2012 Winter Spring Update

Greetings from Mike and Kathy,

Josh Mills, 2005

See the photo to the right? Remember this guy? If not, rewind to 2005.

Josh Mills arrived at the JAARS Center in 2005 and worked in the Auto Shop with Mike for six months. He was at that tender age where young men seek what is to possibly be their life-long career. Josh was earnestly seeking the Lord and asking the question—should I use my mechanical aptitude for Bible translation or should I seek secular employment. Josh had not yet attended any kind of mechanical training but had great aptitude. Plus, he had a servant’s heart and learning attitude. In the meantime, he completed his schooling, took a job, and began paying off school loans. Josh still sought the Lord’s leading regarding using his mechanic skills at the JAARS Center.

Josh then began the arduous task of applying for membership i n SIL, the parent organization of Wycliffe Bible Translators and JAARS. He had a sending church. He had an experienced person to help him navigate raising prayer and financial partners. However, Josh was in too much debt to be confirmed as a member.

So Josh worked. And he worked. And one day, he became debt-free. And very soon thereafter he became a member.

Then Josh had to raise financial support.  So while he worked he continued with much effort and prayer to raise the needed support to serve at JAARS. He also completed SIL’s six-week Intercultural Communications Class, or ICC. All SIL members have to complete this pre-field training class before beginning their assignment.

One day Josh called again. He was at 100% financial support. He packed up everything, said his goodbye’s, and arrived at JAARS on March 30th.

Josh also made the sacrifice to become Automotive Service Excellence Certified, ASE, which carries a huge stamp of approval not just for our missionaries here but for the governments of the countries SIL works in.

  On  April 2, this year, Josh began to work at the JAARS Auto Shop full-time.

Josh at ICC, January 2012

Why do I tell you his story? Because Josh is a fine example of rare sacrifice to pursue the Lord’s calling to missions. It’s been seven years. Did you catch that? SEVEN years! He worked diligently. He prayed diligently. And he stayed focused to reach his destination.  And now he’s here. Each day required several small steps toward reaching the goal.

What have you been diligently praying toward, working toward? We encourage you to keep praying and serving the Lord. He will bring to pass what He has called you to.

 Other Happenings

January

Pastors in developing countries have a great need of transportation for evangelism and to minister to their congregants, sometimes even to escape danger. "With Open Eyes" meets this need with motorbikes. Phil Heinecke and John Pepper returned from a Land Transportation trip to Kenya. John is the LT Director and Phil is our newest mechanic. JAARS Land Transportation is providing training in maintenance and repair. There are great opportunities for our help there.

February

Mike talks with Will Austen from the "Institute for Affordable Transportation". He will ship two BUV's here for testing and evaluation. After this, they will be hauled to Samaritan's Purse Headquarters in Boone, NC. (See the following link for a review of the BUV.) http://mike-kathysmith.blogspot.com/2011/03/iat-overview.html Also, there is talk of possible involvement in building a BUV micro-factory overseas.

March

First JAARS Day of the year

Mike speaks to one of many visitors that day

One of the four-wheel drive vehicles used for rides

Airfield prepares for aerial demonstration

Mike was on the rugged trails doing four-wheel drive rides and Kathy was registering, greeting, and directing the public at the Information table.

Kathy in the cold hangar,

      bundled up at the Information Table.

You can see the Land Transportation

display in the background.

 BRRR—the wind was cold but the fellowship warm. Our staff at JAARS Day had many meaningful conversations and made lots of contacts all for the sake of Bible translation. 

There was a 5K race with 82 runners participating, and we were able to tie this into the 10K race in Nairobi that promoted awareness of the Bibleless. We had over 500 visitors. 

Food service served 445 people, 75 rode in the 4-wheel-drive vehicle, and the helicopter sold out of rides.

We will stop with March for now. There are many other events taking place here and for that we've added a Facebook page to give brief, weekly updates.

With summer now upon us Mike is involved in a world-wide detailed survey of the mechanic needs of every Wycliffe entity. We will update you in the next post. It is a big task but is already underway and we are finding out how big the need is. The Lord has continued to provide staff not only for the automotive needs at JAARS but world-wide. We just completed a Technical Evaluation on another mechanic. He and his family are beginning their assignment in Papua New Guinea next month.

This year got away from us very quickly and we are already working on our next update, which will include highlights from April and May. We encourage you to visit our Facebook page, where we give brief weekly highlights. http://snipurl.comvdjrb
Click the big “Like” button.

As ever, we thank all our prayer and financial supporters for your faithfulness these many years—now going on nine!

Blessings,
Mike and Kathy

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

With another year of God's faithfulness behind us, we wish all of you a Merry Christmas and Blessed New Year. Though our trials have been many, so have our blessings. We remain focused on providing efficient and affordable land transportation to meet the needs of Bible translation worldwide. We look forward to sharing with you the many facets of the ministry here. As ever, we thank you for your faithful prayer and financial support.

In addition, we'd like to share with you the following short video from our President, Bob Creson. It is a message specifically for you. This next year Wycliffe will see the number of language groups needing Bible translation drop below 2000. We remember when we first joined it was around 3500. You can look at our previous blogs and see the way Bible translation, with the help of new technology,  has rapidly increased.

http://www.wycliffe.org/Give/ChristmasGreeting.aspx

We encourage you to follow us on Facebook. Click the link on the sidebar which reads "Join Us on Facebook" and click "Like" at the top of the Facebook page. We usually post a quick update every one or two weeks. We have found this to be effective in keeping you posted on the details of life at JAARS. So much is going on here that new news quickly becomes old news. The Facebook page gives a smaller slice of life around here. We think you'll like it.

