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ENTS Introduction

President’s Column

CONTENTS

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Contact Us

JAARSPO Box 248Waxhaw NC 28173-0248

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All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New International Version, 2011.

COVER PHOTO courtesy of Nate Gordon: Paulus has served God for many years in a remote corner of Indonesia. Here, he receives a carton of the Bibles that he never thought he would live long enough to see. Read the story on pages 2–5.

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Rev. 7 Every Nation People Language is a publication of JAARS, a nonprofit that helps the Wycliffe Global Alliance, SIL International, and other organi-zations get practical, day-to-day support for Bible translation. JAARS focuses on five areas: aviation, land transportation, water transportation, informa-tion technology, and media.

The magazine’s name pointsto Revelation 7:9–10, thetime and place where peopleof every language group willone day worship togetherbefore the throne of God.

Our Vision: To see people’s lives and communities transformed by experiencing God’s Word in their own language

SUMMER 2014VOLUME 9 ISSUE 1

EditorsGrace MillerCarol BrinnemanMichaela Riley

Managing EditorSarah Baer

Graphic DesignerBarbara Alber

“Before I Die, I Have One Last Prayer”An airstrip, a plane, and a pilot serve a saint who spent his life serving the people of remote Indonesia.

Christmas Comes Early to PipalA special plane and its pilot deliver an irresistible gift in Indonesia. Embracing IT ConnectAn Ohioan joyfully serves in it for Bible translation in Uganda and Tanzania.

The Joy—and Challenges— of Creating Scripture WebsitesEmail messages record the hardships and successes that trainers and trainees in Indonesia encounter launching the Word of God into cyberspace. Better Than Finding GoldA Montana-based couple gives Papua New Guineans the skills to record Scripture in their own heart languages.

The Campaign for PossibleEnormous challenges stand in the way of Bible translation for the last languages, but JAARS is trusting God for what seems impossible.

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SERVING THE SERVANTSGrace Miller, Editor

“I have a desire, based on Christian convic-tions, to serve my fellow man.” So wrote Cameron Townsend, founder of JAARS, Wycliffe Bible Translators, and SIL Inter-national, in a letter to a friend in 1935.

Today, almost 80 years after Townsend expressed his calling to serve, JAARS is still serving. Alongside many partner organizations, we help Bible translators get the support they need to work all over the world—air, land, and water transportation, as well as technical assistance, media equipment, training, and more. But perhaps more importantly, JAARS is reaching far beyond that initial assistance by “serving the servants”—enabling, supporting, and encouraging people around the world who have that same God-given desire to serve their fellow man.

In this issue of Rev. 7, you will read a pilot’s reflections about a man who spent years making the arduous journey through dense rainforest, flooded rivers, and steep mountainsides to tell the people of his remote Indonesian

community about Jesus—and about how God fulfilled his dreams beyond what he thought he would ever see.

Steve Pence tells about his move to Africa to provide technical assistance for Bible translation, and how he became part of a larger team that supports him as much as he supports them.

Websites now connect believers globally, allowing them to read and share Scriptures and other materials with each other in the language that means the most to them. Peter Nash tells about the servants of God he has met while training them as website creators.

Lauren and Connie Runia work alongside believers in Papua New Guinea to record Scriptures in many languages that speak to the hearts of listeners. That project has taken a great leap forward, thanks to generous JAARS donors.

And finally, The Campaign for Possible will challenge you to think about how God may be calling you to serve the servants.

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JAARS is enabling, supporting, and encouraging people around the world who have that same God-given desire to serve their fellow man.

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In 1977, Paulus set his people free. The Ketengban people of Papua,

Indonesia, had never known anything but a fearful world full of murderous enemies and controlled by powerful evil spirits. An entire village had been wiped out by a neighboring tribe. But in that same fateful year, Paulus and others heard of some strange happenings several valleys to the south. Intent on seeing for himself, he hiked through the mountains until he encountered a missionary who told of a path to finding a relationship with the Creator.

Somewhere in his soul, Paulus knew what he was hearing was true. He stayed on in that foreign valley for some time, eventually attending a newly formed Bible school there. He then hiked back

to his area, bringing this good news with him. Paulus spent much of the rest of his life faithfully trekking throughout a wide area of mountains, rivers, and thick rainforest, bringing this message that brought peace with God, peace with enemies, and freedom from the tyranny of the spirits.

