Category: Personal News

On a personal note, the last few weeks have been a great exposure to the diversity of the Assemblies of God here in Nor Cal.

Two Sundays ago I had the opportunity to talk to people about our ministry at Family Community Church in San Jose. FCC is a very contemporary church reaching young adults and professionals by the droves. They’ve added over 700 in weekly attendance over the last two months.

That afternoon, I was invited to preach in a Fijian church (First Fijian Assembly of God) that meets here in Palo Alto. It was great–they’re a wonderful church! We were especially honored by their gifts of Fijian leis to us. Interestingly enough, they make leis out of dyed tree bark in Fiji. Very nice.

Last Sunday I was able to share at Oriential Christian Center (a Chinese church) that meets down in San Jose. It was the first time I’ve ever preached with an interpreter. I kind of like it!

And to show you how connected the Body of Christ is, one of the people I talked to at FCC gave my website to a friend of his who works at Stanford. He contacted me and we had lunch yesterday. While talking, he mentioned that he had a Fijian friend he was trying to minister to, and I was able to connect him with the Fijian church I preached at!

How wild… God has got a way of hooking things up. He’s definitely got a systems perspective!

By the way, we’ve been experiencing great favor in our attempts to schedule services and connect with pastors. Right now we’re preaching in a different church every week through March, and we’ve got tons of 1–1 meetings planned.

As a result, we’re already at the 70% mark of our mandated monthly support! It looks like we’ll be able to go full-time on campus sometime this academic year. Yippee!

Also, it looks like we’re going to have around 30 people crammed into our apartment for a Thanksgiving lunch tomorrow–almost all of them Stanford students!

This has been a great year for Paula and I–we’ve had a lot of fun changes to process! Thinking back, here are seven things we’re thankful for:

1) Were thankful for five wonderful years of ministry to the students back in Springfield, MO!

2) Were thankful for a safe and fun move west (and especially for the friends we were able to visit with as we drove across America).

3) Were thankful that we now have the honor of representing Christ to the worlds future leaders at Stanford University!

4) Were thankful for the many relationships God has granted us with Stanford students, both grad and undergrad (nearly 25 so far). Pioneering is often much, much harder, and we’re grateful for how easy God has made it for us!

5) Were thankful for living in such a wonderful apartment across the street from campus. The best thing about it our proximity to students: Kevin, who is pursuing his masters in engineering, can bike from his dorm to our apartment in about three minutes!

6) Were also thankful that God has provided us with what is quite possibly the most vibrantly yellow car on the planet! Weve got a few nicknames for this irrepressibly perky vehicle, including The Curious George Mobile and The Happy Car. 

7) And finally, were thankful for friends like you who support us, pray for us, and show concern for us and for our ministry. Thank you and thank God for you! We wholeheartedly echo the apostle Paul, How can we possibly thank God enough for all the happiness you have brought us? (1st Thessalonians 3.9, CEV)

Happy Thanksgiving!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything on this site (although look over at the Chi Alpha @ Stanford site and you’ll realize that I’ve been quite active online).

Still, this is the site that bears my name and all…

Here are a few little tidbits:

• I voted today. It was worthwhile, but it really wrecked my schedule.
• I have a bone to pick with the California political system: what’s up with statewide referendums? Don’t they defeat the purpose of a representative democracy?
• And why do we use plurality voting to select public servants? There are much better ways!
• I broke the 10,000 mile marker on our car yesterday. I’m getting quite familiar with California’s interstate system…
• Also yesterday I had a chance to meet with a really neat pastor named Paul. He has eleven children. All by the same wife. Who still looks like a model (his words). Wow.
• While I was meeting with Paul, he gave me a free ticket to a remarkable cave in Volcano, CA called Black Chasm. Creepy name, gorgeous cavern. I was the only person on the tour when I visited the cave, so it was really cool. If you’re ever near Volcano, you should really try to visit the cave–it’s well worth the time and money.

Anyway, I’m still working at raising our full missionary budget (hence all the miles on the car and the meeting with said pastor). Keep us in your prayers!

Incidentally, I am giving about two hours a week of ministry time on Stanford’s campus. We’ll be having our sixth meeting of the year this Wednesday (Paula will be speaking), and we’re expecting around 20 students to show up. Roughly 1/3 of them will be Singaporean graduate students.

On a personal note, last week was one of the most hectic I’ve had in a while. In the last seven days I’ve put 1700 miles on my car!

It started off with a trip up to Dunsmuir, CA to meet with a pastors’ gathering, and it was constant motion from then on.

The weekend didn’t provide a single bit of respite–if anything, the pace picked up! Saturday morning I taught a workshop in Davis, and then I preached in Burlingame Saturday night, in San Bruno Sunday morning, and attended a missions banquet in San Jose Sunday evening.

Yikes!

