JAARS Heartbeat

By Rachel Greco

What in the world is JAARS Day all about? What do people there do all day?

Well, on a blustery October day, over 600 people came to peek into the heart of JAARS, to see what causes it to beat and keep beating. And they were not disappointed.

One older gentleman came up to some volunteers. According to one of them, “He was so excited and thrilled. He had crossed off on his bucket list getting to ride on an airplane.” This man came to JAARS with his church from Sumter, South Carolina. His church is highly involved in missions and loves what JAARS does—enabling people, through transportation, technology, media, and training, to access God’s Word in the language they understand best so that their lives are remarkably changed from the encounter.

During the two aircraft demonstrations, the crowd learned about Helio Couriers and watched them land and take off at incredibly short distances, mimicking how many pilots overseas must operate to transport Bible translators and aid.

The Museum of the Alphabet, another item on the menu for the day, embraced about 300 visitors. The last people to come through the museum, a few Indian students, spotted the alphabet of their language on the wall. “They were so excited to see their alphabet,” the director of the museum relates. “And we thought that was important, since it’s the language that speaks to their hearts.”

Elaine Drake, who had volunteered at JAARS earlier in the day, returned in the afternoon to pick up a container. She considered checking in with her boss, Katie. “How silly to go over there, I thought,” Elaine remembers, “there is nothing urgent, and I did my shift. But somehow I felt compelled to go.”

When she walked over to Katie, a gentleman was beginning a conversation with her boss. “He had flown in to our (JAARS) airstrip because he was just out having a fun day in his plane and saw our airstrip. So he landed out of curiosity, as our strip seems to be in the middle of nowhere.”

As the man spoke, Elaine noticed a foreign accent immediately. Guessing he might speak German and possessing competency in that language, Elaine took a shot at it. It worked, for when he looked at the JAARS literature on the table near them, he responded in German, “This is great! I have three teenagers and they would just love this.’”

We’d like to welcome you as well to a 2019 JAARS Day and introduce you to the heartbeat of JAARS: sharing God’s Word in local languages so that lives are transformed. Visit us on March 9, June 8, or October 12, 2019. We look forward to seeing you!

A few scenes from the October 13 JAARS Day:

 

 

At the craft table

 

Learning about and playing ethnic instruments

 

Learning about audio and video scriptures

 

The Museum of the Alphabet at JAARS

 

Crowds gathered to watch the airplane demonstration

 

Watching the Helio Courier demonstration