“And now,” he said to me through tears, “I am old. But before I die, I have one last prayer—that my home village, the most isolated of this area, would finally have an airstrip.”

I met Paulus in 2012 after an arduous trek through river, mud holes, undergrowth and, finally, up a steep climb to inspect a 1,000-foot stretch of ground that had been hacked out of the mountain. Local Papuans had toiled

immensely to create a space where they hoped I would be able to land the Pilatus PC-6 that I fly for yajasi, a JAARS partner in Indonesia.

As I pulled out my clinometer to measure the slope, I asked my companion Bram to pray. “If the slope here is greater than 15%, this won’t work as an airstrip and the people’s incredible labor will have been for nothing.”

We talked to God for a moment, then I sighted the top of the rudimentary airstrip through the clinometer. 14%! Bram literally jumped up and down, shouting out his joy.

After another year of labor, the Ketengban community in Pipal had finished the work required … and the airstrip was now landable. Having not been on the ground there for 12 months, I wasn’t particularly excited about the first landing on the unproven airstrip. Helivida, one of our partners in ministry, was going to have a helicopter in the Pipal area and graciously agreed to let me bum a ride to inspect the airstrip from overhead.

I found myself looking down at terrain that had taken five hours of hard slogging to traverse on foot back in 2012.

The helicopter made the exact same trip in—get this—four minutes. That’s one minute of flying for every hour and fifteen minutes of walking.

Eight days after the helicopter foray, I was once again over Pipal, this time in the Pilatus PC-6 with my friend Mark as an extra set of eyes. We took our time flying test approaches and mapping out what altitudes to use over various landmarks along the approach path. We finally jumped in with both feet, flew past the point of no return, and landed. Parking on the tiny flat spot carved out at the top of the slope, we were soon surrounded by a throng of Ketengban dancing away in their Sunday best. What a party!

At some point in the dedication festivities, Paulus said in earnest, “Now I can die in peace. The last thing I prayed that God would allow me to accomplish, the opening of an airstrip for my people, is finished.”

Nate Gordon serves as a pilot in Papua, Indonesia, with yajasi, a JAARS partner in aviation. Read more on his blog, Off the Path, at http://offthepath.wanderprone.com.

“ Before I Die, I Have One Last Prayer ”

Nate considers it a great honor to meet Paulus, who has served his community faithfully for many years.

yajasi flies to Papua’s most isolated communities—serving both Bible translation and local people. They currently fly four Pilatus PC-6s and a Pilatus PC-12. JAARS helped yajasi get off the ground back in 1993, and we continue to support them through providing aircraft, training and sending staff, setting best practices, helping with safety audits, and more. Our engineers also designed cargo pods for the Pilatus PC-6s, as well as other special parts and modifications.

I found myself looking down at terrain that had taken five hours of hard slogging to traverse on foot back in 2012. The helicopter made the exact same trip in—get this—four minutes.

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Pipal villagers wear their Sunday best to greet the PC-6 as it arrives to dedicate the airstrip to God’s service.

The believers in Pipal, Indonesia, received a wonderful gift—and they just couldn’t resist taking an early peek!

A few weeks back, I flew into Pipal with an Indonesian missionary and boxes of the freshly printed Ketengban Bibles. The new Scriptures were to be formally dedicated a couple of months later and distributed to the Ketengban believers at that time. In other words, these boxes are a bit like Christmas presents that are supposed to sit under the tree, strictly off limits until Christmas morning.

But it would seem that Pipal is populated with “cheaters.”

I have it on good authority that after the first day of sunup-to-sundown

work, constructing a home and ministry building at the top of the airstrip, the people brazenly broke the rules, removed a single Bible from one of the boxes, and implored our Indonesian missionary friend to read from the Psalms and Proverbs. Exhausted from the hard day’s work, he nonetheless complied (making him, at the very least, an accomplice!).

The people sat and listened as, for the first time in their valley’s history, the ancient Hebrew words of David and Solomon were spoken in Ketengban. Many times the missionary felt too tired to continue, but the people forced him to keep reading the “contraband” book late into the night.

The cheaters of Pipal gathered every night after work, hungry to repeat the wonder of hearing the Word of God in the language that had a clear and unob-structed shot at their hearts. And every night the cheaters forced our friend the missionary to read deep into the night, far past his endurance.

