Stephen wants me to talk about my testimony. And I'm going to talk about a testimony, but it's the testimony that has got me here today. It's by the grace of God that I stand in front of you today, by the grace of God. My name's Tony Jones. I'm a Canadian, eh, from Toronto. I don't remember being born, but I'll never forget being born again. I was saved September 1995 at 38 years old. In 1999, the Lord had been working on me. I was a log home builder. I had my own company. In 1999, I didn't want to work for the world anymore. I had a joy every day of going to work, but now I had a different joy, a joy unspeakable. In 1999, I sold everything. I sold my land, my equipment, my tools. I got down on my knees and I said, I'm yours, Lord. Do with me what you want. I'm yours. In 2000, I landed in the communist country of Cuba. where I spent four years as an underground missionary operating two businesses. It was the most blessed time in my four years at that. The Cubans are the most beautiful believers. They're my favorite still today. In 2004, the government, I was reentering the country after being home in Canada. I was arrested at the airport, put in a detention center, either going to prison or being deported. Thank God they put me on a jet. They kicked me out of there in 2004. The little home church I got saved at thought I was crazy for doing what I did, but they had communicated with the pastor I was supporting. I was supporting home churches in the mountains in Cuba. They took over that mission, and today it still is running, and many, many Cubans have come to the Lord. 2005, my mom was diagnosed with cancer. I spent a year and a half with my mother helping her through that. She's cancer-free. She beat it. And in 2006, I was on my knees. I said, Lord, you close one door, you open another. Don't send me anywhere easy. Look out. He answers prayer. Welcome to Haiti. 2006, I was called by a Canadian mission group. They wanted me to come to Haiti. They heard my story and went to Haiti in 2006, November. Bought a ticket for 10 days, went and saw this mission, and I was absolutely floored at that country. I couldn't deal. I had a hard time dealing with the poverty. I wanted to do the same thing. Start a business, support myself, and don't burden brothers and sisters for money, and do a mission that way, as I was in Cuba. I had two businesses in Cuba. By the third day, I saw this, I couldn't take the children, the children, the street kids, the lovelessness of the parents and the children, kids eating out of garbage piles. I mean, it was all I could bear. And I had an invitation from a group in Nicaragua at the same time, so I had a backup plan, Nicaragua. After the third day, I told the mission, I cannot I can't help you. I can't be around this poverty. It really, really struck me. I got them to take me back to the airport. I changed my ticket. We're going through Port-au-Prince three days, four days later. We come into a big traffic jam. And we're about 15 minutes from the airport. I had changed my flight. And they had told me, we were in a van with what do you call that? Smokescreen windows or tinted glass. They said to me, Tony, we're in an area now where there are gangs control. Don't roll the window down because if they see a white guy, they'll put a gun to us and rob us or kill us, one or the other. I said, no problem. Get me to that airport. This sounds good. It's even sounding better, right? I look out the window, and as I'm looking down, and I told the brother and sister over there this story last night, yesterday. As I'm looking down, I see this Haitian with those piano key teeth, those bright white teeth just looking up at me. And I'm looking down, and he stopped, and we're in a traffic jam, and he's smiling at me, smiling at me. And I just felt he wanted to say something. And they had told me, don't roll the window down, but he just, this guy just was looking at me, right through me. And I said, what's this guy want? And I rolled the window down and I put my head, I look and he, the first time he said it was with authority. Hey, Jesus loves you. And it was the first time I heard English. It's all Haitian Creole. So I couldn't believe I understood what he said. Jesus loves you. And the second time was with compassion. Jesus loves you like that. The Haitians in the van were yelling at me in Creole. I didn't understand a word they were saying, but I knew they were mad. They grabbed me and they pulled me back in. And as they're pulling me in, the guy drove away and I yelled out the window, he loves you too, he loves you too. We got up and he rolled the window, they started to go. We pull into the departure. I was looking in the rear view of the van and I saw this much of my face. And all I could hear was, Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me. What am I doing? Running. What am I doing being a Jonah? And they opened to take my bag. I said, hold it. Close the door. Get me back to this Grand Guave, Haiti. That was 13 years ago. God sent an angel to keep me in that place. And there I am. So I'm back at this mission. They couldn't believe I came back and I spent I decided that okay. I'm coming. I'll be back I flew home packed my bags March of 2007 I moved full-time to this to Haiti to work with this so-called mission