Called To Be A Bible Translator

Calvin Hubbard, 90, Still Works With The JAARS Group

Resource: The Charlotte Observer
By John Anderson

The JAARS family celebrated Calvin Hibbard’s 90 birthday Nov. 14.

Hibbard is among the few remaining living members of an early group that worked on Bible translation.

That work continues to be supported by the former Jungle Aviation and Radio Service, now known as JAARS, which has its headquarters on Davis Road, five miles south of Waxhaw.

JAARS uses pilots and mechanics, software developers, media specialists, maritime workers, purchasers and shippers to support those who do translation and literacy work worldwide.

Hibbard was born in Chicago on Nov. 11, 1924. He joined the Army at 18, and went to France and Germany during World War II.

He married in 1948, and together with his wife, Cornelia, went to the jungles of Peru in early 1952, where he worked for 23 years at the JAARS base in Yarinacocha, Peru.

In a series of reflections on his life, Hibbard tells a fascinating tale of devotion and faith.

He has spent the last 64 years as a member of Wycliffe Bible Translators, about 32 of those years as administrative assistant to founder William Cameron Townsend.

“Without a doubt, the greatest call of God on my life was when he put me to work as Cameron Townsend’s administrative assistant in September of 1950, just four weeks after we joined Wycliffe,” Hibbard said. “It was none of my doing, but God brought circumstances together, with the result of my serving with Townsend over a period of 32 years.

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Quechua Bible Welcomed In Ayacucho & Huanta

Resource:  United Bible Societies
From:  Carol Weaver of Wycliffe Information Services

Last month thousands of speakers of Ayacucho Quechua in Peru joined together to celebrate the publication of a new, updated version of the Bible in their language.

They flooded into the city of Ayacucho (also known as Huamanga) and the town of Huanta, singing and celebrating and waving banners with Scripture verses. Young and old, men and women – they all gathered in the town squares to witness the official launch of the new translation and to buy their own copies at subsidized prices.

Within a month, all the copies were sold and a second print-run is under way.

One million speakers

Peru’s one million Ayacucho Quechua-speakers have had the Bible in their language for more than 25 years, so why is this new translation being welcomed so enthusiastically? It’s because most of them now find it very difficult to understand, explains the Peruvian Bible Society:

“The terrorism in the Ayacucho region in the 1980s forced many Quechua people to abandon their rural communities to seek safety in the cities. The Ayacucho Quechua Bible was published in 1987, at the height of this conflict. The upheaval led to significant changes in the language. New terms have absorbed into the language from the Spanish spoken in the city and some old Quechua expressions are no longer used. Young people today cannot understand some of the language used in the original Bible translation.”

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