The Scope of the Ministry of JAARS

Across the continent, in East Africa, a Bible translator in a remote village turns on her battery-powered high-frequency radio and contacts a doctor hundreds of miles away. A desperate African mother, her child dying in her arms, pleads for help. She’ll get it—thanks to JAARS equipment and technology.

High in the Andes Mountains of South America, under a cold, star-filled sky, a hundred Quechuas, descendants of the once-mighty Incas, sit spellbound as a portable VCR projects the JESUS film on a whitewashed adobe wall. The women weep quietly as Jesus is nailed to the cross. “He did that for me?” one of them asks. “If so, then I need to follow what His Book says.” That night at least one life is changed for eternity.

On an island in Asia the rotors of a helicopter begin to turn. The whine of its turbine engine mixes with the womp-womp sound of the swirling blades. It lifts off with precious cargo—a family, heading into the mountains to live and work. When they arrive at their destination, the pilot will help them settle into their village house, a grass-roofed hut on stilts. This will be home for the next several months. They will be isolated from their fellow missionaries, but frequent supply flights will bring them food, mail and the things they need to do their difficult work.

In Eastern Europe, a Bible translator turns on his computer and begins to type. On the screen, oddly shaped letters appear, moving right to left. The computer isn’t broken. It has special software, so this language can be printed in a non-Roman script and understood by its several million speakers. Someday those people will also have the Word of God.

Her language assistant speaks into a microphone connected to a laptop computer. The translator repeats the phrase. The two utterances are displayed simultaneously on the screen in a wave form, comparing stress and pitch. She could learn the language without this piece of equipment, but it would be more difficult.

These are examples of what JAARS is all about—people helping people translate the Word of God.

We help them any way we can: at the JAARS Center or working alongside them overseas. We fly. We build. We invent. We provide software and hardware, radio and email. We buy. We ship. We work with audio and video. JAARS is about using all things technical.

You’ll find JAARS people, products and know-how on every continent but Antartica—and we’d be there if we were needed! We are men and women, families with and without children, and single people—all committed to serving God.

Since 1948 the JAARS mission has never changed. We serve Wycliffe Bible Translators in its goal to help give every people group God’s Word. But, ultimately, it isn't about the Book. It’s about the Word, the Bread of Life. It’s about the One who commanded us to “go and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19b).”

And we’ll continue until the job is done—or the Lord returns.