Tom Davis is an author, consultant, and former president of Children’s HopeChest (www.hopechest.org), a Christian-based child advocacy organization helping orphans in Eastern Europe and Africa. He holds a Business and Pastoral Ministry degree from Dallas Baptist University and a Master’s Degree in Theology from The Criswell College. He is currently a doctoral candidate in Leadership Development and is the author of five books, including Red Letters.

The following excerpt from a feature on Davis explains how his heart began to be specifically burdened for orphans (Source).

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In 1997, Tom Davis rushed into a Russian orphanage bearing life-changing news for a little girl named Anya. He was in the country on a missions trip with high schoolers, and he and his wife had waded through the adoption process. By the grace of God, it was finally finished, and he was about to surprise Anya with the news. Davis expected to overflow with joy, but instead, something happened that broke his heart.

Flinging open the doors, he saw all 100 children who lived in the orphanage lining the hall. They had heard rumors of the adoption, and they came to see the man who represented the very thing they all desired: the chance for a family. Suddenly, two little girls rushed out of the crowd and each grabbed one of his legs, “like it was their favorite stuffed animal,” Davis recalls. They cried, “Papa, Papa!” They knew he was taking someone to be his child, and they risked humiliation in front of their peers for the chance for him to hear his name – “Papa” – in the hope he would take them, too.

That moment was a significant landmark on Davis’s journey to discover the heart of God. Throughout his education and pastoral ministry, he read the Bible verses about God caring for the widow and orphan. In Russia, he found those very people so close to God’s heart were without any support, resources or hope. There are 150 million orphans in the world today, and that breaks Davis’s heart.

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Though his ministry focus was profoundly influenced by this trip to Russia, Davis explains that his own life experiences largely shaped the way he viewed fatherlessness. Read the following from Davis’s own voice (Source):

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I have had the privilege of serving as the CEO of Children’s HopeChest since 2008, but my orphan ministry began much earlier. In fact, the roots were sown in my own troubled childhood. I grew up in a broken home, moving with my mom from town to town and sometimes living for extended periods with my grandfather, Herb.

I remember one weekend I was told my dad was coming to visit me at my grandfather’s house. I looked forward to that all week, and when Saturday came I woke up extra early and sat on the curb waiting for my daddy. He never came. Despite my grandfather’s pleas, I didn’t come inside. I fell asleep right there on the curb, and had to be carried into the house.

I think of this story every time I reflect on my experience with orphans. As a child I had such a profound sense of longing and attachment for my father. I wanted his love more than just about anything.

Since 1997, I’ve worked amongst the orphans of Russia, Eastern Europe, and Africa. I recognize so many of their emotions. On my very first trip to Russia I brought a group of 50 high school students to run a summer camp for orphans.

During that trip, I felt God working directly through me to love these kids. That’s when I knew I’d been spending the rest of my life amongst the fields of the fatherless.  I came home and immediately opened my Bible to find out what God had to say about orphans. Although I had graduated from Criswell College with a Masters in Theology and served as a youth pastor in Dallas, I couldn’t believe I had missed such a large part of God’s heart. The more I looked, the more I found God’s heart for the orphans spilling off the pages of the Bible.

About a year later, we took out a second mortgage on our home and I used the proceeds to self-publish my first book Fields of the Fatherless. That was about the same time I came on staff at HopeChest to help expand the church sponsorship program.

Over the course of those next years, I wrote a few more books about orphans and global poverty (Red Letters, Scared) and began speaking and writing more on my blog about orphan issues.

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In the next few chapters, we will examine the specific themes in Red Letters. As you work through these, make note of the things that resonate with you. Ask yourself how your outlook, and even your actions, might change in light of what you discover.