From Chaos to Kenya with Ashley Davis

Helping Hands International

In this powerful episode of Just Talkin' About Jesus, host Jan Johnson sits down with Ashley Davis — a woman whose childhood was marked by domestic violence, abandonment, addiction, and trauma. 

Ashley takes us on a raw and redemptive journey from growing up in chaos in Washington State, to finding faith through a godly young man in Seaside, Oregon, to becoming a devoted wife, mother, children's ministry leader, and missionary to Kenya, Africa.

 Ashley shares how God drew her to Himself even before she knew Him, how He transformed her marriage, and how He gave her a heart for the nations — fulfilling a dream she dared to hold as a teenage girl. If you've ever felt forgotten, broken, or unworthy of love, this episode is for you.

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Transcript

Jan: Welcome everyone, to this episode. I have Ashley Davis with me today. Welcome, Ashley.

Ashley: Thank you for having me.

Jan: Ashley is going to share about her testimony, but also just the amazing things God is doing with her now that she's not in the place that she was earlier on in her lives.

So,

goodness sakes. Because you are a different person than you were many years ago, right?

Ashley: Yes. I definitely don't look the same. Well, you know, inside and inside and out.

Jan: Tell us a little bit about your story.

Ashley: So I grew up in Washington state.

My mom suffered from drugs and drinking and picking all the wrong men.

And I was in, I was about 4.

And she married finally. Things right off first glance, they looked okay.

Within no time, it became pretty clear that he was very abusive. Was, an abusive person.

And so it was hard because he,

from the age, from my age of 4 until my age of 10,

he, they, they all partake and lots of parties, lots of drinking, that, that immediately came right in.

And selling drugs was really big for him. That was kind of his thing and,

and then physical abuse.

So I was young, but when you grow up in that type of environment, you tend to become alert. And I just remember those days very vividly, just very vividly the feelings and emotions and the things I saw.

But he was, he was so abusive that he would, he would break her,

you know, parts of her. And,

it's really hard to see that, you know, it's hard to go through that and help. As a child, you want someone to help and they don't.

And you're told not to say anything and you're so scared because you also get beat.

And it was just really scary. There was just so much fear. It was always so much fear. And I always would get so angry at the family. Like, you can see my mom is black and blue and she's in the hospital or she,

can't walk or she can't talk because he broke her jaw or whatever. It was like, you. How can no one do anything? You know, no one did anything.

So I was very upset about that.

Hurt and scared and all the things.

So anyhow, when I, when I turned 10,

she had enough and she left him. And at that time, I had two little brothers and one was one and one was five. And so I was definitely very nurturing to them, trying to keep them safe all the time.

But she had enough. And so we went to live with my grandma and she just bolted. I mean, she had freedom, and she took It.

And my grandma worked at Boeing, and I was very close to my grandma.

She was my person, you know, we were still very connected. I couldn't do life without her. I don't think she's still with us, but I always had great memories with her and everything, but she was still working and she couldn't take care of us.

And so I took care of the kids and. And it was okay for a while, but it was hard.

Finally their dad actually cleaned up his act and. And he got an apartment and he got clean and sober, and I never saw him that way. And I. And I told him I was happy for him,

but he. And he asked, do you. Do you want to live with me? And I said, absolutely not. And he's like, well, I can't force you to. And I said, I can't.

I'm sorry, I just can't. Thank you for offering, but I didn't even want my brothers to be with him, you know.

But anyhow, he took the boys and then I became alone.

And so from the time I was about. It was about 11 at that point until 15ish, I just. Oh boy. I was rebellious and I had freedom because my mom was nowhere to be seen and my grandma was working.

And so I just. I didn't always go to school and. And I started not making good decisions and I was.

I was doing a lot of things and a lot of things were happening to me because I was putting myself in these predicaments and they were horrible things and they were happening to me and I just felt like I couldn't get anything out of life that I really wanted or needed,

you know, and then there were a few times where I definitely wasn't gonna go back to my grandma's because, you know, she wants me to be on the straight and narrow.

But then she's also not home because she works second shift anyhow. It was a time where as I got a little older, like 13, 14, 15,

I had also gotten pregnant.