The aircraft that delivered the Bibles to Pipal just happened to be the plane that we found in Nepal [see sidebar]. From the initial finding of the aircraft to actually having it flying in Papua was a long, chal-lenging, and expensive process. Likewise, the process of getting the airstrip at Pipal operational was an enormous undertaking. The Indonesian missionary of this story has faced immense challenges along the way. The multiple man-years of blood, sweat, and tears poured into the transla-tion project itself represent a stunningly high price to pay to produce a book.

As I look at the level of expense in terms of time, energy, and money that it has taken to reach this tiny community in Pipal, I shake my head and smile at the

absolutely ridiculous economics of it all. How much for Psalms and Proverbs read throughout the night?

And then, I am reminded of the immeasurable cost my God expended in searching out and finding me … a cheater like my friends in Pipal.

Nate Gordon

Christmas Comes Early to Pipal

The Pilatus PC-6 mentioned in this story is the fourth we’ve sent to Indonesia—thanks to the generous gifts, prayers, and advocacy of people like you. This PC-6 made its first village flights on November 22, 2013. The purpose: taking a church-planting group to a village near the border with Papua New Guinea, as well as a quick stop in the village of Okbap. These flights were the first of many it will make to Indonesia’s most isolated communities, where Bible translation is ongoing. Thank you for your partnership that made it possible!

Many times the missionary felt too tired to continue, but the people forced him to keep reading the “contraband” book late into the night.

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Embracing IT Connect

“Embrace yourselves!” the deep-voiced Nigerian commanded from the front of the van. The mall’s parking garage ramp pitched suddenly downward while ten of us slammed our feet to the floor, laugh-ing as the skyline of Nairobi came up at an odd angle.

I was the only native English speaker on this shopping trip, so I wrapped my arms around myself and hugged hard. Someone saw me and shouted a correction: “Brace! Brace! Not embrace!” Everyone laughed louder.

Each year SIL International—with financial and logistical support from JAARS—hosts two “IT Connect” conferences for our computer support staff in Africa. As someone newly assigned to the continent, this was my first chance to attend.

Recently my wife and I relocated from Ohio to Mbeya, Tanzania. Bible transla-tion is underway there for nine languages of the region. My role is to keep servers backed up and our firewall patched, and

to provide technical support for 60 to 70 laptops used in our Mbeya office.

My short time in Tanzania has taught me the importance of these information technology (it) roles. Translators spend much of every day at their computers. When a translator brings a troubled laptop into my office, at that moment, for that translator, Bible translation has stopped.

And now, my short time at IT Connect has taught me the importance of this technical conference. Each of my new friends in the van and everyone else back at the conference—28 of us from all over Africa—have similar roles. Each of us keeps technology running for Bible translation in our regions. IT Connect is where we can meet, learn, and connect with each other.

We spend ten days absorbing the latest from a variety of technical presentations. We hear about firewalls, cloud computing, and our new email system. We ask ques-tions and share problems: “The satellite

Internet goes down when it rains hard.” “Our backup solution doesn’t support encryption.” “Google ignores the mail retention settings of our Outlook clients.”

A major theme at this year’s confer-ence is business continuity planning. It’s a more holistic approach to what was once called disaster recovery. In Africa, laptops get stolen far from police protection, server rooms have fires where there are no fire departments, and roofs leak onto backup drives that can’t be replaced in-country. We evacuate staff from African countries due to war or instability. As it profes-sionals, it is our responsibility to ensure the survival of years of translation work stored on computers. Many risks need to be anticipated and mitigated through diligent and prayerful planning.

The technical presentations are terrific. But IT Connect is not just about keeping current. Maybe even more important are the unscheduled encounters.

Between sessions, I finally met my it colleagues who also work in Tanzania! The vastness of Africa has conspired with the thirsty throat of my four-wheel-drive Land Cruiser to keep us apart. Having all flown to Nairobi, we use coffee breaks

and lunches to work out practical details, like which of our offices should keep the spare satellite modem or how to share administrative credentials securely between locations.

Another side benefit of IT Connect is suitcases. Luggage comes here with our presenters from the JAARS Center in North Carolina, as well as Canada and Europe. Luggage leaves here going back to places like Mozambique, eastern Congo, and South Sudan where quality computer equipment and spare parts can be almost impossible to find. So IT Connect becomes a major purchasing and resupply opportunity. My own suitcase returns to Mbeya with two new 4-terabyte external drives plus an Ethernet test meter.