So again, we wish you a blessed year ahead. May the miracle of the Christ child and His reconciliation stay with you every day.

Rejoice and be at peace,

Mike & Kathy

This Week at JAARS: VSAT Communication

Kathy sang at JAARS Vespers service yesterday and we enjoyed hearing about a trip to a tiny nation. Our JAARS Network Communications Department arrived to set up VSAT for the SIL Center there. This will provide high speed and more dependable Internet.

They worked up until the evening when it was time to go to the airport. Finally finished and time to leave, they prayed, and flipped on the two power switches. Wow, everything turned on just fine. They did a quick test and were off to the airport. When does THAT ever happen on any project? What a demonstration of God's faithfulness!

Cross-Cultural Driving

Some driving habits around the world may surprise you. Many Bible translators and others can recount amazing stories about travel in foreign lands. But next time you hear such stories, think about their very real safety implications. The World Health Organization reports that “of all the systems that people have to deal with on a daily basis, road transport is the most complex and the most dangerous.”

Here are just a few examples of driving practices around the world:

• In Ethiopia, a left-turn signal indicates that someone is turning left. But it can also signal that it is safe to pass. The driver following must decide which signal is intended. Wrong guesses lead to many accidents.
• In Australia, kangaroos and wallabies are among the primary causes of accidents on rural roads. The country has an estimated 200,000 kangaroo-related accidents a year—a figure which some dispute as significantly low.
• In some countries, if a vehicle breaks down, the driver stops in the traffic lane and places a large object, such as a rock or log, several hundred meters behind so that he can “safely” make repairs. Often, once the repairs are completed, the rock or log is left in the roadway.
• In one African country, flashing headlights at an intersection means the driver is going to yield to oncoming traffic. In another African country, this same signal means the driver is going to proceed regardless of oncoming traffic.
• In the mountains of Peru, roads can be covered quickly by landslides. In other cases, the slide moves slowly, and drivers must judge whether they can drive to the other side of the slide before it carries them sideways off the edge of the mountain.
• In many remote areas, taxis are small cars that normally seat five adults. They often carry eight or more people in the interior, plus more on the roof. If the vehicle gets stuck, all the passengers will serve as a “pit crew” and hop out to push.

These are some of the challenges faced by our missionaries. We are constantly researching and assisting them in the numerous problems they face everyday. Our goal is to keep them driving safe, reliable vehicles. We thank you for your faithful prayer and financial support to make it possible.

Mike and Kathy

Thank You's

We certainly don't ask for it but we are blessed to have missionaries express appreciation in many ways for the work done on their cars. Sometimes it's with baked goods or a gift card to a restaurant or a real nice thank you card or letter. We even received a beautiful hand-written colorful thank you from the children of one family.

The baked goods are consumed and the restaurant gift cards are gone. But we did take the time to type up some of the letters received recently. We thought it would be nice to share a few with you. Many of you are the reason we are able to serve our missionaries. Through your prayers and financial gifts we are able to use our skills to keep many of our missionaries on the road.

We hope you will be blessed in reading these. After all, they are to you as well!

Dear Auto Shop Mechanics,
You have certainly been a blessing to me. You have fixed my Chevy van many times since I began living near JAARS in 2005 after being a Bible translator in PNG (Papua New Guinea) for 43 years. I don't have to worry about my van because I know it is in real good hands with you. God bless you and give you strength and joy as you serve Him by keeping many of us safely on the road for Christ.
Thank you in Jesus' Name,
Helen Marten

Bless y’all, bless y’all.
You have bailed the Barkey family out of deep waters the last few weeks.

Ron Barkey

Thanks for your commitment to our Lord as you continue to serve Him by enabling us to come and go where He has assigned us to travel.

Sharing in HIS Care,
Evelyn Davis 

We have great admiration and thanks for all that your team does down there.  I do a reasonable amount of maintenance on my cars myself, but without your expertise, advise, knowledge and help I could not do the amount I do. You have helped many times when I have been in other parts of the world to keep the vehicles going. 

Blessings to the team,
Daryl and Marlene Bussert – Director and Assistant Aviation Safety – JAARS Inc.

Ever since Jan and I arrived at JAARS in 1997, the Auto Shop has been a tremendous blessing to us.  Since we drive Ford products, Mike Smith’s experience with the idiosyncrasies of Crown Vic’s, Grand Marquis’s, and Mustangs has been invaluable to us.  Mike has bailed us out of many jams, and saved us lots of money in the process!  Blessings on Mike and the other Auto Shop guys, indeed!

Mike Rogers

Thanks Mike, Greg, Don, and Andy for your commitment to Bible translation, JAARS and individual missionaries(member, volunteer and employee) in helping to keep our vehicles running efficiently and safely. You are all very gifted individuals and the Lord is using that giftedness to help advance His kingdom on earth------bringing His Good News to those who have never heard it in their own heart language before.

Have a blessed day and year in the Lord,
Phil  for the McBride’s, JAARS and “Wycliffe”

I hope this shows many of you how real and tangible your partnership with us is. We can't overemphasize this enough. You are, indeed, a vital part of Bible translation. Our thanks goes out to you.

Be blessed,
Mike & Kathy