And that was very traumatic for me because it was something that was mine.

And I. It was obviously not a good thing at that age. Okay, it was. I would think I was about 14, but it was mine. It was something positive. And I.

My grandma put a stop to that and that was a horrible experience. I was too far along and it was like this alley back place on back highway. It was.

It was absolutely horrible.

And I really.

I just know that I'm going to see that child someday and I'm Going to,

it's going to be good.

I know that the Lord is going to, is taking care of my child. So that's good. But you know,

I,

I asked my mom if I could live with her multiple times over those years,

wherever she was at someone's house and she always said no, sorry honey, I don't have room for you. Cause I don't even have a place to live, you know. And, and there was one time she did have a place and there was a really nice room because she was living with these older people,

she was trying to get clean. And she had met one sister, she had another child and she told me no. And I just always remember just feeling so alone and abandoned.

But there was times where I, I would just sleep with, with my,

at my friends houses. I would just move all around,

you know, wherever I could.

I guess it was self inflicted because I could have went back to my grandma's,

but I didn't feel like I could.

And I just kind of felt like I was. And I was doing drugs and I was drinking and I was having sex and I was doing things like I said shouldn't do.

So my grandma got ahold of me one day and said I'm moving to Seaside, Oregon. And so she'd had a beach house my whole life in,

in Seaside was. So that was our retreat. That's our retreat. It was our special place. And since I was born, you know, so I said, okay, good, I need a new start.

I'm gonna start over.

Well,

it, it didn't work. And I broke her heart because she really wanted me to be with her.

I came and I found the wrong crowds and I started.

So I was about 15, 16. About 16 started school and as he said, high school, about 10th grade I think.

And yeah, immediately found meth. Well, I'd had a problem with that too earlier on a little bit. But now was, it was a different crowd that was more enthralled in that.

And so that became my life for about a year.

And so this is where God came in.

This is where he told me I needed to change my path, which I think is so amazing because he's not deserving of it. I'm not deserving of it. But throughout that part of my life where I was a child and, and then I was about 16 from, from those years,

there were people I didn't, we didn't go to church as you can imagine.

And my mom would get drunk and say, Jesus loves you. And so that's all I kind of knew. But There were some people, my friends,

parents, some occasionally would talk about Jesus.

And there was. There was one in particular. We'll. I'll bring that up later. Cause it'll tie in the missionary part. But God. God allowed me to know that he was real.

And there was something about him that I knew was real. And of course, I, I. How could I believe that with the life that I was living? But there was something I just knew.

I didn't question it. It was just real.

But I just had no idea about it. I did not know him. I had no idea how to know him, of course. And so I went to work at this temporary agency in Seaside, and I met my husband,

and he gave me a ride home. And he was so nice, he was so good.

He didn't do drugs. And he had been living in the same home his whole life, had gone to church and had this great job, was a good person,

good person through and through, and I could see that.

And he was really interested in me, and I didn't know why. I really didn't. I just thought, oh, man, if you only knew. I could never tell you the truth.

I'm. I'm a mess, you know, I'm just.

I'm. I'm a wretched person. You would never want to be with me. But he didn't give up. He just kept wanting to be my friend and, like.

And just wanting to, like, talk and hang out and. And so finally he made it very clear he wanted to have a relationship with me. And I'm like, absolutely no, Absolutely not.

You know, And. And he would meet me in these places where I was really high,

and he'd want to, you know, take me away from it and take a drive or something, which I think, in his way, was getting me out of there. But I would feel so bad because I was high and I didn't want to be.

And it was like, I just knew all of a sudden there was, like,

he wanted to have a relationship. And I knew that I obviously couldn't be doing this with a relationship. And.

But he also had, like, this normal life and church, and I just could see a clear path.

He wants to give me. He sees through this. He likes me for me. He's.

I tell him about myself, and he accepts me for who I am, and it doesn't scare him away.

And he wants to bring me home and meet his parents, which obviously has never happened to me. And I would never think that that could happen. And.

And then I would look at these friends, and I would look at the drugs and I would. I was. It. It was. Oh, it was controlling me. I just. I couldn't stop.

