How the High-Flying JAARS Organization is now Providing Life-Saving Water Safety Equipment for Bible Translators

Usually known for its aircraft, JAARS has now turned its attention to helping to save the lives of translators in PNG who face great dangers when they take to the water to travel to their destinations.

Lynn Landweer, who has served with Wycliffe Bible Translators from 1986 through to the present primarily through applied sociolinguistics, said in an interview, “the nature of my work has taken me to live among 17 language groups (encompassing 130 villages) over the space of the last 15 years. Eight of those language communities were located on the coast and/or inland from the coast where my only access to them from the nearest airstrip was by water transport and then walking-in the case of inland villages). An additional community was located on a navigable river that was my only access both in and out.”

When asked why she thought the water safety program was so important to herself and other workers there, Lynn replied, “While my work leading the sociolinguistics department, teaching Wycliffe and national translators, and preparing for surveys through library research is rather tame, by comparison my experiences in field survey have not been! In the nine surveys I referred to above, I’'ve experienced numerous watercraft—coracles, dugout canoes, dinghies (25 to 40 hp), and the M.V. Mark which is the 27 foot diesel powered trade-boat purchased for transportation of our Milne Bay expatriate and national colleagues. Of the 9 surveys requiring water transport I could only use the Mark for three of the language groups. For the remaining 6 pre-allocation surveys I have been dependent on local watercraft.”

“Though generally these water-plying peoples are skilled at navigation, they do not always share the same precautionary values we do in the West. One has only to look at the newspaper in the region to hear of folk lost at sea or boats going down.”

She added, “Ironically, though I did all these surveys, it wasn’t until nearly my last survey that I had access to any water safety equipment. That survey, in January 1999, I had only the inflatable life vest and a Global Positioning System (GPS). But having the life vest gave me a sense of security I would have really liked to have had on other surveys! Since that time the survey office has obtained the entire kit!”

The water travel safety kit consists of inflatable life jackets for each family member and an assortment of survival tools including a strobe light, signal mirror, shark repellent bag, air horn and flares.

The emergency rescue system is made up of a portable GPS, a handheld VHF communicator by which someone in need of rescue can contact a nearby boat or aircraft, and a device called an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB). An EPIRB is an automatic rescue beacon that broadcasts a 406 MHz distress message directly to satellites passing overhead. The digital information includes the location of the beacon, identifies who is in distress and notifies Wycliffe personnel who can effect rescue. The emergency rescue system could be used by anyone traveling in insecure areas on land or sea.

Landweer talked about why the translators often have to use water transportation. “There are many places in this country where there is no other physically possible or economically feasible way to get into the village. If economy isn’t a factor and there is a large enough landing site a helicopter can be used, but helicopters can also bring some difficult anthropological complications.”

“The primary one is associated with cargo cult activities. In certain areas of this country ’cargo’ (material goods) is often thought to come from the sky! Cargo prophets rise regularly to marshal adherents in order to guarantee their receipt of “cargo.” When we come in by helicopter with our supplies, 'cargo' prophets are “proved.” Our teams can experience incredible pressure to provide from the apparently abundant, non-earth bound sources—or be considered stingy for not so providing. Ironically, I’ve not heard of a cult that had the same kind of association of goods coming from across the water.”

Even if not encumbered by the difficulties of cargo mentality, helicopters or fixed wing aircraft are not always available when one is needed or wanted or there are no airstrips near to the village.

Leif and Helena Engkvist, Swedish Bible translators, came to PNG and settled in Milne Bay Province on Ferguson Island in 1990 to help translate the Bible into the Molima language spoken by 3500 people. The churches joyously received the Gospel of Matthew in their own language. About 50% of the New Testament has been translated and the literacy rate is rising above the 15% it was when they arrived due to the vernacular prep-school they helped set up. The Engkvists appreciate the safety of having a GPS while hiking and also using the EPIRB, VHS communicator and water safety kit when at sea.

Engkvist says, “Fergusson Island is a fairly large island. There are eight different language groups here. The Salamo airstrip is on the south coast. When we have been at the mission station and go back to the village we travel by fixed wing to Salamo, and from there by helicopter up to the village. However, often the grass is not cut, and as soon as it rains it is likely to be flooded. I then use local trade boats to go between Alotau on the mainland and Fergusson. It’s a trip of anything between 11 hours to 3 days, depending on the route of the boat and how many stops the captain has to make before the final destination. These boats are about 6-8 meter long, diesel powered, smoky, noisy and overloaded with cargo.”

