Reconnecting...

It has been a while since we have updated you on the Davies journey...

We are blessed by living in Africa, life is not as rushed, things just happen slower in this part of the world.  Thus, decent internet access is limited and slow. We don't have landlines where we live and so have to navigate bad wireless connections.

To be honest,  it has felt really difficult to sit down and put on "paper" what has been happening. These two things together have lead to limited connection to you.

So what has been happening?

Our team grows

Jen Chi Lee our new team mate arrived safely in SA on Jan 6th. Jen has been adjusting well to the context, culture and language learning. Jen initially lived with us but now has moved into Zandspruit. She is living with a family we have built relationships with and it seems to be going well. It is a gift to have her here and living in the community we work. 

Faith Network??

The last time we wrote we shared that our faith network was in the middle of a discernment process. We asked folks to clarify how they were able to commit building a community together. It proved to be a helpful process although it has been sad to see many who don't live in our community decide to relate on the periphery. Unfortunately most are white folks and so the dynamic of the group has changed. With less ability for true friendship and reconciliation. Hopefully we will have other opportunities to relate cross culturally in the future. 

The positive is that things have shifted more towards a faith community. Becoming a place where we are learning how to become a true community, to build friendship, to get into each other spaces and homes, to share...rather than just talking about issues.

The group is made up of younger folks who all seem to have a heart to see their communities change. We hope to build a community where these folks with great potential can be developed in their faith, and learn to engage our community together.

It has been good to see some folks realizing the need to take initiative and ownership for helping this space become what we want it to be. Our challenge is to lead by developing folks like Thabo & Anathi to reach out, empowering others.

Pray for us as we figure out how to help initiative and ownership to grow.

Partnership network

We have spent the last 2 years building relationships, learning culture and context, trying to discover what has worked and what has failed in terms of bringing lasting and sustainable transformation in Zandspruit & Cosmo city. 

We are now bringing together like minded people, Pastors, NGO leaders and community people, who agree that the way things have been done have not worked and that we need a "new wine skin".

A saviour mentality from outside entities providing services and a dependancy mentality on the inside have lead to dysfunctional relationships. A local Pastor shared how he had recently been involved in an area where an outside church had been working into a poor area for 15 years. Nothing had changed. We don't want to work with good intentions for 15 years and see no change. 

We long for a "new wine skin". We want to work with the local community to empower and build relationships of trust. 

This week a group of 10 stakeholders are meeting together to decided how we want to go forward together to build something that will last. Something that will help create an environment that enables lasting and sustainable change through relationships built on trust and life giving partnerships. Pray for clear direction and wisdom as we lead in this space. 

Family 

Surprise, our family is unexpectedly growing! I am 14 weeks pregnant with our little surprise. We are continuing to adjust to the news and the practicalities of having 3 children.  The only real thing we know is that this must be God's plan so we should be  okay.  In other family news, Keira is turning 4 in July and is very excited about being "even bigger". She and Jordan are learning how to play nicely together especially as Jordan has quite the strong personality, with very strong opinions.  As a Mom I am stretched, and look forward to the days that I get to spend with other moms in the community talking about pregnancy and life with children, it truly is my highlight.  

Our house continues to be a social center where we host many people and more recently we have broken into the "kid circuit".  Many children from our street now consider our house the place to play, so once again I go from having 2 children to 6 children in the afternoons. They really are a lot of fun though and I am glad they all play so well together. 

Follow us on twitter @badirammogo

With love, 

Trevor, Chrissy, Keira, Joradan +1

A year in reflection...

As we come to the end of our second year in South Africa we are amazed about what God has done and how he has invited us to join Him in the work of bringing his Kingdom to the Zandspruit/Cosmo City area.

We want to share some of it with you...

Highlights:
Derek in SA – It was great to have our supervisor and friend in South Africa to get a feel for what we are up to. Now when we Skype he has a better picture of what is going on.
Soccer World Cup – This was an amazing experience for our country and even better to share it with our reconciling community.
First time back to USA – This was great to connect with Servant Partners team leaders, family, friends and supporters. It was however tough for us translating our lives and we were exhausted when we returned.
Ora & Dijaba's wedding in Lesotho – This was an amazing celebration and experience of a rural traditional African wedding. We loved the singing and dancing and got to share life more intimately with our friends.
A place called home – After a long time looking, with our families help, we were able to purchase a home in Cosmo City. This is a blessing, especially to Chrissy, to have a stable place to call home. I can now walk or ride my bike to Zandspruit.
Mathieson’s – George and Dorothy from Australia joined us for 3 weeks and loved on our community and us. We are grateful for the way they listened and sacrificially shared their lives and invited each of us to see how God is in all of our stories, many of deep suffering and pain, and that in knowing God is with us we find our healing. God moved powerfully through them and in our faith community.

