Quiet ministry makes a difference — Home Town News

My grandfather was featured in a story about Christian ministry and church building in various places, particularly in Romania.

Jack Davis is an unassuming man from Blacksburg, but during the past 43 years, he has traveled the world making a difference. During that time, he has volunteered with the Jessie Powers Evangelistic Association, helping the needy in Haiti where they began a school for the deaf. The work with the deaf was very fruitful until the government began taking their medicines and then exacting a fee before those much-needed drugs could be recovered.

Just as the doors to Central America closed, the wall in Germany came down and the Eastern Bloc nations began opening their doors to evangelists. Davis went with the JPE Association to Russia where they ministered to the poor. Then, in 1990, they began the ministry to Romania, which continues to this day. Davis has been to the Transylvania area of Romania 18 times. He went alone this summer in August for 21 days to check on the churches that they helped to build, both physically and spiritually. In Romania, they encourage and meet the health needs of many people who have been living for decades in deprivation, unlike anything most Americans have seen.

That deprivation began with Communist rule in 1947, and reached its height when Nicholae Ceausescu ruled from 1967 through 1989. All Christians lost their jobs at the very beginning, and many were imprisoned or relocated. The Romanians lived with strict rationing of power, food, and other necessities. By 1989, according to CNSAS (the Council for Studies of the Archives of the Former Securitate), one in three Romanians was an informant for the Securitate. Health care dropped substantially, and medicines were no longer imported. It was a fertile situation for the black market, which controlled everything in the country. The legacy of the period was a bloated heavy industry using archaic production methods, (Romanians had to wait three years for a washing machine, two to three years for a color TV, five–10 years for a car), and technologically obsolete (Romania, in 1989, produced 1960s cars and 1970s TVs and washing machines). In 1989, Romania had only a 68-mile stretch of roadway, and that was in poor shape.

While his countrymen lived in these conditions, Ceausescu and his family enjoyed the best – he built himself a palace in the ‘80s with a luxury neighborhood to match. He required his government employees to move from job to job, so that no one established a power base. During the uprising in 1989, 1,000 people were killed, and not one person came to the rescue of Ceausescu or his family. They were tried by a kangaroo court and publicly shot on Dec. 25.

This was the state of life in Romania (then named The Socialist Republic of Romania) when groups began providing aid. The Jessie Powers Evangelistic Association went into Romania in 1991. In 1992, as Jack began the work from Cluj and walked to the outer villages. He was able to work from the home of Zachei and Maria Ivoras in the town of Gligoresti, which has about 150 people. Although he doesn’t speak the language, his first job was to help them build their church. Zaccheus’ daughter, Georgetta, and her son, Ovedia (Ovie for short) make a 1.5-hour train trip to help Jack. His friend, Ovie, now 13, serves as his translator.

In 2001, Ovie wanted to go for a walk, so he took Jack to a small creek, which they crossed on a swinging bridge. Then they crossed the “big river,” on a ferry. Jack saw a little village, Gabou, across the way, and learned there was no Christian church there. (The Orthodox Church was replaced by a “state” religion, the communist government imprisoned ministers at will, and for decades, the people worshipped in secret and in fear). Gabou was an 8-mile walk from Zaccheus’ house, but Jack met with the Christians there, and helped them build a new church. They tore down a dilapidated house and for two years had a poured cement slab. It took them four years to complete the church.

Jack explained when freedom came; churches were packed with standing room only. Now that more churches have been built, they are not as crowded. There was a great spiritual hunger in the country when the Communists left power, but the church continues to grow.

According to Jack, the situation in Romania is much better now. The land can now be used for farming; there are new industries and more choices. The country joined the EU last year, so that helped, but it did cause merchandise to increase in price. Many of the young people have gone to other countries for work. Davis said the Romanian people are very kind, helpful and loving – the Orthodox not so friendly. The people that Jack met in 1992 are now his friends; they give themselves easy nicknames so he can remember them. In the city of Cluj, Jack met a man who needed medicine for his heart; the Powers ministry was able to get it for him. “We are friends to this day.”

These are just a very few reasons that make him a great man.