What is God to you?

Woke up this Saturday morning feeling energized like never before. Not gonna lie, I was beginning to get pretty tired! Tired of sleeping in a 100 degrees room, well trying to sleep... Tired of the SLOW pace of the Peruvian lifestyle! My body was just tired. But after a croissant sandwich, a cup of coffee, some quiet time, and a little FaceTime session with my boy Nick Brandt and great friend Zac Allen, I was encouraged and ready to knock out this second half of my trip! Second half! That's right, we are officially half way through this trek. At the end of catching up with Nick, he prayed for Will and I and just encouraged us to not grow weary! We prayed that we "leave it all on the field", and have no regrets when we hop on the plane back to the US of A. That is exactly what I needed to hear, because it would be so easy to sit back, look at what we have already accomplished in our time, and just rest up before we get back to our fast pace lifestyle in America. So thanks Nick for your thoughts and time, so pumped for the opportunity you have been given and praying for you non-stop!

"I love God!" All of us have said or heard someone say that in our lifetime! If you haven't well now you have at least read it because I can proudly proclaim that I do. I love what that statement means to me! But I began to wonder while I was over here, who is God? What is God? And what does that look like?

I searched into my thoughts and what he looks like to me: I see God in creation. Creation of land, trees, mountains, stars, clouds, and probably the most, I see him in people. I see God in sunsets and sunrises. I see God through forgiveness, through His word, and through early morning cups of coffee. I see God through water no matter if it is rivers, lakes, oceans, or ponds, Jesus clearly talks about water A LOT! I see God through colors, music, and the list could go on and on and on. We all have our little ways that we see God and consider him, but I decided to look at scripture and see exactly what God himself refers to Him as.

One thing that I started doing when I got here was I wrote down all the names He refers to Himself as. I read a couple every morning and just proclaim him as that during the day. It has been powerful to me and that is one thing I suggest you do if you are having trouble proclaiming him on a daily basis. Here are just a few...

Bridegroom- Matt. 9:15

Author and Perfecter of our Faith- Hebrews 12:2

Alpha- Revelation 1:8

Comforter- Jeremiah 8:18

Cornerstone- Ephesians 2:20

Everlasting Father- Isaiah 9:6

I AM- Exodus 3:14

Life- John 11:25

Mediator- 1 Timothy 2:5

Rock- Deuteronomy 32:4

Teacher- Matthew 26:18

Way- John 14:6

I love these and the list could keep going, but there is one of these that really sticks out to me! Everlasting Father! Isaiah 9:6 says...

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

I know we have always been told growing up that he is our Father in Heaven. And we usually start our prayers with "Dear Heavenly Father", but do you actually see him as your Daddy? Have you ever addressed him as "Daddy"? If you haven't, I suggest that be a new step you decide to take in your relationship with the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Prince of Peace, and the Everlasting Father!

I have been blessed with an incredible earthly father, that has done his best as humanly possible to show his love for me in every aspect of my life! So because of him, I have been able to see how much more my Heavenly Daddy pursues me and cherishes me! Obviously, not everyone has been as fortunate as I have been with having a dad like I do. Because of this, there is hope for that love you never received, and it clearly comes from the Pops up stairs! So many of my teammates were raised only by their mom. And there is no doubt the mom in those situations did an incredible job. But there is just something about a fathers love that children long for!

With Father's day on my mind this last week it has been on my heart to start looking at God as Dad. To address Daddy in prayer, and to present my fears to Dad like I did so often as a child on the edge of my bed! Thank you to my father here on earth that decided to actually be a Dad and love his children the way he has! But more importantly thank you to my Daddy that pursued me long before I was born, and the one who continues to love me unconditionally every moment that I drive those nails a little deeper in his hands!

You are, the great I AM! You are, my Everlasting Daddy!

Football Americano takes on Peru

It's been too long my blogging familia! Things have been crazy here in Peru! If you follow me on instagram, you probably have somewhat of an idea about what has been going on in my world. But if not, and if you do, you are about to get to here some awesome whimsical stories!

