Why is JAARS needed?
The need for audio Scriptures is clear in the eastern island provinces of Papua New Guinea (PNG) and in Vanuatu, a nearby Pacific island nation.
In the oral communities of these regions, written communication isn’t part of the traditional culture. Many young people may have learned to read and write, but most of the older generation and those who live far from schools haven’t. Additional challenges—poor eyesight or blindness—mean some may never have the opportunity to read. Translators know that offering recordings of audio translations along with printed Bibles will best enable them to reach entire communities for Christ.
In PNG and Vanuatu, teams now include the recording of Scripture and worship materials in their distribution plans when translations are completed. They know that audio Scriptures—made available alongside printed Bibles—best enable them to reach an entire language community for Christ. Audio Scripture players, such as the Audibible and MegaVoice, are uniquely designed for this purpose.
What is JAARS doing?
Audio Scripture players like the Audibible and MegaVoice are uniquely designed for this purpose.
- They’re built to last in harsh environments.
- They’re solar-powered, costing nothing to run.
- They provide easy navigation among Scripture portions.
- They have only one purpose: tirelessly declaring the Word of God.
Recorded Scriptures can also be transferred to Secure Digital (SD) cards and distributed for use with mobile phones. These rugged cards, smaller than a postage stamp, provide high-capacity memory in a very small size. With the SD card plugged into a mobile phone, a listener can play the Scriptures or copy the Scriptures to a phone and then share the SD card with a friend or family member.
Will you help us make sure that people in PNG and Vanuatu—and in other communities worldwide when their translations are completed—have access to God’s Word in a form they understand best?
Who benefits from our work?
Access to audio players or SD cards loaded with Scripture will help people like those in a Vanuatu community who had struggled to read their Bibles.
A translation team dramatized and recorded an audio version of Luke and distributed 50 audio Scripture players containing the recording. Groups of people of all ages were soon clustered excitedly around the players. In this community, people often haltingly read a few lines of Scripture in their printed Bibles, guessing what the words meant, and then quickly closed them. Now, they eagerly listened to the audio version, commenting, “I never knew that before. Now it’s so clear.”
To support this project and others like it, please give to our Media Solutions or Pacific Initiative. Thank you for partnering with us in this ministry!