Thank you, IT Connect! If I could, I’d embrace you.

Steve Pence, with his wife, Mary, has served since 1992 with Wycliffe USA and SIL International in various it roles in America, Africa, and South Asia.

Emmanuel Mwankosole (left) and Steve Pence are both it managers in Tanzania, but in different parts of the country. They were delighted to work together in person.

When a translator brings a troubled laptop into my office, at that moment, for that translator, Bible translation has stopped.

IT Training in Africa—5640JAARS has dozens of partners in Africa, and they all rely on technology to move forward with Bible translation. These workshops

are a wonderful way to equip it staff—and we’ve worked with SIL International to host nine since 2011. People gather from all over Africa to improve their skills (the it part) and build relationships (the Connect part!). Sending one worker to it Connect costs about $1,589, an investment that benefits an entire organization. You can help at www.jaars.org/5640 or by using the response form at the end of this magazine. Thank you!

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the joy–and Challenges–of Creating sCripture WebsitesWhile conducting website creation workshops overseas, Peter Nash, at the end of each long and challenging day, takes time to send a quick email to his family and team. We want to share these eye-opening accounts with you and let you experience some of what’s involved in getting God’s Word online in heart languages. Thank you for your prayer and giving to these efforts!

March 10, 2014, MondayToday is the first day of our two-week workshop in Ambon, the capital of Ma-luku Province, Indonesia. I am excited. And, as is typical, a little bit scared, maybe in awe. There are about 30 men and women here, and I have the oppor-tunity of directing them to an additional way for providing access to God’s Word. I want to do well, and I want to be effec-tive, and I want to please God.

Some of the students are coming from an area with essentially no “tradi-tional” Internet access. What they do have is increasing access to smart phones, allowing them to interact with the rest of the world. Via those phones, they are using the Internet and don’t know it; they just see it as a feature of their phone. There

are good reasons for groups like these to have a website, and we hope to communi-cate some of those reasons to them.

March 11, TuesdayMonday was a great day. All of us trainers were exhausted. Eldwin* taught lessons in Indonesian. Then he translated for me. Then he took care of all of the site creations and login creations. Then he wandered around answering students’ questions. Then he answered my ques-tions. He may have been “off duty” for about 100 seconds the whole day. He is connecting with students, and it is great to watch.

David* is a U.S.-based translator who has lived a number of years in Indonesia. He speaks Indonesian and Ambonese, as

well as Selaru, the language of the team he is currently consulting. He knows our system and has been a great help.

Kuba* is our Internet connectivity person. Yesterday we had the hotel connection, two 3G Wi-Fi routers (hotspots), and two standalone 3G modems. Today we will add two more of the 3G Wi-Fi routers to the combi-nation. That should put us in a good position. It will also tell us where the crazy slowness occurs.

We have 28 students (19 men and 9 women), working on 21 sites in 13 languages. Of the 21 sites, 11 are Scripture or hybrid (Scripture plus community materials) sites. The rest are community sites of various stripes.

The students have logged in, made a home page, named tabs, uploaded several files, created the media library, created pages, assigned them to tabs, received a preview url to see their site in the “real world,” and learned how to edit, crop, and resize pictures. Wow,

they are excited. Tonight, as last night, we will have a voluntary help session from 7:30-ish to 9:00-ish.

Some of the conceptually hard subjects are still to come. How do you explain copyright to someone who has never heard of it? Search engine opti-mization? Site analytics? Video formats? url selection?

March 13, ThursdayProgress is progress even if it’s slow.

At 7:30 in the morning our Internet connection is pretty good. By 11:00, when the western parts of Indonesia wake up, it is pretty bad. Tomorrow we will start an hour early and take a long lunch—three hours—and work into the evening. That will help us get the best parts of the Internet day. So, today we worked on the sites from 9:00 till 12:00 and had training and discussions from 1:00 till about 4:00.

Can you guess what we discussed? Copyrights. © Who made the document,

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who made the video, who wrote the music, and who said the quote? It is all important and can be very hard to track. Think of two children fighting over something: “It’s mine.” “No, it’s mine.” They can both be wrong, but they can’t both be right. Well, the same is true of a video copyright. You need permission.

