lord, I believe. Help thou my unbelief position at the moment! But I am content there. God works miracles there. God is about to work another one there.

Plus, He has been whispering to my spirit and I am feeling my faith rise up! There is no telling what God may do!

Are you in an impossible situation? Are you facing a head shaking dilemma? Get ready, friend. Have faith in God! Confess your faith to God. Confess your doubt to God. Watch God do the impossible in your life!

That is just the kind of God He is!

Thanks for reading today.

Davy

You Must Have A Good Foundation

We know we have people reading from all walks of life and from various points around the globe. We are thankful for every one of you. We also know that you found these Mile Markers for all kinds of different reasons. Many of you know us personally from church and revivals but many more of you arrived here after searching for information on a variety of subjects. 

Those subjects range from an interest in RV living, salsa, buses, evangelism, tent revivals, Gospel music, southern Gospel music, preaching, prayer, miracles, local churches, missions, Nigeria and who knows what else. 

We have been told by many of you that you came searching for information about one narrow subject and you stayed a while and have been with us every since. Thank you for hanging around.

Since we have readers from such varied places, background and interests I sometimes wonder if I am writing about things that will keep you interested.

For example, when I write about bus repairs I imagine that some of your eyes glass over with boredom. But I also know that many, many readers found this blog by Googling specific information concerning various repairs to a Prevost bus. Those are some of our more popular posts.

Then once in a while a lady at a church will tell us they get so nervous when I write about the bus being in the shop. They are about to pace the floor just like I do. Then they will sometimes tell me to keep writing those posts because it lets them know how to pray for us. It is neat to watch that work.

Yet I still worry sometimes when our life is consumed with one thing and therefore these Mile Markers are mostly about that one thing. For instance, last year when we were covered up with City Reach. I made the comment here that I hoped folks did not mind that we were writing about City Reach so much.

Then a reader pointed out a paragraph I wrote as an introduction to this blog when we started in 2009. The full text is HERE but I have pasted the relevant paragraph below.

Mile Markers are a good way to describe our updates from the road.  They keep track of our progress as we move across the country. We post about the grace of God, great churches, Pastors, people, revivals, music, family, food, fellowship, fun, our travels and who knows what else. Thanks for stopping in to read our Mile Markers. 

That pretty much sums it up. I appreciated the reminder about that and it made me feel a little better.

We post about pretty much anything that happens to be going on in our lives at the time and if that is City Reach for a year, then that is what we write about. If it is building a house then we will probably post a lot about building a house. Any other way would not be genuine.

With that being said, the blog will serve as a journal of our house building adventure. Today we have some pictures and a little description from the process of putting in the footer for the house for Odie to live in.

Bro. David Butler began by renting a Bobcat and removing the topsoil from the building site. This is a picture of the first scoop.

We will need all of that dirt and more to pile around the outside of the foundation walls. Thankfully we saved a bunch of dirt from the water ditch and once we throw that in, we should have enough.

We will need quite a bit of gravel as good fill for the inside of the foundation. The gravel will be the base for the slab. Bro. Butler had six loads brought in and put on the house site. The rest will be put in by a slinger truck once the block walls are up.

The next day Bro. Butler dug the actual footer. This is the very first scoop of dirt for the footer.

Odie is a great supervisor!

The next morning was our first actual construction inspection and Bro. David Butler's work passed with flying colors.

Then it was time for 16 1/2 yards of concrete for the footer.

This is the very first bit of concrete going into the ditch!

It turned out beautiful. We appreciate Bro. Butler and his company, my parents and my brother Steve for their hard work to this point.

The block is supposed to be delivered tomorrow and the block layers hope to start laying block toward the end of the week. Pray that the weather will cooperate.

Thank you for reading. 

Davy