Member Spotlight: Charles Davis and Glory the therapy parrot carry God's love

Samaritan Ministries member Charles Davis and Glory the therapy parrot bring the love of Christ to those who may need some encouragement.

Glory, a green-cheeked conure, and Charles have worked as an animal therapy team for the past four years in hospitals, schools, nursing homes, and other venues in Southern California.

“Most of the time, it's just kind of a cheer-up kind of a thing,” Charles says. “But what I like to do with them is to say, ‘The reason we call her Glory is because her colors show off God's glory.’”

Glory sports every color of the rainbow across her body—from the beautiful red, orange, and yellow on her chest to the green wings, blue flight feathers, and purple tail.

Charles uses Glory’s coloring as a jumping-off point to share the love of Christ with those he visits, telling them that Glory doesn’t need all of her beautiful colors to survive in the wild.

“The only reason that this bird has this kind of color is that God was showing off when He made Glory, and He was showing off when He made you, too,” Charles tells his listeners. “That same God who made this bird made you.”

That’s the same message Charles shares on the cards he leaves behind with those he’s visited, printed alongside John 3:16 on one side, with a bit about Charles and Glory.

Team mostly visits local hospitals

Charles and Glory started out visiting schools, nursing homes, and drug rehabilitation centers but now spend the majority of their time in local hospitals visiting patients and staff.

It’s not unusual for the staff to flag them down for a specific patient they feel could really use a visit from them. In one incident, a little girl upset over needing an IV became so distracted by Glory that she didn’t realize when the IV had been inserted.

Other times doctors will see Charles and Glory pass by a room they are in with a patient and ask Glory to come and visit their patient. She even wears a doctor’s uniform with a stethoscope and a nametag that reads “Dr. Glory.”

Charles glad he decided on Samaritan

Samaritan Ministries membership has allowed Charles to be self-employed, which gives him time for his ministry with Glory.

Also a landlord, Charles first looked at membership in Samaritan Ministries as a financial move. Being self-employed meant health insurance was expensive, with deductibles at times climbing to $7,000.

“So when I found out at that time that I was going to be able to provide health care for my whole family for $400 a month, I have to admit, that sounded really good,” Charles said.

Then he experienced Samaritan in action five years ago after suffering a heart attack. Charles was away from home in another state, but God had him at exactly the right spot, just a 30-minute drive from the only cardio unit in the eastern part of that state.

After getting the treatment he needed, he picked up the phone and started his need.

“Samaritan just did a great job with that, as well as a bunch of other things we've had, so it's been a decision that I’ve really appreciated,” Charles said.

More than anything, he has appreciated all of the notes and cards he and his family have received over the years for the different needs they’ve had.

Registered by Pet Partners

Glory and Charles are a registered pet therapy team through Pet Partners, the only national organization that registers dogs and eight other species of animals for therapy work. The two spent nine months training, testing, completing vet checks, and undergoing evaluations, along with two years of socialization training, to qualify as a registered and vetted therapy animal team for hospital visits. The work and time were worth it, though. Glory received the highest possible rating as a therapy animal and is one of only 39 therapy birds in the country.

“I’m pretty proud,” Charles says. “It means that Glory is registered to be able to go into any therapy animal situation. There isn’t anything that she can’t do.”

‘Smitten’ by a baby green-cheeked conure

Charles and his wife are animal lovers. For the past 40 years, they’ve welcomed animals of all kinds into their home, from dogs and cats to chickens (they currently have 26), geckos, guinea pigs, and even a monitor lizard, something Charles refers to as a small alligator. He met Glory nine years ago as a baby in a pet shop. She came right over to him and wanted to jump on his finger.

“I was kind of smitten,” Charles said.

It took him about three weeks to bond with her. Once he did, he became her person.

Glory is unique though. Most birds like their one person and dislike everyone else and may even attack other people. Charles started taking her to church to get her used to being around other people with the hopes of eventually being able to be handled. It worked. After four years as a therapy pet, Glory has been held by more than 16,000 people.

With birds, you never know what you’re going to get, but “she turned out to be the most socialized bird I’ve ever seen,” Charles said. “She’s very relaxed with people. There’s practically no situation that I can’t bring her.”

Visiting dozens of patients

In a week, Charles and Glory see about 100 patients. Each visit can last no more than two hours per guidelines set by Pet Partners mainly because most therapy animals are dogs and can only last about two hours max, although Glory could handle a longer session without needing a break. Additionally, while dogs have a working lifespan of about eight years, Glory could go for another 20 years, which would take her to her expected lifespan of 30 years, something Charles is hoping for.

“We've had to go through a lot of training to get to where we are,” Charles says.

Sporting her doctor’s uniform, Dr. Glory and Charles will go into a hospital patient room and ask the patient if they would like a visit from the featured physician. When they say yes and hold out their hand, Glory jumps right on and will often give them a kiss on the cheek.

Besides her doctor’s uniform, Glory wears a Santa suit at Christmas, a tuxedo for Valentine’s Day, and multiple other flight suits that serve as both fun costumes for the patients’ enjoyment and the practical need for hygiene.

Unexpected conversations

Their visits keep them busy. Since Charles is a landlord, his time with Glory is on a volunteer basis, which means there are more requests than the two have time for.

“If I turned this into a full-time job, I would be able to make a pretty good living at it,” Charles says.

But that’s not why he does it.

“The reason I do this with the animal therapy is because I really want to be able to share my faith with people,” Charles says. “(God is) just using this little bird, but you know what’s kind of funny is that this bird gets me into conversations that I would never have otherwise.”

How you can pray for Charles

• For boldness as he shares his faith
• To invite as many people to heaven as possible
• For him to hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”