My next trip

For those who do not know by now, I'm heading on another missions trip. This time to Africa. I leave this Sunday, March 20th, and arrive the next day.

It's been over a year since I've left North America, so I'm very excited! A little sad that it means my chance of getting a car are pretty much gone, now, though since I've used the little bit of money I had tried to save up for the car for this trip. I still owe a bit for the trip, too, however, so any prayer and financial support would be greatly appreciated!

This is a trip of many firsts, too. First time in Burkina Faso. First time in the Brussels airport. First time to fly internationally by myself. First time in the Burkina Faso airport, too, of course. Although, technically, almost every trip I go on has "firsts", I guess what makes this one special is that I know the "firsts" before they come! LOL! That and I love adding more countries to my passport, so I get to mark off one more country on my list. As well as a new airport experience to my memory.

Originally I was going to to try and fly with Deb last Sunday, and fly into Accra (where we usually fly into West Africa). However, I could not get on her flight. Then it looked like I could not get the two required visa's back in enough time to leave even close to the beginning of this week (I needed Ghana and Burkina Faso). Then the idea came to us. They're over there, making their way up to Burkina Faso this week, traveling with a few meetings; what if I missed the traveling part? If flew in to meet them in Burkina Faso, instead, I would miss the long road trip and acquire another week to get my visa's. Since that seemed the only option, really, I booked my flight for next Sunday heading to Burkina Faso and then sent my passport off to the DC embassy for my first visa. Thankfully, I got my first visa (Burkina Faso) back on a Saturday and could have sent it off for the next one. But then it occurred to us of one more thing (and one less worry for me: will my passport get back in time to fly out next Sunday?) when I googled embassy's and found that there is an embassy over in Burkina Faso! And since we'll be there about a week, it'll be plenty of time to take it by hand and pick it up by hand a couple days later, all before heading to the next country! So I'm all ready to go now, just waiting till Sunday comes!

Does that mean I'm packed? Ha! Are you joking? I've got the suitcases, the carry-on, and my little backpack sitting in the middle of my floor. A pile of possibilities in the clothing department on my African hope-chest. A pile of bags with random objects of things I have to take for Deb & Fred (a couple Deb couldn't fit in her suitcases) sitting around the suitcases on the floor...but packed? NO! Just thinking. Mostly I've been doing work on my laptop, making sure everything I like or can't live without it backed up on my external hard-drive I'll leave at home. And everything I might need while I'm gone (like at some point I've got to work on PSE and make our usually mailing and other items for our Women's Conference coming up in May) is on my laptop, with room to create or do whatever on my laptop (since the hard-drive is apparently too small for everything!)...

My schedule...for this week:
Hopefully, tomorrow, I'll finish editing the last video of the Twelve Tribes. Pack. And fit church meeting in there somewhere...Thursday my Mom comes to hang out for a date, as she'll be in Buffalo for a few days, so that day is mostly taken up with that and seeing if I can employ her as a chauffeur to make a quick run to Walmart as well...Friday will be laundry and finish packing, as much as possible (there's always a few essentials that a person doesn't pack until just before they head out the door--like a toothbrush--unless they happen to own doubles of the items)

LOL! I know, y'all are probably wondering what my AFRICA schedule is, not this week...well, I'll be...so picky!

Anywhooos...give me a couple minutes to find what little bit of the Africa schedule I know...I wrote it down somewhere...la, la, la...Ok, can't find it. What's more, I haven't got Fred's Google Calendar yet, so I can't see the schedule again to remind me. So sorry, for building up all our hopes. Hopefully I'll get access to the Calendar later and have time to post the schedule then. Although, if I remember right, there should be a schedule for Fred's whole three-month trip on Davismission, which includes when I'll be there. For those who are wondering, I'll be flying to come home from Accra, Ghana, April 13th (on a different flight then Deb, again, though our planes will know of each other since it's all about the same time and places) and arrive a couple hours earlier then Deb in the Buffalo Airport that Thursday, April 14th, morning.

I also hope that my access to the Internet won't be to shaky during the whole trip so I might post occasional updates, but sometimes even just connecting long enough to send an e-mail gets interesting. So we'll just have to see what happens!