New wine skins to hold new wine
As we end the first 2 years is seems like God is inviting us to formalize some of the work we are doing and to provide some platforms from which to have greater impact.

We are in process of coming together under the name Ba Dira Mmogo. This means, “those that are working together” in Setswana. Thabo, Orapeleng, Andrea and Kgomotso are working together to bring people of the community together to see transformation happen in Zandspruit.

• Youth: We are hoping to impact the youth through a post highschool program that hopes to provide a platform to raise up and develop future leaders of Zandspruit
• Partnership network: We are working with Churches, NGO’s and other stakeholders working in Zandspruit to try and find healthy way to work with the community, create ownership and see more sustainable, heallthy change take place.

Faith network – Our faith community has grown in depth and we are at a point where we have decided to clarity expectations as we move forward. Through December we are asking everyone to consider their ability or desire to relate to the group. We hope this will free everyone up to express their intentions and then those who desire more depth will be able to move forward and shape the community together. We hope to create many other ways for those with less time and proximity to stay connected to what God is doing with us.

Ministering out of natural - Chrissy has be loving ministering more out of who God has created her to be. It has been good to be back in the clinics providing ante natal education to expecting moms. She is especially drawn to young first time moms who have little to no support and are terrified about the birthing process. We are looking forward to see where God leads as our kids need a little less constant attention :).

Some other things God has used us for…that aren’t our focus!

• Helping bringing local Pastors to work together
• Encouraging the community to stand up for themselves
• Influencing other ministries towards focusing on relationships and empowerment
• Investing in new marriages & healthy relationships
• Teaching English
• Sharing our home and many meals
• Helped start a few businesses
• Telling a different  South African story
• Teaching a friend to drive
• Trying to model an honest marriage and invested parenting

Lastly some news from our family
Ah, Nature! What a blessing to be able to get away into nature. The first two weeks of December we were afforded the opportunity to go away with family and then on our own. Being in the bush was a great experience for our girls, Keira learning the names of all the different kind of animals and Jordan learning to point at . . .everything : )

We have enjoyed seeing our little family grow this year. Keira has been loving her preschool and excelling, as she came home with all “ A’s” on her little report card. She is also enjoying the challenge of swimming lessons. Keira keeps us on our toes with her questions about Jesus, other people’s behavior, and why she can’t be the leader all the time.
Jordan has been a joy as she is always full of smiles. She took us by surprise by only crawling for 2 months and then walking, then running after Keira and now, my personal favorite dancing! You can often see her with any object as a phone saying “ hi” or getting into the cupboards with a mischievous smile. Our girls are such an abundant source of joy and energy consumption . . . we wouldn’t change a thing.

Praise God for all he has done, we are grateful for your part in it all.

Merry Christmas

Trevor, Chrissy, Keira & Jordan Davies

Our girls

Our time in the US comes to a close...

Hi all, 

Just a quick update.

Our time in the US has come to a close. We leave for South Africa early tomorrow morning.

We are looking forward to return to South Africa, grateful for all the connecting we were able to make but tired and not looking forward to the long travel.

We had a really good time with our spiritual director, gained some good perspective and tools for spiritual growth that will go a long way.

Our time in Portland was the most hectic, it was really fun to connect with many friends and donors but we over did it a bit. After Portland Keira was done with new places and regularly asked to go back to South Africa. We are so grateful for the Sommer's for hosting us and providing a base.

It was so encouraging how well we and our work was received. God is doing something good. We are hoping that our connections will turn into fruitful partnership.

Lastly, we had a our most restful time in Corvallis. It was was great to connect with Calvin Presbyterian and Faith Christian Fellowship Churches and then head out to the Oregon Coast mid week to rest and play. Thank you Ogles for the great gift.

We are now back in Seattle packing and gathering ourselves to a long haul. We leave tired of travel but even more convinced that what we are doing in South Africa is exactly where God wants us.

The trip continues..

Hi all, 

Just wanted to give you a little update...
We are doing well and in good health.
The girls did well on the trip over and the first 16.5 hours flight wasn't as bad as we thought.

We had a great time with Chrissy's sister Cat and John in West Los Angeles. It was the first time we all got to spend time together. Keira had a blast.Thanks for hosting us guys.