The second subject we discussed? People will be looking for your site. What can the “web content keeper” do to make his or her site easier to find? Cool people call it seo. Some people call it “search engine optimization.” It is a meaty subject. I taught it. Then David really communi-cated it. My 60 seconds expanded to 5 minutes. He needed to explain the why before he could explain the how.

March 14, Friday It is midafternoon on Friday. Our In-ternet speed is very very very very slow. Time for more lessons.

March 18, TuesdayThe men and women here don’t like the slow Internet but are amazingly patient. So we progress, just slower than hoped.

As is usually the case, many of the trainees did not bring the bulk of their media with them. If they had, we could have done some overnight file uploads, but it was not needed. We don’t know how many of the sites will be launched by the

end of the week. We keep pressing on. We keep answering questions. We keep encouraging the students to do what we already see they can do. It is not a bad way to spend a few weeks.

March 21, Friday8:00 a.m. We are supposed to start our final day in a few minutes, but three quarters of our students are not here and won’t be for several hours. Last night the mother of one of the students died, and they will attend the funeral. They say they will be here by 9:30.

10:00 a.m. Everyone arrives. Now the fever pitch to see if we can finish the sites we expected. Tick. Tick. Tick. Internet already slow, and it is still morning. Talk. Wait. Click. Wait more. Test. Review. Talk. Change. Compare. Wait. Listen. View. Wait. Click. Then, eat lunch.

1:30 p.m. Lunch is over. We just launched one site, but it is not working. Neither is another one. Test. Confirm. Failure. Yes! Got it. Bug report coming. Document workaround. Quick-fix the other site with the same problem. Success! We finished the sites expected for today with promises for more next week.

2:15 p.m. Celebration. We started early. The leaders talked. We sang. In Indonesian. I didn’t know what we were singing. But it didn’t matter. We were all doing the same thing. It was awesome.

A representative of The Evangelical Church of Indonesia holds back tears as Peter Nash presents him with a laptop for the church’s use. Jon Richards (left) and Eldwin look on.

Scripture Websites in Heart Languages—4913Websites can multiply the

impact of Bible translation, and focused, intense training workshops, such as the one Peter Nash describes here, help such sites go up fast. A media organization that JAARS has teamed with for several years works with local people to create websites that allow people to find, read, listen, and watch God’s Word—all in their own language. To date, our partner has rejoiced in seeing 172 sites go live, serving over 1 billion people. More than 125 other sites are in active development or testing. To donate to this project, go to www.jaars.org/4913 or use the response form in this magazine. Thank you!

We were all worshipping God. The Indonesian-speaking God. The Alune-speaking God. The Fordata-speaking God. The Mandao Malay–speaking God. The Selaru-speaking God. The English-speaking God. GOD!

We then looked at the home pages of the newly launched sites.

3:00 p.m. It’s all over. Students are leaving. Happy. Very happy. Espe-cially those who saw their launched site on the screen.

We launched 8 of the 21 sites today and will launch more soon. God understood what was posted on all of those sites. It didn’t matter to me that I couldn’t understand the words. I under-stood their hearts. The love of God and the love of God’s Word. It has been a good two weeks. Very good.

Peter Nash has served in Scripture-based media work since 2001.

*Family name withheld for security reasons

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In a tiny room in the West New Britain Province of Papua New Guinea, a wom-an approached a microphone. She wore a brightly patterned dress but had removed the colorful strings of beads that usually hung around her neck. All must be quiet for the recording session that was about to begin. In her hand she grasped pages from the book of 2 Corinthians, printed in Mangseng—the language of her heart. Hobson Poka rechecked the sound level, assured himself that the record button had been engaged, and nodded to the woman at the microphone.

In a calm, steady voice she commenced reading from Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth. But as the ancient words and their meaning sank in, her voice faltered, and she began to weep. Hobson paused the recorder and waited for some time, but his deeply moved reader couldn’t stop crying. A crew member quietly removed the headset microphone and told everyone to take a short break while the young woman struggled to compose herself. But the convicting power of God’s Word was

so strong, she was unable to continue. Hobson was forced to find another reader and start recording a different book.