so-called mission when I was behind their walls I I got a really bad feeling. I didn't like what they were doing. I had been in a communist country, and now I'm in a country that has more missions than anywhere in the world. And this, to me, was not what I thought of missions. I saw what they did, bringing teams, getting the kids all prepared so that when the white people, us blondes came, the little kids would run to them and smile and hug them. And then when the teams left, they would beat on those kids. It was all a setup. I couldn't believe it. Two weeks after that, I left that mission. I went through four of them. Every one of them. Orphanage, clinic, school. Orphanage, clinic, school. Guess what? God didn't come to earth to build clinics, orphanages, schools. He came to save sinners. He came to save sinners. Not that there's nothing wrong with that, but when you use children as a commodity, when you use children to get brothers and sisters money for something other than preaching the gospel, I got a problem with that. So I left all four of those missions. I lived in a tent for a year. I put a tent down on a mission property for a year and I live in that. I do not recommend that. And I said, Lord, what do you have me to do? I was with the mayor one day and I asked him, Where is the greatest need? 20 missions in town, they don't need another white guy preaching, Tony, we need to go, you gotta go to the mountains. I go, go to the mountains? What are you talking about? Oh, that's 93% of the population live in the mountains. I couldn't believe it. And in the story, it told you. Two and a half hours, three hours on a donkey, we're in missions, and that's why the Lord had me up there. There was three times I was gonna leave Haiti. Once was that time when the angels stopped me, and the second time is what I'm gonna tell you right now. I married my first interpreter. Marriage was the last resort. That's how I looked at marriage, the last resort. Well, guess what? God had a plan. My first interpreter was a woman named Edna. She could cook like no other Haitian I'd seen. What's the weight of a man's stomach? I married her. And she wouldn't live in the tent, so I had to get into a house. It was a pup tent. It wasn't a four-man. It was only a two-man. So I had to get out of that tent, and we met married, and thank God. Hey, thank God. I got two beautiful kids. And if it wasn't for Edna and my boys, I would have left that country. But one time, I'll never forget it, January the 12th, 2010 at 4.53 p.m. I pulled up, our youngest boy was three months old. I pulled up to my house at 4.53 p.m., January the 12th, 2010. I was in the house 15 seconds and I heard what sounded like a train coming down the tracks. My wife said, what is that? The next thing I knew, the train came right through the house. The deadliest earthquake to ever hit Haiti. In 43 minutes, 400,000 people were killed. We lost 30% of the structures in our town. And it was just unbelievable. The house was shaken like you can't imagine. My wife screamed. She was on her knees. I told her to get out of the house. And you know what? I thought I was a pretty cool, calm, collective guy. I figured I could take anything. I'm going to tell you, I was wrong. When that house was shaken and our little boy was in his room sleeping, I went crazy. I lost it. And you know what? It was unjustified. My actions were unjustified because God says, I will never leave you or forsake you. And when I got into that room and I saw my little boy just bouncing off the walls, the house beside ours fell into our house, knocked the back of our house down. You should have heard the noise. But you know what? The Lord intervened. When I got my little boy in my arms and I pulled him up like that, I was screaming, panicking. All of a sudden, this is all that came into my head. And it wasn't a voice. It was like mental telepathy. Be still, I am with you. I'll never forget it. This peace came over me like I have never felt. I'm going to tell you, I was in a depression for about a month because I wanted to feel that again. Be still, I am with you. It is like the volume went from 10 to 1. It was like I grabbed Ben, the house is coming down, the dishes are flying out, and I'm just walking down the hall. I didn't even run. My wife was up front screaming and going berserk because her house was going like this. We have a metal door. So the door was being jammed. It wouldn't open. And I come walking out with Ben. What's wrong, hon? And the house is gone. And so I waited till the house got into the neutral point and boom, get going. The door opened. We went. No kidding. I wish somebody had videoed it. I literally had such a peace about me because I knew God is gonna look after us. So that's what happened. So that was, again, January 12, 2010. Our Canadian military came. And it was a very dangerous time in Haiti. All the prisons collapsed, so all the gangsters were out. They were shooting, robbing and killing people. It was terrible. But we were safe. I feed the gangsters, I feed the police. They all knew me. And so our Canadian military said, you know, you got to go home. And I said, no, no, no. I live here. I'm not going anywhere. No, you are going. It's mandatory. You are coming. And if you're not in the bus tomorrow, we