We had some good meetings talking about community organizing and small business development with some SP consultants and spent some time with our new team mate Jen Chi Lee who is coming to SA in January.


We then went up to Big Bear in CA with the Servant Partners Team Leaders for a weeks conference. It was a great time of connection, healing and focus on leadership development. It was great to take some time to think about the work we are doing and the people involved and ask God for clarity and direction on how to best invest our time and energy.
It was also good to talk and relate with peers who get what we are doing and can give good council and prayer. We are thankful for the space and beauty of this time. Keira & Jordan had a good time. Jordan got past around and is not crawling and getting into things. We didn't see Keira the whole week except for bed time, which she wasn't very excited about. She was off with anyone but us, having a great time with new friends.


We are currently with Chrissy's parents in Seattle area. It has been good so far connecting and going on outings together. Chrissy & I are both tired and it has been good to get a little rest in. We are grateful for grandparents. Keira when out with them today and it was great to have the space to read and reflect.


NEXT:
Please pray for us this weekend as prepare for time with a spiritual director that is leading us through a reflection process on our work so far and person retreat. Pray that this would be restful and restoring and that the kids will do good with the Grandma & Granddad.


Thanks for your prayers and support.


The Davies
 

Servant Partners trip to USA

Hello Friends,


Just a quick update to fill you in on the latest Davies news:


We enjoyed the Soccer World Cup to the fullest here in South Africa, it felt as though we were personally hosting it ! : ) Several friends came and stayed with us and there were many a game viewed at our house! It was an incredible experience and brought many people together. We hope you received the Journey of Hope newsletter that shared about our work in South Africa which was connected to the World Cup. It was titled, "World Cup stirs hope for racial healing in South Africa."


The world cup in now over and we all have to return to reality.


We are currently in the process of buying a house and moving closer to Zandspruit, the community we work in, which has been stressful to say the least. There has been a lots of running around, chasing after people and making sure that work the seller agreed to do gets done right. In the midst of thinking about moving we are getting our family ready to head back to US for a Servant Partners Team Leader Meetings and a mini Furlough.  We are looking forward to the time but getting there will be an adventure with 2 kids. Hopefully the plane can contain Keira's energy :).


We will be in the Northwest from the 3rd of Aug to the 20th of September.


Here are the specifics:
Aug 3-8 in LA area
Aug 8-14th SP team leaders conference in Big Bear
Aug 16-22 in Seattle area (22nd visit Emerald City Bible Fellowship)
Aug 23-25 Guided Retreat for Trevor and Chrissy
Aug 26-31st Seattle Area
Sept 1-12th Portland Area (5th visit Irvington Covenant Church)
Sept 12th-19th Corvallis Area (12th visit Calvin Presbyterian 19th visit Faith Christian Fellowship: Both of these services will have gatherings to connect further)
Sept 19th Return to Seattle
Sept 21th Leave for South Africa


We would just like to ask for your prayers for the many meetings, speaking engagements as well as the dynamics of traveling with 2 young children. 
Although we would love to see everybody time just won't allow it, but we will do our best to organize a few small gatherings so we can catch up with as many as possible.


The adventure continues...

40 South Africanisms you should know - Times LIVE

Thought you non-South Africans would all enjoy this little cultural lesson.

Cultrual training for the world cup. Can you feel it. It is here!

40 South Africanisms you should know - Times LIVE

Pictures from some recent events!

Hi all,

We haven't been written for a while. Interesting what a new addition to the family and pioneering a ministry will do to your time and survival skills. We are also in the middle of buying a house in Cosmo City and closer to Zandspruit, so we have been and are in a lot of transition to say the least.

In the midst of all that we are doing well, getting into some new rhythms and enjoying to challenge of the reconciliation ministry God has called us to. We just had Derek Engdahl, our supervisor from Servant Partners, visit us for the first time in South Africa. It was a real gift to have him here, to share our work and vision together some next steps.

We wanted to share some pictures with you from some recent events and some family pics. They are posted on www.facebook.com/trevsa, so check them out.

Also here are the direct links:

Drakensburg Hike 
Family Pics: May 2010
Zandspruit Soccer Tournament
World cup friendly - Soccer City


We will share more soon.