Hobson shared this story in a recent class conducted by Lauren and Connie Runia, a husband-and-wife team who serve translation teams as media coordina-tors and trainers in the Pacific. Hobson is one of eight men from four provinces who have completed the second in a series of four workshops in Kokopo, Papua New Guinea, where the Runias are helping them make audio recordings of 21 published New Testaments in the islands region. “Actually, it will be 33 New Testa-ments before long,” said Lauren. “These eight students will be working on as many as they can, and then we’re planning to have them help train others who will join them in this work.”

In this two-week course the partici-pants learned how to put recorded files into templates and process them for Audibible players, MP3 devices, and mobile phones. Lauren commented, “We wish our video camera had been ready for that moment when the class put their files

Where Needed Most—JWN The Runias’ recent workshop

was remarkably different from the previous one. Thanks to the many generous people who’ve supported our Where Needed Most fund, the class had new, compatible computers and recording equipment, as well as three generators to share. This was a big help, as in the previous class the trainers had struggled to explain processes to students using different operating systems.

And now, even more importantly, students will use their new equipment to record New Testaments in the 21—soon to be 33—languages in this region where translation is complete. Pray with us for the impact of these recordings.

To donate to Where Needed Most, visit www.jaars.org/jwn or use the response form at the back of this magazine. Thank you!

on the Audibible and started playing them. The room lit up with excitement! They actually did it—from start to finish!”

Emos Tobiana had some prior experi-ence with audio recording, so he joined the class both to mentor students and to learn the software and methods being taught. Emos is preparing to teach a similar audio recording course, which is planned for later this year in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. Lauren said, “Connie and I will be able to help him by coaching him over email and Skype.”

John Langale is part of the New Ireland team, recording the New Testa-ment in Mandara as well as several other languages. John had worked for seven years in the gold mines on the Tabar Islands. But he was recently without employment, and his father encouraged him to join the audio recording project. John said, “When I came to the course and saw the importance of this work, I felt it was much more important than the work I had been doing. I was helping to find gold in the ground, but this work affects the lives and eternity of people.”

Grace Miller and her husband moved to Waxhaw, North Carolina, upon their retire-ment in August 2013. Grace now volunteers at JAARS, writing and editing for Rev. 7 and other JAARS publications.

Lauren Runia (right) works with Andrew Luaina, who is recording Scripture in the Ramoaaina language.

A Yopno man listens to Scripture in his language on the Audibible, an Mp3 player.

As the ancient words and their meaning sank in, her voice faltered, and she began to weep.

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Village Testing: Sangu villagers listen to a passage in Matthew and reply to the translators’ questions about its meaning.

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THE IMPACT OF THE “INVISIBLE”Woody McLendon, JAARS President

Scores of “invisible” people make Bible translation possible—

including the pilot for our new flight program in Tanzania, who

flew three Sangu translators in for this discussion session. The

36-minute flight from Mbeya, where the translators work at a

regional office, would have taken at least one very long day by car.

Years ago while our family studied French in Belgium, we witnessed an amazing situ-ation. Banks ran out of cash and had to limit withdrawals. Stores wouldn’t accept cash payments; their safes were full, and they feared robberies. The economy was unraveling very quickly.

Why? Because a very small group of people went on strike: armored car drivers. Without people to safely transport cash from stores to banks, the economy suffered. Thankfully the strike settled quickly, and life soon returned to normal.

I’ll never forget, though, how a small group of people could have an outsized impact on a whole country. Even today each of us depends on many people we’ll never meet but whose roles and contribu-tions make our work possible.

So it is with Bible translation. The individual or team actually doing the translation carries great responsibilities, and we praise God for them. At the same time, many others serve behind the scenes

and often go unnoticed. Without them, Bible translation would not be possible. JAARS is part of that larger team, as are you who come alongside us to support Bible translation with your prayers, donations, service, and advocacy.

In this issue of Rev. 7 you’ve read about JAARS-related staff who serve the servants—local people and expatriates alike. I hope you’ve seen how God uses people of all types to accomplish his purposes, especially those who are often “invisible.”

What about you? Is God calling you to join in his mission to reach all peoples and languages with the good news of Jesus’ love? The following pages describe several ways you can be involved through The Campaign for Possible. Pray and seek God. Be bold and take a step of faith. You’ll never be the same.