I love to live by the quote, "If what you did yesterday still looks big to you today, then you haven't done much today! So win the day, everyday!" I guess I haven't done much today because the last few days of my life have been everything I could have dreamed this trip would become and much more! From confirming that our water filter system is top of the line and changing the lives inside our pilot family, to building houses, to playing football with a bunch of inmates, this week could not have been any more fun than it was!

I will go back to the first couple of weeks we were here. South America is a very strong Catholic nation (for the most part). They are very excited about the Pope being from here so it has definitely lit a fire in all of them recently. Knowing where we were, and knowing that I grew up in a Protestant/Evangelical church my whole life, I wanted to experience some of their culture. So, we saw a huge cathedral and decided we wanted to go catch a mass. Luckily we had met some friends here, Micah and Jocelyn (from Boston), and they actually knew the "Padre" here at the local church. We all loaded up and headed up there. Sadly we were a bit late for mass, but we were able to catch Padre before he headed for his siesta. We introduced ourselves and made a connection that he was actually from Oklahoma and is a big football americano fan! He knew of my brother and I both and was excited Colt was finally on a great team and with an awesome coach with the 49ers. Now this is where the story gets crazy. He reasoning for saying this was because the week of June 15th, Coach Harbaugh, the head coach of the 49ers, would be making a trip here to Piura, Peru, to volunteer for a week. What a freakin small world! Blows my mind! Padre was excited for the opportunity to get us together and do a little work with each other during the time being!

Quick side note: I actually was blessed enough to be recruited by Coach Harbaugh during his time at Stanford. He made a trip down to my state championship game my senior year and just made a huge impact on me and my family. I knew he was a great guy and probably even a better coach just from my short time with him, but man was I just brushing the surface.

A few weeks went by and before we knew it Harbaugh and his crew rolled into the big city of Piura. With him he had some great guys! A couple John's, Scott, Rich, Mark, and several of their sons. All in all, I think there was about 12 of them. We started out of first day of work building a house with these guys and Padre. It was a blast and we were able to complete a house pretty quickly with all of us working at once. We sat around a dinner table that afternoon and shot the bull for quite some time!

The next day, was what we were all really looking forward to. We loaded up in a van and headed to the local prison. Rumor was on the way out there, that the prisons in Peru are known to be quite dangerous and not somewhere you would ever want to be sent. We couldn't bring any phones in so I was unable to post pictures, but lets just say it was definitely eye opening! Alex sat the trip out, but Will, John Mark and I were pumped to embrace this opportunity. I brought a couple footballs along with a few others that Coach brought, and we were off! By the time we went through all the security and entered the "yard", we were embraced with hugs by all the inmates. We quickly found out Harbaugh and his crew had been here before, not once, but several times over the past 4 or 5 years. These inmates looked forward to this day, this day of hope! After putting the guys through a little punt pass and kick competition, we let the games begin! I quarterbacked team blanco, and Coach Harbaugh quarterbacked team azul. It was a heated competition and the competitors inside all of us quickly came out... especially in Harbaugh. He instantly was coaching in the Super Bowl again... Barking out orders and drawing of schemes to shut us down. After a 4th quarter comeback by team blanco, we were looking at a 4th and goal from about the 20. We had made rules that you had to count to "tres alligator" before you could rush the qb, but these Peruvians don't follow rules very well (probably why several of these guys are where they are). With that being said, I was running for my life. I called hut and instantly was running in circles. Finally after a few backwards laterals, I had the ball back in my hands and was running to the sideline. As I'm scanning across the endzone looking for a gringo to throw the ball to, I see a little peruvian who had dropped several of my passes throughout the day. A couple of times he accidentally used his head and eye ball as a third hand. He was destined to catch this pass. I'm getting close to crossing the line of scrimmage, and he was getting close to the soccer goal that marked our end zone. I cocked back and put a little mustard on the ball and said a quick prayer that this kid catch the pelota to tie the game up. The ball was in the air FOREVER, and I felt like Joe Montana throwing a lob ball in the back of the end zone, but with out a doubt my man came up with a sliding catch to save the game. Everyone went crazy! The crowd went nuts! There were chest-bumps, side-bumps, and I even heard "GOOOAAALLLLL".