Keep me in your prayers throughout, and may God bless y'all abundantly!
<>< Hannah Joy

Planned Philippines...2008

This is just a note to keep us in your prayers. Half of the medical team has dropped out of going to the Philippines in October, and the lady who was going to lead the Bible School for the kids has dropped out too. We can still manage, but most of us who are still planning on going are very very short financially and all of us are wondering when--not if--God is going to provide; we need $2400 for the plane ticket in two weeks! Emily and Michelle could also use extra money to come up with the medical supplies they plan to bring...We appreciate and envy your prayers, so keep it up. In the end, The Lord will have just the right people going and all the things we need, right now we just need more faith!

I love y'all and pray God blesses you back, continuously...

<>< HJ

A Little note from Haney-Pack Where packing means carrying Christ to the Nations

PHILIPPINES 2007:

Her name was Kim (with a Spanish “I,” like Keem). She lived in a remote town on the little island of Busuanga, part of the Palawan cluster of islands in the Philippines and a twelve hour boat ride from Puerto Princessa, Palawan. Like some of the Filipinos who attended the small church in Chey (pronounced chew-y) during the time the missionaries where there holding conferences, Kim was there to help out. She wanted to enjoy the free food and did not want to be affected by the meetings; nor did she expect it.

During the first night of meetings, the Holy Spirit fell so strongly that not only were most of the Filipinos either falling out under the power of God or laughing with the Joy of the Lord, but so did most of the missionary team! Not a person was un-effected. That is except Kim.

She was outside preparing a late night snack for everyone when she was drawn in by the laughter and joy lighting up the night air. She peeked in the back church door, and the next thing she knew, several hours later she was staggering and laughing her way out the door on the arms of one of the young missionary women.

My name is Hannah Davis, but my nickname is Haney-Pack as I am always giving out waist-level hugs! I was one of the team my Aunt Debby took to the Philippines last fall. We saw several people healed and delivered while we traveled across the islands and while we ministered at the churches. Though the whole trip was awesome, I was specifically affected by what happened during our week in Chey. Not only did God talk to us and give us new revelations while under the influence of the Holy Spirit, but He used us too! Even in ways we never knew of at the time it occurred!

While we spoke, shared, talked, and enjoyed our time in the meetings, the Lord touched Kim and many others like her! But for Kim, it was extra special. After that first meeting, she shared with us her testimony! During that meeting, though not a word had ever been spoken about or prayed over her concerning her being Lesbian, she was immediately delivered from it! And when we last saw her, she could not stop commenting about how handsome a certain young man looked!

What’s more, the Lord is still moving in that little town. The Lord is anxiously waiting to impart more to His people! Every night since we left that little church, they have been having meetings and God has been there waiting every night! Amazing!

AFRICA 2008:

He was about five years old and his name was Abel (pronounced Ah-bell). He was one of over eighty children at the orphanage in Benin, West Africa; the orphanage Pulcherie ran and the visiting missionary team tried to support. While several of the orphans were adoptable, Abel was not for his mother was still alive, though she resided indefinitely at an asylum for the mentally ill.

Abel had a cute smile and a ready laugh, but mostly he just loved to be held. He was a rambunctious boy and did not like to sit still long, so rather then stay in one person’s arms continuously, he would clamber from one missionary team member to another. And he never stopped smiling!

For the first week in Africa we held two ladies conferences in the morning and afternoons, and went to different churches in the evenings. We saw many people uplifted and delivered of various ailments and diseases; I saw one girl, who as I prayed for her to see, her eyes suddenly lined up and she looked right at me! While another young lady was delivered of a demon when a friend prayed for her!

But, perhaps, one of the most memorable times for me was the second week. It started out with an awesome youth meeting, where the youth on our team—including me—went and each took turns sharing. I had almost nothing to say as I stood up to share, but each time the interpreter finished and I opened my mouth again the next words where there! As a result of all of us allowing God to use us outside of our usual comfort zones, the meeting became a powerful prayer, worship, and time of intercession! We did not get back to our rooms till very, very late! But it had been totally worth it!

