by Leah Raich | May 29, 2012 | News Slider
With final exams now nearly one month in the rearview mirror, Lipscomb students have turned their focus to their next objective – serving Christ across the globe this summer. Over the course of 106 days, from May 4 through Aug. 17, Lipscomb Missions will have 24 teams on the ground in 18 different countries. The timeframe is broad in scope – all summer long – and so are the locations and types of services being offered. From discipline-specific trips in Engineering that will be serving communities in Guatemala and the Dominican Republic to a first year trip to Moldova where a team of graduate psychology students will be providing therapeutic counseling to girls once caught in human trafficking, some students have the opportunity to take what they have learned in the classroom and apply it in a mission field. Students will experience a variety of cultures, from the two trips to Australia (Brisbane and Perth) where students will engage growing churches and encourage youth, to two trips in India where Lipscomb teams will spend five weeks in Mumbai, Delhi and Calcutta ministering in a country where Christians are the minority. In each of these missions, students will have the unique chance to literally “go into all the world,” as Jesus directs his followers in Mark 16:15. This year’s 24 summer trips are a record for Lipscomb Missions, up from 20 trips in 2011 and just eight trips three years ago in 2009. There has been a significant shift in the landscape of the Missions Program as the number of trips offered has flipped from being heavily weighted on spring break efforts to the current majority of summer trips leading...
by Leah Raich | Nov 1, 2011 | News Slider
When Katie Davis told Lipscomb students how she went from being a homecoming queen in one of the nation’s most affluent suburbs to becoming a mother to 13 Ugandan orphans, it struck a note. “Katie came to speak in chapel last week, and I was truly inspired for the rest of the day,” said Megan Crawford, a senior elementary education major from Bartlett, Tenn. Four years ago, Davis was homecoming queen at Ravenwood High School in Brentwood. Her life was full of good friends, a loving family and boyfriend, and a cute yellow convertible. She was planning to go to college with her boyfriend in the fall of 2008 and study nursing. But God had other plans. After graduating high school, she went to Uganda for a year to teach kindergarten at a local orphanage. She saw this as a temporary move, but God didn’t. Today, Davis is living in Uganda sharing her home with 13 orphaned or abandoned girls, ages 2 to 15. Davis is the legal guardian or foster mother for all of them and hopes to one day adopt them. “As someone her age who has been to Africa, I could relate to a lot of the poverty and emotions she has experienced while living there,” said Crawford. By law, Davis is too young to adopt in Uganda, said child welfare officer Caroline Bankusha. The rules say an adoptive parent must be at least 25 years old and at least 21 years older than the child being adopted. Davis has also started a nonprofit organization called Amazima Ministries. With support from U.S. donors, Amazima helps 400 children go...
by Emily Snell | Oct 13, 2011 | News Slider
Katie Davis faced a dramatic life transformation nearly five years ago, and now at age 22, as the mother of 13 Ugandan children, she is changing the world one life at a time. Davis spoke at The Gathering on Thursday Oct. 13 to tell her story and the stories of people she has met and to encourage students to walk in obedience to God’s call. During her senior year of high school, Davis went on a Christmas break mission trip to Uganda. Her heart was so deeply touched by the people she encountered that she had to go back to the East African nation and care for them. “I wanted to do something, even if it was small,” Davis said. Davis established Amazima Ministries in 2008, in order to help more children by partnering them with sponsors around the world. The organization “feeds, educates, and encourages orphaned and vulnerable children and the poor in the country of Uganda.” A $300/year sponsorship provides some medical care, school supplies, three meals a day and spiritual encouragement. When Davis began Amazima, which means “truth” in Lugandan, she said she expected to have a couple dozen children involved. In January 2008, there were already 150, and now the ministry has more than 450 sponsored kids. Davis has adopted 13 AIDS orphans, some of whom have special needs. “God created this family out of brokenness,” she said. Davis said most people hear her story and either think she is crazy or extraordinary. But she says she simply obeys the commands Jesus gave. “I’m just a normal person,” Davis said, “and in these little ordinary...
by Jadrienne Myhre | Nov 24, 2010 | News Slider
Tory Wolf, a sophomore social work major, just returned from delivering letters of Christian encouragement and love to Ugandan kids. The Brentwood native previously visited Africa twice, going to Rwanda, Ghana, and Uganda. This time she went toting the letters written by members of her Lipscomb social club. Heather Hall, sophomore elementary education major from Louisville, Ky., and service coordinator for PKS, said Wolf’s enthusiasm inspired the project. “Tory Wolf thought it would be a great idea if fellow Christians wrote letters to the kids there,” Hall said. “We all decided that that was a wonderful idea – spreading God’s love, even if it’s as simple as drawing a picture and writing a short note.” Wolf is devoted to this type of mission work. “This is my passion,” Wolf said. “Since there are a million displaced people, there is a huge need. This is my plea to the Lipscomb community – that people would be willing to reach out and help in any way they...
by Brandon Brown | Nov 24, 2010 | Uncategorized
The game of basketball may be just another sport to most people, but for junior Jordan Burgason it’s a passion driving his future. Burgason, a member of the Lipscomb University basketball team, has been playing basketball since he was 6. It wasn’t until he was 18 that he realized the game of basketball was more than just a sport, but his calling in life. In March of 2008 Burgason set out to Uganda, Africa to coach a basketball team. “It was my senior year (in high school), and I remember my parents sitting me down and telling me they were going to send me somewhere I could soak up a different culture,” Burgason said. Being that he was in the middle of his final high school year Burgason was not thrilled about leaving. “I didn’t want to miss my senior year, and all the memories that came with that,” Burgason said. “After a few days I thought about it and realized that this experience in Africa would be better than any experience I would have during my senior year.” Once he arrived in Uganda he soon realized that things were totally different than they were back in Ames, Iowa. “My first memory of being over there was being on a bus with about 90 people on it– the bus was only made to fit 30,” Burgason said. “That was a very new experience. It was then that I prayed to God and told him that I knew he would be with me throughout this whole experience to watch over me.” While in Uganda, Burgason coached a basketball team and also worked in an orphanage for...