Well maybe it wasn't quite that intense, but that all did happen. And for those guys that had to go back to their cells afterwards, it was that intense! It was a day out of their cell to play a game with a couple of guys they had no clue who they were! They just knew we weren't from there, and we loved to spend time with them. They didn't understand why we did, because no one else in their lives had ever wanted to, but who truly understands the basis of love? Not me, I just know that's what love does.

That wrapped up our trip with the Harbaugh clan, and then we headed out to Tambo Grande to check out our water filtration system with our pilot family. She informed us that she is loving it, and it is continuing to bless her large family! What awesome news it was to us and instant joy it brought to our hearts. We also were asked to come help the local nurse put on a workshop about health for the children of the community. We were able to talk to the moms about eating healthy and drinking clean water and gave us an opportunity to present to several woman our filtration system. The eyes of these ladies grew very big and couldn't believe it was even possible! They are all wanting one in their house and as many as we can install in their school. Because of that we are about to put our first order in for a new batch. We are thinking each water filter costs right at about $20 to buy, put together, and install in a home. I put on my last blog a video about our project and said I would post a link to how you can donate to us so we can put as many in as possible during our time here.

 Overall, it has been a week of awesome adventure and memories I will never forget. We made stories that I can't wait to share with my grandkids someday! Stories that even now, sitting here writing this blog, bring tears to my eyes and a smile like nothing ever has. Thanks so much to Coach Harbaugh and the rest of his crew for taking time out of their busy schedules to come give back to the less fortunate. Because of guys like them, this world truly is a better place. So excited for Colt, and the opportunity he gets to play for a coach like Jim Harbaugh, and get to experience everyday what I got to do for one week. Thanks for all the prayers again! We are all staying healthy for the most part, and waking up everyday with a renewed energy to serve the people of Peru.

I'm not gonna lie, I get very annoyed of hashtags. Even though I use them pretty often, I think they are just extremely uncalled for. But I love one that John Mark uses often and it is just this: #lifeisneverboring. If your life is boring and you are in a rut, make a change! This life we are called to on this earth is not to be boring! It is supposed to be colorful, adventurous, full of risks, and NEVER boring!

Donation information for water purification system:

Below I am going to write a step-by-step process to donate through our account on E-Give. It seems like a lot of steps but it really isn't that bad. I just want to go into detail on everything you need to do. Trust me, it will be worth it. At the end of all of this, please send an email to peruwaterfiltrationsystem@gmail.com to confirm your donation with the amount you donated included. We ask that you do this because there are a few other projects that are also being funded through this account and we want to make sure completely 100% of your donation goes to the water filtration system project. Also remember, all donations are tax-deductible! Thanks again for all your support!

1. Go to the E-Give website (http://www.egive-usa.com)

2. On the left side of the screen, in the "Givers" section, click on "Make a Gift- Sign up Today"

3. Go to "Option 2" by typing in your preferred e-mail address and clicking "Sign-up"

4. You will be taken to a page to input account info. You will need to input your name, e-mail, phone number, address, city, state, zip-code, country, and create a password. Once all the information is filled in, click "Sign-Up"

5. E-Give will now send an e-mail to the provided account to verify its authenticity

6. Go to your e-mail account and click on the e-mail from "makeagift"

7. Follow the instructions on the e-mail

8. After the account is verified, log into your account with your e-mail address and password

9. Once you are logged in, click on "Recipient Organizations"

10. Look for "Peru Mission-Davidson Family", click on the box, and click "Save Organizations" at the very bottom of the page.