know where you live. We're coming to get you. I said, but I have a Haitian wife, and she doesn't have a visa. Oh, don't you worry about that. They're going to give her an emergency exit visa. So I flew my wife and children. Two weeks after the earthquake, I flew my wife and kids home. I was home one month, and the airport was open, and I flew right back and left Edna and my young boy, Ben, at the house. They stayed in Canada seven months. So I went back, and here is all this mess. You couldn't go around town without vicks on your nose because of all the dead bodies. In three days, the smell of rotting flesh was unbelievable. So me thinking I'm a tough guy, I'm going to take all this. I'm sitting there, and we're starting to rebuild our house. I'm helping Haitian families. The mountain people weren't really affected. The mountain shook, but all the damage was done in the towns. I ended up getting a lung infection like an idiot. I didn't wear a mask, so I took in a lot of concrete dust, and I got a lung infection, and I really started to get down. And plus, I wanted to feel that peace I felt that day it hit, so I was really depressed. Now, I'd been in Haiti three and a half years by this time. And I was really, really depressed, and I thought, I'm out of here. I remember sitting on the porch, coughing, spitting up blood, missing my family, and I just said, this is more than I can bear. I had a friend from Canada come. And he sat me down and he said, Tony, he saw how right by the shape I was in. And he said, Tony, what do you miss most about being a missionary in this country? And I said, Chester, that is easy. I miss the brothers and sisters back home. I miss the fellowship. I miss the support. I miss the encouragement. I just miss being around solid brothers and sisters. Because in Haiti at that time, 70% of the pastors I had met didn't even know the Lord. 70%. I wasn't getting fed spiritually. I was starving. I love the written word, but I wasn't getting the spoken word. I was malnourished. I mean, guys, you can't imagine what it's like not to hear the gospel by some solid brother preaching and teaching. And oh, I was missing it so bad. I needed strength, and I don't get strength from the world. I get it from the things of Jesus, right? That's where we gain our strength. And I looked at Chester, and I was in tears. I said, Chester, I miss the Word. I miss the Word. I need somebody to be... Oh, Tony, have you heard of Sermon Audio? Sermon Audio, who are they? Go get your computer. Well, I got this 10-year-old Sherman tank of a computer. I bring this thing out, and he said, go to the website. How do I do that? All I could do was email. Brothers and sisters, you're looking at me. If it doesn't have an oil filter, I'm lost. Okay? That's exactly what it was like. So Chester took my computer, and he found Sermon Audio, and he started to download sermons. And I'm like, what? You know, all right. Richard Cardwell. Paul Washer, Stephen Lawson, Vance Havner, Parris Reedhead, all these guys. And I started to, Paul Washer too, by the way. I started to listen to this. I'll never forget it. The first sermon I listened to was 10 Shekels and a Shirt by Paris Reid. And he was going through problems when he was a missionary in Africa that were exactly what I was going through being a missionary in Haiti. And it was like he was talking to me. I was getting fed. I was on my knees that night thanking God for the word. You cannot imagine what that did for me. because of sermonaudio.com that I am here right now. And it's because of the brothers and sisters that are here today speaking that encouraged me and lifted me up because it's the spirit of God through the word of God. And I can tell you to this day, if I hadn't have found Sermon Audio, Stephen Lee and sermonaudio.com, I would have left that country. Now I was getting fed. Now I was getting fed. And I'm gonna tell you, you can set your clock by me at four o'clock in the morning every day in Haiti. I am on the rocking chair with a good Haitian coffee, listening to another sermon audio, listening to somebody else. And the funny part was too, as I was walking around town with this battle axe of a computer, and one of my friends said, why don't you get an MP3? What's an MP3? I didn't even know what one was. Next thing I know, I got this little MP3, and now I'm not hauling this computer around. And brothers and sisters, I would be up in the mountains on these donkeys and all I'm thinking about is I just downloaded a bunch of sermons and I can hardly wait to get back to listen to them. It was just awesome. The strength of the spoken word. It's incredible, guys. And I can tell you, as I said, if it wasn't for that. I wouldn't be here right now. And they have blessed me so much. And I had to send them an email to let them know that what they were doing. And I have emailed some of you here. Richard sent Richard some. I've emailed so many pastors, you know, who's this guy emailing, you know, I can imagine. But just to let you know that brother, you're not just preaching to your congregation, you're preaching some donkey riding missionary in Haiti. I love yous all. We're blessed to be here. And just thank you so much for allowing me to share what God is doing in my life and in the Haitians. Thank you so much.