Memory lane
In 1995, Roderick (Rod) Davis sold all he owned. He went with his wife, Twila, and two toddler children and moved to the slums of the Dominican Republic.
In 1995, Roderick (Rod) Davis sold all he owned. He went with his wife, Twila, and two toddler children and moved to the slums of the Dominican Republic. Rod, Twila, Shekinah and Isaac subjected themselves to the same conditions in which the Dominicans live, including poverty and sickness. As they began to haul water each day, deal with infrequent electrical power, and wash clothes by hand, their suburban lifestyle in Portland seemed far away. This was the beginning of TEARS (True Evangelism Always Requires Sacrifice), which is a ministry to some of the poorest people in the Caribbean.
“We moved in to a house with a hole in the floor for a toilet,” Rod explains. “Due to poor living conditions and the lack of clean water, we were constantly plagued by sicknesses, including parasites, lice and scabies and there were days when we weren’t sure where our next meal would come from, but God always provided for us.”
The Davis family remembers sitting inside their tin-roofed shanty praying for God to provide. Monthly support wasn’t coming in as hoped. A knock at the door turned out to be a local widow. She told them that she had been praying, and God had impressed upon her to give them the little amount of money she had. It was just enough to buy a bag of rice and some beans.
Why would someone give up a comfortable life in the United States to live a life of poverty in a third-world country?
“Although we were involved in inner-city ministry in Portland,” Rod says, “we got the sense that God was leading us to make a dramatic change.”
The dramatic change for the Davis family has had a ripple effect through the Maria Auxiliadora barrio (ghetto). This barrio was once a community overcome with alcohol and drug abuse, where most children lacked the papers to attend school and where church attendance was rare. TEARS has established a school that is so vital, the waiting list never ends. TEARS planted its first church, Iglesia El Camino, born out of home groups. Since the planting of this church TEARS now has 39 churches in its church fellowships in poor areas. God has used one family to impact scores of families.