11. Next, click "Bank information"

12. Click "Add a New Banking Account"

13. You will need the name on the account, the routing number, and the account number

14. Once all the information is filled in, click "Next Step" and follow the directions.

15. When you are ready to make a donation, click "Make a Gift" on the top right hand corner and follow the instructions from there.

16. After making the gift please send an email confirming how much you donated to peruwaterfiltrationsystem@gmail.com

Thanks again for all your love and support! You are saving lives daily!

Water to Wine... Almost

GOOOAAAALLLLLL! Well, that is something I was able to yell while jumping up and down with the fellow Peruvians last week, but not so much last night. It is the time of year, for all you non-"soccer" fans, when teams are playing their qualifying matches for the World Cup next year. As most of you that are reading this are from America, you probably aren't near as much a fan of this futbol as these South Americans. Peru, upset Ecuador this past weekend, but their luck was not carried over last night, into a very unbalanced playing field against Colombia. These poor Peruvians are die-hard fans of their team and they just aren't near as good as the others. We were all excited and had hope though because Brazil is hosting the World Cup, therefore they receive an automatic bid and that opened up a spot for one more team. As it looks right now, Peru won't be that team but you never know.

It is interesting to me how sports in general, are able to bring so many "different" types of people together, and in that moment they are one. They are one group of fans, rooting for one common goal, and holding onto this glimpse of hope in that one moment.

I just finished writing a 15 page paper on this subject for my final exam in a class. But I never saw it from the lenses of another country. Peru, a country holding it's own and fighting day in and day out to survive, finds hope through their national soccer team. It has been so much fun seeing this different side of the Peruvians! So much, that we have made it possible to catch a game the day before we fly out of Lima and head back to America. I'm excited to be in that environment, wear my jersey, a chant until I can't chant anymore.

But more about what has been going on in my world. Work has been pretty tough this week. A lot of wood choppin and hauling it off. We are doing a lot of cleaning up around the trees, which consists of that and also cutting the grass/weeds. I'm excited to see the final outcome when I leave. I won't be part of the crew that sees the production, but definitely do plan to come back and see what we have been fortunate enough to get started. Although I really enjoy manual labor........... haha My favorite project we are working on is our water purification system for the small community where our mango farms are located. In this community there is no running water, just buckets in hand that they dip water out of the canal a company out of America built for them several years ago. They built a reservoir in the foothills of the Andes that runs into this canal and supplies all these farms with water to irrigate their properties, but also water for these people to drink. This sound great huh? Yeah, the problem is, that reservoir has to travel a long ways before it reaches Malingas. Another problem is, this is where people bath, wash their clothes, and use the restroom. So needless to say, it isn't real clean!

Because of this problem, our team has come up with a pretty easy to make water filter for houses through Malingas. We have installed our first system in a house the medical center directed us to, and we will be going to see that family in the morning to see how it has helped them out. We have made a pretty cool video that I have the link to. If you are interested in donating after seeing it, we are in the process of getting an account set up specifically for purchasing the water filter piece we use. I will put up on my next blog a way to do that. It would be much appreciated and is immediate help to these people.

https://vimeo.com/67917967

Everyone has great ideas for these small communities but never turn those ideas into action. The number ONE cause for sickness is dirty drinking water for this community and the kids are suffering because of this! Until you see these kids faces, and their want for help, you will never understand that want we have to put these filters in! It has been a blessing for us getting to go into these families houses, sit and talk with them, and just hopefully give them a little help with a simple water filtration system.

Other than that, my blogging has been a little slow because of this new board game called Settlers of Catan. I am completely addicted. And I must say, I'm pretty good too! There have been some cases of Dengue Fever going around in our small community. So because of that I have been loading up on mosquito repellent... Not to mention my Malaria medication got stolen :/ We have met some really cool families who are also from the states that are over here to help in the schools throughout Peru. It is interesting when you see an American over here, you HAVE to talk to each other.

