I think I should recap the whole week to bring you up to date. Tuesday we were traveling as fast as we dared in the rain toward Sterlington, Louisiana to begin revival Wednesday night.
Diesel was one of the first things on the agenda Tuesday.
Shortly after our fuel stop Pastor Tracy Boyd found out his Dad was having a major health crisis and he text and called me to let me know. It was imperative for the Boyd's to go to Oklahoma and we understood that completely.
We missed, missed, missed being in revival and we hated not being with the Boyd's and their people all week, but we knew we should make hay while the sun was shining or maybe umbrellas while it was raining! 😅
We stopped an hour or so later to consider all of our options. We could have preached at least Wednesday at any of a number of churches and we could have driven out of our way a bit and parked at a church for 3-4 nights. We had a few invitations to do that and we seriously considered it.
We decided to stay on the route to Louisiana and stop at a rest area Tuesday night and get some work done. Then we would decide how far to travel each day and what to do from there.
There is a lot of ministry and personal bookwork that must be completed during January. We write, print and send letters to all of the churches we preached in the previous year and we are required to send donation acknowledgments to all contributors to Boggs Family Ministries too.
Kelly Jo and I spent many hours doing those two tasks Wednesday. Then I began working on gathering information and preparing a financial and ministry report for the board members of Boggs Family Ministries. We are required by our bylaws to have a board meeting in January and I like to give them a full accounting of the previous year.
Then I gathered all the information that needs to be sent to our tax preparer for our personal taxes. We worked on all of those projects all week long in different locations and in bits and pieces. I finished up Friday evening in a rest area off I-20 in Louisiana.
We usually do all of the January bookwork while revivals are going on. We work in small 1-2 hour windows and complete it over a 2-3 week period. By focusing on these things all day long, we checked everything off the list in record time. Hallelujah!
During the brief moments that KJo was not helping me, she was helping Odie get packed up for her vacation. Odie was scheduled to fly out of Monroe, Louisiana Sunday morning so she was tasked with getting ready to go while we were moving each day and working on reports and letters.
The dynamic duo of KJo and Odie pretty much finished that up Friday too.
We did take two breaks from work and from the bus all week. We stopped at Chili's in Meridian early one day so that we could park in the plaza parking lot before it filled up. It worked perfectly.
Diesel was one of the first things on the agenda Tuesday.
Shortly after our fuel stop Pastor Tracy Boyd found out his Dad was having a major health crisis and he text and called me to let me know. It was imperative for the Boyd's to go to Oklahoma and we understood that completely.
We missed, missed, missed being in revival and we hated not being with the Boyd's and their people all week, but we knew we should make hay while the sun was shining or maybe umbrellas while it was raining! 😅
We stopped an hour or so later to consider all of our options. We could have preached at least Wednesday at any of a number of churches and we could have driven out of our way a bit and parked at a church for 3-4 nights. We had a few invitations to do that and we seriously considered it.
We decided to stay on the route to Louisiana and stop at a rest area Tuesday night and get some work done. Then we would decide how far to travel each day and what to do from there.
There is a lot of ministry and personal bookwork that must be completed during January. We write, print and send letters to all of the churches we preached in the previous year and we are required to send donation acknowledgments to all contributors to Boggs Family Ministries too.
Kelly Jo and I spent many hours doing those two tasks Wednesday. Then I began working on gathering information and preparing a financial and ministry report for the board members of Boggs Family Ministries. We are required by our bylaws to have a board meeting in January and I like to give them a full accounting of the previous year.
Then I gathered all the information that needs to be sent to our tax preparer for our personal taxes. We worked on all of those projects all week long in different locations and in bits and pieces. I finished up Friday evening in a rest area off I-20 in Louisiana.
We usually do all of the January bookwork while revivals are going on. We work in small 1-2 hour windows and complete it over a 2-3 week period. By focusing on these things all day long, we checked everything off the list in record time. Hallelujah!
During the brief moments that KJo was not helping me, she was helping Odie get packed up for her vacation. Odie was scheduled to fly out of Monroe, Louisiana Sunday morning so she was tasked with getting ready to go while we were moving each day and working on reports and letters.
The dynamic duo of KJo and Odie pretty much finished that up Friday too.
We did take two breaks from work and from the bus all week. We stopped at Chili's in Meridian early one day so that we could park in the plaza parking lot before it filled up. It worked perfectly.
The Chili's stop was even better than originally planned. We got to see family, Sis. LaBonna Shoemaker and Selah! Yay!
Thursday afternoon, Bro. Scott and Sis. Kim Morris drove over 100 miles to eat with us at Berry's Seafood just south of I-20 in Florence, Mississippi. What an amazing act of friendship! We loved the visit with our friends.
We had no idea that you eat for free at Berry's if you go on your actual birthday. That was a bonus. The next three pictures were taken at precisely 4:30 PM (5:30 Eastern) 53 years to the minute after I was born.
The small strips of steak and the blackened grilled fish were excellent! Wow!
We parked in a gravel parking lot behind Berry's in Florence. It was muddy so we had to unhook the car in order to turn around in the parking lot. It was a perfect place to park though. We stayed right there for the night and no one bothered us at all. It was way quiet. Odie said it was too quiet! She prefers semi-trucks idling nearby.
All the rest of the nights in rest areas, I am sure that Odie had all of the idling trucks she needed.
We had planned to park close to the Monroe Regional Airport Saturday evening so we could have Odie in place for her early morning flight Sunday. After Odie was in the air, we would have about 70-90 minutes to drive to our revival starting Sunday night.
Pastor Boyd was back home by Saturday and he invited me to preach for him Sunday morning. Kelly Jo and I discussed the logistics and decided that would work. It is only 25 minutes by car to the airport from Sterlington and then an hour by bus Sunday afternoon to Bernice.
It also gave us a chance to fellowship with the Boyd's Saturday evening. Bro. Shamgar Deatherage joined us for supper and took care of the meal too. Thank you, Bro. Shamgar.
We love these wonderful people!
Odie was winging her way toward Tampa by way of Atlanta early Sunday morning and she made it safely to her hotel about 2:00 PM central time.
We had a great morning with Pastor Boyd at Sterlington Holiness Tabernacle.
We had a smooth trip to Bernice, Louisiana. We were parked and hooked into the electricity by 3:00 Sunday afternoon.
A few minutes after we arrived and settled, Bro. and Sis. Brandon came, unlocked the church and helped us carry in our sound equipment. We finished up our soundcheck at 5:00 church began at 6:00.
This is our first time being here, but this is not our first revival for Bro. Brandon. We preached for him several times in years past in Stockton, California. It is super great to be with them again.
We had a wonderful first night of revival at Bernice with Pastor Michael Brandon and his folks and we are looking forward to three more nights of revival.
That's is a wrap. Thank you for dropping in today.
Davy
