Mary L. Davis may have foreshadowed her future when, as a 14-year-old, she woke her family at 3 a.m. by singing a line from a hymn - at the top of her lungs, in her sleep.

Today, she's more likely to sing while she's awake. But one of her greatest joys is knowing that while she sleeps, someone might hear and be helped by one of her songs.

"I could be asleep at 3 in the morning, and my song could be a blessing to someone on the other side of the world," says Mrs. Davis, who lives with her husband, John, in Breckenridge, Mo., about 60 miles east of St. Joseph. "God has just opened doors we never expected."

Having two songs she wrote and recorded receiving airplay on radio stations around the country and internationally - and even reaching the No. 3 and No. 5 spots on Radioactive Airplay's Weekly Top 100 Chart for Southern Gospel music - certainly isn't what Mrs. Davis expected when she was diagnosed with epilepsy more than two decades ago. For the next 13 years, she had uncontrollable seizures multiple times each day and felt completely useless, both to her family and to God.

But it was also during that time she became inspired to put music and lyrics to paper. She notes that God gave her the lyrics to one of her songs, "I've Been Healed," two weeks before brain surgery that doctors said would give her a 10 percent chance of functioning more normally, as long as she spent the rest of her life on medication. Instead, she came out of the surgery healed and hasn't had seizures or needed medication to prevent them in the 10 years since.

For the past two years, the Davises have traveled the country to churches, mission conferences, fairs and other events where she sings and tells the stories behind her songs and he preaches.

"After we had them one time, the people wanted them to come back," says Richard Eisenberg, pastor of Grace Baptist Church in St. Joseph, which has hosted the Davises twice and plans to ask them back a third time. " ... Mary's got a very pleasant voice; she's just very easy to listen to."

Before beginning this traveling ministry, Mrs. Davis recorded two CDs, and her husband began promoting some of her songs to radio stations. One such promotion took the form of an on-air interview at a station in Ada, Okla., that was heard by a woman in Maryland who happened to be from Uganda and contacted the Davises, wondering whether any stations in Africa played their music. Using connections she had, she got airplay in Uganda for some of Mrs. Davis' songs, and now, they're also played in the African countries Malawi, Liberia, Kenya and Ghana, as well as in Papau, New Guinea.

"It's just been an amazing trip. It's amazing, the doors God has opened," Mr. Davis says. "Mary has a humble, tender heart to serve God, and I think that's why he's blessed her music so much."

There have been other unexpected occurrences along the way, as well, such as an e-mail relationship the Davises have formed with a young man in Ghana who contacted them through Mrs. Davis' Web site, www.maryldavisministries.com, and asked them to mentor him spiritually.

And there have been challenges along the way, too, including Mr. Davis' Parkinson's disease and his diagnosis last month with leukemia. The Davises realize this may affect their ministry but have no plans to end it. They do plan to release another of Mrs. Davis' songs - "The Wounded Healer" - for radio play soon.

"The Lord has taken John and I through a lot of tough times and wonderful times," Mrs. Davis says. " ... We hope to continue to do this ministry as long as he will let us."

Lifestyles reporter Erin Wisdom can be reached at ewisdom@npgco.com.