Davis Christmas Newsletter

Greetings

Merry Christmas from John and Alice Davis! We hope that you enjoy this holiday season and the peace and freedom we enjoy in this great country. I know Thanksgiving is past,but our hearts are still filled with the wonder of the blessings we enjoy. Our prayer for you is that our Heavenly Father blesses you with good health and great relationships, in the name of his holy son Jesus Christ, whose birthday we celebrate this season.

Children and Grandchildren Report

Alice and I sure enjoy all of our children, grandchildren, and children-in-law. Thanks to God for each one of them! Mel and Betsy Waters continue to serve at New Life Church as District Pastors for a very large group of members. In addition to pastoral duties, Mel continues to write and travels frequently for speaking engagements. Their sons Matthew and Mark are doing excellent work at The Education Center, a new Christian School with highly effective, cutting edge methods of training. Check out the Waters' web site at www.melwaters.com.

John and Kelly Garland have enjoyed traveling together this year, along with their two year old son Joel, to Boston, San Antonio and Corpus Christi. Kelly continues to work part time in Occupational Therapy, but enjoys having the flexibility to take off and travel with John when his company needs him to work at a customer site.

We had a great experience watching Pamela’s graduation from Colorado State University in May. She continues to live and work in Fort Collins, Colorado, and has jumped right into a new program for Registered Nursing. Would you believe that Pam went to Hawaii for Thanksgiving week? She traveled there to visit her (serious) boyfriend’s family, and to evaluate the opportunity to study there.

Diana is on track to graduate from CSU next year. She has really taken to chemistry, and is interested in a career as a pharmacist. We are proud of Diana for juggling her education and work, while doing a great job mothering two year old Hanna. Can you imagine our surprise to see a sparkling engagement ring on her finger at Thanksgiving?

James is a senior in High School, and achieved SAT scores high enough to land him quite a few letters of interest from schools ranging from Harvard to Texas A&M. Arizona State has offered a full scholarship if he maintains his current standing. He was selected as a semi finalist for a National Merit Scholarship, and we’re hopeful that will materialize.

Mike is enjoying life back in Colorado Springs after spending time in Oregon and Canada. He’s really enjoying playing hockey (and guitar) and working at a hockey arena. His main long term goal is coaching, and he’s seriously considering the educational work that will be the next step on that path.

Church Activities

We love our New Life Church family, and our lives are filled with activities relating to our involvement there. We both attend a midweek small group meeting called “Black Forest Ministry", and Alice leads group meetings focusing on health and nutrition. We have been invited to take a supervisory role in helping several other small group leaders. Please take a look at www.worldprayerteam.org.

Travel Notes

We have been able to travel quite a few miles this year, and all of it was enjoyable. We drove to San Diego in May, with side trips to the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. In June we drove to Missouri. In August Alice went to Memphis. In September we went back to Missouri for a second look. We drove everywhere but Memphis, giving us plenty of time to become re-acquainted.

In San Diego we enjoyed visiting with Alice’s brother (Will Newbern), and John’s uncle (Harold Davis). The purpose of the San Diego trip was to help celebrate Paige Newbern’s (Alice’s niece) debut at the historic Hotel Del Coronado. This was a whirlwind trip, and we missed visiting with John’s cousin Mike Wallace who also lives in San Diego.

Las Vegas isn’t one of our favorite places, but we wanted to see a production called “O” (aka Cirque de Soleil) at the Bellagio Hotel, which is an incredible sight and sound extravaganza featuring gymnastics and aquatics. It was highly recommended by different friends, and we weren’t disappointed.

The end of June found us in our Toyota again, rolling through vistas of wheat fields in Kansas en route to Springfield and St. Louis, Missouri. We visited John’s mother, sister, and brother-in-law in Springfield. This was our first visit with them since they moved there early this year to work with the Assemblies of God as medical missionaries. We were really perplexed when we were told that we would have to see the Bass Pro Shop, until we discovered that it is a huge complex more akin to a museum, aquarium, and arcade, with every kind of camping gear under the sun and more “do-dads” than you could imagine.

St. Louis, we enjoyed two wonderful days of visiting with all the Newbern relatives that were able to make it (around 30). A lot of tales were swapped, and a lot of catching up was done. Entertainment was provided by Wade and Meryl of “The Newbern Music Company” from New York City. Other states represented were Maryland, South Carolina, Kansas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, Mississippi, and Colorado.

The St. Louis Airport Hilton did a great job of hosting our party, and Alice did a wonderful job of negotiating our “Hotel 6” rates. It was warm and sunshiny, and we enjoyed several hours at the botanical gardens. We found a historic family style Italian restaurant on “The Hill” that was brave enough to seat our entire group together.

In August, Alice and Betsy flew to Memphis for Alice’s sister Jan’s seventieth birthday celebration. They both enjoyed seeing Jan and all of her children and grandchildren, as well as friends from the days they lived in Memphis. A very special word of gratitude must go to John and Marilyn Blumbeks and Harold and Julie Burrows, who were incredibly gracious hosts during the visit, and who made them feel right at home.

The highlight of our September trip to Missouri was celebrating Vivian Davis’ (John’s mother) eightieth birthday! We enjoyed visiting with John’s uncle Harold from San Diego, his brother Phil, sister Grace, and brother-in-law Ron. We dined sumptuously on lofty cuisine like black-eyed peas and fried okra at the elegant Lambert’s Café (“Home of the Throwed Rolls”). Finally, we kicked up our heels in Branson, with an unforgettable night of entertainment by violin virtuoso Shoji Tabushi and his talented musical troupe.

Click here to send us an email note when time permits!