By Joshua Jones, Director

I got my first introduction to missions when my family moved to Pakistan in 1987. We served there for six months, working in churches, crusades, and ministering to Afghani refugees seeking peace from the war with Russia. While there, God opened my eyes to a whole new world that most Americans would never dream of.

Nine years later, I was invited to join a short term missions team to Guatemala to work in feeding programs and perform drama and mime. This short trip may not have done much to change the world, but it changed my life, as I heard clearly God's call that I was to go into the mission field. Two years later, I returned to Antigua, Guatemala to study Spanish at the Christian Spanish Academy. Once my Spanish was operational, I began to receive invitations to translate for short term medical teams under the direction of Earl Kellum, John Smith, and Cliff Goodwin. After working with these teams in Nicaragua and Honduras, I began to coordinate my own short term teams.

When my work in Latin America began reaching four trips a year, I really started meeting a large number of missionaries. It was the summer of 1999 when I began to see many of the areas of need and trouble that missionaries were going through. God touched my heart, and I began seeking ways to support missionaries through the hardships and challenges brought on by the field.

About that time, Sid and Maria Hiers were returning from long term work in Guatemala. God had also laid a similar vision on their heart, and before long, we were working together to establish the Missionary Care & Support Network. Months passed, and we launched our first team to Nicaragua.

After almost a year, due to a variety of reasons, both I and The Hiers had to return to normal jobs. The vision had been put on hold. I kept the missionary resources website operational, but re-directed my focus to starting a Christian Men's Fellowship house at the University of Alabama, while working to keep my computer software company operational.

By 2001, things were working better, and I was able to again put time into supporting missionaries. With the vision growing in my heart, I started another organization to serve as a missionary resource center. Using the acronym MRC I created the word Emercy and filed articles of incorporation. Again I began putting together a short term team to support Ana Moshenek, a missionary working in the jungles of Costa Rica.

By the end of 2002, I hired a secretary and 2 programmers to launch Emercy full time. We added another graphics designer and began working on our missionary services websites. In order to fund our operations, we offered commercial web design services. When we applied for 501(c)(3) status, we decided to split off the web design into a separate company called Emercy_WEB.

Emercy_WEB is still operational today as a for-profit company, providing a good deal of financial support for Emercy, although the two are separate entities. At the beginning of 2004, Emercy received a grant for $15,000 and our momentum increased again. Since then, I have set out to raise a monthly support budget of $3,000 to cover our office expenses, operations, and salaries.

In the last three years, we have added a variety of services to support missionaries, including: The Missionary Job Board, The Missionary Retreat Center, A Training School, Short term missions teams, free support seminars, a resources warehouse, and a Media department.

We recently moved into a new 1,000 square foot office in downtown Tuscaloosa and now have over 12 volunteers helping run the show. We're currently praying about the next expansion and the possibility of opening a field office somewhere in Europe or South America. Regardless of where we go next, we're excited to see what God's doing.

Thanks for your prayers and support,

Joshua Jones
Director, Emercy