Hello.

My name is Tony Jones and I’m a missionary to Haiti.

Haiti is a nation in crisis, and many of those who come here with the good intention of bringing the Gospel to every Haitian, after a time, become so overwhelmed with the physical needs of the people that they begin to shift their focus. The astounding depth of poverty in Haiti can become so pressing that the rightful focus on its even greater spiritual need fades from view.

As Christians we need to look at what “our impact” has been on this nation. There is clearly a danger in a place like Haiti of becoming more “crisis-centered” rather than Christ-centered.

The sad reality is that in many places around the world, modern-day mission work has become cutting the grass, painting up some buildings on the mission compound, giving out free food, or building homes, orphanages, hospitals and schools while the local tradesmen watch as you take their jobs away. Haiti is no exception. Instead of proclaiming the Gospel, the work becomes more about meeting physical needs. These things in and of themselves are not bad things but unless Christ is the center and sum of all that is done, the risk is that the mission itself can become the focus rather than the Gospel. You do not go on a mission trip to represent some institution or mission, you go on a mission trip to represent CHRIST.

Short-term mission trips in particular have the tendency to give the participants a faulty, often romantic view of missions that stir up feelings of being blessed to be on a trip that has forever changed their lives and somehow made an impact for the Kingdom. When, in fact, two months later the building that was painted is being painted again by another team and the memory that “changed the life” is fading with every sip of a Starbucks latte. Sadly, this sort of “missionary tourism” is a growing industry.

We must ask ourselves and our missionaries, what are we really doing to further HIS kingdom? We are not called to go into all the earth to spread the gravel. If we go, we must be going to spread the Gospel.

What needs to change? Haiti desperately needs missions that are CHRIST-CENTERED! The work we are engaged in here in the mountains of Haiti is simple. We do not hide in a 5-acre compound with a 3 million dollar budget and huge fuel bills to run a generator. We do not have 26 mission vehicles to maintain. We operate very modestly and we go to the people where they are in the mountains to bring them the message of Christ! We are not here to meet their physical needs (though we do what we can). We are not here to be comfortable. We are here to see lives transformed and be devoted to HIM. We care nothing more than to see HIS name proclaimed throughout the world, without all the gimmicks some think it takes to lead people to Christ. I often say to the Haitians "In Haiti you will always have tribulation, in Jesus you will always have peace!”

Instead of relying on donors, donations, churches, brothers and sisters to send money only to be handed out in a self-perpetuating begging society, we are actively working with the mountain churches to create an economy of Biblical enterprise through honest labor in a sustainable program. Encouraging the Haitian people to work with their own hands, we are teaching them to plant and harvest coffee. We then buy it and export it, enabling us to do the work of the ministry while at the same time helping the families directly. We want you to know that your purchase of this coffee is truly a purchase of Kingdom coffee. We have seen first hand that $100 without the “mission” overhead can do far more than $1000 with it.

Everything we do has to have Kingdom value! Here, we live among the Haitians, we feed and clothe the hungry and destitute, we sponsor teachers in remote mountain villages that instruct the unreached children daily in the Word of God, we seek to train and equip nationals with the tools needed for them to go back to their own towns to share the Gospel and disciple the people. The only good mission is one that leads hearts to Christ!

That is the real need of Haiti, and that is our mission.