THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 9, 1996 TAG: 9609090031
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LINDA MCNATT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: 105 lines
In the late 1970s, Michael Davis was a teacher in charge of in-school suspension at a Suffolk middle school. Kids who had broken the rules spent the day with him.
But when Davis slipped into his other life at night, he broke all the rules.
``I was a functional drug addict,'' said the Suffolk native, who looks like he could have been a professional football player. ``I didn't use drugs at work. But when work was over, I was a junkie. I tried them all: marijuana, cocaine, LSD, heroin.''
Eventually, what had started as drug experimentation in college led Davis to the streets, doing odd jobs to support his habit, sleeping in abandoned cars.
After more than a decade of that - heroin was his drug of choice - Davis' life turned around when he entered a Christian-based drug rehab program at the urging of a cousin, a reformed crack cocaine addict.
Now Davis is coming home, and he's bringing with him 31 of his brothers - in Christ and in addiction.
By next summer, Nehemiah Ministry, an arm of Rock Church, will open in what was once a senior citizens' home in Driver. Nehemiah, Davis said, will sell its four townhouses in Virginia Beach to move the entire operation to Suffolk. The facility was purchased earlier this year, and zoning is in place for Nehemiah's use.
The former Senior Citizens Village on Nansemond Parkway has an 80-bed capacity.
``We are coming to Suffolk to have peace and space,'' he said. ``This is a substance abuse program for all denominations. Our arms are open.''
Nehemiah has another, smaller facility in Baltimore. The organization has a 75 percent success rate, Davis said, and he believes he knows why:
``I tried everything, from AA to NA to AAA,'' he said, chuckling. ``I was in public programs, private programs. I was on methadone. I'd go right back. I was worthless. I was a nothing. I was losing my life, and I knew it.''
A drug rehab program sponsored by the Assembly of God Church helped Davis. To be successful, he said, rehabilitation efforts must focus on the inner man, not all on self-image and self-esteem. That's important, he said, but accepting Christ and wanting to change is even more important.
Nehemiah, which grew from a drug rehab center started by The Rev. John Gimenez, pastor of Rock Church in Virginia Beach, is just that kind of program.
It lasts a full year. Participants must complete the first phase before they are allowed to participate in Ships at Sea, an educational and training arm of the Rock Church's drug rehab programs currently based in Portsmouth. And they must accept Christ as the center of their lives.
``They may come in here praising Mohammed, but they will leave proclaiming Jesus Christ,'' Davis said. ``I can assure you of that.''
Davis, 46, has a staff of six volunteers working with him. And he has a helpmate who is an integral part of his story.
When Davis was working at the Suffolk school, there also was a music teacher who had grown up a few blocks from him. Bonnie Davis, her husband's co-director in the Nehemiah ministry, knew him then only as ``a good-looking, married man.''
In 1992, Bonnie Davis was a member of the orchestra at the Rock Church and a postal worker whose co-workers warned the then-unmarried woman that if she ever found a man she would ``preach him out of the house.''
On Mother's Day that year, when they were having dinner with their families, the two met again in a local restaurant. Davis and his first wife divorced when he was unsuccessfully going in and out of public and private rehab centers.
``We looked at each other, and I heard the Holy Spirit say, `This is your husband','' Bonnie Davis, 43, recalled with a laugh. ``He walked up to me, grabbed my ring finger and said, `You're not married.' All I could think of to say was: `Seek ye first the kingdom of God.' ''
The couple was married six months later.
Bonnie Davis, 43, heads the Nehemiah Women's Ministry.
``We deal with the wives, girlfriends, fiancees, families,'' she said. ``It has developed into a whole counseling ministry based on the needs of the women. Most of them are coming out of life-threatening, abusive situations because of the addictions.''
The Davises, who have a 17-month-old daughter now, agree that the Lord led them to the old building in Driver that was closed as a nursing home in 1993. Nehemiah had met with opposition when the organization proposed going into the former Driver radio transmitter station a couple of years before the new facility was purchased.
``This will give our people some space,'' Davis said, as he gazed through the halls of the musty-smelling building. ``We're already thinking about expanding someday. We'd like eventually to open to women.''
The concrete-block, old motel section of the building is structurally sound. A later addition is in disrepair and needs a roof. The entire building must be brought up to city code. Plumbing and electrical service needs to be upgraded, the cafeteria enlarged.
All of it will be done with volunteer help and with help from the former addicts, Davis said. Nehemiah is supported by United Way, federal contributions, and public and private donations.
Volunteer workers or materials would be appreciated, the Davises said. The goal is to open by late spring or early summer of '97.
``This is not a religious program; it is a spiritual program,'' Mike Davis said. ``We are looking to heal wounded spirit, hurt faith, damaged emotion. We're looking for lost souls, confused about life, in pursuit of happiness.'' ILLUSTRATION: OFFERING A NEW START
JOHN H. SHEALLY II
The Virginian-Pilot
Michael Davis has fought his own battles with drugs; now he and his
wife, Bonnie, plan to open a drug rehab center in a former senior
citizens' home on Nansemond Parkway. ``We are coming to Suffolk to
have peace and space,'' Davis said.
KEYWORDS: DRUGS ILLEGAL REHABILITATION by CNB