My name is Michael Jones. I am an Orthodox Christian living with my wife and four children in Eagle River, Alaska. After listening to a podcast about the extraordinary missionary efforts of the Holy Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of New Zealand, I felt a strong calling from our Lord to reach out and see how my family and I might be able to assist in their holy work. Because I am a building contractor, the Archdiocese invited me to assist in completing a temple that has been started in the Kingdom of Tonga.
My hope is that you will be inspired to support and participate in the missionary labors of our Holy Orthodox Church in some way – whether by supporting this project or another missionary ministry that speaks to your heart. As our Lord said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few” (Matt. 9:13).
On January 31, 2020 I emailed Fr. Paul Patitsas, the priest whose interview on Ancient Faith Radio inspired me to reach out to the Archdiocese of New Zealand. My momentum on this project had stalled out somewhat since my first trip in April 2019, and he strongly encouraged me to get a small group together and go to Tonga while the team from Greece was still working on the Church of St. George.
I thought it was a crazy idea. The timing couldn’t have been worse for me. My business is growing, but I’ve had to make some structural changes recently, and as a result money has been tight. We have four small children. Our time and money is extremely limited. Nevertheless, Fr. Paul continued to encourage me, saying it would be really valuable to connect with Ilias and the other men from Greece who have made so much progress on the church during the last four months. With their help we could learn some tricks to navigate the obstacles of working in that remote, developing island nation, plus get an idea of what projects remained to complete the Church of St. George with the hopes of bringing other teams back to finish the project.
Considering his request, I told Fr. Paul, literally, that this idea was crazy. His response moved me, because I know his own life is an example of this: “The church in Tonga would never have been started if the people involved hadn’t been a little bit crazy.” He calls it “crazy faith” – that willingness to step out on faith in response to a whisper from the Holy Spirit. Even if you can’t see the whole picture, you take the leap, put your hope and trust in God, and let Him direct the work.
After a lot of prayer and wrestling with our own hesitations, my wife Meghan & I decided that I should go for 1 week. As soon as we made the decision all our worries disappeared. Meghan & I both felt at peace about the trip. We put it in God’s hands – if He wanted us to go, He would provide the means for the trip to happen. And it happened!
My first task was to assemble a team – primarily skilled carpenters who could get some work done even in the short amount of time we had. The first person I asked was Myles Kelly, who had committed to going on my second trip to Tonga while I was still on my first visit 10 months ago. He has been very supportive and helped me keep up the inspiration about this project, even when I was feeling overwhelmed. Once he gave the “thumbs up” to go, I knew we would be able to make it work.
I contacted two friends who own construction businesses in Colorado, Peter Lynch and David Young, and they both were immediately on board. Unfortunately, Peter wasn’t able to make it this time around, but David found support from his parish and put his work projects aside to join us in Tonga.
We needed someone to handle logistics – purchasing, arranging meals, running errands, etc. – so I contacted Ryan Smith, who had just arrived to join the Project Mexico missionary internship program we are hosting here at St. John’s in Eagle River. I hadn’t actually spoken with him yet, but I figured if he had committed this part of his life to learning about missionary work he’d probably be the right kind of person for the trip. He turned out to be a great addition to our team. Plus, his participation led to the addition of a 5th member who also fit in perfectly – the Executive Director of Project Mexico, Fr. Demetrios Andrews.
When Fr. Demetrios heard that Ryan was invited to go work on a church building project in Tonga his immediate response was: “I want to go!” He called me and explained that he is working to reposition Project Mexico and St Innocent Service Works as an Orthodox youth service leadership initiative and expand building projects – both homes & churches – anywhere in the world where there is a need. This trip was an opportunity for him to jump right into an active church construction project and begin developing a framework for future construction-focused missionary trips. As you’ll discover as you read this blog series, Fr. Demetrios sees the big picture of any situation immediately, and before you blink he’s got plans in motion to get things accomplished that most of us never would have imagined possible.
Thanks be to God, with the support of Fr. Demetrios and the infrastructure of Project Mexico and St Innocent Service Works, I believe now more than ever that this church-building in Tonga will be completed, and other similar projects in Fiji & Samoa may finally get the support they need to be realized.
Stay up-to-date with Michael’s mission work at https://orthodoxyfortonga.com/
