JONATHAN giving back
J
onathan Daugherty grew up in a midsized Missouri town. “I grew up in poverty; our family of five lived off of less than $500 a month,” he shares. “I remember visiting my dad, who worked three jobs to support our family, on
his lunch breaks. He was injured in Vietnam but never received disability and, with
By Brandon Jerrell
an injured back, did everything from pump gas to work as a janitor. All low-paying labor-intensive jobs.”
were rampant.” While he was on this mission trip, someone broke into his house back home and stole everything. “I remember crossing over the border with a weight of selfpity knowing I had lost a job I was very proud of and my house being burglarized and every possession I had stolen.”
HUMILITY AND HUMANITY
“I went to college on a fluke,” he admits. “Once I got there, I delivered pizzas for 30-40 hours a week while taking a 20–22 hour course load to work my way through college.” “Eventually, after two years, I became burned out and took a break from school and started working full-time at various jobs. I worked at a factory rebuilding broken torque converters on the overnight shift for an extra .25 cents an hour.”
business. Afterward, he decided to move to Florida, where a coin toss on the way there decided that he would go to Jacksonville.
Breaking the Cycle
Then Jonathan had an epiphany. “I looked around me, and I saw all the older people working there who were simply making a paycheck and barely getting by. I knew I could never support a family or break the cycle of poverty that I lived in if I kept going down this track. I turned off my machine and walked over to the foreman and told him, ‘If I don’t leave right now, I will be here the rest of my life.’”
DAUGHERTY
32 • April 2022
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Over the next few years, Jonathan worked in various roles. He finished his college education at Southwest Missouri State with a bachelor’s in
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After a slew of events — which even included a political career — Jonathan met his now-wife, who invited him on a mission trip to serve orphanages in Mexico. Seeing Beyond Self
“It was 2009, and I had asked for time off to go on my first trip and instead was laid off from my job,” he shares. “Since I no longer had a job, I was free to go on the mission trip where we flew into Phoenix and drove across the border into one of the worst parts of Mexico where human trafficking and drugs
It was here during his trip that Jonathan had another epiphany. “I quickly realized that those kids didn’t need their dorm painted, but they simply needed a hug and attention from someone who cared for them. God broke my heart on that trip and humbled me in a way that I could never have been humbled otherwise. I gained a love for these kids and for the needs that they had.” “Coming back from Mexico, I returned to an empty house, and I was unemployed. My self-pity had disappeared, though, and it was replaced with the guilt I had for placing my value as a person in my material things.” Jonathan found himself in real estate in 2010, and he married his wife in 2015. Both hoped for a large family but were unsuccessful in having children. “My wife and I remembered the passion we had for the kids we worked with together in Mexico, and we decided to sign up to be foster parents.”
Jacksonville Real Producers • 33
