In 1995, when the Davis family first arrived in the barrio, there was only one church with about 15 attendees—again in a community of about 30,000. They knew there was potential in the barrio for so much more. Rod and Twila hoped for a thriving, life-giving church to be born in the heart of this ghetto.
They began going door to door, sharing the Gospel using simple techniques and speaking broken Spanish. Through these efforts, many came to accept Christ. Some conversions were unexpected.
“When we moved into Maria Auxiliadora, we bought our house for ten times the market value,” Rod says. “That bothered me because I always thought I was pretty street savvy. But when we started going door to door sharing the gospel, one of our first converts was that same person that sold me our house. I guess it was a good investment.”
“Moreno was a machete-wielding terror in the barrio,” Rod explains. “When he accepted Christ, he made it mandatory for his wife and children to come to Bible study. Now, after a few years of being involved with his home church, he has moved to a mountain village to serve the inhabitants.”
Moreno is taking on a new way of life to bring people to Jesus Christ. He’s learning to farm in the mountains of the Dominican Republic, a change from his previous lifestyle of urban survival. Rod couldn’t be more pleased with the change.
“Conversion is more than a prayer for salvation,” he says. “It is about total renewal. Moreno is a good example of the way God changes things. He makes things new from the inside out. That’s why we’re here.”