2011 Support Letter

The Davis Family

 

And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.  We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.

–Hebrews 12:1b &2

Family Update:

Mukama Yebazibwe! (Praise the Lord in Luganda)

This year has been quite eventful to say the least.  On Nov 11 @ 11:53am  our second son Ezra Courage was born and he has been an absolute delight.  It is fun to see our sons grow up and it seems like this second time around feels easier than the first.  Grant is still at the University of Oklahoma in Norman just completing his first senior year as an Education major and Katie is enjoying being a stay-at-home Mom.  At the beginning of the year Grant was promoted from his position at the OU IT Help Desk to a Computer Repair Technician.  Overall we have been very blessed.

The Plan:

Last summer, after being in Africa for nine weeks, we found ourselves completely exhausted. We talked seriously about what our plans were for the summer of 2011. All we could think about was our comfortable life in Norman.  As soon as we got back God had a different plan. Quickly Grant found himself leading not just one trip to Africa but two!  We are all very excited but we need your prayers as Grant juggles work, school, family, and managing two completely different mission trips.

• South Africa:
•  Grant will be serving this summer from June 1^st to June 19^th
•  He will be leading a team of 12 college students from Journey Church.  www.journeychurch.tv
• They will be serving with an organization called Going North that is passionate about using Africans to reach Africa for Jesus.
•  Trip opportunities include one-on-one evangelism, AIDs Orphans outreach, and as a leader, fostering Biblical truth and love within my fellow college students.
•  Currently Going North serves all over South Africa, Botswana and Swaziland so ministry could be taking place in any of those locations.
• Uganda:
•  Just six days later from June 25th to July 11^th.  Grant is returning to Uganda for the third summer in a row.

•  Grant will be returning to serve with Calvary Chapel Entebbe. calvarychapelnorman.com
•  This time he will be leading a team of eight men from his home church Calvary Chapel Norman.
• Last summer amazing opportunities arose to teach Ugandan’s basic computer skills and to troubleshoot sick computers.  Also, there is a farm project located 15 minutes across Lake Victoria that always has work available and there has been an incredible opportunity recently for rebuilding a widows deteriorating home.
• Our heart for Uganda continues to grow as we develop stronger and deeper relationships with the nationals.

Needs

Prayer! It can never be stressed enough how much we need prayer. God has been incredibly good to us in His provision for these trips.  We do still have a financial need of about $3,000.  Praise God that He has provided above and beyond our financial needs!  Any further assistance in prayer and fasting would be a huge blessing while we minister around the globe.

Our desire is to see people get excited about the Gospel, the Kingdom, and Africa.  So what we really want and need is a community of people who will prayerfully remember us as we go out. 

Prayer Requests:

• Our Contacts: That God blesses their ministries and opens many opportunities for us to serve and encourage them.
• Pray for the health and wellness of our family as Grant travels and Katie stays home with the boys.
• That God would impart wisdom to us as we pursue His calling in our lives as parents and followers of Christ. 
• Provision: That God will continue provide beyond our wildest dreams.(Eph 3:20)

Contact Info

For mid-summer trip updates continue to visit our blog!

gkdiaries.blogspot.com

Grant & Katie Davis

1632 Cara Jo Dr

Norman, OK 73071

Home Safe

Wow, so today is Saturday and as you can see what time this is being updated we are still not fully adjusted to Oklahoma time.  We apologize that we have not updated you sooner about our progress this last week.  So much happened and as we have arrived home our first objective was not to squander so much time on the computer/facebook/internet

