Born on a farm in Paso Robles, CA, Joanne (Jo) Shetler earned both her B.A. and M.A. degrees at BIOLA University, majoring in Christian Education and Cross Cultural Studies. She took linguistics at the University of Oklahoma with the Summer Institute of Linguistics and subsequently taught linguistics and translation courses at various universities in the US, in Australia and in the Philippines.
Jo joined Wycliffe Bible Translators and went to the Philippines in 1962. She and a co-worker began working with the Balangao people of the northern Philippines, a group of about 20,000 now, known to be head-hunters. Jo remained after her co-worker left to get married. After twenty years of linguistic research, publishing related articles, providing a literacy program, doing medical work and doing Bible translation throughout that time, the New Testament was completed and dedicated in 1982. She was assisted by Balangao co-translators throughout the journey and by colleagues for various periods of time. Those Scriptures have subsequently been printed three times. Now, concurrently with other jobs, Jo is working “long distance” with a team of Balangaos and making yearly trips, working on translating the Old Testament.
Thousands of Balangaos have come to Jesus Christ as a result of getting God’s Word in their own language. God has given them a missionary vision resulting in indigenous churches being established in every village of Balangao plus churches established in neighboring areas. Beyond that, she knows of two Balangaos serving as missionaries in China, another in Indonesia and a third in Papua New Guinea.
Jo was a plenary speaker at Urbana ‘84. After hearing her speak, Billy Graham invited her to speak at the 1986 Congress of Itinerant Evangelists in Amsterdam. Although it is not her primary work, she has subsequently been asked to share how the Church was born among the Balangao people and give reports on current activities there, speaking in Churches, at colleges, and Universities and in various seminars. Her book, co-authored with Patricia Purvis, And the Word Came With Power (Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc.) gives a fuller account of the working of God's Word among the Balangaos.
Since finishing the translation, Jo's primary work has been helping others find the doorway into the cultures with which they work. Along with colleague Amy West she’s involved in Scripture Use and World View workshops, Cultural Orientation, Ethno Theology Think Tanks and some Spiritual Conflict Seminars for Wycliffe colleagues and other missionaries. This has taken them over the U.S.A. and on to the Philippines, Kenya, Cameroon, England and Hong Kong.