By the way, the top picture is of me conducting the workshop at Rock Your Campus which I titled “Reasonable Answers to Honest Questions” and I helped students process topics ranging from capital punishment and just-war theory to the levitical code and the existence of suffering. It was fun!

The bottom picture is Paula and I with some of the Stanford students we brought to this ministry training event.

Here’s something interesting (to me, at least). I’m on the cover of Chi Alpha’s magazine for campus ministry: Campus Upgrade.

I’ll post a link to the article as soon as it’s online.

I found this link interesting: you are where you live.

Basically, you give it your zipcode, and it describes the people who live your area. For example, using my zipcode I get these results from the PRIZM system:
   Winner’s Circle
   Executive Suites
   Young Influentials
   Suburban Sprawl
   Towns & Gowns

And I get these results from the Microvision 450 data set:
   A Good Step Forward
   University USA
   Middle Years
   Upper Crust
   Urban Up And Comers

Pretty interesting stuff (and pretty accurate based on my impressions of the community).

I first put this page online because a pastor asked me if there was some information about us online, because he wanted to copy our bio for the church bulletin. 

I thought about it, and realized that all the information was scattered about and not in one place. It also occurs to me that visitors to the site might want to know a little bit more about me themselves.

So here goes:

First, I should mention that we’re the Assemblies of God missionaries to Stanford University. Now here’s some personal stuff:

Full Name: Glen Talbot Davis
Born: May 3, 1974
Really Began to Follow Jesus: at a seventh-grade chapel service
Baptized in the Holy Spirit: as a college sophomore in UL Chi Alpha
Called to Ministry: as a college junior at a Chi Alpha conference
Previous Ministry Experience: five years on staff with Chi Alpha at Southwest Missouri State University
Education: Master of Divinity (AGTS, 1999)
Bachelor of Science (University of Louisiana, 1996)
Strengths: preaching simply about complex subjects, organizational leadership, refuting false beliefs, using technology effectively
Often Heard Saying: Contrast breeds clarity
Deeply Influenced By: The Purpose-Driven Church, The Spirit of the Disciplines, Mere Christianity, The Master Plan of Evangelism
Favorite Comics: The Far Side, Calvin & Hobbes, Dilbert
Vision for Stanford: Establish a credible, consistent and pervasive Spirit-filled gospel witness on campus.
Core Commitments (Values):
     I must nurture intimacy with God.
     I must cultivate my character.
     I must build my marriage.
     I must hone my skills.
     I must maintain healthy relationships.
     I must rigorously analyze my beliefs.

Full Name: Paula Kay Davis
Born: August 4, 1974
Really Began to Follow Jesus: July 23, 1990 at a Bible Study
Baptized in the Holy Spirit: August 1990 at a Bible Study
Called to Ministry: Summer 1992 at a youth conference
Previous Ministry Experience: five years with Chi Alpha at Southwest Missouri State University, two years as board member of New Life Church (Springfield, MO)
Education: Bachelor of Science (University of Louisiana, 1996)
Strengths: Organized, hardworking, good listener, sensitive to others, teachable
Passions: To see myself and others shaped more into the image of the Master; to help hurting people experience the love of the Father.
Hobbies: Enjoy sewing, cooking and spending time with friends

And a recent addition:
Full Name: Dana Marie Davis
Born: March 25, 2004
Often Heard: screaming inconsolably
Hobbies: pooping, spitting up, and crying

UPDATE: our anniversary is 12/21/1996.

Someone just told me that they emailed me four times without ever hearing a response from me. I never received any of the messages.

I mention this in case you’ve sent me a message to which I’ve not replied. It’s possible there’s a glitch with my email server, although it’s equally possible that the person simply made some mistake on their end.

If I haven’t replied to a mesage, I apologize. Please resend it and I’ll get right back to you!

OK, I knew that the air in California was supposed to be bad, but this is ridiculous! By the time a Bay Area babies are two and a half weeks old, they have inhaled more pollution than the government recommends over a lifetime!

At least now I have something to tell people who imply that I moved to California just because of the magnificence of the scenerey and not due to the call of God… I’ll try to explain it between hacking coughs evidencing the onset of emphysema.

We just had a great visit from Brian and Courtney Jacobson, alumni from our last ministry.

It’s interesting: we’ve literally had guests in our house every other week since we’ve arrived. Our rate of visitation was much lower in Springfield, MO. Hmmmm.…

Also, one of the highlights of their visit was the Stanford-San Jose State football game. We won 63–26! Woohoo!

I enjoyed the game (especially since we stomped the other team), but I was pretty disappointed about two things:

1) There were no students there. Class doesn’t start until September 23rd. It just seems lame that at quarter system schools the team has to play their first home game without student support.

2) The stadium was pretty ratty. I was shocked. I was expecting sharp, clean markings on the field. I thought the screen would be high-tech and sharp. Wrong on both counts. It’s not like Stanford’s hurting for money–so why the underimpressive stadium?download few good men a dvd