Jungle Aviation Takes Gospel to World’s Remote Communities

Steve Russell uses skills gained while serving in Congress and the U.S. Army to help spread the gospel to some of the most remote places in the world. He is president and CEO of Jungle Aviation and Relay Services, which has worked for 75 years to remove geographical barriers that prevent Bible translators and missionaries from reaching marginalized communities.

With its airplanes, helicopters, boats and off-road vehicles, the ministry enables missionaries to bring the gospel to regions where there may be few roads, mountainous terrain and wide bodies of water that make reaching these places a challenge, Religion Unplugged reported. Many communities, such as Papua New Guinea, are surrounded by towering mountain ranges, dense jungles and other natural barriers that make traveling there nearly impossible.

“So, imagine being up on top of a mountain area, but then it’s trackless jungle below you,” Russell said. “And so, your whole world and your whole community is really on top of that mountain, but you’re living in a rainforest, so you can plant sweet potatoes, you can pick food off the trees, you can hunt. It is literally a hunter-gatherer type of environment, and you might have 4,000 to 6,000 that live in that community.”

Papua New Guinea is home to 840 living languages, making it the most linguistically diverse country on earth. Unlike many countries where missionary work faces government restrictions, however, it remains unusually welcoming. “It’s one of the few places in the world where you can actually get a visa as a missionary,” he said.

The organization currently operates 48 aircraft, including both airplanes and helicopters. along with ships, Amazon River boats and other transportation assets. Despite challenges such as rising aviation fuel costs, inflation and tariffs, Russell remains encouraged by the ministry’s future as it seeks to expand into additional unreached regions.

“Yeah, it’s expensive,” he said. “We’re operating airplanes, we have maintenance reserves. You know, things break; it ain’t cheap, but there’s just no other way to get there. And so, whatever it takes, whatever the cost is, it’s God’s economy and he’ll find a way to always support his work.”

For more information or to support the ministry’s work, visit www.jaars.org.

–Alan Goforth

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