Summary:
Traveling back to Kampala was wonderful.  We reconnected with all our friends at CLD and even got to make a few new ones.  On Sunday night we made our way back to Entebbe where we visited with all our brothers and sisters at Calvary Chapel on Monday and Tuesday. Grant came down with malaria Tuesday morning around midnight so that kinda spoiled his last day.  He went to the doctor first thing in the morning and got some anti-malarial drugs even though it was too early to test positive. Taking anti-malarial drugs just in case was a much better option than traveling with malaria (and Nigel). So the first 12hrs of traveling was pretty hard on Grant but God is good and so is Excedrin.  After arriving in Dubai at 1am on Wednesday he was able to lay down in the airport and get some rest.  By sunrise he was feeling somewhat better.  Nigel loved the Dubai airport. He quite literally walked laps around the entire thing (its has over 300 gates).  This calorie burning activity was perfect for us as with every step he took we saw his nap-o-meter for our next 14hr flight to Huston get a little bigger. And nap he did!  Time gets a little fuzzy on a 14hr plane ride but we were pretty sure he slept somewhere between 7 and 9 hours. (Praise God!) And perhaps even more we praise God for keeping Katie strong and healthy during all this time of travel. God's grace was undoubtedly sufficient for her to be able to entertain Nigel on the plane, walk laps with him in the airport, and take care of a sick husband, all the while getting VERY little sleep.  Upon arriving in Huston we ran into our biggest disappointment.  Our 1hr flight to Oklahoma City had a 3.5hr delay. So instead of arriving home around 9pm we would not get home until after midnight.  Wow, thanks Continental.  41 hours after departing from Entebbe, Uganda we made it home safe.  ~Amena (Amen in Luganda)

A few extra thoughts:
We made it safely from Kayunga to Kampala on Friday the 16th and it felt like a different city because of the bombings.  Everyone was afraid of everything.  Some churches even set up metal detectors and hired security teams on Sunday morning to search everyone before entering the church.  Of all the security around town the church's response was the most disappointing. We constantly reminded ourselves of Isaiah 8:11-14a
¹¹ The Lord has given me a strong warning not to think like everyone else does. He said, ¹² “Don’t call everything a conspiracy, like they do,
      and don’t live in dread of what frightens them.
 ¹³ Make the Lord of Heaven’s Armies holy in your life.
      He is the one you should fear.
   He is the one who should make you tremble.
    ¹⁴ He will keep you safe....

Because of all the unnecessary security and the disappointment of the prosperity gospel in the villages Grant decided to give the Nasana Anglican church a try (shout out to Laura and Clint!).  It felt like a spiritual oasis in the desert.  That might sound extreme but our time in Kayunga had involved so much preaching in various churches that the entire family felt a little worn out.  It was encouraging to be part of a group that prayed on their knees quietly and humbly, asking God to hear their prayers instead of just shouting at Him.  It reminded us how much we need to be praying for the global church.  Too often our only prayers for the global church are for the secret churches in Iran or China.  Well we feel like it is the not-so-secret ones that just might need those prayers even more.

**Update on Frank**
As we went back through Entebbe we made a few calls to find out more information about Frank.  How he was doing and if any progress was made finding his mother.  It was discovered that his mother is a prostitute and sadly he is likely a byproduct of this. So looking for his father would be pointless. His mother is still no where to be found and from the looks of it has no interest in being found.  We were told at this point even if she is found Frank will not be returned to her but she will be charged with child neglect and be put in jail. So either way Frank is going to be staying with Susan for quite awhile if not for a few years.  Now they think he is closer to the age of 5 or even 6 not 4.  Susan decided that he should begin school soon. We have told Susan that we want to make sure Frank is taken care of and provided for.  Which opens up an opportunity to you and everyone who reads this.  Beginning this August Frank needs ~$170 for his school fees. The cost covers everything: tuition, books, supplies, a uniform, lunch and even transport to/from school.  Uganda is on a trimester system so this cost would be 3x a year. We would love to partner with you in this.  If you are interested in contributing please send us an email: grantadavis@ou.edu and we will give you more information as we work out all the details.  Any contribution will help (even just $10 once every 3 months) and there is no overhead so every penny goes directly to the school to help Frank.

We love you all and we thank you for your prayers, we felt them. Now that we have good internet we uploaded more pictures on some of our previous posts (and a video of Nigel walking).  Feel free to look back through the archives of our summer to see more stuff.
Love,
G&K
I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. - Romans 15:13

Baby Steps

We intended to post this all summer but the internet was...African. Here are the baby steps you have waited so long for.

I do want to clarify that this video was taken on June 11th and now he is almost running. If you pay close attention to the video you can see why so much of our glassware was getting broken, haha.