In the city where Jason and Lizzy Davis serve, some steps have a lot of meaning. And the meaning is different for them than it is for the thousands who travel there to visit that site.
“If you come to Rome, you can come to a place called the Holy Steps,” Jason said. “People go there, and they’ll crawl up on their knees and pray the rosary all the way up.” From the top of the steps, a mural depicting Jesus on the Cross looks down on those making the pilgrimage.
For Jason and Lizzy, it’s a spiritual experience, a picture of a religion that asks people to earn their way to Jesus. “That’s really the opposite of what the gospel is. The gospel is Jesus saying, ‘No, you can’t do it . . . no matter how good you think you are,’” they said.
Most people in Rome have at the very least a cultural connection to Roman Catholicism, as the city is “the heart of Catholicism.” Jason explained, “It’s where the Pope lives in the Vatican. It’s very much part of the religion and culture. It’s all intertwined here.”
An ‘unavoidable’ call
Jason and Lizzy are investing their lives as International Mission Board missionaries in Rome, Italy, to share the truth of the gospel. The Davises partner with national believers through a new church plant, and they’re seeking to plant more churches within the city.
Lizzy said for her, the call to missions was unavoidable. “I grew up as a third culture kid, or a missionary kid. My parents were on the mission field, as were my grandparents, all with the International Mission Board.” Then her family moved to Virginia for her dad to work for IMB’s home office staff.
As a middle schooler and high schooler, every time Lizzy heard about the need for the gospel to go forth, she felt a burden, a “burning” in her heart. She didn’t know what God would do with that, but she had a feeling she would see one day.
Now, years later, she and Jason spend their time trying to find as many opportunities as they can to invite people into their home so they can share the hope of Jesus with them. That can mean Bible study or simply sharing a meal.
‘Completely lost’
Jason has been surprised by just how often people are willing to talk about faith. “You can get into spiritual conversations very quickly with people, especially if you’re just open and honest with them.”
Lizzy shared that one of the easiest ways to do this is to be willing to let your day be interrupted. “That’s something I’ve seen Jason do firsthand in our neighborhood. He walks down the street, and everybody knows him because he stops and takes the time to ask them questions about their families, gets to know people, gets to know the newspaper stand guy and the guy at the fruit stand and the grocery store ladies.”
She emphasized that caring about people is “what Christ would do.”
The Davises, whose previous mission service prevents their photos from being published, live in a neighborhood of about 130,000 people. Their church of 15 people is the only evangelical congregation there.
Lizzy said the area is “truly a lost, completely lost, dark neighborhood” with people who have never heard the gospel. Thousands more come to their area on a religious quest. The Davis family’s neighborhood is home to the Basilica Papale di San Paolo (the Papal Basilica of Saint Paul), one of the city’s four major basilicas.
“So we get a lot of people coming on spiritual journeys, visiting our neighborhood, seeking some sort of spiritual experience. And oftentimes it’s just trying to earn their salvation,” she added.
Jason described this environment as “a genuine need for people to actually hear the gospel and know that their sins can be forgiven and they can have an assurance of that.”
Total transformation
They’ve seen that need met in the lives of people like Luca and Elena who live in their neighborhood. The Davises developed a friendship with this couple, and over time, Luca and Elena decided to follow Jesus.
“Luca was an atheist, and Elena was a nominal Catholic,” Lizzy said. “The Lord has worked in their lives.” The “before” picture for the couple was “complete and utter hopelessness and darkness,” with their marriage teetering on the edge of ending.
Now their lives have been “totally transformed by the gospel.” Luca, Elena and their son, Pablo, have been very involved in helping with the church plant. Luca preaches and leads in worship, and Elena is involved in ministry and outreach to children. On some Saturdays, they invite the community to a children’s event called Stories from the Heart, where Elena shares a children’s book with gospel themes.
“The last one was about refugees and how God loves everybody from all over the world, and she shares the gospel through that,” Lizzy explained. “Then our church does homework help for the kids, mostly primary or elementary-age kids in our neighborhood.”
Jason asked for prayer that all of them would see continued fruit in their area. “We want to have a very strong gospel witness that when people know us and they see us, they know, ‘Oh, those people are Christians. We know that about them,’” he said.
Prayer for more transformation
Jason also asked for prayer for their church plant to have unity in its mission. “We need to be constantly praying for one another, lifting each other up, praying for unity and mutual encouragement of one another, that we can truly have times of fellowship where we can grow in brotherhood with one another.”
Lizzy asked for prayer for more lives to be transformed by the gospel.
“We would hope to see more added,” she said. “We’re a very small church, and we’ve just lost a family who moved away, so we are small, and oftentimes it can feel discouraging. Pray that God would add to our numbers of people who are being saved.”
She also often feels the growing pains of learning language and culture while trying to share the hope of Christ. Life in another country “can feel really lonely at times.”
“Learning a new language and the fact that ministry is slow, and you don’t see results right away, there’s no immediate encouragement to keep going,” she said. “You just have to trust that the Lord is doing that work.”
Second Corinthians 12:9 reminds her that His grace is sufficient in her weakness. “I can actually boast in the fact that I’m struggling to learn the language or in the fact that I have left everything that’s comfortable and familiar to me because then Christ gets the glory.”
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