Randall Murphree
AFA Journal editor
Above, J.J. Jasper on the air
October 2019 – “Have you heard about the man who bought his wife a mood ring?” J. J. Jasper asked his audience. “She said, ‘When I’m in a good mood, it turns blue, and when I’m in a bad mood, it leaves a red mark on his forehead!’”
The crowd roared with laughter in response to Jasper’s icebreaker.
Jasper is a veteran morning on-air personality at AFA’s American Family Radio, where he has hosted or co-hosted the early morning drive hours since the network debuted in 1991.
Comedy is often his hook, whether he’s on the air or on the speaker’s platform. But after he warms up a crowd with a few good chuckles, he quickly gets to the meat of a message, dispensing encouragement, family values, biblical insights, and challenges to audiences across the nation.
His humor and zest for Christian living are reflected in two books he authored, Moses Was a Basket Case and Jonah Had a Whale of a Time. (See below.)
“The Bible says laughter is good medicine,” he said. “Laughter is to life what shock absorbers are to a car. It doesn’t take the potholes out of the road, but it sure makes the ride easier!”
“Do you know what Winnie the Pooh and John the Baptist have in common?” he asks audiences. “They both liked honey, and they both have the same middle name.” Sorry – sometimes it’s hard to stop him!
In an age when good clean comedy is rare, Jasper stays busy entertaining and inspiring a wide variety of crowds – men’s ministry events, school and church banquets, corporate dinners, and more.
Jasper told AFA Journal, “I’m amazed at the different kinds of functions I get to attend. For instance, this year I’ve spoken at wild game dinners, a hospital department motivational retreat, and several pro-life events.”
This fall it’s a pastors’ retreat and a marriage conference. In recent years, God has opened more and more doors for him to keynote pregnancy resource center (PRC) fund-raisers, and his passion for that issue keeps growing deeper.
“I’m especially grateful for those opportunities,” he said, “and the Lord richly blesses me each time I get to be an advocate for unborn babies.”
He added, “I didn’t think we could be more passionate about life until our only son died in an accident on our family farm. And later, another son was born with Down syndrome. That adds layers to our pro-life story!” (See below.) He and his wife Melanie have seven children – from a college graduate to twin kindergarteners!
“His presentation [at our fund-raiser] was a unique combination of fun and inspiration,” declared Amy Wichman, executive director of Life Choice Ministries in Manhattan, Kansas. “We raised more funds at this banquet than at any of our previous banquets.”
After a Salem, Illinois, PRC fundraiser, director Nancy Wesling echoed that high compliment. “People were deeply touched by J.J.’s personal story,” she said. “We raised more money at this banquet than ever before!”
On the air or on the stage, J.J. Jasper is a man of God whose heart is to laugh and love the Lord. 
Finding J.J.
Contact or schedule J.J. Jasper at jjjasper.com or on his Facebook page.
Find J.J.’s books at jjjasper.com, afastore.net, or 877-927-4917.
▶ Losing Cooper: Finding Hope to Grieve Well tells the story of the accidental death of five-year-old Cooper and how the Jasper family depended on God for strength and hope.
▶ Moses Was a Basket Case and Jonah Had a Whale of a Time are both packed with laugh-out-loud experiences that always lead to deeper principles of Christian faith.
