Every Jackoboice is actually a Jakóbowicz. This is how our immigrant forefather Joseph spelled our original Polish surname, pronounced "Yah-koob-O-vitch" and translated as "son of Jacob."

Edward Michael (Mike) Jackoboice was the firstborn of his generation, in 1958, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He was raised in East Grand Rapids, walking a mile to school through deep snows, until 1969. Then the family moved to Ada, where Mike attended Forest Hills Central High School. He played football on a championship team, enjoyed a summer exchange program in Switzerland, and served as class president for three years. He graduated with the fun and friendly Class of 1977.

Moving across Lake Michigan, to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Mike attended Marquette University and served as president of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. Urban life was interesting, but he missed the great outdoors. So one summer he worked in Jackson Hole, Wyoming at the White Grass Ranch as a cowboy, pasture irrigator, and river rafting guide. But the next summer was very urban as he worked with a public interest group in Washington, D.C., living four blocks from the White House. He graduated from college in 1981 with a B.A. degree in Journalism and a minor in advertising/marketing.

Mike would live in Alaska (1981-90)... Chile (1990-97)... and New Mexico (1997-2024...). Over the years he would enjoy "God's Country" and mountain majesty in the Alps, the Rockies, the Alaska Range, the Andes Range and the Himalayas.

After college graduation he drove through Canada and up the Alaska Highway to adventure. Backpacking 33 miles up the Chilkoot Trail and climbing Chilkoot Pass, he followed the path of stampeders to the Klondike. Via Dawson City he crossed the Yukon River and then drove to Fairbanks and Anchorage. From that base of operations Mike enjoyed hunting and fishing across The Great Land. For employment, he first worked as a book editor at the Alaska Pacific University Press. Then he flew to the North Slope for a job in oil exploration, and while working on Arctic Ocean ice was stalked by a BIG polar bear. Naturally, this close call inspired a career change and eventual work in his personally preferred profession....

Through the 1980s, Mike "Jackson" worked as a radio news director and news announcer in western Alaska. He contributed over 100 stories to the Associated Press state and national newswires. He worked via bush plane from Nome to Bethel and Barrow... and from Bering Sea villages to the Brooks Range. He enjoyed interviews with governors and celebrities - including author James Michener about his book titled Alaska. Mike also enjoyed interviewing legendary dog musher Norman Vaughan - whose name was given to a mountain and a glacier in Antarctica. For three years Mike flew the trail of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race, interviewing its founder and other mushers and reporting on race progress. See race history and photos at the "Find A Grave" memorial pages for Rita Pauline Jackoboice.

Eventually finding the inspiring brochure titled "Why You Should Go to the Mission Field" (by Christian musician Keith Green), Mike sought the Lord's direction. He got it - and a good, six-month job to pay for flights and mission field expenses. Flying four days via Tokyo, Hong Kong and Bangkok, he landed in Kathmandu, Nepal. Taking a taxi past cows and elephants in crowded, noisy, chaotic streets, he found his new home near Patan Gate. He volunteered with a Christian mission serving in prisons and hospitals. Visa laws mandated two months outside the country, so Mike shared Christ across India too. He traveled by train and bus to the Taj Mahal and to the border of Pakistan, then north to Kashmir. He managed to elude thieves, leprosy and terrorists' grenades. After six months of Gospel outreach in Asia (1988-89), he was ready for more.

But first Mike had to work and save money for the Lord's next assignment. So he returned to the oil industry from spring to fall, 1989, in the Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup of Prince William Sound. Briefly spraying beaches, he then worked as a deckhand, chef and skipper of a VIP cabin cruiser around Knight Island. Navigating the rough waters of the North Pacific, one weaves around reefs, glacier ice and killer whales.

Mike then flew to southwestern Alaska to serve at a Christian radio station, for one final winter as radio personality "Mike Jackson" in The Far North (often at 40 below zero, with windchill to 70 below). A highlight in Bethel was lunching with longtime U.S. Senator Ted Stevens, namesake of the Anchorage International Airport.

With oil spill earnings and plenty of time, the Lord pointed to South America and started opening doors. In 1990 in Quito, Ecuador, Mike served as interim International News Director and announcer for the English Broadcasting Division at HCJB World Radio. This was the world's first Christian mission radio station, Heralding Christ Jesus' Blessings. By shortwave, Mike's "Voice of the Andes" news broadcasts reached the Americas, Europe, Australia and beyond. One listener reported reception in Tehran, Iran. Another highlight? One day in the HCJB compound, near beautiful palm trees, Mike happened to meet and chat with renowned jungle missionary Rachel Saint (1914-94). She was the sister of martyred MAF missionary pilot Nate Saint - speared by Auca/Waorani tribesmen in the jungle, in 1956, and reported by HCJB to the world. Mike considered it an honor and a privilege to meet Rachel, who served the natives who killed her brother, and to broadcast news from that HCJB microphone.