So I tried to stop and I. I tried to stop because I thought this is. This was. I think there's a. I think there's a light on this path. There's a ton.

There's a. A light, a path I need to follow. And this is going to be good. And if I follow this one,

I just felt like it would be dark and it would be bad and I just knew I'd probably end up with my mom and,

and. And worse. You know, I just could see it. This is where my life changed.

And I was 17 at the time and I could see Mike and I could see the drugs in this house.

And I just made a decision and he helped me and it was hard, but he helped me and I got clean and we just.

Things started moving along so fast. I wanted to go to church. He at the time wasn't going to church because, you know, you're 18 and you decide, oh, I don't have to go.

And he. I said, well, I want to go, so you need to take me. I just had to go to church. I just. I don't know what it. I just had to go.

No, never really gone, but I had to go.

And I wanted it so much.

I wanted it. And I met his parents and his church and it was in Warrenton First Baptist.

And anyhow, So I was 17 and we moved very quickly.

I originally said,

we're not. Let's take it slow, let's. I want to learn about God and I want it. But it ended up being a little quick.

Within about six months total, we were married and.

And we were pregnant. So it went by awfully quick.

But that's where God started transforming my life was. Was when I decided that when he showed me I had a. And he has. He has shown me ever since what he's wanted in my life.

I had little sisters at that time. I was pregnant. My mom moved and she moved up to Oregon here, down to Oregon with her husband at the time. She remarried and they were drug addicts.

It was horrible. They had little. Two little girls, a one and a two year old.

And they were in the mix of it and it was horrible. She moved into our one bedroom apartment because they had nowhere to go and. And I was. I felt like I had had a lot of life by then.

I know that sounds interesting, but I thought I did. And I felt like it was time to settle down. I did. I was ready to be a wife and a mom and make something,

whatever God would want me to do. I wanted to be just faithful to my family and to him.

And so I had. We had partial custody of the girls. They went. The parents had gone to jail. And then I had my son Michael, and they were still with me for a while.

And then finally the court said, well, you're only 18.

Because I turned 18.

And she said. And they said, you're too young and you have a baby and you're just married. And even though we were doing it just fine, we figured it out.

We had all. We had these three little babies, and we. Mike and I figured it out just fine. God was amazing,

just really allowing us to have that time with them. And it was really hard, though. I had to. I had to give them up to foster care. It was really hard.

But, yeah, it's just moving forward from. From the time I was 18 until now,

it's been 25 years of marriage.

We just celebrated,

and we have four children and one grandchild.

And he had. He's given me a heart for the children's ministry.

And. And so about the missions is when I lived. When I. When I was 14 and I had the time when I had gotten pregnant, I lived with this friend of mine, and her parents were Christians.

Boy, she hated it.

But I, I. Oh, man, I would just love it. I loved it. It was a good home.

They were good people.

And I felt. I felt wrong being there in their home. But God, they loved me. They knew that I had done things and. And that I already had not, probably not a good influence, although I.

I was a good. I always said was a good person, but she. They took me in and they loved on me for a while. And they had missionaries come stay at their house for like a week.

And. And then they had had other missionaries when I. I wasn't there, and they had talked about it, and the, The. The light in their eyes, the love for Jesus was so rich and full and beautiful,

and I just wanted that. I wanted to meet missionaries. I wanted to be around them.

I wanted to be a missionary. It's all I could think of. I was like, oh, I want to be a missionary,

and I want to have them come be with me in my home. And I just. It was just. It was a secret goal of mine.

Jan: You know, it sounds like there's such a.

I mean, because you had such a contrast between the dark of your life and seeing the light.

I mean, that light that they. You know, these people that God put into Your life.

Ashley: Yeah.

Jan: And that.

Ashley: That draw to that light and how I believed. I believed so easily in God. I really did.

I didn't ever question him or wonder why I was going through what I was going through. I never questioned him because I've heard people that do.

I've heard their struggles with that,

especially coming to faith, because they. They have such a hard life and they blame him or they don't understand why he couldn't have helped. I didn't have that.

I didn't. I just believed I had a sense of peace with him.

