Seeking God's Peace in Africa

Dear Friends and family,

It is amazing to think but in 6 weeks and 3 days we will be on our way to Congo! Our tickets and evacuation insurance are purchased and now we are trying to make sure we get the rest of our lives in order.

Last week we returned from visiting supporters in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan—So far we have met face to face with more than 90% of our supporters! It has been tiring, but fantastic to share our stories God’s blessing over our last two years, and to share our calling for what lies ahead. We have shown pictures and told stories, but in this email, I wanted to give you a chance to see footage of ELI’s work that was taken during my last visit to Kenya and Congo in July by Profiles in Caring, a group that highlights the work of ministries all over the world.

Would you take some time to view it? I have included links below showing specific footage from our home in Kipkaren and our future home in Bukavu.

Also, would you pray about our finances? This is not the best time in history to be fundraising, and we are aware of that. We also want to make clear that for those who made a 2 year pledge commitment in 2006, that you are released from that if you wish. We know there are all sorts of financial troubles out there, and we understand if this is not an area you can give to, or if the current market makes your contribution a burden on you. We will still be friends and God will still provide for us J

So that’s it. I tried to keep this short, hoping you will follow some of the links below,

Thank you again for your faithfulness and support.

God Bless,

Davis

Please take some time to watch some ELI footage on GoodTube. I would especially recommend you scroll down on the left side and watch Part 4 and 5 to see footage from Kipkaren and of my former students. Part 5 and 6 has footage of Congo and the school I will be serving in.

The web address is: http://www.goodtube.org/video.php?organization=17&l=Empowering+Lives+International

I confess we hadn’t really considered it before, so when I got the same question twice in two days, I didn’t have a very good answer. Now I have thought about it, and I think I have some more depth.

“Will you be packing heat in Congo?” “Will you carry a gun?”

The answer is simple: nope -- but the reason is deeper. You see, Jen and I have given our lives to serving God, and God has asked us to live in Congo. If that’s where our life ends, so be it—it will end doing what we were supposed to be doing. That’s the answer.
Of course I could give more reasons:
1.) Our lives would be more endangered by carrying a weapon—a valuable source of power, a statement of having deadly force and possibly an agenda that required violence.
2.) We would be placing our lives in priority to those of Congolese—suggesting if it were “us or them” that we would be more valuable.
3.) We are not in a battle of flesh and blood, but of spiritual principalities that manifest themselves through a war that has used guns to murder, orphan, displace, and even rape.
4.) etc.
That said, it is unfortunate that guns are a part of every day life in Congo, even apart from the war. It would not be unusual for our house to be guarded by a Congolese guard with a gun, and in trips out of Bukavu into unstable regions in East Congo we may have an armed escort. You will have to ask them why they pack heat.

Pictures:
#1: The war child gate in Bukavu, congo, with the sticker showing it to be a gun-free compound.
#2: A picture of friends and ELI co-workers, William and Michelle Kiprop, with a former Congolese child soldier in Bukavu Congo.
#3: A picture of me holding an AK47 in Sudan. For a second I felt cool, then I felt like an incredible idiot, then I felt deep relief that my role in conflict areas is fighting poverty, not people.

We are back!!!! (I guess) which is to say, we are back in Ohio! We had a tremendous journey to the Northwest and New York which was a wonderful time to connect with friends, family, churches, supporters, airports, etc.

Here is quick summary:

We spent 2 weeks in Tacoma, and had 25 appointments! Elami became an avid swimmer (with some flotation help), Tovah turned 4 (the legal limit for gum-chewing in the Davis Family), Jen survived “microwave confusion” in using 8 different microwaves to heat milk for the girls, and Davis talked (a lot.)

At the end of that time we went to the coast of Oregon, for a 2 night stay with family! Elami and Tovah slept in sleeping bags on bunkbeds, flew kites, kayaked, and saw deer (all firsts) and Mom and Dad got to relax in the beauty of it all.

The next day it was breakfast on the Oregon coast, lunch in Portland, tea in Lakewood, supper in Tacoma, breakfast in Dallas airport, and lunch in New York!!! We had a reunion time with our family from New York over labor day weekend.

Now we are back in Ohio, done talking for a little bit, but reflecting on what we talked about—our calling to Congo.

How do you explain “a calling”? In the past 3 weeks I came to understand it a little better, here goes:

We believe that a calling is something you do that is bigger than yourself—something that may not line up with your personal interests or even desires, but which you are doing because you know it to be what your life was designed and destined to be doing here and now.

Does that make sense? We believe the world is badly broken—filled with suffering. We don’t believe that somehow those born American and wealthy are any more or less deserving or valuable than those born American and poor, or Congolese, or born with HIV. We don’t believe that our efforts alone will bring about the healing this world needs, but we have started by responding to God’s call for justice and compassion for the weak and defenseless, and are ourselves empowered by God’s love for all people.

So where does that put us? We are going to Congo because we are called, not out of guilt or insanity, not for adventure, pleasure, or money. We believe God’s call for compassion is for everyone—and does not require people to move to central Africa, it just so happens that for the Davises (that’s us) we have that specific calling to be in Bukavu, Congo for a period of time.

So where does that leave you? Why are we telling you this? I guess one’s first thought might be that you are the people who financially support this call—but over the past couple weeks, I have realized there’s more to it. We want to share our call with you! We want you to have the same desire to see people helped in Bukavu, to see suffering cared for, children educated, empowerment for the weak and impoverished—no matter how small the impact. We hope that you can support and pray about and care about this ministry because YOUR heart aches for it too!

Jen and I hope that our connection with you is a window into a part of the world that you may not be familiar with, with needs beyond your personal experience, and with a calling that is far bigger than us—that you can support God’s call to the poor not only through us, but in your own life and that your own relationship with God and your purpose in life will be richer from it.

So…..that’s what we have been doing here in the US, seeing people and trying to explain something we are still coming to grips with.

If you are interested in more details, philosophical, logistical, or financial let us know. We are scheduled to leave the US on Nov. 10^th and we continue in our preparations.

Thank you again for your love and prayers,

God Bless,

The Davises

Extras

Picture of the girls from our day on the Oregon coast

News from Congo:

http://africa.reuters.com/country/CD/news/usnBAN442354.html