Mission accomplished, another evangelical Protestant mission invited Mike to Santiago, Chile. He served with SIM, once known as the Sudan Interior Mission and now as Serving in Mission, for seven years. As mission journalist he wrote news releases, missionary profiles, ministry reports and brochures, and prayer and praise updates. And he was active in prison ministry in the federal penitentiary near General Pinochet's military parade route. Mike traveled on assignments to the land of hair-raising bus rides (Bolivia)... to the land of murderous Shining Path guerillas (Peru)... and to the land of "ratline" Nazi fugitives (Argentina). Because Chile visa laws mandated occasional departures, Mike also enjoyed Gospel outreach in Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil.

For five years, Mike lived in rural Chile at the foot of the snowcapped Andes in a town called Los Andes. He enjoyed helping a Christian ministry for drug addicts and alcoholics wanting rehabilitation. And he opened a lending library for kids and adults wanting Spanish-language Christian books, videos, music cassettes, New Testaments and illustrated Bibles. The first visitor was a 5-year-old named Jesús. He ran and brought his friends, and parents started borrowing materials too.

Since 1998 Mike has been active in bilingual Gospel outreach to thousands of inmates in jails and prisons of New Mexico, Texas and Old Mexico. Why? See the words of Jesus, quoted at Matthew 25:31-46. The majority of the prisoners are from Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador. Others come from Cuba, Colombia and Venezuela. Mike has enjoyed one-to-one counseling... and teaching and preaching to groups of five to 20 inmates.

Over the years, Mike has gifted countless Bible correspondence lessons, and over 500,000 Gospel tracts. The basic, biblical message? Repentance of sin and faith in Christ for salvation - as seen in the book of Acts, chapter 20, verse 21, and throughout the New Testament.

Reading the Bible daily, over the years Mike has enjoyed reading the Old Testament three times and the New Testament 12 times (three times in Spanish). He always encourages others to read the New Testament, saying, "Read a page a day - and enjoy living it." On Sundays, in the USA and overseas, he has attended Baptist churches and other Bible-based, Christ-centered churches.

Reading through this "Find A Grave" website of cemeteries and gravestones, one is reminded of the certainty of one's own death - by virus, sickness, disease, cancer, accident, stroke or sudden heart attack. Suddenly, one steps into eternity. The Son of God, Jesus Christ, taught only two destinations: Heaven or Hell. So He said, "repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations" (see Luke 24:45-47... John 14:6... 1 Corinthians 6:9, 10... 2 Peter 3:9... 1 John 5:13). Because this forgiveness and salvation is life-changing - for new and eternal life - the apostle Paul urged everyone to "repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" (see Acts 20:20, 21... Galatians 5:19-25... Revelation 18:4, 5... 2 Corinthians 5:17-21). For more about biblical repentance, biblical faith, the Christian walk and Heaven, read the entire New Testament. Jesus says, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:31, 32).

A longtime fisherman, Mike has enjoyed fishing for bass, pike, grayling, trout, salmon and marlin. He has always enjoyed the great outdoors (camping and photography too)... and the great indoors (reading and writing history).

As a book editor from 2021 to 2024-forward, Mike has edited and updated several Christian "legal thriller" novels available from the Amazon website. Readers who enjoy books by John Grisham and James Patterson would enjoy starting with the pro-life novel titled A Trial of Innocents - and its sequel A Murder of Innocents.

See Mike's research into Jackoboice family and business history (1824-2007) with ads, maps, photos and more at: www.VintageMachinery.org (type Jackoboice into Search box). Related research was published online by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., at: www.ushmm.org. Scroll down, click on "Collections" and type Jackoboice to see the 40-page report entitled, "Jakóbowicz (Jakobowicz, Jakubowicz) Surname Variants in Holocaust Records."

To learn more about Christian missions and Gospel outreach in today's world, see the website of Mission Aviation Fellowship (maf.org) and colorful photos of worldwide ministries. You can serve too, in person or by gifting donations. Fly food, clothing, medicine, Bibles, missionaries and disaster relief supplies into remote villages - and fly villagers out for medical care. For more information, phone 1-800-359-7623.

¡Dios te bendiga!

