Newsletter Numero Uno:

Dear Family and Friends,

As of September 3rd, 2010, I will be embarking on a journey of a lifetime in the lovely city of Houston, Texas. I have been accepted by an organization called Mission Year (http://missionyear.org) to love on the people of Houston! They are all about the Acts 2 Church; community, discipleship, and spreading the love of Christ. While I am there my team and I will be focusing on their basics: 1.) Community Service, 2.) Church Partnership, 3.) Relational Impact, 4.) Justice, 5.) Christian Community, and 6.) Personal Discipleship. I will be serving 4 days a week at a community service sight and will be developing meaningful relationships with my neighbors and my teammates, in the name of Jesus Christ.

I heard about Mission Year 4 or 5 years back at Cornerstone Music Festival. About a month ago I was praying and contemplating what to do this year; asking God whether or not He wants me to go back to school and what He has for me during the fall, knowing the Mission Year application deadline was over. A few days later an e-mail from Mission Year was waiting for me, telling me that they have extended the deadline to July 15th. They also went on to say that they are developing a brand new pilot team in Houston that will be focusing on the Arts. Incorporating mission work and the Arts is only what I have been dreaming of and have felt God's calling for me to do for what seems like forever! This passion for inner-city areas was birthed from my involvement with Highland Park Community Outreach in an after-school program. The community I experienced there was contagious. Those kids were outstanding and the need that was so prevalent in their lives truly touched my heart and is a need that I simply cannot ignore. What an awesome opportunity to live my dream, touching peoples lives in the name of Jesus through art, in Houston, Texas. What an incredible God-orchestrated miracle! What are the odds?

The purpose of this letter is not purely to keep you up-to-date with the events going on in my life, I would also like to invite you along in my journey, through your support. During my year in Houston, I will be self-supported through donations, with $12,000 being my total goal for the year. I have included an envelope if you are able to support me financially. An equally appreciated support method is prayer. Prayer is huge when it comes to actively seeking God's will at every moment of every day. Knowing that I have a band of sisters and brothers praying for me will be a great source of strength and encouragement. You can also journey with me through reading my stories and thoughts on my blog at { asalvagedheart.blogspot.com }. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Nicole Davis

p.s. -- I also have a "donate" button on the right menu if you are interested. Also, you can donate through the Mission Year support site { missionyear.org/support/nicoledavis } where you can choose to make a one-time donation or monthly pledges AND in a couple weeks you will receive a receipt for your taxable donation!

arte y el misionero.

I have an amazing opportunity to pursue all of my passions for Jesus, art, and community through an organization called "Mission Year" [ missionyear.org ] and I will be leaving - possibly for Houston, Texas - very soon - September 3rd and it will be going until the end of next July. I will be having a fundraiser for my trip near the end of August - either the 27th or 28th - and it will be all about the arts. I was wondering if you would like to donate any photography or whatever else you might have that is artistic (prints are totally fine, no need to be originals). It will be a silent auction/benefit concert, with the proceeds going to my fund. My goal for the year being $12,000. I definitely don't expect to get that much from this event, but it's a step. :] The details for the event are really raw and still need to be hashed out. But I was just asking you to see if you would be interested. Let me know, thanks!!

Ecclesia Church

Ecclesia Church - The church that I will be partnering with in my mission year team. Beauty resounds throughout every aspect of this journey God is hurling me into and strikes the chords of my very heart strings. I'm awestruck. Please read my heart scream:

"Ecclesia is a Holistic Missional Community called out to serve Jesus, our Liberating King. We proclaim the good news of his Kingdom with words and actions in the City of Houston and across the globe. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we follow the example of Jesus by loving sacrificially and fearlessly. We are people of the Book. We have confidence in the scriptures, God's self-revelation in the words of people in history. The scriptures tell the story that ignites and sustains us, the story of God's relentless Kingdom. We offer this statement of our convictions with humility, and without any illusions about our ability to capture the fullness of God’s truth in any document. We embrace and celebrate the mystery of faith, even as we look forward to the day when our Savior returns. Then we will know fully as we are fully known. We believe in the triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We believe in God the Father: Who created the Heavens and the Earth, the seen and the unseen, and pronounced it all good; Who graciously calls out a people for his own possession to fight the powers and bless all the peoples on earth; Who keeps his promises to Abraham, David, and his covenant people; Who spoke through the prophets; Who speaks through his word; Who revealed himself definitively in and through Jesus. We believe in Jesus Christ our Lord: alpha and omega, the risen, reigning, and returning King, the object of our faith. Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, the eternal Word made flesh; Who was crucified, died, and was buried; Who was resurrected on the third day; Who now sits in glory at the right hand of God the Father;

Who will return to judge the world and consummate the fullness of his kingdom; Who meets us in the bread and wine as we celebrate the victory of the cross and we anticipate his triumphant return. We believe in the Holy Spirit: the giver of life, liberator, and enabler Who was poured out at Pentecost; Who unites us in one body; Who gives us wisdom and discernment; Who gives us gifts for service; Who gives us the power to be loving and faithful; Who fills us for worship; Who guarantees our glorious destiny. We believe in the Church:

We are a "called out people." We are called out from captivity to freedom, death to life, complacency to cruciformity. We are baptized into the community of the Liberating King, the body of Christ. We are the aftertaste of God's loving triumph on the cross and the foretaste of his loving triumph at the consummation of his Kingdom. We are a missional community. We serve our King, one another, and the world according to the gifts that the Spirit has graciously distributed among us. We believe in the Holy Scriptures: as God’s revelation of himself, which were given to men and women through the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles. We believe in the forgiveness of sins: through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. We were alienated, dead, enslaved, proud, deceived, and hopeless. God rescued us in and through Jesus, who died for our sins, who actually became sin, on a Roman cross. We do not understand this cosmic transaction, but we know that our sins have been forgiven, our lives have been altered, the curtain has been torn, the walls have been demolished, the shackles have been removed. Jesus died for us to set us free to live for him. We believe in the resurrection of the body:

The unique beauty of Christianity centers on the reality that the Creator God journeyed from the heavens to join us in our humanity as the ultimate means of our salvation. We seek to celebrate the incarnation of Jesus by following His example to love one another as He loved us, even to the point of death. We believe in life everlasting: Jesus came to give us life, abundant, authentic and eternal. It is the life of the Kingdom, the life of the age to come, but we taste it here and now through the Holy Spirit as we eagerly look forward to the fullness of the Kingdom. Because we have this life, our citizenship is in heaven, our ultimate loyalty is to our Liberating King, and we live as sojourners in a fallen and rebellious world. Because we have this life, as Spirit-empowered nonconformists, we seek to be a blessing in this world, to demonstrate the justice, love and shalom of Jesus by service to the poor and the poor in spirit. "

Check out more of their awe-inspiring links and such at

[ http://www.ecclesiahouston.org/ ]

introducción de nadie

hello.

my name is nicole.

i don't belong on earth,

but it works well

for my foreign dwelling -

for now.