I just didn't understand it at all. I just had no idea. I don't know why God did that for me. He did. And.

And.

But I immediately got into children's ministry

Jan: pretty badly because you were chosen. But I think also that's another thing you're gonna find out in heaven is who was pray,

because somebody's been praying for you all along, that God is taking notice and plucking you out. Because he had a plan.

Yeah.

Ashley: Yeah, for sure.

Jan: Yeah.

Ashley: So, yeah, then the missionary stuff,

we had prayed about it. I had prayed about it many times and heard lots of them in church over the years and met them. And Mike was really not on board.

He wasn't. And we had little kids.

We were really,

really poor. We had. We didn't have very much. Oh, man, it was hard. And so it just was something that I just secretly always loved and admired and just really prayed about.

And I just thought I had hope. I was like, maybe one day God will allow that to be something that he asked me to do. And I was praying that he would change Mike's heart because I needed Mike to be on board too.

And, you know, a couple years ago.

Well, actually, right before COVID Mike and I, we started our own business and at 2019.

And it. But. And that was God. We knew that was God. There's a whole thing there. God really wanted that to happen,

and he made it happen, and it was great.

But then he changed our hearts. And Mike. Mike started wanting to be a missionary too. He wanted to go.

He. His heart was completely changed. And I was so surprised.

And to be honest, it caught me off guard and.

And he was pushing me in missions, you know, to reach out to Chrissy and, And. And I did. And she. And right there, the emails started corresponding, and then everything shut down.

And so a couple years later,

when we got back to, you know, work and. And things, and we started talking about it again, and we had this feeling of kind of a nudging Like a little urgency almost.

Yeah. And we both prayed and, you know,

Mike had this piece about allowing me to go and not him, that it wasn't time.

He really did. And my husband's not really,

not really that kind of a man. He's not. And he gets worried about travel and I would never in a million years think he'd want me, allow me to ever go out of the country without him.

That's just not how he feels, where he feels comfortable, but he was completely comfortable. And it was,

it was almost like I didn't recognize him. God had put that on his heart and, and he allowed him to take care of the family while I was gone. I mean, he had peace.

He said he'd never felt before. God did that and it was, it was a blessing. But I've gone back four times and he's gone with me once.

Jan: Yeah. Tell us about the actual mission and what, you know, where it's located, what, what the gist of it is, what you do on your trips.

Ashley: Yeah.

So it's definitely a little bit of a long trip. Right. It's Kenya, Africa.

Takes a little bit to get there.

We used to go in October,

the rains would be subsided enough, the weather wouldn't be as hot.

But then we did start getting into some rains a little bit and it became a little dangerous. So we've, we've changed the date here a few times. We've gone like in May and June.

So that's about the time frame.

It's, it's about once a year is really good time to go to check on projects that we have there has always taken teams. So Christy Christian over there for many, many years.

And it's in Nairobi, Kenya is the main city.

We fly in there and we're there for a portion of our time and then we take a plane, an in country plane to Ksumu and,

and then drive a little ways, a couple hours and we get to Rock Waro.

That's.

Yeah.

Jan: And yeah, those great roads.

Ashley: Yeah, it's bumpy. It's very long and bumpy, but it's beautiful.

They have speed bumps, large speed bumps. They don't have police officers just to tell you, hey, mind, mind the rules.

And they don't have,

you know, the resources to have say stop lights and, or stop signs and lights and signals and those types of things. So they just put speed bumps in the roads and that makes you slow down because everyone in the car, if you miss one, oof,

you almost hit the ceiling and it hurts. So they, and it is wear and tear on your vehicle. So they. They do go rather slower, but it's a lot of bumps.

So, yeah, it's. It's Kenya. And then just surround. Like, what we do there is. We go to.

We visit the slums in Nairobi.

The slums there is multiple slums, and they com.

They're comprised of millions of people, sadly,

and the worst of the worst, but they're surrounded by the city.

So if you have ever been in New York and you're in Central park,

if you take a look around, you can see all the city and then you're in the park. Well, it's very similar,

just a bigger expanse. But you. If you're in the slums and you look, you can see the city kind of surroundings. Very sad. But we visit them multiple times. There's schools there that we do feeding programs.

