Thank God For The Barn!

 Thank God for the barn.

When we hit the road in January 2003, we were traveling in a Chevy truck, pulling a 1984 Hitchhiker fifth wheel. We did not have a designated place to park on the weeks we were home, so thankfully we did not have many weeks at home.

I do remember parking at a campground in Dayton for at least part of our short Christmas stay in December 2003.

At some point, Steve and Karen made their driveway available to us and for the rest of the time we owned fifth wheels, that is where we parked when home. It was quite an adventure for the whole family when we backed in, but the situation worked perfectly.

In March of 2008, we purchased the BoggsMobile and that changed everything. The bus was simply way too big for Steve and Karen's drive.

Bro. Rex Lloyd was Pastor at Dodd's at that time and he made a parking spot available at Dodd's Church. That was perfect for the bus! We tried to make our stays there as few as possible, but we were almost always there nearly two weeks at Christmas time.

From Christmas 2008 through Christmas 2013, we parked at Dodds Church. We will always be in the debt of the Dodds Church for that.

A few years the weather was fine, other years the weather was horrible. Some years, every day was a struggle to keep the bus from freezing up. I spent every waking moment and a bunch of moments I should have been sleeping, trying to stay one step ahead of the cold, wind, snow and ice. 

After 2013, I had enough. I was way past done. I decided that I would not bring the bus home in winter. I would park someplace in the south and drive the car or fly home for a week of Christmas. I was waving the white flag of surrender.

I had made plans to leave the bus in the southwest in December 2014 and fly home for a few days. By September of 2014, a window had opened for Boggs Family Ministries to buy the property next to Dodds Church, including the old barn I had been hoping to buy for 6 years.

By the end of September, a deal was struck and by December we were driving through New Mexico, finalizing the purchase and bringing the bus home.

We pulled the BoggsMobile into the barn for the first time on Thursday, December 11. You can see more pictures and read more about that HERE.

You are going to be tempted to say this is an exaggeration, but I assure you, it is not. 

Pulling the bus into the barn that day literally changed my life! 

At that time, the barn roof leaked like crazy! The barn is not insulated well, the barn is not heated, but it keeps out the wind. I have not had to worry about the bus freezing up for one moment in the last 7 plus years!

These last three weeks have reinforced this fact. Our weather has been horrible. We have had an abundance of snow, temperatures in the single digits and high winds. The bus has been in the barn, I have been sick and I have not had to worry about it for one moment.

IF the bus was outside, I would have been sick AND trying to keep the bus from freezing up. It would have been miserable!

Thank God for the barn. Thank God for the barn. Thank God for the barn!

Hallelujah!

Thank you for joining us today.

Davy