Maybe. If we have your physical address correct, then you do!
If not, we thought perhaps you’d like to know what we wrote about anyway, so here’s an online copy.
Spoiler alert: We have pictures of the Glad Tidings Bible Camp kitchen, newly upgraded and ready for use. And, you’ll read on page two that we have been invited to serve with a Bible camp in France later this summer! Please pray with us about this opportunity.
And, if you didn’t get mail from us and wish you had, let us know on the Keep in Touch page!
A few years ago, our pellet-fed smoker on the back deck malfunctioned. During the malfunction, the wind took off with some hot pellets, and blew them out of the smoker on to our porch. There a small fire started. Some neighbors (we never found out exactly who) were playing at the playground near our house and saw the fire. They called the fire department, then walked over to our yard, and used our hose to put the fire out before the fire department arrived. By the time we got home, the only remaining evidence of the fire was the burn hole in the deck.
The burn hole in the deck.
We covered the hole with a piece of plywood, and went on with life.
The past weekend, Chester tackled the project of removing the burnt boards and replacing them.
Several supporting boards also had to be replaced.Replacing the supporting boards required removing a large portion of the surface deck boards.The faithful helpers, removing charred supports.The hero of the day is almost finished with the new deck floor section.All put back together!
And the deck is almost as good as new! The only tiny remaining evidence of the fire (and our neighbors kindness) is that some boards are obviously new, and there’s still some melted/charred scars on the rail.
This may be my favorite thing about social isolation – so many at-home projects getting done!
We’re staying close to home, but it doesn’t mean that we’re not busy. Church, prayer meetings, Bible studies, home school co-op classes and socialization have all adapted to online formats. Chester is making great progress on projects both related to ministry and on our home, and we’re all driving each other just a little bit crazy. So when some nearby friends called asking if we would help with a little work on their farm, we jumped at the chance.
We had a great time knocking down a building! We took down a mostly dead blue spruce tree. Riding the four-wheeler afterwards was a real treat!
This time at home has proven a unique time for ministry. We’ve been praying that God would provide opportunities to share His goodness, and have been blessed with opportunities to share about Jesus’ offer of eternal life, to be a friend, and to pray with and for people.
Please continue to pray that we would be faithful to act on the opportunities God gives us – whether or not they include riding a four-wheeler!
We’re sure the threat from this virus has disrupted your lives too. Here’s how the virus is affecting us at the moment:
The trip to Mexico is cancelled (or at least postponed a few months). Your donations toward this trip are safe with Sabre missions, and will be used for whenever this trip happens, whether or not our family takes part. Please pray for the four families that are waiting for houses we had intended to build.
Everything else in the short term is cancelled too, as you know.
Some Praises
We already work from home and home-school, so the extent to which our lives are altered by this virus is less than many. Before the virus was found in our area, we already had the respiratory flu, so had already been keeping to ourselves. We are so grateful to live in a digital age where so much is available online! We’ve enjoyed holding our own worship services at home, with songs requested by the kids, an online sermon, and discussion. (We even had communion with crackers and Emergen-C). We’re grateful for the help of several others at Glad Tidings Bible Camp, at a work party to get the kitchen and dish room back to ready for use! The kitchen now includes stainless countertops, a steam-table serving line and standardized dishes! The dish room also include stainless countertops, a commercial dishwasher and sanitizer and a revamped workflow.
Thanks for keeping us in prayer as we do our best to support and encourage missionaries and ministries in this challenging time!
In March, we and several others are planning to go to Tecate, Mexico to help build houses for families in need! We will be hosting a free dinner so that you can learn more about it. You’ll have the opportunity to help us raise support by purchasing some of our creative crafts, amazing paintings or bake sale items! You can also bring donation items to help families in Mexico.
February 28th 6:30 – 8:00pm Grace Life Bible Church 10606 Burt Cir, Omaha, NE 68114
This coming weekend, February 21-23, we’ll be out at Glad Tidings Bible Camp working on putting the final touches on their new commercial kitchen and dish room. There’s lots to be done – from moving equipment, to painting and from sweeping floors to a bit of wiring and plumbing.
We’d love to have you join – no matter your skill level. It’s fun to work together (and play together), and we’ll teach you what you need to know! Kids are welcome, but should bring an adult with them.
Please let us know if and when you can come (we’ll make sure to have plenty of food), and if you need lodging (that’s also provided). If it doesn’t work for you to come out, please pray for those working this weekend to have a great time together and get lots done!
Chester and Moriah “dancing” with the pressure washer at a previous work party.
And, in case you missed it – here’s our February prayer calendar. Please continue to pray for us – we are so grateful that you do!
Thank you for praying for us through the family health challenges of January! Our extended family seems to have returned to healthy, and we are greatly encouraged to know that so many of you were and are praying!
Please continue to pray for us. We’ve put together a prayer calendar of upcoming requests for the month of February – it includes a little of everything (from Chester having surgery on Monday, February 10th, to a little bit of travel and a project at Glad Tidings Bible Camp). Please join us in prayer though the month!
One additional request (not yet on the calendar) is for wisdom in our summer/fall plans. We’re applying to volunteer at a camp in France!
Thank you so much for serving with us through your prayers and support!
Download a printable prayer calendar here, or view and subscribe online here.
The Sabre Missions Tecate Team from 2019. Look for Micah, Eva and Moriah.
Dear Friends and Family –
As many of you know, some portion of our family has gone to Tecate, Mexico for the past several years. Each year, we join Sabre missions from Colorado Springs who coordinates with a few churches in Tecate. We drive from Colorado to Tecate (which is just across the Mexican border from San Diego), and build houses for families in need, who are chosen by the local churches. Additionally, we conduct a three-day Vacation Bible School for neighborhood kids. We act out the lessons (since we don’t speak much Spanish), and have a great time playing with the kids – some years there are up to fifty kids who attend!
This year the trip is from March 20-30, and our whole family has the opportunity to go together, and rebuild houses that were burned in wildfires last fall. Two of the houses burned were built in previous years by groups with Sabre missions, and we hope to rebuild an additional two houses for families in the same neighborhood. Would you please consider supporting us in one or more of the following ways?
We are trusting God to raise $4,350 to pay for our family’s food, lodging, travel expenses and a portion of the building materials for the houses.
Please pray regularly for us, especially while on the trip. We’ll provide a prayer calendar, but especially want prayer for health, transportation, finances and a Godly witness everywhere we go.
If you would like to contribute directly to these families, we are collecting donations of personal hygiene products, small toys and games, school supplies and household items (towels, washcloths, wash tubs, clothespins, small sewing kits) to give them at the dedication of their new home
The wildfireA house built by a Sabre missions team in 2017 The house after the fireA house build by the Sabre missions team in 1999After the fire
Donations for this trip should be made to Sabre Missions. Checks can be made out to Sabre Missions, and given to a Davis family member or mailed to:
Sabre Missions P. O. Box 9354 Colorado Springs, CO 80932-0354
Thank you so much for praying for and with us and our family these first few weeks of January. Everyone is back home from the hospital and recovering nicely! Peggy is back to her normal, spunky self, Merlin has returned to the care center in Ashland (where Peggy visits him daily), and baby Martin was discharged yesterday and is doing terrific!
It’s humbling to us that so many of you prayed, and let us know that you were praying. Our sincere thanks. God answered your prayers!
Baby Martin is home and feeling much, much better!
