Tom and Irene Hodges have served extensively in Bible Translation technology. Following 14 years in Europe and 18 at Christians in Action HQ. Tom devoted ten of his 53 years of missionary service to the JAARS Center in North Carolina. As a research assistant, computer programmer, and tester, he helped develop software tools for translators worldwide. Following heart problems, he continued working on speech analysis research and testing, from home, to help speed Bible translation, until retiring in January 2024.
Tom met Irene when she almost ran over him at a church in California where Tom, an atheist on the verge of suicide at the time, had come just to ask questions. They’ve been married for over 60 years.
After serving her first year in Administration at the JAARS Center, Irene has been keyboarding Bible manuscripts through Mission Assist, U.K. over the past 20 years. Her keyboarding includes a host of linguistic and phonetic codes. Some of the manuscripts have even been hand-written! Currently, she is inputting the Gbanu Bible for Central African Republic, her 120th since 1998.
Personal witnessing everywhere is Tom’s delight, often using his tract to start conversations: ‘Atheist Engineer’s Flight Towards Suicide’. It’s currently in its 12th printing. The tract carries a link to a free e-book of his testimony about how he, a former; 11-year atheist, found Christ and was called into missionary service: ‘Atheist Engineer Discovers Evidence God’s Real!’
Chapter 6 of Tom’s book should encourage prospective missionary trainees because it relates how God undertook in a mighty way to answer their biggest obstacle to becoming missionaries; “Who would want to support us”?
