A Tribute to Pastor Dale Graham

Bro. & Sis. Graham

Several years ago we were traveling down I-44 in Missouri. By the grace of God we barely avoided a very serious accident. We were pretty shook up so we decided to stop at the Flying J for fuel and to sleep a few hours in the 5th wheel. We fueled up but all the parking spots were taken so we drove across the interstate and parked in the Wal-Mart parking lot.

After we were settled in the trailer I walked to the Taco Bell for some food. Inside was a local Pastor and his family. His name was Pastor Dale Graham. He invited us to church the next day and after a tremendous service Sunday night he asked to stay for revival. I made some phone calls to reschedule my next revival and we stayed the rest of the week. We had a great revival. From a near miss almost certainly fatal accident to a fuel stop, a full truck stop, a Wal-Mart, Taco Bell and a great revival. Sounds like God to me!

That week was the start of a long friendship and several revivals there in Sullivan, Missouri. We fell in love with Bro. Graham and his precious wife, his sons and daughters and their spouses and his grandchildren. Bro. Graham has always stayed in touch, keeping us informed of the happenings in the lives of his family and church. Just this past Saturday he was texting me asking for prayer and then giving me a praise report.

Sunday morning while he was preaching from Hebrews 11 about Abraham looking for that heavenly city Bro. Graham stepped out of time and into eternity. While preaching about Heaven he left Missouri and went to Heaven! His son told me yesterday that when he got to his dad he was already gone.

This is the second time in less than a week that a close friend has passed away suddenly and without warning. First Bro. Loren McCoy on Wednesday 11/3 and now Bro. Dale Graham on Sunday 11/7. Bro. Loren was 41 and I think Bro. Graham was 55. These two sudden deaths remind us again how quickly we can die and how important it is to be prepared to meet God. If you are not a born again Christian with a relationship with Christ, please pray now. Tomorrow may be too late. God loves you and wants to forgive you and wash you clean from sin but the choice is yours to make. God will not force Himself on you but if you are unsaved and reading this I am sure He is reaching for you.

Please pray for Sis. Graham, his whole family and the church he pastored. They need the help of God.

Davy

Bro Dale Graham in his pulpit.

Pastor Dale Graham & Davy

One Year of Mile Markers - November 7, 2011

I put up the first post on this blog one year ago today in preparation for our second mission trip to Nigeria. That first one was a test post. (Here it is) We were looking for a way to update the folks at home while out of the country and here we are a year later with almost 340 posts under our belt. Of course over 100 of those posts came in the next 6 weeks while preparing for, traveling to and from and giving details of our time in Nigeria. At that time I could only send one picture in each email from my phone so some days I would post several times with one picture in each post.

It worked so good in Nigeria that we decided to make this blog the home to all of our Mile Markers. We had previously posted Mile Markers on our Website but very often we couldn't post for weeks because of lack of internet service. With the blog, as long as we have phone service we can put something up. Since then we have posted an average of 19 times a month keeping you informed of the great events AND minutia of our lives on the road.

Who would ever imagined back then that we would have millions of readers every day?

In fact, who would ever imagine such a preposterous thing now?

So thanks for being one of our many MILLIONS dozens of readers here on boggsblogs.com. We appreciate the fact that you are interested in our lives and ministry. We also appreciate the comments, emails and even letters you have sent in response to something you read here. Many of you have let us know you pray for us on a regular basis and we thank you for that as well.

Thanks for the encouragement and kind words. We plan to keep posting Mile Markers to help you keep track of our progress as we move across the country preaching the gospel. Make sure to leave us a comment .... We love to hear from you!

Davy, Kelly Jo and Odie

Bloomington Pentecostal Church of God

Sunday October 31st we spent the day with the folks at Bloomington Pentecostal Church of God in Bloomington, California. It was a pleasure to meet these fine brothers and sisters and worship with them. We sang Sunday morning and then sang and preached on Sunday night. All the people were so kind and hospitable.

We really enjoyed the fellowship with Pastor John and Sis. Katrina Deatharage on Sunday night. They definitely have a heart for the lost and are giving their lives in the pursuit of reaching souls for Christ. They also happened to be celebrating 18 years of marriage on Sunday. I told them I liked them without even getting to know them. Anybody that has the guts to get married on Halloween and endure all the jokes that would go along with it must have a great sense of humor!