Love to all

Developing Fine Motor Skills

Yesterday I spent about 30 minutes with Keira picking up little pieces of paper and putting them in an envelope and then taking turns dumping them all out again in each others hands, that was a long half hour!  Keira did not grow tired of this activity but of course my mind wandered. . . I thought about how this kind of repetition is the way she learns best at this age and that it is important for her fine motor control, and  her patience as well as mine.  But I also though about how so many things in our lives at the moment are the same way.  Our Sunday discussion group for instance; things are going really well but when I think of what we are trying to achieve it will take a long time, a lot of character growth in each individual and a lot of patience with each other and the journey.  Slowly we will learn how to put one foot in front of the other, crossing boundaries and comfort zones, making this a worthy priority  in our lives because we are saying yes to Jesus and his heart for all people and how He wants to change our lives and perspectives, not just a cool group  of people to meet with each week.

My patience is also being challenged at the home front.  Every evening  small children come to my gate and yell, " KEERA!!" And promptly Keira jumps up and says " My friends are calling me Mommy, They want to play with me"  But playing usually ends up in little tiffs that lead to " Keera's Mother! Keera's Mother, she won't share the bike. . ." or some other catastrophic occurrence.
Don't get me wrong I love the kids and we have little girls on the street now which is fun to have Keira play with girls ( dancing, gymnastics, dolls, riding bikes etc. vs. violent soccer games and Keira just watching older boys play or fix their bikes.)  It can be a bit challenging to go from 2 children to 8.
But I think I am being stretched more and more to love out of Jesus' love and not my own, To love beyond my own ability.

Check Jordan's new do! I think she likes it.

 

 Cami, Keira, Kamu and Jordan

 

Kamu, Thabiso, Cami and Keira, enjoying story time by Thabiso

The journey continues...

The journey continues...

As we started 2010 we had to look back on last year and see where we have come from. At the beginning of 2009 there were just a few friends dreaming of drawing a diverse group of people together to talk, learn and engage with the struggle of racial reconciliation in our country.

It has been amazing to see what God has done through these weekly discussion meetings of honesty and learning. By reflecting on the journey we are on we get to see what God is doing and how we can continue to grow.

We end the the year with a braai (BBQ), with the hope of celebrating together. We had some fun but we also defaulted into the places and groups that we were most comfortable.

We took some time to start this year by debriefing the braai.

Here's what we learned and expressed to each other...a testament to God growing us together and through the interaction with each other.

We learned about how we do food differently, how we socialize differently, interact differently and relax differently... and that when we don't understand these differences...our tendency is to assume the worst of the other and withdraw to our comfort zones and thus segregation.

Here are some things we learned and discovered through reflecting together:
- We are dissatisfied with segregation
- We want more unity
- We desire more togetherness and understanding
- We are realizing out own part in it
- We were able to be honest and share our short comings
- We were able to apologise to each other
- We are gaining an awareness of our differences
- We are working on our assumptions
- We are realizing our need to move out of our comfort zones
- We see the need for initiative with each other

We learned a lot from a braai, about each other, cultures and ways of doing things.

Now we have to ask:
How do we build something together?
What ways can we respect and celebrate each others cultures?
How do we need to compromise and create something new?

It is an art, a journey, a creative exercise....it is building the Kingdom of God.

Chimamanda Adichie: The danger of a single story | Video on TED.com

A great speach on how we need to listen to many stories to get the whole story and how damaging just hearing a single story is...very helpful

Chimamanda Adichie: The danger of a single story | Video on TED.com

A New " Normal"

 Life is so different with 2 children!! We are learning though, learning to enjoy the small bits of sanity that present themselves, how to operate on way less sleep, how to embrace and cherish the sister to sister moments. Its a whirlwind of wonderful and hectically challenging at the same time.
 My life these days has been much more about figuring out how to take care of our family of 4 than it was before and slowly I am beginning to feel like that's okay, like I have permission from Jesus to get my head around this new phase in our lives.  But of course life still continues and thankfully people come to us ; )
I have had the privilege of being a sort of information well/ post partum doula for  a friend and neighbor.  The boys in the neighborhood have returned. . . yesterday Mandla ( who lives down the street) brought  friends over because one of them fell off his bike, he said to his friend " This is my personal nurse, whenever I get hurt I come here!" The other one responded " If I would have known I would have come before." As he presented his freshly scabbed legs.
Its nice to have them back around, I think they stayed away because they were a little weirded out by a large pregnant woman kicking the soccer ball around with them, but now I look more normal : )
 Here are a few pictures for your enjoyment! Thanks

Davies Dinner Fun

Happy

SAD

                                                   ANGRY

 

And Lastly Silly!

A little activity inspired by Keira!

