My name is Danny Jones. I have been preaching the gospel for the past twenty-three years and have been serving as a missionary to Thailand for the past sixteen years, in association with the churches of the American Baptist Association. I was born in Waynesville, North Carolina to an American father and a Thai mother who met and married during my father’s service in the Vietnam War.

After a long struggle in my heart to turn my life over to the Lord and accept His Son Jesus as my Savior, I walked down the aisle towards the altar. At the Calvary Road Baptist Church in Waynesville, NC, under the ministry of Pastor T.M. Gibson, I bowed my head, and on bended knees I prayed and asked the Lord to save me, a sinner. I realized that if I were to die, I’d go to hell. I didn’t have what I needed to be saved and get to heaven. It was on that night that I realized that I needed Jesus. I placed my trust in Christ, who did it all for me when He died on the cross to save my soul. Two weeks later, I was baptized and joined the church there.

In 1986 our family moved to Pensacola, Florida and became members of Pinehaven Baptist Church, which affiliates with the American Baptist Association. There, I attended elementary and middle school at Pensacola Christian School. As a teenager, I became heavily involved with the local church association, becoming the song leader and later the president of our local youth association. I began teaching Sunday school at the age of sixteen, and led our church youth choir. At Woodham High School in Pensacola, I was an officer in the Future Farmers of America, yearbook photographer, and a member of French club, Octagon club, Key club and the National Honor Society. I was published in Who’s Who Among American High School Students three years in a row. I graduated with honors and held the Florida Gold Seal endorsement, which helped pay for my college. I won the Champion Student scholarship, Gold Seal Scholarship, and two scholarships through FFA for poultry judging and a winning essay on cancer research in the poultry industry. Chickens literally paid my way through college.

I surrendered to the gospel ministry in June of 1994 there under the pastorate of Bro. Jimmy Lancaster. I strongly felt the call to preach the gospel, and I had my first opportunity to preach the following week. During my years in college, I preached in churches all over the Gulf Coast, filling in pulpits, including a six-month interim at Central Baptist Church in Gulfport, MS.

I worked with the youth at Pinehaven for three years and was able to build the attendance of the Discovery and Bible Clubs to over 150 young people. While working there, I also attended college and received an A.A. from Pensacola Junior College where I studies computer science, music and liberal arts. With a full scholarship from the FFA, I went on to study at the University of West Florida. There I received a B.A. in Psychology and was certified in Group Facilitation Counselling, graduating Cum Laude. In 1997, I moved to Winter Haven, FL and joined the staff of Westwood Missionary Baptist Church, working with Dr. Clyde Lanier. I have now been part of Westwood for 20 years. That same year, I enrolled in Florida Baptist College (now Emmaus Baptist College). Through my studies there, I received a B.A. in Pastoral Arts and a M.A. of Religious Education. During that time, I was minister of youth and music, and also worked as Westwood’s Mission Treasurer, distributing over two and a half million dollars that came through our office annually to missionaries around the world. I finished my studies and graduated with a Doctorate of Theology degree from Gulf Coast Baptist Institute in Hattiesburg, Mississippi in May 2017.

With a deep love of music, I spent eight years as a choir director and music minister. I sang tenor in “The Message” quartet with three other preachers from Florida. I play the guitar, harmonica and piano, and I am trying to teach myself how to play the banjo and the Irish penny whistle. I have done many audio recordings over the years, and I have my own studio recording equipment. I have spent an extensive amount of time working with audio and video studio recording equipment.

In 1998 I married the love of my life. Rachel and I grew up together, attending the same church and high school. We have now been married 19 years and have three wonderful daughters, Tara, Tiffany and Laura who were all born on the mission field. Rachel is certified in elementary education and TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), having graduated from the University of South Florida with a B.A. in Early Childhood Education. Rachel has taught in the public-school systems of Florida and also in Thailand. On the side, Rachel has a professional photography business and is a Mary Kay consultant. She homeschools our children, and is the epitome of a Biblical wife and mother.

