Why is JAARS needed?
Our Bible translation partner here currently oversees more than 70 language projects, scattered across a broad region, with a number of new starts planned over the next five years.
More than ever, translation teams rely on the support—on site and online—of the organization’s skilled staff of local IT specialists. Without their timely assistance, translation teams will struggle to meet deadlines and encourage language communities with their progress.
The organization’s five-person IT team handles a multitude of important support services:
- Keep their centralized computer system running smoothly
- Provide workshops to train new translators in translation software like Paratext and Flex
- Train and mentor mother-tongue translators
- Help develop Scripture/cultural websites
- Help with typesetting issues for publications
What is JAARS doing?
Funding for the IT team’s salaries, upgraded equipment, and travel expenses represents a crucial need as our partner strives to ensure that these translation projects are completed and published without delay.
Who benefits from our work?
Ali* breathed a sigh of excitement—and more than a little relief—when a recent 1 Corinthians drafting workshop started on time at the Asian regional center where he works as an IT specialist.
Originally, a senior consultant from the United States had been scheduled to lead the workshop, but he was denied a visa. With 13 translation teams signed up for the workshop, Ali’s IT team had to work out a new plan to make the workshop happen without the consultant’s physical presence.
Ali and his colleagues located a video-conferencing software tool and, when their Internet service could not support it, found a different local Internet provider who could provide uninterrupted Internet service for the workshop. Thirteen translator teams attended the workshop and worked with the consultant via online video conferencing to learn the techniques they needed for translation of 1 Corinthians.
The center’s skilled IT staff and technology played a vital role in the success of the translation workshop. Your gifts will help our partner in South Asia have the IT support needed to provide God’s Word for a lasting, transforming impact among these communities.
To support this project and others like it, please give to our Technology Solutions or Asia Initiative. Thank you for partnering with us in this ministry!
*Pseudonym.