Thinking about missionaries

In Things Fall Apart there are two missionaries - Mr. Brown and Reverend Smith. Brown and Smith - cute how Achebe gives them such stereotypical *white* names! Anyway, Mr. Brown is kind and understanding while Rev. Smith is harsh and contemptuous, but neither seem to be able - willing? - to make the Gospel clear.

Of course, these are fictional missionaries.

I have read a few biographies of missionaries - Isobel Kuhn, Patricia St. John, Amy Carmichael, Francis and Edith Schaeffer - and it seems that the Schaeffers had an easier time getting to the point, as it were, because they did not have to deal with the extreme poverty of the third world nations.

So - do missionaries preach first and help second, or is it the other way around?

And - what did Jesus do?