Before moving to the mission field, I worked at Haven Baptist Christian School teaching middle and high school science. I taught the subjects of Physical Science, Earth Science, Geology, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics.

In 2001 I began the ministry of Thailand Missions. I have planted churches in Udon Thani and Khon Kaen Thailand, and founded the Udon Thani Baptist Bible Institute. Hundreds of souls have been saved and baptized through the mission efforts in Thailand over the years. I have overseen six building projects on the mission field and have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years for the Lord’s work. Part of our ministry has always been helping other missionaries to get set up on the mission field. Over the years, seven other missionaries and their families have come to work with us on the mission field. We have translated Bible literature into the Thai language, and have written (alongside my wife) a Thai-English Bible dictionary, tracts, Sunday School literature, and Bible college material all in the Thai language.

I am also involved in professional photography and video production, having produced over 60 videos over the years for missionaries to show while on deputation. I am proficient in 3D animation and computer generated special effects which I use in many of my videos. In addition, I specialize in website design, online marketing and advertising. I have been the instructor of several classes in video editing and web design.

I have done extensive research in the field of Biblical numismatics and archaeology. I held the position of numismatic Chairman of the Comitia Curiata for ancient coins for three years which awards educational and historical sites annually for numismatic excellence. In 2009, after thousands of hours of research and compilation, I created the “Library of Ancient Coinage,” the world’s largest repository of numismatic literature and reference material online. I also produced the online version of the Encyclopedia of Roman Imperial Coinage which catalogs some 60,000 Roman coin types, covering the 1500-year period between Augustus Caesar and the 1453 fall of Constantinople. I specialize in Biblical Judean coins and artifacts, and have studied proto-Hebrew script which is found on many ancient objects of the Biblical period. I have worked online and with coin dealers to authenticate and identify ancient coinage of the Roman empire and Judaea. I have presented several seminars showcasing ancient Biblical artifacts and archaeological proofs of the veracity of scripture. My private collection has grown to feature many ancient coins and artifacts. This year, I have been asked to work alongside of Dr. Bobby Sparks as curator of the Bible Encounter Museum in Branson, Missouri. This Bible history museum is a 17.5 million dollar project featuring a full-scale replica of the tabernacle, as well as a walk-through timeline of the Bible, featuring ancient artifacts from the Holy Lands.

In 2008, I began working with Westwood to develop the program and curriculum for the Westwood School of Missions, of which I am now the Administrator and Academic Dean. Helping other missionaries has become my passion. I run the day to day operations of the school and teach many of the courses offered in cross-cultural missionary training. Two years ago, I launched the online program for our school in which we can reach students from around the globe with cutting edge live video conferencing and an online learning management system I have built on the same platform used by over 70,000 schools and universities worldwide. In 2016, I made a major overhaul of the online platform, and our classes can now be taken on virtually any device with internet access. Even students without internet can join classes via phone conferencing in 53 countries worldwide.

In 2015, I developed the Baptist Training Center, which is an online Christian Education website with the goal of equipping saints for ministry. I have sought out experts in their respective fields to teach courses and offer them to anyone with an internet connection, anywhere in the world. In addition to the content from other teachers (in both English and Spanish) I am also personally teaching courses in subjects such as Theology, Sunday School Administration, and a marriage seminar I’ve entitled, “The Trinity of Love.” Each year, I offer this marriage seminar live and have had the privilege of counseling many, many couples over the years.

In June 2017, The Baptist Training Center was officially recognized by the both the U.S. ISBN Agency and the Library of Congress as an independent book publisher of printed religious material. The first published work is a book I have written on missionary training, entitled The Baptist Missionary Handbook. It will be used as a textbook in the Westwood School of Missions. I have also recently published a 300-page book on Baptist history called The Baptist History Notebook. I am working on publishing several other books at this time including Dr. Clyde Lanier’s work on ecclesiology and commentary on I and II Corinthians.

As I look to the future, I am excited to see what the Lord has in store. All glory and praise be to my Lord Jesus Christ, without whom I can do nothing.

In Christ,

Bro. Danny Jones