Every Jackoboice is actually a Jakóbowicz. This is how our immigrant forefather Joseph spelled our original Polish surname, pronounced "Yah-koob-O-vitch" and translated as "son of Jacob."

Edward Michael (Mike) Jackoboice was the firstborn of his generation, in 1958, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He was raised in East Grand Rapids, walking a mile to school through deep snows, until 1969. Then the family moved to Ada, where Mike attended Forest Hills Central High School. He played football on a championship team, enjoyed a summer exchange program in Switzerland, and served as class president for three years. He graduated with the fun and friendly Class of 1977.

Moving across Lake Michigan, to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Mike attended Marquette University and served as president of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. Urban life was interesting, but he missed the great outdoors. So one summer he worked in Jackson Hole, Wyoming at the White Grass Ranch as a cowboy, pasture irrigator, and river rafting guide. But the next summer was very urban as he worked with a public interest group in Washington, D.C., living four blocks from the White House. He graduated from college in 1981 with a B.A. degree in Journalism and a minor in advertising/marketing.

Mike would live in Alaska (1981-90)... Chile (1990-97)... and New Mexico (1997-2024...). Over the years he would enjoy "God's Country" and mountain majesty in the Alps, the Rockies, the Alaska Range, the Andes Range and the Himalayas.

After college graduation he drove through Canada and up the Alaska Highway to adventure. Backpacking 33 miles up the Chilkoot Trail and climbing Chilkoot Pass, he followed the path of stampeders to the Klondike. Via Dawson City he crossed the Yukon River and then drove to Fairbanks and Anchorage. From that base of operations Mike enjoyed hunting and fishing across The Great Land. For employment, he first worked as a book editor at the Alaska Pacific University Press. Then he flew to the North Slope for a job in oil exploration, and while working on Arctic Ocean ice was stalked by a BIG polar bear. Naturally, this close call inspired a career change and eventual work in his personally preferred profession....

Through the 1980s, Mike "Jackson" worked as a radio news director and news announcer in western Alaska. He contributed over 100 stories to the Associated Press state and national newswires. He worked via bush plane from Nome to Bethel and Barrow... and from Bering Sea villages to the Brooks Range. He enjoyed interviews with governors and celebrities - including author James Michener about his book titled Alaska. Mike also enjoyed interviewing legendary dog musher Norman Vaughan - whose name was given to a mountain and a glacier in Antarctica. For three years Mike flew the trail of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race, interviewing its founder and other mushers and reporting on race progress. See race history and photos at the "Find A Grave" memorial pages for Rita Pauline Jackoboice.

Eventually finding the inspiring brochure titled "Why You Should Go to the Mission Field" (by Christian musician Keith Green), Mike sought the Lord's direction. He got it - and a good, six-month job to pay for flights and mission field expenses. Flying four days via Tokyo, Hong Kong and Bangkok, he landed in Kathmandu, Nepal. Taking a taxi past cows and elephants in crowded, noisy, chaotic streets, he found his new home near Patan Gate. He volunteered with a Christian mission serving in prisons and hospitals. Visa laws mandated two months outside the country, so Mike shared Christ across India too. He traveled by train and bus to the Taj Mahal and to the border of Pakistan, then north to Kashmir. He managed to elude thieves, leprosy and terrorists' grenades. After six months of Gospel outreach in Asia (1988-89), he was ready for more.

But first Mike had to work and save money for the Lord's next assignment. So he returned to the oil industry from spring to fall, 1989, in the Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup of Prince William Sound. Briefly spraying beaches, he then worked as a deckhand, chef and skipper of a VIP cabin cruiser around Knight Island. Navigating the rough waters of the North Pacific, one weaves around reefs, glacier ice and killer whales.

Mike then flew to southwestern Alaska to serve at a Christian radio station, for one final winter as radio personality "Mike Jackson" in The Far North (often at 40 below zero, with windchill to 70 below). A highlight in Bethel was lunching with longtime U.S. Senator Ted Stevens, namesake of the Anchorage International Airport.

With oil spill earnings and plenty of time, the Lord pointed to South America and started opening doors. In 1990 in Quito, Ecuador, Mike served as interim International News Director and announcer for the English Broadcasting Division at HCJB World Radio. This was the world's first Christian mission radio station, Heralding Christ Jesus' Blessings. By shortwave, Mike's "Voice of the Andes" news broadcasts reached the Americas, Europe, Australia and beyond. One listener reported reception in Tehran, Iran. Another highlight? One day in the HCJB compound, near beautiful palm trees, Mike happened to meet and chat with renowned jungle missionary Rachel Saint (1914-94). She was the sister of martyred MAF missionary pilot Nate Saint - speared by Auca/Waorani tribesmen in the jungle, in 1956, and reported by HCJB to the world. Mike considered it an honor and a privilege to meet Rachel, who served the natives who killed her brother, and to broadcast news from that HCJB microphone.