“Our oldest son Jonathan, 14, is in high school at Ukarumpa International School and comes to visit during school holidays. If the Salamo airstrip isn’t open he hikes for 12 hours or 2 days over the mountains and across rivers 35 times to come home.”

“If it is possible to use our group boat the M.V. Mark we prefer that. Captain Gerald, a Papua New Guinean, is capable and we know that the boat is in good condition. The radio is often out of order, but we have our handheld VHF radio if there ever was a crisis.”

“As a woman in a very ’man’s world’ here in PNG, I have little option than to go with the ’man’s’ decision—even if that decision is misguided. I also know that anthropologically, when I am assigned a boat by the leader of a local people group—I know it is their best—but I also know that by using it I am becoming dependent on a person whose knowledge, experience, common sense I can not guarantee.”

“I have recounted the human factor in the dangers of travel on water in this country. There are also the natural factors. There are dangerously rough channels of water that one must traverse—both sea currents and river-water induced currents that make small craft travel exciting at best. There are long distances between islands in some regions, and this complication added with the current can cause a boat that is adrift to travel many nautical miles off course. Finally, not every captain has the advantage of wind-warning weather reporting and some boats have been know to disappear under conditions of unanticipated wild weather.”

“The Are people group (just to the east of where I have last worked) lost at least three young men traveling between Goodenough Island and their home on the mainland in such conditions last year—one was an experience crewman.”

Arthur Lightbody, spokesman for JAARS, takes up the story: “Often, the translators find that they cannot be flown into a remote area by one of the JAARS aircraft and that many times traveling to one’s allocation requires passage across water. Our translators and literacy workers have been in dangerous situations, many times unnecessarily so. The Papua New Guinea branch is most in need of safety equipment because of the number of translators and literacy workers who must cross large bodies of water to reach the villages in which they work.”

Other translators in Papua New Guinea are grateful for the increased water safety brought about by the JAARS program. Alan Canavan reports, “We were on a trip a few years ago when we got caught in a sudden storm just as were crossing reefs. We couldn’t see anything. The wind and waves were so intense we didn’t know where we were or which direction we were going. It was really awful.”

Glenn Smith, JAARS water safety director, remarks, “No one has yet to use the EPIRB to signal for help. That’s what we want.” However, he has heard of many close calls such as the Canavans had.

Kristin Elkinton, a writer for JAARS, reports on one of these other close calls, “A coral reef prevented Bible translators Nicki Miller and Karla Sligh from swimming to shore when the engine of their dinghy quit. Their only option was to pray and wait for rescue. They drifted for eight hours off the cost of Milne Bay Province. As it grew dark, they heard a boat approaching. Thankfully, they had their JAARS Emergency rescue and water safety kits with them. They used the strobe light to signal the boat. The rope from the kit served as the towline back to shore.”

Translator Engkvist says, “I would like to say thank you to people giving money for this kind of project. It means a lot to travel on open waters feeling safe. This is a great way for others back home to be involved in the task of bringing God’s Word to people in their languages in Papua New Guinea.”

Smith adds, “We desire that the Wycliffe translators who need them be supplied with either the emergency rescue systems or the water safety kits.” “In all,” he reports, “100 Wycliffe translation teams have the emergency rescue system and the water safety kits. However, to meet current requests $18,426 is needed.”

The challenge they face is that there are 6,809 world languages. Wycliffe translators are working in over 1,000 language groups and have helped to translate New Testaments into 500 languages. However, there are still 3,000 additional language groups needing Scripture translation programs. These groups represent at least 250 million people. JAARS, along with its partners, embraces the vision that by the year 2025 a Bible translation project will be in progress for every people group that needs one.

William Cameron Townsend founded Wycliffe Bible Translators in 1934. As the organization grew, Townsend saw the need for airplanes and radios to reach remote areas in Latin America where the translation efforts began. “Jungle Aviation and Radio Services” began in Peru in 1948. Because the organization today does so much more than just aviation and radio, it is now simply called “JAARS.”