We really enjoy partaking in that. It's really nice to see all the children come. And we like to help feed them. You serve them food and read them books. They love dancing for us and singing for us,

and then it's usually at a school.

So we also like to see their classrooms, and they love it when we visit their classrooms.

And then if you are privileged to have a sponsored child that you. If you're on the admission trip and you have a child that you've sponsored, whether they're in Nairobi or upcountry,

we make it a point to allow you to see them.

And we really like it if you can see them in their home,

if it's possible.

And so if you have children in the slums, we'll try to visit them. And if we can't go to their home because it's dangerous or maybe too far, they'll come to you.

They'll come to you. So you'll get to meet them.

You can hug them, you can ask them questions, they can ask you questions. It's very sweet. We do the same thing in Rock Waro or the other places that we go.

We like to do home visits. It's called home visits, but it may be a sponsored child or their family,

or it will be maybe a widow or a single parent, you know, that's taking care of a lot of children or. Or maybe a home that's in need.

So we'll go visit them, give them some encouragement,

pray with them, and maybe see what they may need. So that's. That's really nice.

And we, we love doing dental camps. I'm not sure how many years we've been doing those. I just know that My years that I've been there, we've been doing dental camps and we,

we'll do an either two day camp or three or we've done, we've done ones where it's multiple two different locations. So you'll do a couple days of each.

Jan: How many people will go through in a day that you be.

Ashley: Yeah, the first day. It depends. If it's a new area, the first day won't be as much as like the second day. But if it's an area where we've been before then it's.

The numbers are pretty good. I would say somewhere around you know,

5, 300 to maybe 500. I guess it depends on where we are in a day.

Well in a. It's. Sorry at the camp. So maybe in a day it could be,

it could be like 200 in a day maybe.

And. And also it depends on how many volunteers we have. There's times where we'll have more dentists or more.

So we need dentists and we need dental assistance.

And then we also need the people, other people. We need people to clean instruments, do cleanings which is. We'd have them be separate.

There's, there's.

There's actually a whole, there's a whole array of, of jobs. So it depends on how many we can help based off of how many people can, can come serve that at that particular camp.

And we usually have a pretty good turnout. Sometimes I've been to where we haven't had as many.

So obviously we can't help as many but some we've had a lot of help. We've had people without jobs so. And we just kind of, you know,

have, have people swap out. But so. And, and that one camp that we. I think it was like 800,

but that was a,

a total of four,

three, four days. I think it just phenomenal.

Jan: Phenomenal amount of.

Ashley: Yeah.

Jan: And changing their lives. My goodness.

Ashley: Yes, they are very, very thankful.

It's. It's a labor of love. I'm telling you. It's really, really wonderful. And I went there not liking dental per se and not wanting to, you know,

see in a mouth or see blood or any of those things or maybe wanna just, just. I was nervous about that part the first year. It didn't interest me. So I hung out with the children and so I had that job.

But after I came home and I don't know, something changed in me. And when I told cause I was going back the second time, Chrissy said are you sure? And I'm like absolutely.

I, I Had to work with the patient.

And that's what I just knew. I knew it from the moment we arrived the morning till the last. I said, that's what I'm doing. And I did not move. I just stayed with the patients and I all of a sudden could handle it.

My stomach didn't quit because I,

because that first year I did come in there and they did say, hey, like towards the end, hey, why don't you just try it out a minute? And I'm like,

okay. And I was like,

whoa, no, no, my stomach's doing cartwheels. I don't think this is a good idea.

Sorry. And so, yeah. But anyhow, God changed my heart. And I, I, I, oh, I love it so much.

And I got really good at it. I'm really good at being self taught and I just paid attention to what all the instruments were and what the particular dentist liked and, and the process and I just, I just,

I got pretty good at, I'm pretty good at it. And I, and I love it. And then I love encouraging.

Oh my gosh. These people are afraid.

They are so afraid. Sometimes they think we're doing witchcraft. That's one part of it. Sometimes they're in so much pain and sometimes they, they don't know what's going to happen.

