Halfway to 1,000 Voices

The Megaphone of 1,000 Voices now has 500 members in our Facebook group. Have you joined yet? Click here to go directly to our Facebook Group and join today (and invite your friends to do the same).

As you know I'm in Ethiopia right now with a team from HopeChest. What you might not know is that the Bottomlys were one of the very first family's to jump on board with HopeChest when we launched Ethiopia.

Back then, I knew Amy and Josh from their blogs, and their desire to write a memoir about their journey to adopt their son Silas from Ethiopia. They are now in the midst of a second adoption, and recently e-mailed me about a great Christmas gift opportunity that will help them complete their second adoption from Ethiopia.

These would make great Christmas gifts, while at the same time supporting the Bottomly's adoption.

Tracy at JunkPosse makes great necklaces. She is currently donating a percentage of the profits from a select group of necklaces to the Bottomly's Ethiopia Adoption Travel Expenses. These necklaces would make great Christmas gifts to any Africa loving people you might know!

Hope for Africa found here

Heart For Africa found here

Hands for Africa found here

Hope For Children found here

And her newest necklace, Ethiopian Angel Wing Necklace found here.

If for some reason any of the above links are marked sold out, you can click on the JunkPosse store link right here to find the necklace listed again.

Leaving for Ethiopia - Video

Off to Ethiopia with a fantastic team this week. As you can see, we've got a brand new blog design to unveil this week. We're still working out the kinks. If you encounter a bug, shoot me an e-mail.

Also, be sure to check out our Megaphone of 1,000 Voices project. We need your voice to help raise up thousands more advocates for orphans this Christmas. Find out more at our Web site, HopeChest Partners, or join our Facebook Group.

I'll be posting as I can from Ethiopia. Pray for fast and reliable Internet this week, and enjoy the send-off video.

Leaving for Ethiopia from Tom Davis on Vimeo.

A Megaphone with 1,000 Voices

HopeChest is launching a new initiative this December and looking for an online team of activist promoters. In other words, we want you to blog, Tweet, and Facebook throughout December to promote HopeChest to your social network. 

We're building a megaphone with a thousand voices this Christmas. We'd like to turn build a network of 1,000 online orphan advocates. If you...

1. Want to express your heart for orphans this Christmas...
2. Desire to see HopeChest raise $500,000 by 12/31 to help over 5,000 orphans...
3. Blog, Facebook, or Twitter regularly to your social network...

...then we want to talk with you. It's an easy and fun way to help orphans.

I can't tell you much more on the blog--but if you want to be one of the first members of this new team, send an e-mail to [email protected] for the inside scoop. Limited space available. Don't wait...

Saints Coffee: Order Your Gift Pack Early!

If you're looking for a unique gift that also supports transformational orphan ministry, then you need to check into Saint's Coffee. The Christmas 2009 Gift Packs are now in stock, and ready for you to order. 

Every Saint's Coffee Gift Pack includes a pound of the best coffee in the world, along with a ceramic mug or stainless steel travel tumbler. This week while the rest of your neighbors go crazy on Black Friday, sit back and order up your Saint's Coffee Gift Pack.

For those who don't know, Saint's Coffee was born in Swaziland when my friend Brett and I sat on the riverbank and began to dream. We imagined a coffee company that roasted the finest beans in the world--only fair trade and organic.

We imagined our customers as "saints," looking out for kids while still enjoying a great cup of coffee. That's why so much of Saint's profit comes straight back to Children's HopeChest.

In fact, Saint's Coffee drinkers have donated nearly $14,000 to Children's HopeChest since we first began.

To put that in some perspective, $14,000 is a fully-equipped carepoint kitchen with a deep water well for clean drinking and cooking water. All from coffee.

Because of those "saintly" coffee drinkers, thousands of children eat nutritious meals every day. Girls who were engaged in "survival sex" in order to eat can now focus on school. Young men now dream of growing up to become teachers one day. It is the rebirth of hope...all out of a cup of coffee (several thousand cups actually).

Go on, be a saint this Christmas. Don't delay. Order your Saint's Coffee today!

The Title and Cover of the New Book

After a long period of waiting, I can finally reveal the title of my next novel. Let me first say that we received almost 400 people who voted. Thanks you all so much! The clear winner was, "Broken." That title was submitted to the publisher and they accepted it as the winner.

But...

A few days later we discovered that another book with the exact same title was being released. So the second place winner took the first position. Ladies and gentlemen, your winner is...PRICELESS! I must admit that title was not my favorite but when I saw the cover, I was convinced. Don Pape from David C. Cook called me and said this was one of the finest covers they've seen. I couldn't agree more. So I present PRICELESS to you. It's already available for pre-order , but will not release until June 2010.

This book takes place in Russia and the story is told through the eyes of an orphan named Marina who gets caught in the sex-trade industry. It is incredibly intense. There will be a book tour starting in the summer with our partner organization, I-Empathize. More to come as that date draws closer. 

I'm off to Ethiopia on Sunday, November 29th and will be positing pictures and reports on this blog and Facebook. One of the highlights of the trip will be a remote orphanage located hours away that is extremely poor. The orphans are severely malnourished and in need of immediate help. We have 15 leaders going on this Vision Trip and all of them are excited about connecting their churches and communities with sponsorship.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE! :) You are a blessing to me, the orphans we serve and Hopechest.

Promise Keepers Canada

I'm honored to be speaking at Promise Keepers in Toronto, Canada this weekend. If you're attending, please come by and say hello. I'll be signing books in the tent immediately after my talk which is at 10:30.

After this, I'm home for a bit until I lead a team to Ethiopia on November 30th. We'll be posting pictures, reports, and hopefully some video while we're there.

Working on a new book proposal right now that I'm super excited about! The best part is that I'll be asking all of you to contribute and actually help me write parts of the book. 

Next week, I'll post the cover for my new book and the title. Let me say this, I think you will love it! It's the best cover yet in my opinion.

Talk soon...

Scared TV Interview

I thought you might like to see an interview I did in Canada for Scared. Because of this interview, the book has gone to #1 in Fiction a number times on Amazon Canada.  It's a two part series. 

I've been traveling around the country like an albatross as of late and haven't been able to update the blog recently. I'll get back on track, I promise. Can't wait to tell you about the people I've met who are doing amazing things for orphans around the world. Off to speak at Promise Keepers in Toronto this weekend.

Also, this blog is about to get a MAJOR face lift in the next week or so. Stay tuned!

Proverbs 31 Ministries and SheReads

Well, it's official. I am the first male author to be featured on the SheReads.org website, as SCARED was selected as one of their three winter titles. This is a ministry of Proverbs 31, a national ministry of over 300,000 women! If you are a woman (sorry guys), I would encourage you to take a look at their Website, and join a book club if you aren't already connected to one. 

This is a great way to meet new, passionate people who are interested not only in fiction, but also the issues addressed in SCARED. We'll be doing several live interviews about the book and I'll even have some video devotions I'll record for this on my upcoming trip to Ethiopia in early December. 

Thanks to my new friends at SheReads. Hope I do you proud!