the help.

 

But Jones, who lives and operates out La Quinta, Calif., made it very clear that this story isn’t about her.

 

“This is about these precious children. We can’t save the world, but we as a team and as a community can make a difference in the lives of a few,” she said. 

Leading teams of diverse backgrounds and professions and supporting several non-profit organizations, her focus is with the Haiti Deaf Academy and their work with the marginalized children with hearing loss. Her teams work where needed – in all surrounding areas of Port au Prince, Haiti. Her individual expertise and focus is working with hearing-impaired children that are placed into the deaf culture. With this work, she travels to Haiti a minimum of four times per year.

 

In the long-term, Jones and her team strives to implement an all-inclusive sustainable project aimed at making the Haitians more self-sufficient.

 

Though they are in vital need, they don’t feel they are entitled or hold anyone to any expectations.

 

“I’ve never been around a group of people who are more grateful. They aren’t looking for a handout. They are looking for a hand up,” Jones said. “They weren’t asking me to pull them up. They were asking me to find tools so they could pull themselves up.”

 

Jones grew up having a “wonderful life in Bridgeport" with all her needs met and plenty of opportunity presented.

 

“But even though I attended church as a young child, there was no way I was a Christian,” she said. “I didn’t ‘get’ the saving powers of Jesus. I alternated between feeling I was too bad to be saved and understanding the simplicity of being saved.”

 

Once out on her own, Jones said she fell away from the church and didn’t really make a reconnection until 15 years ago.

 

“I accepted Jesus as my savior in a pancake house in 2001,” she said. “I had been going to this church that had a Methodist sign out front but there is nothing denominational about it. I walked into this amazing place where I could ask questions and not be ashamed of not knowing Jesus as a child.”

 

Jones had been living the American Dream. 

 

“I had the most wonderful husband in the world, a lovely house, a boy, a girl and ‘two designer dogs,’” she said. “But I didn’t know the Lord. Something was missing.”

 

She had elevated to the role of president and CEO of the hearing instrument manufacturer for which she worked for many years.

 

“But all these accolades really aren’t what I had been seeking,” she said.

 

Once she established a relationship with God, things began falling into place – and rather quickly.

 

“Through my church, I met these guys. They weren’t what I had pictured born-again Christians to be,” she said.

 

To make a long story short, the men were going to Haiti on a mission trip – to provide assistance after a major hurricane had struck Haiti.

 

“I basically was going to go with them to prove to these guys that I could,” she said. “I left a plush hotel suite that cost more per night than an average Haitian makes in a year to stay in a bunk room in Haiti.”

 

But when she got there, she said she never had felt more at home. Her eyes were open like never before. She learned through her own eyes what starvation really is.

 

“There’s not an uglier death than starvation,” she said. “For the first time in my life, I really witnessed these sorts of things. Parents fed their children mud pies – mud mixed with oil and water and baked in the sun – so they would sleep at night because everyone was so exhausted.”

 

The experience totally transformed her life and Jones said she returned home really angry.

 

“I remember asking God why he would allow these things to happen. And he said, “Why do you?”

 

It was all life-changing for Jones, she said.

 

That initial visit was several years ago during the month of November.

 

“I knew we threw away more food that Thanksgiving weekend than these kids needed in a month,” she said. “I had to try and do my part. It was transitional for me. I decided I needed to make a life change.”

 

Jones said she fell in love with Haiti and its people. She felt blessed to have been placed there and though she helped in a number of ways, it was in no way on her radar to help with their hearing needs.

 

“I told everyone who was listening: I don’t do deaf. I was retiring,” she said. “I had spent 30 years doing ears and in my mind, I needed a break.”

 

She said she became forever intertwined with Haiti and its people. She helped feed them. She helped build an orphanage where education was available.

 

“In January of 2010, a major earthquake totally destroyed that orphanage,” she said. “Every child walked away with minor injuries.”

 

Thereafter, a guest house was established where Haitians and volunteers could stay. About this time, Jones started working with a medical group and met workers of various faiths and walks of life.

 

“One of my girlfriends said she had just met these missionaries for the deaf and that I should meet them and help – using my audiology degree,” Jones said. “She said I shouldn’t waste my talent when people needed it.”

 

And with all the post-earthquake, late-night looting and even murdering going on, they did need it  – and in a big way.

 

“When there were no lights and these people couldn’t hear, they were much more vulnerable,” Jones said. “After the earthquake, these people called themselves the deaf culture.”

 

Even prior to the earthquake, 99 percent of individuals living in that area had no electricity. Post-earthquake, things were even more desolate.

 

“A group of activists banded together and moved into a little Red Cross community in the City of Soleil. They made their own government,” Jones said.

 

It still seemed too big of a project – and one that wouldn’t have resources to support it – to work with the hearing impaired. Jones said she thought one solution to their problem would be the installation of solar lights and she worked tirelessly to make that happen. Then one day, she found herself working with a little Haitian boy – Albert – who was hearing impaired and in need of heart surgery. 

 

Jones had need to become involved with the deaf community and she became face-to-face with children who didn’t speak, hear, read or write. They were children who didn’t know their names or how old they were. Children born with hearing loss in Haiti had even less hope than those with normal hearing.

 

“The only way to get help was to become a house slave or sex slave,” Jones said.

 

It was a defining moment. Ironically, Jones had learned that her role was to listen – listen to the needs of the Haitian people.

 

“I realized that we as Americans show up at these places and decide we know better and so we try to push or deliver our charities to them,” she said.

 

Ultimately, some non-profit organizations including Impact for Jesus and Haiti Clinic were established. Working in conjunction with the Haiti Deaf Academy, hearing impaired children are fitted with hearing aids and taught to sign. Grant-funded hearing instruments, batteries, ear molds and testing equipment are purchased. Also, Haitians are hired to take care of the children’s ears when the medical team is not there.

 

Jones said she will never forget the first time she witnessed a child - who had been living in a world of silence - learn his own name.  She now knows what true deep joy is about.

 

“I’m just stunned that now I get much more joy from seeing the looks on these children’s faces than I do from a round of golf – or a new pair of shoes,’ she said.

 

In addition to their work with the deaf, the team's all-inclusive effort is to provide boarding, education and healthcare, including dental care, to Haitian children. 

 

“And depending on the age, we do job training and transition homes. It doesn’t do any good to educate these kids and send them out without any help. We have two transition homes for boys and girls,” Jones said. “Our job is to make them functional citizens. And we like to give these children with no speech, language or identity the same chance as other children in Haiti.”

 

And those solar panels were finally installed.

 

“They were just thrilled,” Jones said. “Imagine what it’s like to have no expectations. That feeling might be inexpressible. I imagine it to be pure joy.”

 

Jones said she feels when she decided to follow Jesus, he decided to use her skills in Haiti. She feels very honored to serve there. 

 

She is involved in several other efforts here in the U.S. She knows everyone’s calling is not to work on foreign soil.

 

It’s about peace in purpose – whatever that purpose might be, Jones said.

 

“Following is a journey – an exciting one that often leads to different places throughout one’s life,” she said.