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For 65 years, JAARS has watched God pave the way for people to translate and share the Bible almost anywhere on earth. And today, in the face of enormous obstacles to reaching the last languages, we are choosing to trust again that God is able. He can make anything possible—and he uses everyday people to do so.

Some are servants on the front lines: sharing the Word with their own people, flying planes into rugged airstrips, or fixing computers. Many others are “serving the servants”: training, praying, giving, advocating, and supporting

through all kinds of behind-the-scenes roles. Together, we trust that God “is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20, nlt).

The road ahead won’t be easy. Thousands of languages still need God’s Word in the language that speaks straight to their hearts. But JAARS is trusting God for what’s possible, despite the obstacles. And we’re doing that by asking him to raise up people to help in five specific ways.

We’ve got to have some impossible things done to finish the task and get the Word to every tribe. So, let’s just look to Him and He’ll do it.Cameron Townsend (1896–1982)Founder of JAARS, SIL International, and Wycliffe Bible Translators

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the CAMPAIGN for

PRAYER PARTNERSLike every ministry, we’re dependent first on God, and then on people who

share our prayers for God to be glori-fied in every language. We’re asking him to call 3,000 people to pray for JAARS’ ministry each week in the coming year.

ADVOCATES These are people just like you—Christians who have a passion for Bible translation, know and

respect JAARS, and can speak on our behalf to churches, schools, and more. This year we’re asking God to triple our advocates, to 100 total.

FINANCIAL PARTNERSWe’re asking God to raise up people who will invest in our capacity

to take on new projects, design better solutions, and respond more quickly. Our goal is $2 million and a total of 10,000 financial partners—a big stretch beyond usual and trusting God for what’s possible.

ADVISORSMany needs don’t require consistent staff—just the right people, at the right time, who can help us

solve a particular problem. We’re asking God to raise up experts to serve on advisory teams for mission aviation and water transportation.

CO-LABORERSEvery aspect of our ministry is accomplished by people—full time, part time, on site, remote, long

term, and short term. We’re asking God to raise up qualified, committed people to serve in 20 key roles, listed at www.jaars.org/possible.

POSSIBLE

We’d love to hear from you!If you sense God has a role for you in making Bible translation possible, please let us know by September 30, 2014. You can call 888-773-1178, email possible@jaars.org, or return the response form in this magazine. Or, to learn more, visit www.jaars.org/possible. We’re thanking God in advance for you—and for all he makes possible!

for praying, giving, and telling others about JAARS and Bible translation.THANK YOUPlease send me (check all that apply):

Rev. 7

Prayerline

A magazine highlighting JAARS’ role in Bible translation

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monthly print edition

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Please contact me with information about:Serving JAARS as a:

Prayer PartnerAdvisor

AdvocateCo-Laborer

Financial Partner

Including JAARS in my will, or giving non-cash assets

Praying for a people group through Wycliffe’s Bibleless People’s Prayer Project

Name*

Address*

Email

City* State* ZIP*

Daytime phone*

If giving by credit card, print name exactly as it appears on card.

Contributions are fully tax deductible. If gifts to a project exceed the need, your gift will be applied to a similar project. JAARS is a nonprofit that helps the Wycliffe Global Alliance, SIL International, and other organizations get practical, day-to-day support for Bible translation. We focus on aviation, land transportation, water transportation, information technology, and media.

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My check or money order is enclosed. Make checks payable to JAARS Inc.

Please charge $ to my credit card.

Type* Visa MasterCard Discover

HOW TO GIVE• Mail this form to:

JAARS Inc. PO Box 248 Waxhaw NC 28173

• Call 888-773-1178

• Visit www.jaars.org/donate

MR1408

800-890-0628 | PO BOX 248 WAXHAW NC 28173 | WWW.JAARS.ORG

Project ID Project title Amount

5640

it Training in Africa

TOTAL

4913

JWN

CP2014

Scripture Websites in Heart Languages

Where Needed Most

The Campaign for Possible

Please pray with us as we focus on The Campaign for Possible, that God will call people to join us as prayer partners, advocates, financial partners, advisors, and co-laborers. For information on how to pray more specifically, read page 17 of this issue of Rev. 7.

Set your alarm to pray with us at 10:02 a.m. or p.m. each day. Luke 10:2 says:

[Jesus] told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

Thank God for the many partners who serve God with us through JAARS today. Pray that God will bless them abundantly.

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God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.—Hebrews 6:10