We sure look forward to going back in the future!

Davy

Now For Some Good News!

You can read some very good news right here.

Bro. Matthew Noe came back to the Lord at Bond Campmeeting in October. I am so glad we were there to experience it. It was such a thrill to see the joy of salvation on his face. It was great to visit with Matthew and Ashlee and hug their necks. Matthew was a little lad when we first went to Bond. It is good to have him back and to know they are allowing God to work in their lives.

Praise God! Praise God! Praise God!

Davy

Bro. Loren McCoy

We wore our African clothes one night and Bro. Loren McCoy wanted to wear some too. Here we are...

While in California this year we became fast friends with Bro. Loren McCoy. We had met his dad and some of his brothers before but had only heard of Loren. Everything we heard was good and every bit of it turned out to be true.

We had revival in Atwater for two full weeks. Bro. Loren came nearly every night that his home church wasn't having service. We sang, shouted, laughed, cried and melted together like brothers. I left there with a great love and respect for him. In fact I felt like we had been friends for years. I think he made everybody feel that way.

Wednesday Bro. Loren fell down and by the time somebody got to him he was in eternity. From all indications he had a massive heart attack. He left a large family and many, many friends behind and to every one of them I'm sure it seems he is gone too soon.

The two weeks I spent around him I saw a guy that loved God with great passion. Those that know him better than I do say he was more on fire for God than he had ever been. What a great testimony.

Bro. Loren loved to laugh. He loved to have a good time. I've been heavy hearted since I heard the news. I can not imagine the tears and sorrow of his mother, brothers and the rest of his family. But Loren is laughing, rejoicing and enjoying Heaven. Loren is in the presence of God. In that respect I kind of envy him. He's home! No more struggle. No more sorrow. No more disappointment. He made it!

I do wish I could talk to him one more time. I do wish I could hug his neck one more time...and I will. And it may not be long. It might not be long for any of us.

If you are not ready to meet God please get ready. If you don't know how to prepare to meet God send me an email. I would be glad to talk with you about it.

Update: Here's two more pictures of Bro. Loren during revival in Atwater. One is of him and little Jared Burris at work and the other was taken after church.

Please pray for Bro. Loren's family the next several days. They must have the help of God.

Davy

Los Angeles, California

We drove into Los Angeles on Friday night and again on Saturday morning. We have skirted around the edge of LA several times while driving back and forth between central California and Arizona and I flew into LAX once several years ago but we have never spent any time there.

The first thing of interest that we ran across was the famous "Hollywood" sign. We learned a few interesting facts about the sign. First we learned that the letters are 45' tall! Who knew? Secondly, the sign originally said "Hollywood Land". It was an advertisement for a real estate development in the 1920's. Also an actress committed suicide by jumping off the letter H into the deep ravine below during the great depression of the 1930's.

Next we found the site of the Azusa St. revival that started in 1906 and sparked Pentecostal revival around the world. The building has been gone for many years but it was neat to actually see the place where it happened.

I was very surprised to see a sign commemorating the place. I would guess that they have folks like us from all over that wonder in looking for 312 Azusa St. I was glad to be there. Thank God for Pastor William J. Seymour and the people who gathered from all over the world hungry for a manifestation of God in their lives!

Then we drove by the Angelus Temple that was built by Aimee Semple McPherson and dedicated on January 1, 1923. It was built to seat over 5000 people and was definitely the largest Pentecostal church at the time. It was pretty neat to see as well.

On Saturday we spent some time and walked some miles in the Garment District in downtown LA. It covers over 90 blocks and contains shops and vendors selling clothes, accessories, shoes, fabric, food and much much more. We didn't walk through it all but we sure gave it a good try! Not ever thing was cheap but the girls did find some $2 skirts and we saw lots of fabric for $1-3 a yard and even some 3 yards for $1 deals. And the hot dog stands were awesome! The rest of the pictures are random shots of our day in the Garment District.

We start revival in El Mirage at Desert Cove Assembly in the Phoenix area tonight. We are looking forward to being with all of our friends. We will try to post some pictures of revival by the weekend.

Davy