Then, for the next several days, we went to the orphanage we are trying to raise support for. While several on our team played and distracted most of the children, the two nurses looked over each child one at a time, and when they were done looking over that child, I prayed for, blessed, and gave him or her a candy. But in between each child, I sat and held one of the younger children and kept a small, enraptured group entertained with little games or tickling. And if I were to choose a favorite, it would have been Abel; he had an incredible smile and beautiful laugh, which I constantly tried to draw out with another tickle!

OVERALL:

In the last year and half I have been blessed with traveling to many places in the US, West Africa, and the Philippines! My dream has always been to be a missionary, travel, and help missionaries. And starting in 2006, that has been exactly what I have been doing! I have been helping and ministering with Fred & Debby Davis as part of DavisMission. It has been awesome to be such a blessing to those we meet and those I live with; albeit, it has been a big stretching, growing, and learning experience as I learn to get along outside of my comfort zone—my bedroom! I have learned much about trusting God in the everyday mission’s life, but I have been enjoying every minute of it too!

With God’s help, all things are possible!

I am expecting to continue in this ministry and traveling to carry God to the nations with my Uncle and Aunt; but I also hope soon to venture out with friends and on my own too! We hope to go to the Philippines again in October, perhaps finally go to somewhere in East Europe next year, and I am also planning on traveling to Honduras with my nurse friends this August.

PRAY:
- Please pray for God’s guidance and continuous direction, as we travel and minister both in the
US and abroad
- The provisions necessary to continue this work,
- And for the orphans in Benin, whom we are trying to raise support for!

As the Lord blesses us, may you also know his blessings “exceedingly abundantly above all that we may ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us” (Eph 3:20)!

Christ's love to y'all,
<>< Hannah Joy

Team: Davis & Friends

Like I said before, that was just the beginning.

Shortly after I moved in, I ended up traveling with Fred, Deb, and M-L all over.

Gospel Crusades (the organization Fred & Deb are affiliated with) had a conference in FL, apparently as they do every year, the first week in January 2007. Then Fred & Deb were invited to teach a Bible School on a resort in MN for a week in the summer. On the way we stopped at friends in OH. Over all, I met a lot of new and great people on the way to and from both places and at both places. (We always drive, when it comes to traversing the US). During some of the spring/summer Fred was off in Africa. And during some of that trip, Deb and I joined him for three weeks, in which I first got my passport stamped and visa's for all three countries of Ghana, Togo, and Benin (And formed a really awesome friendship with Florence Gake during our week in Togo).

And we just kept traveling! (I know I'm probably missing some places, but for a couple months there at least, it seemed we never stopped--I was having culture shock just in constantly meeting new people and seeing new places in the US alone! I'm the hermit, or at least I'm someone who likes her privacy and organization--or so I used to be!)

Through it all, I was forming a relationship with Bill and Cathy too. Every weekend we were around, that is, and the times they traveled with us. (Bill to Africa; Cathy to some of the conferences in the fall when it was just us ladies). And of course, when he was in the same area, Cathy's son Tim Wright (if you don't know him yet, you will!) also on the weekends and twice in Ghana!

But meanwhile, I was praying for a friend. I'm not saying I didn't have any friends already. I had formed a friendship with Deb's niece who had lived here the first couple months I was here; and there were some friends from my old church family who I saw a couple times that year; and then of course, there were several friends I kept in contact with over the phone. But there is nothing like someone I could see often, who adds another dimension to my friendships. (There are the kind of friends who pat you on the back, or are ointment on the wounds, or relate with you because they've been there before, and then there are the ones who give you the friendly slap on the face, or wake you up, or the iron sharpens iron kind; a person always need friends of different kinds to relate with on different levels, after all, its just as important to heal from old wounds as to grow up! And nothing does it like relationships). Angie had tried to start a Christians young-person group to meet more people in our area, and it flopped...Tim was great for talking into the late nights about God and the Bible and struggles we were having--and for a few months, we were going through very similar things. And there was Deb and Cathy for talking things out to, also...but there was still someone who was missing in my life too, someone my age.

So, of course, I prayed. Told God what I was looking for--someone nearby, or who didn't mind traveling so we could hook up often (I don't have a car, and can't drive most vehicles anyways!); but mostly, a Christian who would add a dimension to the relationships I was missing and needed stretched on (I'll leave the exact details of that between God and I).

And so God wove a plan; and was orchestrating a team....he, he