Providing Solutions Supporting Bible Translation in the Pacific
Heralded in 1521 by Portuguese explorer, Ferdinand Magellan, as “Mar Pacifico” (“Peaceful Sea”), the Pacific Ocean is the world’s largest ocean with a population of almost ten million people inhabiting its fifteen major island countries. Fifty-four language groups there have a fully translated Bible—but there are still over 900 languages without so much as a New Testament. Translation partners are focused on reducing that number to zero and JAARS is there to help make that possible!
In the Pacific region, solutions we offer incorporates a range of logistical solutions for Bible translation and language development partners in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Australia. In these countries, JAARS supports projects reaching more than 188 language groups. Many more projects are still needed.
Our Transportation Solutions help partners navigate travel on land, sea, and air, enabling them to work safely and effectively in volatile and risky environments. This ranges from providing equipment, training, and operating support to researching the best approach for safe and sustainable inter-island ocean travel.
And our mission aviation partners are often able to demonstrate Jesus’ second great commandment—to love our neighbors as ourselves—by making it possible for remote communities to have urgent-care access to regional hospitals and clinics. In the primarily oral people groups of the Pacific, our ongoing provision of Media Solutions means translation partners can record, produce, and distribute the gospel and related materials to communities via mobile phones, handheld audio players, portable Wi-Fi hotspots, JESUS film translations, and more—long before (and after) written translations are available.
And finally, we provide Training Solutions that range from preparing pilots and mechanics for the unique equipment and conditions they’ll encounter in the Pacific … to making water travel safer for regional translators—who often must travel via less-than-desirable commercial transport options—by providing water safety training, equipment, and international navigational beacons.
Please join with us in prayer, in funding, and in advocacy among those you know. THANK YOU for responding to God’s leading in this critical part of his mission for the world.
To make these solutions possible, please consider a gift to any of the solution areas above.
