We interrupt our normal broadcast for a special bulletin. Please tune in tomorrow at this same time for The Weekend Dispatch that you would normally find here on Monday.
It Has Actually Been A Great Year!
We celebrate dates here on Mile Markers. It is one thing we do consistently. We mark birthdays, anniversaries and special days of all kinds.
We usually do not mention dates that mark events that we would rather forget, but marking dates happens in my mind whether I want to remember the date or not. It is part of my psyche. It is who I am.
Even though the dates I would rather forget stick in my mind like neon billboards, I usually do not commemorate them here among all of the hallowed dates. I especially do not push off a normal weekly feature post to mark such a date, yet here I am.
This date, January 31, has some significance because it is a date that is relatable to my readers. It may not be your date, but many of you have a date in the last two years that rings true with my date.
One year ago today, January 31, 2021, is the date that Odie and I tested positive for Covid in a small hospital within walking distance of where I sit this very moment at Abundant Life Holiness Church in Bernice, Louisiana.
Yes, January 31, 2021, is a date that I would rather forget for many reasons. It is a date that I wish was wiped off the calendar and all of the bad events of that day with it.
Beginning on that date, Odie and I became sicker than we have ever been in our lives. We stayed sicker longer than we have ever been sick in our lives. One year later, I am still dealing with after effects of that horrible day.
On the evening of January 31, we pointed the BoggsMobile toward home. On February 2, we pulled the bus into the barn. The trip home had been difficult, agonizing and stressful on all three of us, but by God's grace, we made it!
In the course of those three days of driving, at least four Pastors had invited us to park at their church while healing. For nearly 1000 miles I wondered if I should have taken one of them up on their kind offer. It surely looked like we were not going to make it home.
Over the next few months, I would praise God repeatedly that He had given us the strength to make it home. Hallelujah! Once we made it to Ohio, we were so glad to be there!
Two days after arriving home and pulling into the barn, there is no way in the world I could have driven the bus one mile. I was too sick to do it. We are very thankful that I did not reach that breaking point out on the Highway somewhere.
By the seventh day, February 6, my body temperature had been wildly fluctuating for over 36 hours. It would go from outrageously low to dangerously high and back again in only minutes. I was tracking the violent temperature swings with two thermometers and I felt like my body could not take it anymore.
I do not mention the actual temperatures, because I am not sure that anyone beyond people that know me well would even believe the numbers.
About 9:00 PM on February 6, Bro. John Gabbard called and said, "Me and Ann are going to prayer right now." And boy howdy, did they ever go to prayer. I was instantly saturated with the Holy Ghost as they prayed and while they were praying my body temperature went to normal and never rose or fell again!
Put a finger right there in the story because it is important.
I had been marching in place and singing several times a day since we had arrived home. I knew I must keep moving and I intended to build my voice strength. I thought I would be back to revivals in 2-3 weeks and I knew I must have breath and my voice.
On day 11, four days after God touched my temperature, I could not breathe. Through miraculous intervention two local Pastors, Bro. Philip Hoskins and Bro. Danny Lamb brought an oxygen bottle to me and later that night an oxygen machine. They did this late at night in the middle of a snowstorm and saved my life.
In week number six I started struggling to breathe again, even with supplemental oxygen. In week seven, as my lungs filled with inflammation, I felt like my breath would soon stop. With full flow oxygen, my levels were very, very low.
One evening that week, Pastor Mike Metzger called a few minutes after 9:00 and hit his knees in fervent prayer. KJo was in the bus at the time and she is my witness.
While Bro. Metzger prayed, the Holy Ghost covered me and Kelly Jo. We rejoiced, praised God and we were lost in His Spirit for over 20 minutes. I was not instantly healed, but I received a glimmer of hope that I might live to preach again.
Now, let me go back to the night of prayer on February 6. From the moment Bro. John and Sis. Ann prayed for me until way up into May, the presence of the Lord was near me, more consistently near me than I have ever felt Him in my life.
All I had to do was raise my hand or whisper His name and His sweet Spirit would overwhelm me, strengthen me and help me. It was an absolutely amazing three + months and that is reason enough to mark this terrible day.
January 31, 2021, was the beginning of something awful in our lives. It was also the beginning of three of the best months of my life. Hallelujah! I never want to be that sick again, but IF I could have God that present and real every moment, I believe I could take it.
There is no time to tell the whole story here, but we remained mostly in our home area for 203 days. It was late October, over ten months before I felt like I had turned a corner and began to build strength. It is still a road we are walking.
Yet, from the very beginning, good friends would call and text and remind me that God had told them I would rise up and preach again.
Thank God for His sure Word of prophecy!
Thank God for His protection.
Thank God for His provision.
Thank God for His healing power
Thank God for His people.
He has brought me, yes He has brought me a mighty long way!
So to sum up this January 31 anniversary, it has actually been a great year. It has been a horrendous year and it has been a wondrous year! We look forward to another year that is hopefully and prayerfully more wondrous than horrendous.
Thank you for riding along with us. You prayed with us and you stayed with us and we will never forget it. May God bless you abundantly for it.
Have a great week.
Davy
