Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Harvey Davis Biography

I am taking some schooling and it required that I write a biography about someone that I knew well and thought it would be fun to write about my dad.  This is the actual paper that I turned in, and yes some of the facts/dates might not be exact because I was in a hurry to get it done and did not check them all, but it still gets my thoughts across.

Harvey Davis
Biography
Having started his family late in life, he was middle aged with young children but he had the energy of a young man when it came to spending time with his kids.  My dad, Harvey Davis was born on November 4, 1917 in Fort Worth, Texas.  His family moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma when he was a young boy.  Life was full of adventure and fun with his four brothers and three sisters, but when he was a teenager life changed.  With a full house, and lots of mouths to feed and not enough money coming in, he and his two older brothers were forced to go out on their own to find work and a place to live.  They decided that California was the place to go where they could make a lot of money.  Since they did not have money for transportation they became hobos, which in those days meant that they would hop onto freight trains and ride in the empty freight cars.  They were young and it was dangerous, but they made it to California to begin a new life.
They did not stay long in California and headed back home; this is where his life changed for the good.  His sister witnessed to him about the good news, the gospel and he went to an old fashioned Apostolic church repented of his sins, was baptized in Jesus name and God filled him with the Holy Ghost.  He attended and graduated from a Bible College in Oklahoma and he eventually became a preacher of the gospel and started traveling around the United States preaching and that is how he met the love of his life, Virginia Jacqualine Brooks.  In February 1946 they were married, he continued to travel and preach and then around the year 1953 they went to Liberia, Africa as missionaries.  After 2 years they came home because he was dying from amebic dysentery and malaria and there was not anything that they could do for him, but God raised him up and he started a church in Santa Ana, California.
My dad was 44 years old when his first child was born, my sister Sandra Jean Davis on May 13, 1961.  He was 46 years old when his second child was born, my brother Randal H Davis on August 3, 1963 and 47 years old when I was born, Sharon Sue Davis on October 31, 1964.  He was a very energetic person always on the go, full time pastoring a church and doing carpentry work on the side.  He loved to go hunting, on family vacations and to Disneyland, my childhood memories are full of the places we went and all of the fun that we had as a family.
In October 1992 he retired from pastoring the church in Santa Ana and at this time his health was failing and he did not get around much anymore.  His first grandchild Jacqualine Brook Davis was born on April 19,1993 and she had him wrapped around her little finger, he loved spending time with her.  After spending a couple of weeks in the hospital, on January 5, 1995 he went on to be with the lord and engraved on his tomb stone was the scripture 2 Timothy 4:7 “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:”.  There could not be a more true statement for my dad, Harvey Davis who is loved and missed.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

More Memorial Church Pictures

 I received an e-mail last week with some more pictures of the church being built.  The building is done, they just need to add the furnishings on the inside.  They said "Thank you for such a beautiful building.", thank you once again everyone that helped and thank you Jesus.




Thursday, March 1, 2012

Liberia Memorial Church

The church in Liberia is being built and should be done in about 2 months.  I want to say thank you to everyone that gave in the offering that made it possible to build this church in remembrance of my parents.  I have attached some pictures that I have received of the building process.  It is being built in Weakama which is about 4 miles from the heart of Bomi Hills.

Thank you Jesus.