Mission accomplished, another evangelical Protestant mission invited Mike to Santiago, Chile. He served with SIM, once known as the Sudan Interior Mission and now as Serving in Mission, for seven years. As mission journalist he wrote news releases, missionary profiles, ministry reports and brochures, and prayer and praise updates. And he was active in prison ministry in the federal penitentiary near General Pinochet's military parade route. Mike traveled on assignments to the land of hair-raising bus rides (Bolivia)... to the land of murderous Shining Path guerillas (Peru)... and to the land of "ratline" Nazi fugitives (Argentina). Because Chile visa laws mandated occasional departures, Mike also enjoyed Gospel outreach in Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil.

For five years, Mike lived in rural Chile at the foot of the snowcapped Andes in a town called Los Andes. He enjoyed helping a Christian ministry for drug addicts and alcoholics wanting rehabilitation. And he opened a lending library for kids and adults wanting Spanish-language Christian books, videos, music cassettes, New Testaments and illustrated Bibles. The first visitor was a 5-year-old named Jesús. He ran and brought his friends, and parents started borrowing materials too.

Since 1998 Mike has been active in bilingual Gospel outreach to thousands of inmates in jails and prisons of New Mexico, Texas and Old Mexico. Why? See the words of Jesus, quoted at Matthew 25:31-46. The majority of the prisoners are from Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador. Others come from Cuba, Colombia and Venezuela. Mike has enjoyed one-to-one counseling... and teaching and preaching to groups of five to 20 inmates.

Over the years, Mike has gifted countless Bible correspondence lessons, and over 500,000 Gospel tracts. The basic, biblical message? Repentance of sin and faith in Christ for salvation - as seen in the book of Acts, chapter 20, verse 21, and throughout the New Testament.

Reading the Bible daily, over the years Mike has enjoyed reading the Old Testament three times and the New Testament 12 times (three times in Spanish). He always encourages others to read the New Testament, saying, "Read a page a day - and enjoy living it." On Sundays, in the USA and overseas, he has attended Baptist churches and other Bible-based, Christ-centered churches.

Reading through this "Find A Grave" website of cemeteries and gravestones, one is reminded of the certainty of one's own death - by virus, sickness, disease, cancer, accident, stroke or sudden heart attack. Suddenly, one steps into eternity. The Son of God, Jesus Christ, taught only two destinations: Heaven or Hell. So He said, "repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations" (see Luke 24:45-47... John 14:6... 1 Corinthians 6:9, 10... 2 Peter 3:9... 1 John 5:13). Because this forgiveness and salvation is life-changing - for new and eternal life - the apostle Paul urged everyone to "repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" (see Acts 20:20, 21... Galatians 5:19-25... Revelation 18:4, 5... 2 Corinthians 5:17-21). For more about biblical repentance, biblical faith, the Christian walk and Heaven, read the entire New Testament. Jesus says, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:31, 32).

A longtime fisherman, Mike has enjoyed fishing for bass, pike, grayling, trout, salmon and marlin. He has always enjoyed the great outdoors (camping and photography too)... and the great indoors (reading and writing history).

As a book editor from 2021 to 2024-forward, Mike has edited and updated several Christian "legal thriller" novels available from the Amazon website. Readers who enjoy books by John Grisham and James Patterson would enjoy starting with the pro-life novel titled A Trial of Innocents - and its sequel A Murder of Innocents.

See Mike's research into Jackoboice family and business history (1824-2007) with ads, maps, photos and more at: www.VintageMachinery.org (type Jackoboice into Search box). Related research was published online by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., at: www.ushmm.org. Scroll down, click on "Collections" and type Jackoboice to see the 40-page report entitled, "Jakóbowicz (Jakobowicz, Jakubowicz) Surname Variants in Holocaust Records."

To learn more about Christian missions and Gospel outreach in today's world, see the website of Mission Aviation Fellowship (maf.org) and colorful photos of worldwide ministries. You can serve too, in person or by gifting donations. Fly food, clothing, medicine, Bibles, missionaries and disaster relief supplies into remote villages - and fly villagers out for medical care. For more information, phone 1-800-359-7623.

¡Dios te bendiga!