A Christmas Eve Reunion and a Life Restored
David says he felt his “chains drop” when he first walked through the doors of the Eugene Mission.
Almost one year ago, David Davis’ heart stopped after a fentanyl overdose, but paramedics brought him back. After 30 years of addiction to a lethal mixture of substances, David knew he needed to quit drugs or they would take his life.
His daughter, from whom he was estranged, agreed to drive him to the detox center and wouldn’t leave his side until she knew he was admitted, David said. Ten days later, she arranged for him to come to the Eugene Mission.
“When I walked through the front doors, I knew my life would change,” David said. “I struggled with addiction for 30 years. For the first time, coming here, I felt a release from bondage.”
David’s history is a story of close family bonds ripping apart from generations of substance abuse that the Eugene Mission is helping him repair. He says he’s working every day to honor the investment God made in him when he spared his life.
When David was a child, the Eugene Mission meant something very different to him.
He remembers being around 10 years old running around the campus as his father, a pastor who also owned a drywall company, did repairs. “My dad, Al Davis, was best friends with (founding Executive Director) Ernie Unger,” David said. “I grew up here! I even preached my first sermon here when I was 17!”
That sermon, on David and Goliath, now seems prescient – he would go on to face his own Goliath in the form of an addiction that was infinitely more powerful than him. He not only used drugs, he dealt them, and his history of failures was well known by his family.
Once enrolled in the R3 Program, David knew a lot was at stake – he had re-established contact with his son and daughter and he didn’t want to let them down.
David considers his time here part restitution and part therapy. He takes every opportunity to encourage other guests who are struggling, such as a man who recently lost a job, and he shares his story freely with anyone.
“I tell people, this has been the best place for me,” David said. “I’m working part-time now, I give my life skills and classes everything I have and all the people here have been so encouraging and amazing.”
He’s working to overcome the shame and regret of his past and he’s looking forward to the kind of future “only a former drug dealer and pastor saved by grace” could have.
This Christmas, he feels a sense of deep gratitude to God – not only is he clean and sober, he’s also anticipating his son and daughter visiting him at the Eugene Mission on Christmas Eve. From there, they will drive to a Christmas family reunion that’s been a decades-long tradition.
“My son keeps telling me ‘one day at a time,’” David said. Days that used to be clouded and empty are now full of Hope.
“It’s for freedom that Christ has set us free,” David said, quoting Galatians 5:1. “Every day I’m clean is a day of freedom.”