In December 2013, on a freezing night in a Bangor dope house, a man put a serrated knife to Pastor Travis Carey’s throat and robbed him of everything he had. That man was Aaron Davis. It was Travis’s birthday.
Seven years later, Aaron walked through the doors of the church Travis had just planted in Greater Portland — holding his six-week-old son and searching for freedom. What happened between those two moments is a story so unlikely that, in their own words, most people simply don’t believe it.
In this episode of The Pastor’s Office, Travis sits down with Pastor Aaron Davis of Calvary Chapel Lewiston for one of the most remarkable testimonies of God’s grace you’ll ever hear. Aaron opens up about growing up biracial and fatherless in rural Bradford, Maine; the abandonment and identity crisis that shaped him; the OxyContin epidemic that swept through small-town New England; and the loss of his fiancée Nicole, who was executed in a drug deal gone wrong in 2012. He shares the years of addiction, dealing, and prison that followed — and the moment, while erasing Travis’s stolen phone, that he saw text after text from a discipleship program pleading with Travis to come back to the Lord. God used those messages, meant for someone else, to break through the darkness.
From a relapse and a dog dying in his arms in the New Mexico desert, to suicidal despair during the COVID lockdowns, to a full surrender to Christ and a miraculous deliverance from Suboxone — Aaron’s journey leads him through Calvary Residential Discipleship and ultimately to planting a church in one of Maine’s hardest cities. In the second half, Travis and Aaron turn to the theme that ties their whole story together: identity. They discuss how the enemy and the culture push us to define ourselves by skin color, gender, or background — and how the gospel goes far deeper. The conversation engages the national conversation around race and identity politics, including reactions to Charlie Kirk, clips from Pastor John Amanchukwu, and the Austin Metcalf / Karmelo Anthony case, before landing on the truth that there is one race — the human race — made in the image of God.
This is a story of forgiveness, brotherhood, and a redemption only God could have written.
Guest: Pastor Aaron Davis — Calvary Chapel Lewiston
Host: Pastor Travis Carey — Calvary Chapel Greater Portland
⚪️ People & ministries referenced: Pastor Ken Graves (Calvary Chapel Bangor) • Seven Oaks / Calvary Residential Discipleship • U-Turn for Christ • Will Cass • Pastor John Amanchukwu • Charlie Kirk • Steve Robinson & Jon Fetherston (The Maine Wire)
⚪️ Scripture referenced: Deuteronomy 30:19 • Exodus 3 • John 1 • Acts 17:26 • Genesis 32 (Jacob/Israel) • 1 Corinthians 11:1
🎧 Listen on Spotify | 📺 Watch full episodes on YouTube: @calvarychapelgreaterportland
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