When Henry and Dorothy arrived in Quito, Ecuador in 1966, with their three sons, Henry III, Edward, and Steve (ages 12, 10, and 9), they had left with the intent to serve as Foursquare missionaries.  Henry came to serve as overseer of the churches in the mountain region of the country, and in the first year they were blessed to see the amount of the churches double, and a small Bible institute of 12 people start in Quito.

One day an older gentleman came to the Davis' home looking for a mission group that would be willing to take over his ministry in the maximum security prison in Quito.  So one Sunday morning Henry and a group of people from their main Quito church (there were 5 churches in Quito at that time) went to the prison to check things out.  As the group ministered to the inmates, Henry began looking around; he ran into the director of the prison, who normally was not there on Sunday.  In the course of their conversation, the prison director said, "You evangelicals are all alike.  You want to preach to us, but no one wants to help us. . . ."  As Henry toured the prison, he was amazed to see how filthy the prison conditions were and the stench that accompanied them.  While walking around, he found 54 children living in the prison with their parents.  The kids were allowed to sleep on the cold concrete floors beneath their parent's dirty 6' x 9' cell during the night, and in the day the kids would beg or steal food in the market places.  (In Ecuador, when a man or woman is imprisoned, often the spouse will abandon the children and remarry, leaving the children with no one to care for them.)

That very same night Henry preached in one of their barrio churches in Quito, and as he was leaving he found two boys living in the crawl space underneath the foundation of the church.  The boys were using newspapers for blankets and had only garbage to eat.  It was as if the Lord was speaking to him and said, "You just preached a wonderful sermon on how I meet all of your needs; tell me, how do I meet the needs of these two boys?"  As Henry went home that night, he could only pray about what he had seen.  Henry and Dorothy decided they had to do something.  With the Lord's help, they felt led to start a home for these children.

The following week, they found an old, run down shack to rent for $15.00 a month, and the owner agreed to split the rent in half if they would fix the place up.  Cows and chickens were living in the building and the roof was in need of major repair.  There was no money set aside so Henry repaired the roof with some used tiles, and made beds out of plywood. And, thus began the process of taking 36 children out of the prison. The rest of the children were not legally available to leave.  They cooked over open fires for one year, and would put the children in their beds on Saturday while they washed and mended their clothes for another week.  Only one of the 36 had shoes.  It was a "low budget operation," as Henry called it, but at least they had hot meals and a warm blanket.  About the time they would get the property fixed up, the owner would evict them saying, "The children are destroying my property."  The truth was that after fixing them up, the owner could now charge more rent for the repaired home.

In time the President's wife, Corina de Velasco Ibarra, became aware of the ministry and a wonderful relationship developed.  She made Henry administrator over her social work in Ecuador.  Part of his responsibility was to fly on presidential commissions to different parts of the country when an emergency would occur, such as a drought or earthquake.  One day she said, "Henry, you will not let us pay you, so we have decided to honor you in a way you cannot refuse." They gave him title deed to 50 acres of land in a beautiful valley on the outskirts of Quito to establish a place for these children to live.  So began the Houses of Happiness.

This history may sound a little too good to be true, but these people have nothing to brag about in themselves.  All honor and glory be to our God and Heavenly Father, who in His love and mercy had a beautiful plan laid out for their lives. There are so many amazing miracles that Henry, Dorothy, their children, and all who are at the orphanage have had the opportunity to experience. It would take too much room to list them all; but, they know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God has always provided for their every need.

Since the beginning, over 1,000 children have been raised with Christian values and educated to contribute in the work place.  At present there are approximately 180 blessed children living in 20 homes on the property (full capacity is 200).  Each home has a house mother overseeing approximately 10 children.  The children live on the campus until they complete their high school education (some are older than 18 years of age when they graduate depending on their education level when arriving at the orphanage).  Once they graduate they are given the choice to either leave the campus or stay and continue their education at a university or trade school.  Graduates consist of pastors, doctors, lawyers, school teachers, and several other professions; many who are continuing to serve Jesus Christ throughout Ecuador and the world.