Thank you Madiba - We remember

Long Walk to Freedom

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”
Nelson Mandela (b. 1918), released from 27 years in prison 20 years ago today.
"For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others."
"As I have said, the first thing is to be honest with yourself. You can never have an impact on society if you have not changed yourself... Great peacemakers are all people of integrity, of honesty, but humility.”
"There is no passion to be found playing small, in setting for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living."
Thank you Madiba, you give us home. God helps us to walk in your shoes

Jordan & Family...

Hi All,
Sorry for the hiatus but we just had our second daughter.... and yes like they say, "Going from 1 to 2 is tough." We love Jordan, although I would love having a bit more time with her. She is starting to smile and be more alert which is great. I have spent most of my time with Keira. Man she has some serious energy. I have no idea where she got that from. She was up at 5:30am, come in for a quick snuggle and then pulls the covers off and says,"Come Daddy lets get up."
Anyway, we are doing good, getting adjusted. Maternity and Paternity leave have been a blessing and we are looking forward to getting the year started.
We have already had some great conversations at our discussion group, learning about different cultures and expectations. God is doing a good thing. I will share more later.

Here are some pics many of you have been asking for....

Jordan Grace Davies has arrived

With Joy and Grace our family is growing...

 

  

  

 

We'll are excited to welcome Jordan Grace Davies into our lives. She is our "Flowing down Grace". Born Dec 6th 2009, 3.02kg(6.6lbs) and 48cm(18.9inchs).

I thought that some of you would like some details, so here is my version. For the rest enjoy the pics.

After the waiting our adventure eneded up being a race to Genesis Clinic (the birthing center) to welcome Jordan home. I even managed to get a speeding ticket on the way, it adds to the story and which I know, I will take the birth certificate to the traffic department and try to get it off. Things sure came on strong and fast.

How it happened:

After a family braai we headed home and 6:30pm and started timing contractions as they seemed to be more reguar but we were still not sure if this was the real thing. Chrissy had been having Braxten Hicks contractions, or tightening as I decided to call them all day.

Things seemed to be gently progressing so we thought we should let Sue (Midwife) and Rosalia (Doula) that we might see some action.

At 9:23pm we let Sue and Rosalia know that Chrissy had been having regular contractions that were progressing for the last hour but we still felt fine at home.

At 9:33pm Rosalia called and suggested getting into to bath to see if things would settle into a pattern or dissipate.

At 9:55pm Chrissy called Rosalia, had a contraction on the phone and they decided that we needed to head to Genesis.

At 10:08pm we were rushing to the hospital. I had run a bath that didn't get used as we realized how strong the contractions were. Chrissy was shaking at points.

So we jumped in the car. Of course we had been packed for weeks thanks to Chrissy, amazing all the things she thought to bring, and started race to the hospital with hazards on. Kinda fun. At the same time Grandma and Granddad came to our place to look after Keira. We had to leave her sleeping alone in the house as we needed to go. So thankful for grandparents.

We arrived at Genesis at 10:27pm, got check into the room and after getting the vitals checked Chrissy wanted to get into the tub. Contractions were coming hard and heavy. Chrissy was doing great staying on top of things, focusing, breathing and trying to relax.

At 11:30pm things slowed down a little and Sue said "I think this baby is waiting for tomorrow." I had thought she was going to arrive on the 7th.

At 11:45pm we knew the baby wasn't waiting. 4 minutes later Jordan was born in the water. Fitting I think that that is where she was born although we didn't think about it before.

Chrissy literally pushed 4 times really hard and she was out.

I still can't believe how fast she came out, last time we spent 10 hours at the hospital.

So another Amazing, amazing adventure. Once again Chrissy did so well, totally natural. She hasn't even had pain meds after it all. What a woman I have been blessed with, strong and courageous.

Praise God that the birth and pregnancy is over and now we can enjoy Jordan as a family.

Keira Joy Davies:

When Keira woke up the next morning Grandma told her that baby Jordan had arrive. When Granddad went up she was sitting in her bed giggling. He asked, "Keira why are you giggling?" Keira said, "I am excited, I get to go and meet Jordan today."

I am proud of Keira, she did great. She loved holding and kissing Jordan and was so gently and loving. I can't wait to watch them get to know each other.

God has given us an incredible family...now to look after and nurture the gift..

Thanks for all those near and far for being part of this journey...our lives. We wish that those who are far could be closer and are grateful for those who are near.

With love,

Trevor, Chrissy, Keira and Jordan