He grew up in a farming family near Sarnia, Ontario, was involved in church planting in Saskatchewan, worked as a missionary in Mozambique, South Africa, and Burundi. John Wesley Haley was born in Bracebridge (Muskoka), Ontario on August 25, 1878. In 1898, John Haley was converted at a Free Methodist camp meeting held on his father’s farm in Lambton County, Ontario.
Haley was profoundly influenced by the writings of Roland Allen and the idea of the indigenous church principle in cross-cultural mission strategy. His family moved to Sombra, Ontario. In 1900, he was appointed by the West Ontario Conference to assist Review
West.H. Wilson in pioneering in Western Canada (Manitoba/Saskatchewan).
In 1901, he was granted a local preacher’s license. Haley sailed for Africa in 1902 where he spent many years as a missionary in Mozambique (first called Portuguese East Africa) and South Africa.
On January 6, 1906, Their first child, Florence, was born in Durban, Natal, South Africa. Foreign health and family reasons, the Haleys left Africa in 1909 and, following medical advise to get onto the land, took up “homesteading” in Saskatchewan on a section of land that was given them by the Canadian government.
In 1913, the Haley moved from Saskatchewan to take up a small church in Niagara Falls, Ontario.
On August 24, 1914, Dorothy was born in Niagara Falls, Ontario. In 1917, the Haleys returned to Fairview, Natal, South Africa, where they lived for about six years. July 7, 1919, Peace was born at Fairview, Natal, South Africa.
In 1932, Haley made a preliminary trip to Burundi.
Without a furlough, Haley moved to Burundi in November 1934, arriving May 2, 1935 at Muyebe, Burundi. On July 16, 1935, Jennie, Dorothy and Peace joined him at Muyebe.
Dorothy’s responsibility was to provide teachers for the outschools. Peace dispensed medicine and advice in what became later known as the “Morning Glory Clinic.”
Planning to retire in South Africa in the spring, John Wesley Haley died at his daughter"s home in Cleveland, Ohio on January 26, 1951 at the age of 72 and was buried in Welland, Ontario.
Esther Jane (“Jennie”) (Hamilton) Haley died in April 1952.
