My name is Tony Jones. I'm a disciple for Christ here in Grand Guelph, Haiti. Population about 115,000 people. 93% of the people live in the mountains. 7% live here in town. We primarily, our work is mostly with mountain people. Haiti has more missions than any country in the world per capita. Haiti has more NGOs than any country in the world per capita. meaning non-government organizations, and they probably launder more money than any country in the world per capita. But I've been here since 2007. I'm married to a Haitian woman named Edna, and I've been blessed with two beautiful kids, Ben and Caleb, seven and nine. And God has brought me here to Haiti, where they said I would never come. It's the poorest country in this hemisphere, Western Hemisphere. So I can tell you from being here 11 years, seeing the billions and billions and billions of dollars that come in here to corrupt politicians, to corrupt businesses, to corrupt NGOs, to corrupt missions. The only thing that will effectively win the war against poverty, disease, injustice, and hunger is the gospel of Jesus Christ. I can tell you that for now. Not another mission, not another NGO, but the gospel of Jesus Christ. Haiti does not need any more Christian contractors. Haiti needs Christian soldiers that want nothing more than to see his name glorified in this country. And that is what it's going to take. I came here primarily for evangelism. pastoral training, and discipleship. The Great Commission, not the Great Mission. And that's basically what we do with the Unreached Mountain People, where 93% of the population live, and 100% of the missions are here in town, and there's none up there but us. And God sent me up there, and I'm blessed to be here. Prior to my being born again in September 1995, I was a log home builder. I had my own business. We built handcrafted log homes. Had the business for about 12 years. I didn't believe in God. I wasn't a Christian. I had everything the world gave me. I mean, I was a happy guy. I was a happy-go-lucky guy. Until one day, I had a very busy winter. And I needed two carpenters, and it turned out these carpenters were Bible thumpers. That's what I used to call Christians, Bible thumpers. And man, oh man, God put them in front of me all through my life. I couldn't tell you how many of them I met. But I hired these two guys, and then they asked me, do I know Jesus Christ? And I said, oh, no, no, no, not, not, you guys aren't Bible thumpers, are you? Oh yeah, by the matter of fact, we are. I said, well, look, I know the name because I use it 30 or 40 times a day. But I said, don't waste your time with me. I don't want to hear about this Jesus Christ. I said, see you Monday. Just do your job. And so that's how I left it. And anyway, we became good friends. Next thing I know, they want me to go to church. And the deal was, if I went to church, they would never talk to me about Jesus Christ. And I thought, that's a good deal. I'm going to do that, you know. So I shook on it and ended up going to church. I still avoided them for a couple of months. I really didn't want to go. But in the end, we shook on it. It's a deal. So I went. and I didn't want to go in. I drove by the church two times and then decided to go home and then decided to turn the truck around because I knew if I didn't go those guys would be in my yard Monday ramming this Jesus Christ on my throat. But long story short, I went in there and I come out of there a different man. And I had a joy that my job couldn't couldn't give me. I had a joy unspeakable. And I just felt great. And I asked the Lord into my heart. I went home. I already knew the sinner's prayer because I had so many Bible thumpers come to me and say, you know, just say the Lord's prayer and I had a pile of Bibles with dust on them and The people had given me and then I just I just opened up the Bible to Genesis 1 1 I said what is this all about and I was crying and and I just read four words in the beginning God and boom that was it I just got down on my knees and asked Lord into my life and and And he just started to work on me then. I started to sell off everything I had. I had so many idols, all the worldly stuff. I was living in sin, and God just worked on me. And probably late 1998, I just felt an urge to want to serve Him more, and decided to let the business go. I didn't want to work for the world anymore. I had heard some missionaries, and they really, really tugged at my heart. And I decided at that time to just stop the business, sell everything. And I just went home and I got on my knees. I said, Lord, I'm yours. Do what you want with me. And I didn't know what I was doing. I was never called to the mission field. It's like I just jumped into it, both feet. I wanted to always work with less fortunate people. I don't know why, but God put that on my heart. So that's how I started my mission adventure. In 2006, I said, Lord, I left everything to serve you. I said, I was praying, talking to my elders at church, praying, and I said, Lord, I want to go on the mission field, but don't send me anywhere easy." Well, look out, as you know, he answers prayer, welcome to Haiti. And so I landed in Haiti in December 2006, and the first thing that struck me about Haiti was the poverty. I really was taken back by the poverty of the country, the lack of infrastructure, The children running around, a lot of street kids that aren't really street kids, they're just neglected by their parents just because of life here. And what really got me one time was seeing a garbage pile with kids and pigs in it. And I remember seeing a pig grab a mango peel and the little boy ripped the mango right out of the pig's mouth and I was just disgusted. I went and they started eating it. Oh, that really, really struck me. And so I came here with an idea to do a business to support myself. I didn't want to burden churches or brothers and sisters supporting my work. I didn't even know what my work was at the time. But I realized, what can you do here? It's so poor. So I decided at that time to leave Haiti. I was only here three days. And I had a ticket. I was here. I had a ticket for 10 days because this mission invited me. But after three days of seeing this, I just couldn't take it. I just couldn't get over the poverty and seeing these poor little kids really got to me and I really didn't want to face that. And so I told the mission, I'm sorry, I have to leave. This is not what I thought Haiti was like. I can't do business here. I just can't work in these conditions. And so on the way to the airport, I had asked the mission to take me to the airport and I had changed my ticket. We were probably 15 minutes from the airport, and we got into one of the Port-au-Prince traffic jams. And while I was in the van, the Haitians in the van told me, whatever you do, Blond Tony, don't roll the window down. They were in a kind of a gang area, and if they see a white guy, they could come up and rob them. So they said, don't roll the window down, keep it up, and all right. But we're sitting stuck in traffic, we're not moving. And I just looked out the window, and I see this Haitian guy looking up at me. He was in a beat-up Honda Civic or something like that. And I just see these, as I tell people, these piano keys looking at me, those white Haitian teeth. And he's just smiling, and he's looking up at me. And I had a feeling he wanted to say something to me. And I remember the guy saying, don't roll the window down, don't roll the window down. But I was right there. He's right there looking up at me. We're both stopped. And I thought, man, he wants to say something. So I rolled the window down and I stuck my head out. And he said to me twice in perfect English, which blew me away because all I was hearing was Creole. I didn't even understand half of what people were telling me. But this man, he looked up and he pointed at me and he goes, Jesus loves you. And he said it in a way that was very authoritative. He goes, Jesus loves you. He said it twice. And I couldn't believe it. I heard English. And so all of a sudden, boom, he drives away. We're moving. And the Hastings are yelling at me and they're yelling in Creole. And what they were saying was, you stupid blonde, get that window up. You're going to get a shot. But as we're driving away, I stuck my head out and I yelled to him, he loves you too. He loves you too. And so We started going, and the Haitians rolled the window up, and all I heard in my head was, Jesus loves you, Jesus loves you. And here I am running from them. And we were, no kidding, we were literally five, ten minutes from the airport. And I was looking in the rear view of the van, and I could see this much of my face. And I just heard in my head, Jesus loves you, Jesus loves you. And I said, that's right. He loves me. And I just started to tear up. I saw it in the rear view. And we were literally coming around the bend to go to the airport to leave into the, whatever you call it, departure section. And I just tapped him on the shoulder and I said, my best friend, Grand Guave, get me back to Grand Guave. And that was it. That Lord had sent an angel and he said those words. And I said, what am I doing running from you? And that was it. I got him to take me back to Grand Guave and that was, that was, uh, That was in December 2006. And here I've been 11 years later, 12 years later, yeah. So that's how I say Grand Guelph.