Will, Alex, and I all found a really nice gym to work out at in Piura Thursday night through Monday morning. It might be one of the nicest weight rooms I have ever been in. Never would have thought that would be possible over here. Also Will is continuing to catch my passes day after day, and for all my media friends out there that like to cut certain pieces out of my blog and write articles about *cough cough*.... write about this: Yes I am throwing the ball better than ever! Glad I am on this trip for sure, and helping these people out is exactly what I want to be doing right now, but I am beginning to get anxious and excited about the direction our season is going to go!

That's all for tonight! Gotta get back to my reading for the night. Thanks again for all your prayers and support throughout my life, and especially this trip! They will continue to be needed, but more importantly pray for these people! Pray that their hearts are open to our love! Pray that they will see Christ through our efforts without us even having to mention his Him. Pray that our water filters will continue to work and that we find sufficient funds to continue to put them into houses for free! Pray that the people of Peru will listen and learn from us on how to survive and live a healthier life, so that when we are gone they will continue this. Most importantly do not pray that this task will be easy for us! If it were easy, we would take credit for it and think that we accomplished this ourselves. Pray that God will continue to bless us with funds, health, and energy to love these people the way he loved us! Thanks again, much love!

And So It Goes With God

Hola folks! Long time no blog. I would like to say I have been extremely busy trying to save the world but that would be a complete lie. I mean we have still been working, doing our normal tasks throughout the day, but at night our internet has not been working where we stay, and that is where/when we do most of our blogging. In Peru, it is kinda hit or miss on the "wee-fee" also known to us as wifi. You hope it is on and if not, tough luck find something better to do. Which we have... We found a board game called Settlers of Catan. I don't know if you have ever played, but I highly suggest you find it soon and get going on it. The only problem is, it can get quite intense and at the end of the game I am not sure any of us went to bed liking the others. But anyways, that has been taking control of our evenings along with a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwich making, some good music, a little football tossing, and card decks of push-ups. Have you ever heard of that? It is something my cousin and I used to do several years back that we decided to pick up again during the week days when we are away from any workout facility. So basically, you flip a card and whatever number it is you do that many push-ups (Jack=11, Queen=12, King=13, Ace=15), but then you also do something else of that number such as some sort of abs or band curls. Kinda just got to wing it. But I am pretty positive we finished the deck of cards for the first time last night so it was a pretty proud moment for us both to say the least.

This last weekend we got a group together and watched the Life of Pi on a projector, with subtitles of course, and had some popcorn and coffee. It was an awesome evening but the movie really touched me again. Have you ever seen it? If not, it is a movie about... I won't ruin it for you but I do want to lay the foundation out. It is a movie about a kid who through a few incidents winds up stranded on a boat with a tiger for several days and lives to tell his story later in life. The whole movie is an interview between him and a movie director interviewing him wanting to make a movie about his life, because he was told, "It will make you believe in God." There is your quick briefing. I had seen this movie a few times, actually went back and watched it twice in theaters. But this night, a few quotes actually stuck out to me that touched me and made me think a little deeper.

Pi Patel as an Adult: Fait is a house with many rooms.

Writer: But no room for doubt?

Adult Pi Patel: Oh, plenty, on every floor. Doubt is useful, it keeps faith a living thing. After all, you cannot know the strength of your faith until it is tested.

In this movie, it is interesting to see the strength of this young boys faith. One thing I struggle with is when things are going really good in my life and I am "meeting my expectations", I am very good at internally and externally giving God tons of glory because I know there are plenty of reasons for why I shouldn't be able to do the things I have been able to do. That has never been a problem for me. What has been a problem though, is when things go really bad in my life and I'm not meeting those "requirements" I've set for myself, I am quick to put that blame on God. That is something I believe I have grown out of, or at least matured in this area. But it was awesome to watch this kid praise God throughout all circumstances. A quick side note on Pi, he was raised in Hinduism, grown in his faith by a catholic priest, and had decided that he just wanted to love God and live for him. Several times he talks about how he is thankful for Hinduism because it led him to believing in Jesus Christ and the cross. Once again, never test or doubt the power of God and what he can do with the littlest opportunity given to Him.

