Mission 865

What is Mission 865?

The JESUS film has been dubbed into more than 2,000 languages and is recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the most-translated film in history. But that doesn’t mean our work is done! There are 865 documented language groups in the world with 50,000 or more speakers, representing roughly 323 million people. Research has determined that these people are largely unreached or unengaged with the gospel. We want to share Jesus with them. The Mission 865 initiative represents Jesus Film Project’s commitment to reach these groups with Jesus’ story in their own language. Along the way, we will be sharing the JESUS film with some of the smaller language groups as well. This is no small undertaking. We’re partnering with many organizations who are helping us make significant headway in the next two decades.

What makes film so effective?

The two-hour JESUS film is based on Luke’s gospel. Since its release in 1979, it has been translated to over 2,000 languages and shown to enthusiastic audiences in over 230 countries. The impact of seeing Jesus’ story in the first movie many have ever seen, and hearing him speak in their own language, is powerful. In many of the 865 people groups we’re still trying to reach, literacy is incredibly low—half of them don’t have a written language at all. Film is the most effective way to reach people in a way they can immediately understand. Learn how the translation process works, and find out how we translate the film for people with no written language! To see how effective the JESUS film is, check out these testimonies and stories from our blog.