Seeking God's Peace in Africa

12/16/07

Dear Friends,

Just a quick note to say thank you for your prayers, love and support. I am sorry many emails have gone unanswered, so I wanted to send just a quick update.

We are back in Kipkaren after 4 weeks away. During that time we got to relax at the coast of Kenya with my parents (see the girls sleeping pictures), got to be recharged at a conference (with childcare) and FINALLY got our visas to go study in France!!! (I had to go on four different days, and by the time I had submitted everything they wanted, our file was over 100 pages thick!!)

Now we have two weeks here to celebrate Christmas with our ELI family, to pack up and to say our goodbyes. It has truly been a tremendous year (and in a couple days I’ll have an end-of-year letter email out.)

Now it is Sunday afternoon. South African gospel music plays in the background. Spunky little Lami is spread-eagled sleeping off some intense playing in the dirt; Tovah is pretending that her family of gorillas (assorted toys) is seeking refuge from the “so heavy rains”, and Jen is preparing a meal for guests we have coming over tonight.

I have been reflecting on this morning’s event—where 7 adults were baptized in the Kipkaren River. As Christians we believe that baptism is the outward sign of an inward change. So in the muddy waters of the river people from their 20’s to their 50’s made a statement to the community that the change in their lives is because of the redeeming work of Jesus.

You see, all of these people are recovering alcoholics. They have spent the last 30 days in ELI’s rehab program, and are ready to try to live their new lives free of slavery to alcohol. This is a change that people will witness. We as a community will know if they are successful, and we as a ministry will encourage them and support them in this, regardless of success or failure. But what happened in the river today was a clear testimony that these people have placed their hope in Jesus, not in some program, or in something that we on earth can provide.

That’s the news from Kipkaren, I’ll send a legit update soon J

God Bless,

Davis

Dear Family and Friends,

It has been a long time since we wrote to thank you for being part of our ministry and for supporting our work out here. So thank you again, we are grateful that you give us the chance to serve in Africa.

Lots of things have been wrapping up. Jen finished her last day at the clinic by staying until 1:00AM to help deliver a large baby (everyone was a little surprised when he wasn’t twins).

Tovah and I finished our last day at school—she by dressing up in her school uniform with her tie for the assembly, and me by hearing many speeches at a farewell for me. They gave me a parting gift of a yellow and green blanket and a Bible verse written on glass.

My fishpond is also done. We harvested it after the last day of school. We are still learning more about the process, but in the end we took out 90 hand-sized fish, several dozen fingerlings to plant into another fish farm, and 6 enormous catfish—the biggest around 5 pounds—our research shows that catfish do really well here, with all the school food leftovers thrown to them.

Our beloved chickens, Elmo and Zoe, (named by Tovah) have faithfully laid eggs for us. They and their henhouse are moving to Jane’s—an orphan in her 20s who works in the orphanage and has just bought a tiny piece of land and built a house. She has committed to raising her two younger siblings, even though that has meant staying single unless she finds a man who is also committed to raising them! We hope they get lots of eggs from Elmo and Zoe.

The cat, Toulouse, is going to teacher Rebecca, the car is being sold to another ELI project, and once again our household is being parted out to our community. There are sad goodbyes, but also the anticipation of moving onto serve in another place and the preparation involved.

So after wrapping up with the school and the clinic we went to Nairobi to work on getting visas to France. This meant going to the French Consulate 3 times in three days, loaded with around 40 documents (8 of which had to be filled out in duplicate, in French). We are hoping and praying that when we return on the 13^th of December that we will have our passports returned to us with visas stamped into them.

After Nairobi we went to a conference at Kijabe, where were encouraged again by the message that Jesus came for those the world rejected. Our faith is not about pretending that we have life figured out. If we deceive ourselves and think we do, then our self-righteousness becomes a barrier to others and to God.

From Kijabe we drove down to Mombasa, with a stop on the fringes of Tsavo gamepark to enjoy the wildlife. Now we are enjoying a vacation at the coast. The girls overcame their fears of the ocean and are swimming like “mermaids” in the “deep sea” as Tovah has put it (usually in song). Us too, I guess. In any case, it has been a much needed break and a great time to be with Grandma and Grandpa Davis before transitioning to the next stage of life. The 90 degree weather, sun and sand might make the transition to rainy, cold France a little more painful though!

So that’s the news. We return to Kipkaren for Christmas and final packing on the 13^th of December. From there we head to France on the 30^th of December with a stop in our beloved Wales (where we lived for our first year of marriage) for New Years.

Thank you for your prayers, please continue praying that our Visas will come through, that our goodbyes will all get said, that the girls will transition easily to their third language, and most of all that our work would bring God’s peace to those around us.

God Bless,

Davis and the Family