But Pi, unlike me, was courageous! He knew he was surrounded by God's presence as it says in Psalms 19...

Psalm 19:1-2... "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge."

Day after day, and night after night, Pi saw this display. As when you watch the movie, the graphics are incredible, a lot like Avatar in some scenes. But Pi knew this so when he saw it, he would instantly scream out to the Lord! But on the opposite end, when he was starving and terrible thunderstorms were screaming down on him, he did the same, he screamed out to the Lord at the top of his lungs. It was so crazy! How could a young boy, maybe barely a teenager, be so confident of God and be so courageous in his faith, having the maturity that so many of us lack. I think he understood his only rescue was going to be God. His only supplier of food was going to be his Lord. The only person he was going to be able to talk to, so he doesn't go crazy out there, was going to be Jesus. "After all, you cannot know the strength of your faith until it is tested." His was tested, there was no doubt about that.

Why does it take something so drastic to strike us dead in our tracks and turn and run to him. I know that is what it took for me. Throughout my life, I had so many wake up calls just begging me to seek this mercy and love that I had heard about for so many years. But how could I really receive that? You mean all I have to do is ask? There is no way a person like me could receive this gift... If these are all questions you have, they were all mine (and still sometimes are). Look at Paul for an example. A man who killed Christians. Who persecuted them, and was a very strong voice as to why these men were crazy. A man who still in scripture CONSIDERS, not considerED, but considerS himself the chief of sinners. Also this same man, wrote more books in the New Testament than probably most realize, gave his life to Christ to literally become a pencil for him and his plan.

"Doubt is useful, it keeps faith a living thing", that is how Pi survived. His faith became real. It was alive and living, and because of that he didn't feel dead. He had "hope and a future..." as Jeremiah 29:11 says. I know when you read this quote, you probably think "wait, I'm supposed to doubt that my faith isn't real"? The word doubt in the dictionary comes up as two things...

1. A feeling of uncertainty

2. Lack of conviction

I love the second definition. "A lack of conviction is useful, it keeps faith a living thing". For me at least, when I am not feeling convicted by Christ, I know that I am not living my life right. I know that there need to be some changes made, and the only way to really do that is by increasing your faith. We have already learned and talked about in earlier blogs, how "trying to be a better person" isn't what is gonna get the job done.

The movie goes on and has all these crazy experiences that are hard to believe anyone could even dream up without being on some kind of drug. Pi tells them as if they are so real and with such passion. When he gets back and is finally rescued and in the hospital, he tries to tell this story to reporters in the hospital room. They cannot believe anything he is saying. They don't understand how an orangoutang floated up on a bunch of bananas, how he survived with a tiger, how he found an island full of meerkats, and how he and the tiger ultimately found a way to survive all this with little food and water. So because he can't make them believe him he tells them another story very plain and dry. Simple, with no flashing lights, and growling tigers, with no thunderstorms, and no near death experiences. They take that story and build their articles off of it but the writer interviewing Pi in this story feels that the real story had all the extreme events in it.

Adult Pi: So which story do you prefer?

Writer: The one with the tiger. That's the better story.

Adult Pi: Thank you. And so it goes with God.

Writer: It's an amazing story.

Does that make sense to you? We have been given a choice to choose a life that is God filled full of adventure and tons of surprises awaiting us. A life full of "color" in Pi's terms. Or we can continue this life of black and white, the day to day struggle trying to find joy in so many other things to fill that voided area in your heart.

At the end of your life, if someone comes and asks you, "Will you be willing to let us make a movie about your life?" If you answer that question yes, would your movie be worth watching? Would I want to buy a midnight premier ticket to see the adventures and risks you've taken in your life? Or would it be just another boring black and white showing of a movie stuck in the wrong century? That is your choice to make. Make it an amazing story or not, the choice is yours!