Meet the Davis family — Paul, his wife Jessica, and four daughters: Mikayla (17), Shae (14), McKenna (10) and Lulu (7). Paul, graduated from LCU in 2001, and Jessica graduated from Liberty University in 1999. Leading missions and working abroad has been part of their family DNA since the beginning. Since the age of 19, Paul has traveled and lived all over the world while his wife and kids have just followed suit and felt God’s leading in that direction.
Paul says, “We have been living and working in Central America for four years now. The first 2 1/2 years we spent high in the mountains of central Guatemala, in a village called Buena Vista. We were part of a team helping to lead a soccer academy. For the past year and a half we have been in Puerto Cortes, Honduras right on the caribbean coast. God led us here to start a new soccer academy. All Central America, but two radically different places. Our strategy is to find busted and broken up communities (in no short supply here) and move into them, using sports as our connection. We believe in living where we work, as opposed to traveling into the community. That brings its own set of precautions and challenges, but at the same time, allows us to really connect with people here. We have discovered that in many of these contexts down here, poverty has created a vacuum – there are few dads, few leaders, few men of God to take the community where it needs to go. It literally is a cancer; destroying this place – one community at a time.”
The Davis’ are a sports family. Basketball, baseball, you name it…they love it. “We use sports as our tool in Central America,” Paul continues, “Everyone speaks Spanish, and everyone speaks “futbol.” It is a natural connection. It has opened up doors and led us into some great places. We have always believed that sports is such a great avenue for laying bare the character and integrity of a person. Through a high-level sports program, you can strip away a lot of ‘stuff’ and get to the heart of an individual. And that is our hope, through our soccer academy. Take 30 boys from the local village, work ’em hard, break ’em down, fill ’em up with Jesus, and then set ’em loose to change the world.
“As a ministry we are called deepStream Life. We have five focal points in our day-to-day ministry:
- Nutrition – malnourishment and disease are common from poor nutrition.
- Hygiene – again, health is drastically affected by poor hygiene in poor villages.
- Education – there is life after soccer and the boys need to be prepared to lead their village.
- Soccer – we focus on the one sport that counts down here to create a high-level program.
- Discipleship – It is the most important of them all. A disciple of Jesus is one who changes his world.”
The Davis family currently lives in Puerto Cortes, but are looking forward to living and working in Travesia – a Garifuna community nearby. They have purchased land and are currently raising money to build a house, the academy, and the gym to live out the vision God put on their hearts inside the village of Travesia.
“Thank you for all your help and prayers,”
Paul and Jessica and the girls…
deepstreamlife@gmail.com