They just, they're just afraid because they don't understand and, and,

and they don't speak even Swahili. They, they'll speak a, a mother language. So it's really hard for even our Kenyans to,

to that. We have some that can get through, of course. Cause some of them kind of interchange. But sometimes it's even hard to connect. But I love putting my hand on holding their hands or putting my hand on their chest.

I feel their heart and their heart's racing. I always like to do that. It kind of tells me how. Cause I can't read minds.

And I love to smile at them because that's one of my things is smiling. If you smile,

you could probably get a smile back. And if you can't, oh, I'm determined. I'm determined. I need a smile back, you know. And I just think that that's a good thing.

And then I don't have to speak words for that. And so.

Yeah, but we'll try to give them some gospel too while we're there.

Jan: That's so we're almost out of time. Tell me,

what would you say,

you know,

maybe to young people who are in the situation that you were in?

What,

what advice would you give or or what advice would you give to those of us who see people or students who are in those situations?

Ashley: Yeah, I would,

I would definitely say be careful not to judge people.

It's so easy to do that. We, we look at the outward appearance or,

or just don't give a chance. To some people, you never really know until you get to know someone. And even a young person,

you don't really know what they've been through.

And I think give people a chance to talk and speak for themselves.

And I think if the opportunity perceives itself for you to help someone or just sit and talk with someone or encourage someone, I think you should try to do it.

I think it would be very. It would have been very helpful to me to have someone engage in me and ask if they could help me. I, I actually never had anybody ever offer to help me.

I, I would have loved that. I would have loved to have had, like a foster parent or some. Someone to say, I want to take care of you. I don't.

I don't know. Like,

it's. It's interesting to me.

So maybe getting to know people is really good. It's really hard. We're busy. We're so busy. People are busy and their tensions go all over the place. But maybe if we take a moment,

if, say, I believe that a person that's in your life is for a purpose because there's like millions of people out there and yet there's only certain people that are in your life.

It's for a purpose. Right. So I think we should try to invest in,

if we can, the people that are around us, because I think it's for a purpose that we don't even know about and like, God knows. Yeah, so maybe invest in someone and just listen to them or ask them how they're doing and actually wait for them to tell you,

because there's gotta be a lot more than you know.

Jan: Right? Right. And how can, how can people find out more about your mission program, Helping

Ashley: Hands International,

to go online?

It's the one that will say it's from Medford and you'll go there and it'll talk all about all the stuff that they're doing, all the places they're going around the world.

But you'll be able to find the link for Kenya and you can read all about our trip and what it entails and have contact information so you can get a hold of someone, which would be me or Chrissy, and we can just talk to you and answer questions and see if it's Something you would want God's,

like, directing you to do.

Jan: Right. And if someone wanted to make donations to the organization or something, would it.

Ashley: Yeah, that. Yeah, right there. Yeah. It'll say donate, and it'll ask you where you want to donate, and you'll get to choose. So.

Jan: Yeah, people can get sponsored children through there as well.

Ashley: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So powerful. Oh, my goodness. And all of the money. This is such a great organization. I wouldn't be with them if it. If they weren't.

All of the money goes to the children, to their education,

some clothing, food.

Oh, man. And it's like 35 or $38 a month, I believe. $38. And it's just incredible. What, What? How we can really help them just by doing that. And they can send letters and pictures, and the kids will send them back.

Jan: Yeah. Yeah. That is so wonderful. Look where God took you. Did you ever even have a clue?

Ashley: No, I'm still excited about what's still to come.

Jan: Exactly. Exactly. Because this is just like. There's so much more, right?

So much more. And. Oh, man. So you've been a blessing to so, so many people and. And.

And more to come as well, you know, just all the way around.

Thank you so much for sharing your story and being vulnerable. I know that's not always easy to do,

but.

But still nervous, but God be the glory, right?

Ashley: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Even if it's uncomfortable, I'm sure. I'm hoping. Yeah. By hearing it helps someone else. Yeah.

Jan: Okay.

Ashley: Yeah.

Jan: Well, thank you so much.

Ashley: All right. Thank you, Jan. Have a good day.