From Foot Safaris to Helicopters
100 years of the Davis family in missions
by
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On October 19, 1935 Elwood writes, “All the work is going along fine. School is overcrowded and the church can’t hold all the people (now up to 940 members). The hospital is full. The Downing boys (Herbert and Ken) are such a help and blessing. In church I play the organ. Esther Ford, Harry and Daniel Shaffer and Ken Downing play brass instruments. We are praying (and raising money) for a new church.” Adventures are always part of missionary life as well, especially in the old wild days in Africa. When helping at the Maasai station of Siyapei, Bernice writes (tongue in cheek), “It has not been too exciting here at Siyapei.” Then she proceeds to tell what was happening there. “Last evening as I was walking in front of the house, I heard a lion grunting on the ridge across the river from me. Recently a lion killed a donkey across the river. The day after I arrived, six sheep were killed by a leopard. I have heard hyenas several times. I saw two baboons and have to look out for them daily as they would like to get into the corn. Wild dogs have been heard here these days.”
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About the Book
Dr. Elwood Davis and his wife Bernice arrived in Mombasa, Kenya in January 1911 as medical missionaries with the Africa Inland Mission. This book features letters, diary entries and rare photographs showing the story of God's humble servants laboring to share the truth about Jesus Christ in Africa. Their grandson, Art Davis, has combed through the family archives to produce this book. The first section tells the pioneering story of Elwood and Bernice Davis in Ukambani and Kijabe. The second part shows the following generations in Kenya - Linnell and Martha Davis and their four sons, Van, Art, Ray and Alan. The book, which spans 100 years of God's faithfulness to the Davis clan, focuses on mission work in Africa but also tells of various family members serving as missionaries in South America.
Art Davis, well-known for his ability to spin a tale, provides plenty of fast-paced adventures in this book from his years as a boy in Africa - running into rhinos in the bush - to his family's time among the Pokot people in the Rift Valley. From Elwood Davis's foot safaris in the bush to Art Davis's helicopter trips in northern Kenya, the purpose of the Davis family in Kenya for 100 years has remained the same: to serve a faithful God and point others to God's saving grace.
About the Author
Art Davis is a third generation missionary in Kenya. After an adventure-filled African childhood, Art attended Lancaster Bible College and later earned his master's degree in journalism from Syracuse University. Art and his wife Mary Ellen have worked in Kenya for 40 years, most of that time among the Pokot people. They have three children - Kristin, Karen and Jeff, who are all involved in missions or NGO work - as well as four grandchildren. Art currently lives in Naivasha, Kenya.